The PreGame Ritual (Lynstone University Book 1) by Alexandra Warren

You literally have nothing to worry about. Hell, if anything, I’m the one that should be worried about you.”
    “Worried about me? Worried for what?”
    “Mr. High School Superstar, now College Superstar. I’m just sure the girls are waiting for you to quit playin’ with me.” It was no secret that I had been turning down hella girls since Ava and I started talking, but I certainly didn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. All of them put together didn’t even measure up to half the woman Ava was.
    “That won’t be happening anytime soon, ma. I mean, you’d really have to do some fucked up shit to get rid of me. I’m like infatuated with you or somethin’. I mean I literally think about you all day long. And not even on some crazy, deranged shit though that’s probably how I sound.” It was still scary to think about, let alone talk about.
    She quickly reassured me, “You don’t sound crazy at all, Miles. That was actually very sweet of you.”
    “Damn, now you probably think I’m some soft mothafucka huh?”
    She laughed before she said, “No, I think I made the right decision by giving us a chance.”

ava.
     
    I couldn’t believe I was down to the last three games of my collegiate career.
    And only one of them was guaranteed.
    We had to make it through two more rounds of the tournament to get to the championship game and though our chances were pretty good, my nerves remained frazzled. I was pretty sure I would have a professional basketball career but that was hardly my focus.
    I wanted a championship.
    The big trophy.
    And I was gonna do everything in my power to get it even if that meant later, longer hours in the gym. The gym had practically been my second home since high school so I was more than comfortable in it. What I wasn’t exactly comfortable with was the idea of Miles and I both getting in deep with hardly any chance of an actual future together. I mean, I’d be graduating soon and going off to who knows where to play pro ball while he’d only be approaching his second year of college. The whole long-distance thing didn’t even sound appealing and with as much temptation that would be surrounding Miles on a daily, there was no way I was gonna set myself up to get my heart broken.
    My heart.
    How the hell had my heart managed to get involved in any of this?
    I was supposed to just be having fun, enjoying the company, but instead I had fallen in love with the only guy who actually embraced my bad ass attitude. The only guy who had ever managed to kiss me into a stupor. The only guy who could turn me on just as much with clothes on as he did without them. And the only guy who understood my heavy commitment to basketball because he had the exact same one.
    Everything about us screamed perfect.
    Well everything except our age difference and that key detail had finally come back to haunt me.
    The crazy part about it was, even though I knew all of this, I called myself being selfish and not breaking things off with him just yet. I could’ve very well called it quits early and given him a chance to find something new, but we were still new, still fresh, still exciting. I wasn’t ready to let go but I knew I’d have to eventually.
    For his sake.
    ←& →
    Miles had officially gone off his rocker. Not that I was ashamed of a little public action but his latest quest had taken things to the next level.
    “Sex in the equipment room? Are you crazy? There’s gotta be all types of cameras in there.” I was hanging out by the locker rooms with Miles for a bit before he got ready for his game and of course that was what he had managed to come up with.
    “We’ll keep the lights off. Come on, ma. I need you. PreGame Ritual.”
    “No, PreGame Ritual is at a place with a bed, or at least a couch.”
    Hell, I’d even settle for a carpeted floor.
    “I’ll make it quick, ma. I promise. I just...this is a big game. I need all odds in my favor, including this and your fine ass in the stands cheering