A/N: Mature content

Mom was right when she teased that I needed a lot of sleep or else I was grouchy. I worked out hard and exhausted my body physically but also mentally. Football season exaggerated the problem, but I'd never had any problems taking mid-afternoon naps or going to sleep earlier after games. My Aggies' teammates teased me a lot at how I was the first asleep on the bus or plane rides back from away games.

When my hotass ex-girlfriend that I desperately wanted to win back over laid in bed next to me, while one of my T-shirts hadn't covered her tiny, black lace thong underwear, sleep was the last thing on my mind overnight.

I wasn't a light sleeper but Ellie put her air mattress sounds to shame with how much she thrashed and tossed for a few hours. At first I worried that she had a nightmare but she just moaned softly and flipped around until the sheets wrapped around her and restricted her movements.

At the first cracks of sunlight, I got up and stumbled my way towards the bathroom. After I relieved myself through half-closed eyes, I knew I hadn't gotten enough sleep even if my only game action today was my ass benched.

My feet froze in the bedroom doorway at the sight of Ellie. She laid sprawled on her stomach, face down into a pillow with one of her arms overhead and my gray bed sheets wound tightly around her thighs. Her lower back arched, which lifted her hips and showed off a clear view of her ass in the air.

When we'd dated, by far the sexiest thing about Ellie had been her quiet sense of confidence. She hadn't started out that way but, as our relationship grew and we talked until all her first-time awkwardness dissolved, she slowly grew more and more forward about what she wanted.

Our physical relationship had developed very slowly, but I'd been okay with that. We went step by step, at Ellie's pace, and I enjoyed every fucking minute of it. With all the other girls I'd been with, I rushed only to the point where I'd made myself feel good but it had been an empty, disconnected, physical-only happiness. My experiences with Ellie, even just kissing and touching, had not only physically felt better than any others but also drew me closer to her emotionally.

Even though our one attempt at sex was shit, the fact I'd loved Ellie still ruined any other physical relationship since her. I only needed one experience my freshman year, after we won the Big Sky championship game, before I realized that just a chance with Ellie again was worth the wait. In a post-game party, a girl whose name I'd forgotten too many times climbed onto my lap, forced her beer-coated tongue in my mouth, and roughly palmed my crotch.

In that moment, I realized I could've had any girl I wanted, except the one that I wanted no longer wanted me. And, personally, while the hand friction had felt nice, there wasn't a bigger turn-off than how I was reminded of Ellie's rejection.

The sight of Ellie, inches from me in my bed, obliterated any memories of potential hookups or girls with false or superficial interests. She was so physically close but still emotionally distant that the wait for what I wanted was more painful than I'd thought, despite how I'd teased her.

Just the sight of the roundness of her ass cheeks, the flimsy one-inch strip of black lace that covered nothing in between them, and her exposed skin that I knew was soft and smooth to the touch had me hard and uncomfortable before I even sat back down in bed. A heavy ache settled in my pelvis, my cock moved on its own, and swelled straight up into my stomach in appreciation of the curves in her small body, the slight part in her full lips, and the soft groan she released when the bed dipped under my weight.

As I slipped next to her but stayed closest to the edge for as much distance as possible, I leaned over and pressed a soft kiss onto the top of her head. "You're not making this easy," I whispered into her hair and forced myself back to sleep.

The way Ellie groaned, smashed her head into my forehead, then grinded her ass all over my resurged erection wasn't how I imagined how our wakeup happened. I knew something was off when I woke up with my hand on something warm and smooth but the fact I palmed Ellie's left ass cheek hadn't registered with me, even after she'd slammed her head into me.

But the way her backside rubbed all over my pelvis woke my cock up before the rest of me. The warm friction throbbed an ache of desire through me, swelled my shaft up to full mast, and I nearly exploded in my underwear.

I squeezed my eyes closed since I knew the sight of her skin around that black lace pressed into the part of me that appreciated her flirty teases the most hadn't helped our current... situation. My hand steadied her hip but my fingers danced a line as they ran gently over the bare skin under her navel. The soft contact ignited sparks of excitement inside me that, combined with all of our previous exchanges, left me with a raging hard-on.

Ellie knew exactly how affected I was but, surprisingly and amazingly, she wasn't at all freaked out that she woke up next to me. I was glad she trusted me, despite my dick's full morning salute at her, and the selfish part of me hoped that was the first night of many she slept in my bed instead of that awful air mattress.

I should accidentally pop a hole in it.

Thankfully, Ellie seemed like she remembered everything from last night. While I teased her about how she'd begged for me to stay, I was most relieved that meant she also remembered we had a date next Friday night.

Provided she still likes me after we talk.

After her bold move where she undressed herself then tossed the shirt into my face, I was happy it felt straight onto my lap and covered my raging erection. Once she closed the closet door, I craned my head back against the headboard and groaned up to the ceiling.

And then... she walked out in a bare towel with a million dollar smirk.

Fuck, she's really making this hard.

Literally.

The bitter sting of uncertainty about Ellie's emotional state bit into my ego as my feet swung out of bed once she went into the bathroom. After she'd been initially affected by her call with her therapist, Ellie hadn't mentioned a word of what they'd discussed, or shown any signs she'd had the conversation at all.

After I threw my still-warm T-shirt that now smelled like Ellie on with a pair of sweatpants, I grabbed my post-game suit from the closet. Under Coach Peterson's mandate, everyone wore the black and purple warm-up gear to both home and away games, then dressed up in black suits and a tie post-game.

I hung up my suit bag in the front closet and stuffed my socks and shoes into my bag. I'd just zipped it closed when I realized I needed more shampoo. I'd found out that whatever they used in the locker rooms itched my scalp afterwards, so I always brought my own. When I pulled out another bottle from our area next to the table, I heard a low moan from behind the adjacent wall.

"Ellie?" I craned my neck into the hallway and saw she'd actually left the bathroom door cracked slightly open. Concerned that something was wrong, I nudged the door open further and was met with a face full of steam.

Right when my mouth parted to ask if Ellie was okay, she moaned, quietly this time, but then again... and again. I only saw the outline of her small frame behind the shower curtain. Her head was tilted slightly down and she didn't move much but the sounds were everything once I realized she wasn't in pain.

"Logan..." My balls dropped practically down into the underground parking garage below the building when my name, wrapped full of near tortured want and desperation, left her lips.

For a girl who wasn't very vocal when we were together, the sound of my name in a suggestively sexual version of her soft voice struck straight into me like a lightning rod. My fists tightened and I stepped straight back into the hallway until I smashed into the wall near the kitchen opening. Another soft moan hit my ears and snapped my last thread of restraint.

Fuck, she's really touching herself.

Over me.

I fell back against the wall and squeezed my eyes tightly shut at the painful, throbbing sensation that vibrated through my pelvis. The small apartment's walls shrunk in on me with how the mix of steam clogged my breathing space and Ellie's noises overwhelmed my sense of logic. I was beyond hard and so aroused that I barely saw straight, let alone formed coherent thoughts.

In my mind, I stepped in the shower and finished what she'd started, but that was beyond appropriate. So, with my last ounce of free will, my fingers grabbed my keys on the dining room table while I bolted out of the apartment in a moment of desperate self-preservation.

A panicked sense of borrowed time rushed through me as I flung myself down the hallways and stumbled like I was drunk down the steps two at a time. The cold concrete on my bare feet barely registered in my lust-fogged brain. Testosterone surged me forwards, step by step until I somehow ended up behind the wheel of my truck in the underground garage with a circus-sized tent in my sweatpants that poked hard into my stomach.

Even under my clothes, my cock was so strained that I knew it wasn't one I willed down. My eyes roamed around my entire truck bed until I saw an extra towel in the back area. With a quick reach back, one of my hands snatched it roughly, I draped it over the steering wheel and my lap like a privacy screen, and mentally thanked my decision freshman year when I'd gotten my windows tinted black.

A loud curse left my mouth when my knuckles inadvertently brushed over the head of my erection as I adjusted the towel. Underneath, I carefully slipped down my underwear and pants to my thighs. Just how tight my skin stretched, the head dripped with precum, and the sides of my shaft throbbed in complaint were painful enough that I needed no visual confirmation of how bad this erection was.

I was wound so tight, my body took over. I needed no mental stimulation since my cock was too far gone. The pain and tightness were almost unbearable, so I took a deep breath first. My left bicep and forearm muscles tensed as I clenched my fist around the head, then groaned loudly at the first satisfying stroke of friction.

"Ugghhh...." Over and over, my hips bucked up against my hand movements while I desperately pumped myself to relief and groaned with each stroke over my desperately throbbing shaft. The friction jolted bursts of warm pleasure through my pelvis and up into my gut while I choked down my rock hard cock.

Short, sharp pants alternated with strings of curse words from my mouth as I moved my hand faster, rougher, and harder and shifted my hips with the same desperate, frenetic pace. I heard nothing except the thundered pulse in my ears and my eyes screwed so tightly shut that I saw tiny stars within the blackness.

The slight descending sensation in my balls urged me further and, with one last yank, my cock twitched and I blew my wad everywhere. Streams of hot, thick cum shot all over my hand and I released groan after groan as I milked every last drop out to relief.

My chest heaved a few times as I panted myself down, then gently cupped my now reprieved balls. I'd made a mess everywhere, but mopped myself up the best I could with the towel. Despite the pounding sensation in my chest, I exhaled sharply and slumped my shoulders back into the seat.

A slight drowsiness spread through me as I propped my head against the headrest until my heart beat returned to a semi normal pace. A quiet, sarcastic laugh escaped me when I realized how seriously fucked I was in this situation.

This round definitely goes to Ellie.

The worst part was how I needed to go back up those stairs like a barefoot walk of shame. I kept my head slightly down at the sight of an older woman near the door for the stairs. She couldn't have seen me through the blackout windows but who knew what she'd heard or if my truck looked like it rocked in an earthquake.

After I recovered from my release and put my clothes back in place, I walked slow, deliberate, and still barefoot steps with my hands outstretched around the towel like I carried a bomb.

"Hey?" Ellie greeted me from the kitchen, where of course amazing smells that definitely included bacon now filled the whole apartment. "Are you okay? I came -"

"I'm fine." I inwardly groaned at where I'd interrupted her, since that's not what she meant but definitely where my mind went. She turned her head and those dark chocolate brown eyes studied me with an uneasy smile. Her hair was damp and hung straight down her back and my dick twitched slightly with interest when my mind filled in the idea of how her shower had gone.

You've done enough damage, buddy.

"I didn't know where you went." Her smile stayed hesitant but sweet and a faint pink tint spread across her cheeks. She wore a purple Huskies sweatshirt and black leggings and so far kept her feet bare. Her eyes looked curiously at the bundled towel of shame I held in my hands before her eyes lifted back to mine.

"I... went down to my truck," I explained awkwardly. Her eyes shifted down to my bare feet then lifted again with half-curiosity, half-confusion in them.

"Just forgot my... towel." Her frown echoed how lame my response felt when I'd said it, so I added, "It's uhh, my lucky game day towel."

"Oh?" She arched an eyebrow at me. "Didn't know you were superstitious. I don't need to make chicken parm before every game, do I?"

"No." Despite the awkwardness that I literally grasped in my hands, I grinned at her brother Jake's superstition from high school. "I should take a quick shower though, so I'll go do that."

"Promise I won't get in your way today. Breakfast in twenty minutes." She fluttered around the kitchen in distracted movements, so I bowed out, brought my towel into the bedroom, and buried it within my laundry hamper.

I appreciated Ellie's sensitivity towards game day space, even if mine was most likely spent on the bench. The game started at seven pm but Coach Peterson wanted us there by four, so after a quick shower and breakfast where the only thing Ellie and I shared were a few curious glances at each other, I crawled right back into bed with a stomach warmed with food and a sigh.

Ellie woke me up a few hours later for a late lunch. We sat quietly and she didn't press for much conversation, which I appreciated since I'd switched into my mental game mode. Even though I was a backup, I ran through a few play scenarios from our film study of the Ducks' defense.

Our home opener was against Oregon University, a PAC-12 conference rival and close enough proximity that the rivalry was felt on both sides. I'd only heard locker room talk that led up to today's game, but all the guys were pumped about today's game, especially Wes and Seth.

Oregon had some new defensive backs in their 3-4 defensive system, or a standard three defensive lineman with a nose tackle in the middle flanked by two defensive ends and four linebackers. The extra linebackers allowed them to either rush the quarterback or drop back for more coverage with the two cornerbacks and safeties, who our wide receivers were eager to test their skills against.

As a quarterback though, a 3-4 system meant a greater chance of being sacked, so a quick snap and play set up were crucial. I wasn't sure how Emmitt's slightly slower speed operated under an added pressure that I thrived under, which was my sense as to why Coach Peterson had worked me so hard in practice.

Guess I'll just watch and see.

After a few hours of busy work, that included a round of laundry for my 'lucky towel' and a light pregame snack, I changed into my black and purple game warm-ups, and headed to Huskies Stadium. Ellie surprisingly rode with me and while I wasn't very pleasant company, she seemed unphased. She just looked out the window with a soft smile on her lips. Her dark eyes tracked the activity around us when we got closer and her smile widened when I pulled into the stadium lot.

"Good luck." She gave me a bright smile while we walked towards the player's entrance.

A sly grin spread across my face, my eyebrows lifted, and I teased her, "No kiss for good luck?"

Her lips twitched upwards but she just cocked her head back and looked up at me. She'd tied her hair back in a ponytail, so I saw every detail of her face while she studied me for intent. A sparkle of amusement flickered in her dark eyes before she tossed back, "Do you know how many times I've been asked that?"

"A guy can dream." My chest lifted then heaved with a sigh when I remembered my place today. "Even with his ass on the bench."

"Something tells me your ass is destined for better things." One of her eyes closed in a wink at me and now I smiled.

The normally empty parking lot at Huskies Stadium was completely transformed. Cars jammed into every available spot, which made me thankful I had one reserved for game days. Since I was new, mine was one of the furthest spots from the player's entrance. I didn't mind because, past the security guarded paths, I caught sight of the tailgating activities while Ellie and I walked up to the stadium.

Before we parted, I realized that I had no idea where Ellie sat, so I asked, "Where's your seat?"

"Section one-oh-six, behind your bench," was all she replied. "I'll find you afterwards."

"You'd better." I gave her a wave of my hand and watched a few of her steps towards the visitor's entrance before my eyes shifted around me.

Even outside, excitement buzzed in the air with the smell of grilled foods. People tossed footballs, drank beers, even deep fried turkeys. Despite how I was just the backup, I caught the attention of many fans, who cheered, yelled, and flashed me the 'W' hand gesture. The amped up atmosphere was contagious and the internal rush of excitement for today's game spread a huge grin across my face before the locker room door even closed behind me.

Here we go.