Gone

I rubbed my hands together as I made my way to the soccer field in my t-shirt and shorts. The air was growing a little too chilly for shorts to be acceptable, but I knew that I wouldn’t be able to play soccer comfortably if I wore anything else.

Although the sun was starting to set in the distance, the sky set on fire with a vibrant red color, the lights set up around the field were flickering to life, ensuring that Liam and I would be able to play our game as planned.

I was about ten minutes early, since I wanted to make it look like I was serious and warmed up for the game, but when I drew my eyes away from the grass under my feet, I saw Liam standing there, juggling a black and white ball.

For a second, I stopped and watched him, how he hit the ball from his head to the instep of his foot to his knee and back again. Nobody could deny his talent with ball control with a good conscience, and I felt a pang in my stomach as I wondered if I’d actually be able to beat him. Self-consciousness was a foreign emotion for me, but in that moment, it seemed entirely possible.

“Ready?” he called out, grinning widely, catching the ball in his hands.

“Ready to whoop your ass? I couldn’t be more ready.” I approached him on the field, keeping a good three feet between us. “So who has the ball first?”

“I’ll give it to you, captain.” He dropped the ball on the ground and nudged it over to me with his toe.

Without missing a beat, I went over to the center of the field, already starting to feel my heart race with anticipation. But as Liam took his space in front of me, my foot positioned on top of the ball to hold it in place, I couldn’t help but take in his appearance. The way his skin already glistened ever-so-slightly from his warm-up, the way he moved from foot to foot as he waited for me to start the game, his calves flexed as he shifted positions. Not to mention that his tank top accented his toned arms in a way that would quite possibly drive me insane.

“Stop checking me out and start the game,” Liam joked, laughing.

Instead of protesting, as he expected I’d do, I took his laugh as an opening. Taking off like a bullet, I darted off down the field, dribbling the ball with expert precision.

I heard Liam swear loudly as he started after me, the sound of his footsteps thumping behind me. But I had too much of a head start, and no matter how hard he tried to catch up with me, there was no chance.

I swung my foot forward into the ball and launched it into the net, which swung back and forth a few times before settling back into place.

“And that’s one to nothing,” I gloated, turning back and smiling cockily. “Your ego bruised yet? Ready to admit defeat?”

“Oh, please. That was a sucker goal.” Liam rolled his eyes as he passed me, going to retrieve the ball in the goal. “We’ll see if you can score without cheating.”

“Well, either way, you’ll never score on me,” I replied, not realizing until the words were out of my mouth that they had an incredible double-meaning.

Liam snorted lightly as he kicked the ball across the field, making it so the two of us had to compete to get the ball. I took off immediately, not even taking the risk of looking back to see where Liam was. He had always been so sure of himself, thinking that he was better than I could ever be, but he had been so incredibly mistaking. He’d gotten lucky during that first scrimmage, and it was clear in that moment that he was nowhere near as fast as me.

I reached the ball first and started dribbling it back to Liam’s side of the field, weaving it between my feet expertly. Liam had stopped when I had gotten the prized possession, and he darted over to me to try to steal it from me.

Instead of allowing him to wedge it away from me, I kicked it between his legs and quickly maneuvered around him, picking up where I left off and leaving him in the dust, snapping it into the goal.

“Okay, what was that?” Liam questioned with shock. “I’m pretty sure that’s not legal.”

“It’s totally legal,” I replied, my breath a little jagged. “You’re just not good enough to pick up on it. This really isn’t much of a challenge, you know. What happened to me not being as good as I thought I was?”

“So I underestimated you,” he allowed. “Fine. But I’m just getting warmed up.”

I let out a long breath as he launched the ball across the field again, and I started after it once again. Liam was faster this time, his panting-like breaths coming from somewhere close behind me, but I was completely focused on the ball. It was just sitting there, waiting, like an abandoned child.

“FUCK.”

Liam’s shout broke through my concentration, and I gasped, stopping in my tracks. He was on the ground, biting his lip, holding his ankle. “Are you okay?” I asked in a worried tone, jogging over to him, my eyebrows pulled together in concern.

“I think I twisted it,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “I’ll be okay. I just have to ice it.”

“Let me see,” I urged as I crouched down next to him. “I just want to make sure it’s not anything more serious.”

Liam leaned back to let me look as I pressed two fingers against his ankle, checking for any swelling. But it seemed perfectly fine.

I turned to give him a look, not sure whether I should laugh or scold him, but he cut me off by reaching around and pulling my face toward his, capturing my lips in a kiss.

He tasted like salty sweat, but I didn’t care. My body didn’t hesitate to react to the surprise, my mouth opening to let my tongue mingle with his, my hands resting on his chest as he laid back, pulling me on top of him so I straddled his stomach.

Though it was difficult, after a few minutes, I propped myself up by putting my hands on either side of his head and said, “You little shit. I thought you were actually hurt.”

“It was pretty obvious who was going to win, and I was done getting embarrassed.” Liam chuckled lightly, reaching up and tucking a lock of hair that had escaped from my ponytail behind my ear. “I just wanted to kiss you before you started ignoring me forever.”

“I wasn’t going to ignore you,” I admitted. “This game was just a formality.”

“You little shit,” he mimicked with a grin. “That was mean. You just wanted to prove how good you were at football.”

“You didn’t believe me,” I responded. “But now you know, and we can be this crazy unstoppable force on the team.”

“Mmm,” he agreed with a murmur before pushing my head gently back toward his, resuming our kiss, before moving his hands down my face and down my back, settling at the base of my spine to pull me closer to him.

I let out a small noise of pleasure, cupping his face with my hands as our mouths continued to dance in synchronization.

When his lips journeyed down to my throat, his tongue flicking out against my skin, I gasped out, “I’m glad I finally let myself like you instead of just thinking you were a cocky asshole.”

“Me, too,” he murmured, making goose bumps erupt all over my body at the tickling sensation.

His fingers started to edge up my shirt, the soft tips brushing against the dimples at the bottom of my back and up my spine to where my sports bra began. It felt so incredibly good, and I wanted nothing more to stay there with him forever.

But then I realized where we were, in the middle of a semi-public soccer field behind my high school. “Did you really want to have sex right here?” I laughed, pushing myself back up again, just out of his reach.

“Just as good a place as any.” He looked up at me with innocent brown eyes, and it took everything I could do to keep from laughing.

“It’s really not,” I denied, climbing off him and sitting next to him Indian-style. “It’s actually kind of classless.”

Then, because I was feeling a little sensual, I continued, “How about you take me out tomorrow night, and we see where things go from there?”

He raised his eyebrows. “I thought you didn’t have sex on the first date.”

“Maybe,” I got to my feet, brushing the grass out of the crevices they’d made on my knees, “I’ll make an exception for you.”