Summer Nights: Push It Forward & Hold Your Horses Read online

  Summer Nights

  A Novella Duo

  Push It Forward

  &

  Hold Your Horses

  (Blythe College 2.5)

  Rochelle Paige

  DEDICATION

  Crystal, Harper, Ella, Tessa & Kristi –

  Your friendship & support means the world to me. Although I’m pretty sure my world would explode if a day went by without chatting with y’all. What would I do for giggles? And where would I find stuff to drool over? Smooches!!!

  Push It Forward

  Rochelle Paige

  chapter 1

  drake

  “Hold still,” I growled as I gripped Alexa’s hips and thrust into her from behind.

  She continued to wiggle her ass, trying to move back so I’d hit her just right, but I wasn’t ready for her to come yet. I wanted it to build more before I let her go over the edge.

  “Drake, please,” she begged.

  I leaned over, forcing her chest farther into the bed, and bit down into her shoulder. “Not yet, baby. You’ll get there, but hold on just a little bit longer for me.”

  “Mmmmm,” she murmured as she settled at my words. “Promise?”

  I groaned deeply at the sound of her throaty voice. I ran my hands from her ass and up her back until I gripped her shoulders. “Fuck yeah,” I swore as I slammed inside.

  Her hands reached out to grip the sheets as she struggled not to move. I could feel her clenching against my cock each time I pulled out of her body. I slowed my movements until each slide was painstakingly slow. I could already feel the telltale tingle in my balls, and I didn’t know if I could even hold on any longer, but I had to try. I spread her legs farther open so I could get deeper.

  “Oh, God,” she cried out as I slid all the way back in and rotated my hips to grind against her.

  “I want you to feel me like this for days. If I’m going to be away from you for so long, then you can be damned sure I will make you remember who this pussy belongs to, baby,” I growled into her ear.

  My words sent her over the edge, and I desperately tried to hold back as she shuddered underneath me. I held still, my cock buried inside, until she started to calm underneath me, and then I pulled out so I could flip her over.

  “Wrap your legs around me,” I ordered as I drove back in, surging hard and deep as I hammered in and out.

  “Harder,” she groaned, raking her nails down my back and digging her feet into my ass.

  I gripped her hips and yanked her up as I drove down on each thrust. I was pissed that she wasn’t coming on my trip with me, and I took my frustration out on her the only way I could think of—by fucking the shit out of her. I wasn’t usually this rough with Alexa, but her reactions were telling me that she liked it a lot. I’d have to keep that in mind in the future.

  “One more. Give me one more, Alexa,” I growled before I leveled myself up so I could brace an arm on the bed while I reached around with my other hand to pinch her clit. Her walls fluttered against me.

  “So good,” she groaned into my ear before nipping at the lobe and licking down my neck.

  “The best,” I agreed as I rolled my thumb over her nub.

  I circled my hips as I bottomed out on each thrust, and my body clenched tightly as I felt my release start to roll through. And thank fuck that she started to tremble beneath me as I poured myself into her willing body.

  “Drake!” she gasped as I rode out her climax with small lunges, wanting to make this moment last as long as possible.

  “That’s it, baby. Give me what I need,” I urged her on, knowing how much she loved to hear my raspy voice in her ear as she came.

  As her shudders ended, I rolled to my side and pulled her body to mine.

  Several minutes passed before either of us spoke. “I’m going to miss you so much. You know that, right?” she asked quietly.

  “Yes,” I sighed. I knew our separation was going to be as difficult for her as it was for me, but it didn’t help me feel any less frustrated. “Come with me then.”

  “You know I can’t,” she sighed. “My dad needs me here. He’s got too much going on right now for me to skip out on him. If he didn’t, you know I’d jump at the chance to be your number-one cheerleader in person.”

  I was getting ready to leave for a month with my rugby team. My schedule was going to be packed solid between training during the week and matches on the weekends. I would have no time available to come back to town to see Alexa, and it was killing me. We hadn’t been apart for anything other than an odd night here and there besides that one damned weekend when she’d left me. Although months had passed since then, it still ate at me that my temper had almost led to me losing her forever.

  Even though I knew we were solid now, I was worried about being apart for so long. It wasn’t like I thought anything bad was going to happen, but I knew myself well enough to know that this next month was going to be tough. I’d gotten used to having time with Alexa whenever I wanted, and I didn’t want to lose that now, but I needed to be with my team and she needed to be here. So I had to suck it up and deal. It’s only a month. How bad can it be?

  I must have gotten lost in my head longer than I realized, because when I refocused on Alexa, she was looking at me with a worried expression on her face. I rushed to offer reassurance, softly kissing her cheek and rubbing my nose along hers.

  “Of course I know that.”

  “It’s not even a full month, only twenty-seven days, and we’ll talk every chance we get,” she reminded me.

  “You’re already counting down the days?” I teased her.

  Alexa rose up on an elbow so she could reach my mouth. “Not the days. The minutes,” she whispered against my lips before kissing me.

  And I knew everything was going to be okay. This girl was mine and nothing was going to change that.

  chapter 2

  Alexa

  Do you know how many minutes are in twenty-seven days? Thirty-eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty. Counting each one down until I saw Drake sounded romantic when I’d been snuggled beside him in bed after two amazing orgasms, but the reality of it totally sucked. Especially when there was strange shit going on that was starting to freak me out.

  The first couple of weeks flew by without any problems. I helped my dad at the airport and had my own charters booked every single day. I missed Drake a lot, but I didn’t have time to think about it much until we talked each night. We’d fill each other in on what we’d been up to and then enjoy some phone sex that always left me wanting more.

  But this week was different. Weird things were happening, and they left me feeling unsettled. The calls had started on Monday morning. At first, I’d thought someone just had the wrong number, but they kept coming. Every morning started with one at exactly the same time. And I’d felt like I was being watched at the store the other day, but when I scanned around me, I hadn’t seen anyone looking my way. I just knew that there was a voice in my head telling me that something wasn’t right. And I felt like crap for not sharing my worries with Drake when we’d talked the last few days, but I didn’t want to freak him out.

  Luckily I had a lunch date with Aubrey today so I could get her take on what was going on. Crap! If I didn’t bust my ass, I was going to be late getting there! And nothing pissed my best friend off more than being left to wait in a restaurant, which cracked me up because she wasn’t always the most punctual of people. Inevitably, if she sat alone long enough, some guy was bound to ask to join her, and she wasn’t interested in guys lately. Which was very odd to think considering Aubrey’s dating history, but the pregnancy s
care last year had totally freaked her out. So now our roles had flipped since I had Drake and she was avoiding guys like the plague.

  There she was, waiting for me at a table, her foot tapping nervously. Aubrey looked so different dressed for work at the bank with black dress slacks, slingback heels, and a silver blouse. When Aubrey had her long blond hair pulled back from her face in a low ponytail like she did today, her startling blue eyes looked even bigger.

  Her dad had her working as a teller this summer. He’d told her that, if she wanted to join the family business, she needed to learn it from the ground up and pay her dues. She’d really surprised him by agreeing and doing a great job so far this summer. She wanted to prove to him that she was more than just her daddy’s little girl.

  “Hey, thanks for ordering my drink,” I said to Aubrey as I sat down and gestured to what I was guessing was a Diet Coke sitting in front of me.

  “You’re welcome! I know I can take a whole hour for lunch, but I don’t want to be late getting back. I hope you don’t mind that I ordered lunch already too,” she answered.

  “Not at all! I’m sure you knew what to get me. It’s not like we haven’t eaten here together a million times before. How’s it going at the bank?” I asked.

  “Okay so far. I know everyone there, which is good and bad. It’s nice to see familiar faces every day, but it sucks to know that people see me a certain way when I’m trying to get them to take me seriously.”

  We both knew very well that Aubrey hadn’t earned a businesslike reputation. She was absolutely the best friend a girl could ask for, but being the only girl with four older brothers had left her a little spoiled. Her parents were happy to give her anything she asked for, so she hadn’t really needed to be serious about much of anything before now. She was known around town as a social butterfly, not a worker bee.

  “You’ll wear them down. They might not know it yet, but you are definitely determined when you want something,” I reminded her.

  “I am,” she agreed. “And I want Daddy to know that he can trust me with the business. He’d always planned on handing the reins over to Jackson, but who knows when he’ll be back from New York. It all depends on what happens with Kaylie’s dancing.”

  Aubrey was right. Jackson had changed his whole world for Kaylie. There was no way he was coming back home until she was ready to join him. And I hoped for her sake that it wasn’t any time soon.

  “Give it time, Aubrey. You’ve got this,” I told her, completely convinced that she could accomplish anything she put her mind to.

  “Enough about me and my work troubles. What’s going on with you? Why do you look so exhausted? I know it’s gotta be tough with Drake gone, but I swear your eye bags have their own bags under them.”

  I heaved a deep sigh before describing the recent mysterious events.

  “Shit, Lexi! That sounds like the type of crap Brad used to pull before he left town. This isn’t good at all.”

  “You don’t think I’m overreacting?” I asked, worried that my past bad experiences were making me prone to jumping to the wrong conclusion this time around.

  “What does Drake have to say about all this?” Aubrey asked.

  “Ummm, nothing yet. I haven’t exactly told him yet,” I admitted.

  “Alexa!” she hissed at me. “What the hell are you thinking? You can’t keep something like this from him. He’s gonna go apeshit if something happens and you didn’t share your concerns with him. Hell, he’d flip his lid even if nothing at all happens.”

  “I know. I need to tell him. I didn’t at first because I thought maybe it was nothing, and I didn’t want him to worry about me when he should be focusing on rugby. But if you agree that it sounds bad, then I promise to say something soon. After his games this weekend, okay?”

  “No, I think you need to tell him now. I don’t like this one bit, and he won’t either,” she warned.

  “This weekend is really important to the team, and you know how much rugby means to him and his dad. I don’t want to mess that up for Drake. His head wouldn’t be in the game at all if he was thinking about what was happening here with me instead,” I tried to explain.

  “Nothing is more important to Drake than your safety, Lexi. You know how much you mean to him.”

  “Yes, I’m aware that he would come running in a heartbeat if he thought I needed him. That’s why I need to be careful, because I don’t want him to mess up his future if this turns out to be nothing. Now, enough of this depressing talk. Let’s hurry up and eat,” I said gesturing at the waitress who was walking over with our order. “We’ve got to make sure you make it back to the bank on time.”

  Aubrey let me change the subject as we wolfed down our food, and she told me about her parents’ upcoming anniversary party. Before I knew it, the time had come for us to leave so she could head to work and I could go over to the airport to work on some paperwork for my dad before my flight.

  As I walked to my Mini Cooper, I saw a white rose resting on the windshield and froze in my tracks. It completely freaked me out, but I didn’t want Aubrey to see it yet. Not until I could figure out what the hell was going on. I swiveled my head to make sure she was almost to her car before I snagged the flower from the car and dropped it to the ground. I stomped on it in frustration, tears welling in my eyes. I wasn’t going to go through this shit again. When everything had gone to hell with Brad, I’d been so relieved that he’d finally given up and left town.

  This just didn’t make any sense to me. Was he back? And if so, did he really think he had a chance in hell of getting me back? Drake had been gone for a few weeks, so maybe he didn’t know that I had a boyfriend now. There was only one thing I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt—Drake was going to go crazy when he found out what was going on.

  chapter 3

  drake

  Something was wrong with Lexi. I knew it deep in my bones. She’d tried to act like everything was okay, but she had been acting weird during our calls whenever I asked how her day had gone. I wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on, but it was starting to drive me crazy and mess with my head. It wasn’t that I thought she was cheating on me or anything like that, but she was definitely hiding something from me. I just couldn’t figure out what it could be, and I was stuck here for another week before I could hunt her down and make her tell me.

  Lexi had gotten a lot better at sharing with me, but communication wasn’t her strong suit. Sometimes it felt like I still had to pull the most important stuff out of her even though she knew she was safe with me. It drove me crazy, but we were working on it together. I just wished it weren’t taking so damn long for us to get better at this.

  “Dude, what the fuck’s wrong with you?” Lance, one of my line mates, asked me. “You can’t have another shit game like that and keep your place on the first line forever. You need to pull your head outta your ass and fast.”

  “I know, man. It won’t happen again,” I promised.

  “It’s your chick, isn’t it? She has you so wrapped. Just pick up some strange tonight at the bar and work out some of your frustration. She never has to know. What happens on the road stays on the road,” he reminded me, raising his fist for a bump.

  Like I’d go for that shit with the crap he was talking. I just shook my head and walked away. I paused to glance at my phone when it rang and was surprised to see that it was Aubrey.

  “Is she okay?” I asked as soon as I picked up the call.

  The pause on the other line freaked me out, and I started to walk faster to my car.

  “She’s fine. Or at least I think she is, except she’s going to kill me for calling you.”

  I beeped the locks and levered myself inside. “What’s going on? It’s got to be bad for you to call me instead of just talking Alexa into doing it herself.”

  “I had lunch with her on Friday,” Aubrey started as she told me everything Lexi had shared with her a couple of days earlier. “And I don’t think she realized I saw, but I saw he
r pick something white up off her car and drop it on the ground. I didn’t get a chance to go back until yesterday morning when I met my mom for lunch. And I found crushed white rose petals and a very thorny stem on the ground by where she had parked.”

  “Fuck,” I swore.

  “So I called Jackson to ask him for advice and he told me I better call you and make sure you knew,” she continued.

  “And what did Lexi have to say about why she hasn’t called me herself?” I asked Aubrey, hoping for some insight into my girlfriend’s thoughts since I was completely stumped as to why the hell she hadn’t let me know what was going on already.

  “Honestly, I think she was in denial at first. Worried that she was blowing the whole thing up in her head because of everything that happened with Brad before,” she explained.

  “And now?”

  “She’s scared to ruin your chances with the rugby team,” Aubrey replied. “And I think she’s a little worried that you might flip out and do something stupid to protect her. So you need to show her that she doesn’t need to worry about shit like that with you. That you’re smart enough to keep her covered without messing up your own stuff.”

  I didn’t reply as I struggled with my desire to start the car and hit the road right then and there. But Aubrey was right. Alexa would let the guilt eat her alive if I just up and left without a word to Coach and lost my place on the team.

  “Did you hear what I said, Drake?” Aubrey asked.

  “Yeah, I got you, Aubrey. Don’t worry. I’ll figure out a way to get back without screwing everything up here. I’ve only got four more days of practices anyway, so I should be able to talk my way out with a family emergency or something.”

  “I went out on a limb here, calling you like this. Don’t make me regret going behind Lexi’s back to tell you what’s going on,” Aubrey warned. “I never would have done it if I weren’t so freaked out by what this could mean and what could go wrong. She needs you.”