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  “But you said—” I began.

  “I must say,” Carrie interrupted, “I’m surprised you convinced Jaxon to discuss the deal with New York United so easily. Your boss told me he was sending you to Liverpool, but I expected you to have a tough time convincing him.”

  “Jenny’s always been very convincing,” Jaxon said. He stared at me intently, encouraging me to go along with the lie. I knew he was going to be in town anyway for the tour, but it seemed like he had come a few days early and was going to pretend I’d actually done a good job. It would now be a heck of a lot harder to avoid Jaxon, but at least Sam would be happy.

  “Grab a plate and sit down,” Dad insisted. “There’s plenty of food.”

  I popped into the kitchen to grab a plate and some cutlery, and then sat down at the empty seat which of course was next to Jaxon.

  “How many stores are you running now, Sheridan?” Jaxon asked my dad.

  “Five now,” Dad replied. “I think five is enough for the time being. I don’t want to stretch myself too thin, and it’s getting harder and harder to convince people to buy sporting equipment from retail stores instead of online.”

  “Maybe I can help,” Jaxon said.

  As he spoke, Jaxon’s leg moved slightly to his left and brushed against mine. I flinched and moved my leg away, but Jaxon just extended his further until it touched mine again. It hadn’t been an accident.

  “How?” Dad asked, unaware that Jaxon was touching me under the table.

  “I could pop by the store for a few hours and sign autographs. That will get people in the store and be good publicity, not to mention people will probably buy soccer balls for me to sign.”

  “I couldn’t ask you to do that. You must be busy, what with transfer negotiations and the tour that starts in a week’s time.”

  “It’s no problem at all, Sheridan. It’s the least I can do.”

  Jaxon finished eating, and within seconds one of his hands found its way to my thigh. He gave a light squeeze while my dad thanked him profusely for his offer. Dad wouldn’t be quite so happy if he realized Jaxon was feeling up his daughter under the table, but he liked Jaxon, and if we weren’t stepbrother and stepsister he would probably approve of us being together. But we were stepbrother and stepsister, and therefore this had to stop.

  I reached under the table and tried gently to remove Jaxon’s hand from my leg, but there was no way I could do so without it being obvious something was going on. In the end I made up some excuse about having to email work, and left the table before finishing dinner.

  So much for not spending time with Jaxon. His touch still awakened me in the same way it had four years ago. I might not be a virgin anymore, but there was something magical about his hands that sent heat radiating through my body and between my legs.

  I ran up to the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. That cooled most of my body down, but not the part that mattered. I knew if I reached down I would feel dampness between my legs, confirming that I still wanted Jaxon inside me as much as I had four years ago, and every day since then. It wasn’t going to happen; it couldn’t happen. Not now.

  Somehow I had to get through this summer without giving in to Jaxon. I might have to stay late at work every night, but somehow I would manage it. I had to for my own sanity. Jaxon had shown he was capable of betraying me once before. I couldn’t let him into my heart again. Not ever.

  I carried on making small talk with Sheridan while completely ignoring my mom until we had finished dinner and I had an excuse to get up from the table. I desperately wanted to get upstairs and see Jenny again, but it wouldn’t do any harm to leave her alone with her thoughts for half an hour. I knew she’d be thinking of me.

  If I timed it just right, I might walk into her bedroom and catch her touching herself. I’d done that once before, although she’d been under the covers and I hadn’t seen anything. Still, it’d been enough to drive me wild and stiffen my cock instantly.

  After dinner, I listened outside Jenny’s door but didn’t hear any noises inside. I knocked, but walked in before she answered. This time I only caught her sat at her laptop writing an email. I guess she hadn’t been lying about doing work. Maybe she really didn’t feel the same way about me as she had four years ago.

  I closed the door behind me to give us some privacy, but I had a bad feeling we wouldn’t need it. Jenny looked more determined now, more mature, and I wasn’t sure my charms would break down her barriers quite as quickly as they used to.

  “Why are you here?” Jenny asked. “You said the tour didn’t start for another week.”

  “It doesn’t, but I haven’t seen Sheridan in a while, and figured it would be polite to pop in and say hello. Plus, I wanted to spend some time with you. Is that really so bad?”

  “Yes, it is, actually. My employer is trying to negotiate a business deal with you. It’s hardly appropriate for you to hang around in my bedroom.”

  “It was never appropriate for me to hang around in your bedroom,” I said. “That was one of the things that turned you on so much.”

  “You being my stepbrother was never part of the appeal,” she replied. “It disgusts me. What we did—what we nearly did—was wrong and it should never have happened. I’m glad I saw you with that woman; it saved us from a big mistake.”

  “In that case, you can’t be mad at me for what happened. Does that mean you forgive me?”

  “No, I don’t forgive you, but I also don’t care. Now, was there something you wanted? I have work to do.”

  She looked and sounded angry, but she also couldn’t maintain eye contact with me. She’d always been like that. She would look at me for a few seconds and then look down, as if just looking into my eyes made her feel guilty. I didn’t mind her looking away; it gave me a chance to stare at her body.

  Jenny wore tight fitting yoga pants, and I could make out the exact shape of her legs and ass. She was still slim, but there was more of a curve to her hips than there used to be. The sweater hid her generous breasts, but I still had a mental image of them from when she had stood in my house dripping wet with her blouse clinging to her.

  I stared intently between her legs, as if I might actually be able to see signs of her wetness. She used to get wet just looking at me. She’d confessed as much one night when we’d been talking about going on a date. She’d had a few drinks, and finally admitted how she felt. She had been a virgin at the time, but was surprisingly open about her sexuality. She admitted that whenever she was alone after we’d been kissing she used to touch herself and would come within minutes. Four years later I still hadn’t tasted the sweet goodness between her legs, and now I knew I needed it more than ever.

  “I just came by to talk,” I said. “We haven’t exactly kept in touch much these past four years.”

  “I’ve been at college,” Jenny replied. “It’s not that exciting.”

  “You were at Harvard,” I exclaimed. “That’s not just any college. It must have been fairly special.”

  “I suppose.”

  “You didn’t feel inspired by all the big name professors?”

  Jenny’s face immediately turned sour. I’d hit a sore spot, but I had no clue what it was. Did she get a few bad grades from her professors? Sheridan told me she’d graduated with honors, so it’s not like she was a bad student.

  “The professors were fine,” she replied. That was clearly a lie, but I decided to leave it alone. Her grades didn’t exactly seem important right now. “Anyway, whose fault is it we’ve not been in contact? You’ve been too busy making obscene amounts of money and having orgies to bother keeping in touch.”

  “It’s not like you would have replied to any messages,” I said. “Besides, I could say the same about you.”

  “No, you couldn’t. I have six figures worth of student debt, an average income, and I certainly haven’t had an orgy.”

  “No, but instead of earning money you've been busy studying, and while you haven’t had orgies, I k
now you had a boyfriend.”

  “So? I worked hard, and I had a couple of boyfriends. It’s hardly the same thing.”

  “A couple?” I asked. I’d told myself it was only one boyfriend, and I tried to imagine that she had picked someone devoutly religious who didn’t want to have sex before marriage. I knew it was stupid, but that’s what kept me going. If she’d had a couple of boyfriends, I could kiss goodbye to any chance of her still being innocent. Not that I needed her to be, but it just tore me up inside that I wasn’t her first.

  “Please don’t tell me you’re jealous?” she asked. “Need I remind you that it was you who decided he would rather hook up with another girl.”

  “I’m a bit jealous,” I admitted. “I never got to taste that sweet goodness between your legs. Tell me, did any of those other boys make you feel like I did when I kissed you?”

  “It’s none of your business,” Jenny snapped back.

  “Well, I clearly still know how to push your buttons.” I moved closer to Jenny to narrow the gap between us until her breasts were practically rubbing against my chest. “You still want me, don’t you? Are you wet already? I could have you gushing in seconds just by pressing my lips on yours. Would you like that?”

  Jenny looked at me but didn’t respond. I couldn’t tell whether she didn’t know what to say, or whether she just didn’t think my questions were worth a response.

  “You look gorgeous,” I continued.

  “Please leave,” she said weakly.

  “You always used to tell me that,” I said. “Do you remember how I used to win you around? I’d tell you what I was going to do you. Tell you how I was going to kiss your neck, and then move my lips down to your chest, squeezing your breasts firmly in my hands before sucking your nipples until they hardened in my mouth.”

  I took a chance. I reached out and placed my hands under the bottom of her sweater and gently lifted it up. Jenny didn’t exactly help me take it off, but she didn’t offer any resistance either. She only wore a bra underneath. I’d underestimated how big her breasts were. They’d definitely grown since I last touched them. They looked so firm and succulent, and clearly didn’t need the bra for support.

  “You like what you see?” Jenny asked. My cock stiffened in response, and I pressed it lightly against her stomach. “I’ll take that as a yes. It’s just so hard to tell with you. You seemed obsessed with my body four years ago as well. You said all the right things and made me think you wanted me, but you couldn’t even wait for one date before you jumped on someone else.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” I said softly. For the millionth time I considered telling Jenny the truth about that night, but I didn’t think it would make much difference. I had betrayed her trust—not in the way she thought—but I’d still lied to her, and she’d be completely within her rights to be mad at me either way.

  “You had your chance,” Jenny said. “These could belong to you right now,” she said, as she cupped her breasts in her hands. “You could have my tight, wet pussy wrapped around your cock whenever you wanted it. But no, you missed your chance.”

  “Is there someone else?” I asked. I’d been so sure she was single, but there could be someone in her life already. It drove me insane to think of her with another man. I’d never felt like this about another woman before. In England, I often pushed women off to other men when I was done with them. It certainly never bothered me to see someone I’d been with hooking up with another guy. I’d only ever kissed Jenny, but that had been more than enough to send my emotions into overdrive whenever I was around her.

  “It’s none of your business,” Jenny responded.

  “That’s a ‘no,’ then. I’m not going to give up without a fight this time. I messed up four years ago, but you can’t hold that over me forever. I’m going to make it up to you, and I’m going to have you this summer. It’s a matter of ‘when,’ not ‘if.’ “

  “You know,” she said slowly, “I never understood why I fell for such an arrogant asshole back then. I put it down to my inexperience. But I’m not a virgin anymore Jaxon—far, far from it—and I’m not going to fall for your bullshit again. Take a good look at my tits now because this is the last time you’ll see me in any form of undress. It’s a matter of ‘never,’ not ‘when.’ “

  “We’ll see,” I added with an excessive smile. I tried to keep projecting confidence, but the truth was Jenny had me worried. She looked genuinely determined not to let anything happen between us this time. She even showed me her chest willingly, and still resisted my advances. That had never happened before. Usually I’d be nuzzling on those juicy titties by now.

  I knew I should just give up and move on, but Jenny had a hold over me and I couldn’t shake it. She’d been hanging over me for the last four years of my life, and going back to screwing random women wouldn’t help in the slightest. It was Jenny I needed, and Jenny I had to have. The sooner, the better.

  It took me hours to get to sleep last night even though the time difference from the UK to New York should have meant I was exhausted by ten in the evening. Instead I lay in bed feeling a massive rush flowing through my body. I couldn’t believe how I’d spoken to Jaxon, but it had given me a huge jolt of adrenaline, and I felt more awake than I did after an extra large coffee.

  When I thought back on the conversation it felt like a dream. Had I really let him pull off my sweatshirt and then jiggled my boobs in front of him? Not just that, I’d told him in no uncertain terms that nothing would be happening between us. I’d been trying to convince myself more than him, but he did take me seriously; I could see it in his eyes. He would keep acting like a cocky, arrogant jerk, but he now thought his chances were slim so he might back off a bit.

  Letting him remove my sweater had been a huge risk. As he’d taken it off his fingertips had grazed my skin, and for a second I’d been unable to breathe, the air caught in my lungs. If he’d reached out and pressed a hand against my breast, or kissed my neck like he talked about doing, then I would of been helpless to resist. I was already half undressed, and my thin yoga pants could barely hide the dampness appearing between my thighs. He didn’t touch me though, so for better or worse I spent the night alone in my bed.

  After finally falling asleep, I ended up dreaming of Jaxon, or more specifically his cock. If there was one advantage to him sleeping around with a lot of women it at least meant he would know what he was doing. In my dream, he practically threw me around the bed as he whipped me from one position to another, including ones I had never been in before.

  With my previous boyfriends, we’d gone through the motions: me on top, him on top, and some gentle doggystyle. Jaxon didn’t know the meaning of the word gentle. In my dreams, he would pound me aggressively, and I’d come when he took me up against my bedroom wall. Judging by the wetness between my legs when I work up, the orgasm hadn’t been entirely in my imagination.

  At least being half-naked stopped Jaxon asking me more questions about college. It had been bad enough having to lie about the “F” on my transcript in interviews. I’d convinced everyone that I failed my courses on The Modern Middle East because of a family issue that distracted me from my studies, but that excuse wouldn’t work on Jaxon. He’d want to know what really happened, and there was no way in hell I was telling him that.

  Sam wouldn’t give me the day off of work to recover from the flight, but now Jaxon was in the house I was thankful for an excuse to get up and leave early. The jet lag had thrown me off anyway, so even though I hadn’t slept much, I was still awake at six in the morning.

  I drove to the train station, and then took the subway into the city. The weather app on my phone told me that today would hit a high of seventy-five degrees, but it failed to mention that the humidity was ninety percent in the morning. The train quickly filled up as it approached the city, and by the time I got off I felt faint from the intense heat and the claustrophobia of being surrounded by so many people. I could handle crowds and I could handle heat�
��just about—but the two combined left me a sticky, panicky mess.

  The office was air-conditioned, but my cubicle happened to be the furthest from any of the vents in the ceiling, so the temperature was always a few degrees warmer than I liked it. I sat down and closed my eyes, taking deep breaths and trying to pretend that the office was empty and no one could see my shirt stuck to my back. I looked gross and felt even worse.

  How was it everyone else arrived at work looking like they'd been dropped off by an air-conditioned limo just outside the office? Did no one else get hot and sweaty on the subway? I didn’t see anyone else look half as hot as me, and no one else’s shirt seemed to be clinging to their back.

  “Jenny,” Sam said, appearing suddenly behind me. It’s not like I had a door for him to knock on, but it would’ve been nice if he let me know he was arriving so as not to scare the shit out of me. “Glad you’re here at last.”

  At last? I’d arrived at the office just after eight o’clock, and my official start time wasn’t until nine. Apparently arriving after him made me late regardless of the time.

  “Hi Sam,” I replied, doing my best to sound cheery and enthusiastic. “Sorry about what happened with Jaxon.”

  “What do you mean ‘sorry?’ Sounds like it all went according to plan. His agent is down in reception ready to start talking terms.”

  “Oh, yes of course. I just meant sorry I wasn’t able to get all the details sorted out while I was in England.”

  “Plenty of time for all that,” Sam said. “Follow me.”

  I stood up and tried to subtly peel my shirt off my back before I walked past everyone else on the way down to Sam’s office. I stopped by his door, but he kept on walking until we got to the corner office recently vacated by the vice president of marketing. Sam opened the door and motioned for me to walk inside.