them either!”
“Enough!” Coach stood beside them. They hadn’t noticed him walk up. “You two are being stupid.” He grabbed MJ’s shoulder. “Especially you. Peach is a beautiful girl. Of course men are going to notice. Don’t make your insecurity her problem. That’s not fair to her.”
MJ smirked and shook his head. “I’m not insecure.”
Coach quirked an eyebrow. “You sure about that?” He patted him on the back and left them standing in the pile of spilled baseballs.
Maddie knelt and began collecting the balls. “Why are you like this?”
MJ crouched and held the bag open. “I’m not supposed to be mad when another guy hits on you in front of me?”
She sighed and pushed her hair off of her sweaty forehead. “Don’t you trust me?”
He didn’t stop tossing balls in the bag and didn’t look at her. “Of course I trust you,” he muttered.
“It doesn’t seem like it.”
MJ blew out a deep breath and sat back on the dirt. “You could have anyone.” He nodded toward the now empty parking lot. “Mr. Singleton is set. He’s got a good job, a house, money in the bank.”
Maddie eased down on her knees beside him. “You’re right. I should go for it. I mean, isn’t every twenty-two-year-old woman’s dream to hook up with a divorced, single dad? Instant family. Good thing he’s ‘set’ so I can go shopping whenever my step-kid starts driving me crazy. You know how I am with the retail therapy.”
She hated shopping and he knew it. He licked his lips and fought back a smile. “It’s not a joke.”
“It is a joke if you think I want to be with anyone else.” Maddie got up and brushed the dust off her butt. Everyone was gone. It was just the two of them at the very back field in the complex.
MJ stood and wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his nose in her neck. “I didn’t do it to piss you off. I can’t stand it when men look at you like that. I wanted to tear his head off.” He gently bit the curve between her neck and shoulder. “You bring out urges in me I can’t control, Mads.”
A shiver ran down her back, followed by the heat of his breath against her skin. She let herself relax against him. “You have a terrible temper.”
MJ sucked her earlobe and groaned. “I know a better way to get this aggression out of my system.” His hand snuck up her shirt and teased her breast. The other blazed a trail down over her stomach and between her legs.
Suddenly, her jeans seemed too hot, too tight and too in the way. “MJ,” she whispered.
“Behind the concession stand or in the car?” His fingers teased and rubbed.
“Concession stand is closer.” She ran her hand up his arm and squeezed.
MJ spun her around, picked her up over his shoulder and ran to the little wooden shack standing with its back to an open field of wildflowers. Setting her on her feet behind it, he pressed her against the wall and kissed her.
His lips opened hers and their tongues tangled, his fierce and urgent. She shut her eyes against the blinding yellow-red of the setting sun streaking the sky behind him, cloaking him in dark shadow.
With deft, fast fingers, he unbuttoned her jeans, lowered the zipper and pushed them down her legs. “Turn around.” He didn’t wait for her to move. He spun her around, placed her hands above her head, palms flat against the sun-warmed wood of the concession shed.
His fingers shoved inside her and she gasped, arching her back and pushing her bottom against his hand.
“How do I make you feel?” he asked, balling her hair up and pulling her back against him harder. His fingers never stopped caressing and rubbing her inside and she felt herself coming unglued.
“So good,” she whispered. “I love it.”
He nipped the back of her neck, then licked it, soothing her. “Nobody else gets to do this. Only me.”
“Only you.” He moved in and out of her faster, rocked her harder against his hand. Her body swelled, tingled, throbbed. She moaned and writhed her hips in pleasure.
“Stay still,” he said, and his hands were off of her, his body taken away.
She heard his zipper and reached behind her to take him, hard and ready, in her hand.
“Jesus, Mads, you kill me. You make me crazy.”
Maddie leaned her chest against the wall, arching her back and guiding him to her opening. “Please,” she whispered, so close she