Chapter 7 #2
Pretty much everyone has had at least one turn on the big red couch in her office.
Everyone, that is, except for me. I know she hasn’t called me in because she’s trying to keep some distance between us.
I also know she has her reasons, and I respect the hell out of them, but fuck, I really want an excuse to talk to her.
I may be veering into teenager with a crush territory.
I’m fine with it.
“There’s my girl!” Tyler calls, before sprinting towards Maddy, grabbing her around the waist and swinging her up into a giant hug.
Except maybe it turns out I’m not so fine with it because the second Tyler puts his hands on Maddy, a hot rush of jealousy hits me at the familiarity between them.
At the way Tyler holds onto her for just a few seconds too long.
At the way she laughs before she pounds him on the back and yells at him to put her down.
I know they’ve known each other their entire lives.
I also know they’re basically cousins and definitely friends and that there is not one single feeling between them that isn’t entirely platonic.
And still, every part of me hates the idea of Tyler touching her. Touching what’s mine.
Mine.
It’s completely insane, and yet it’s the first word I can think of to describe the possession that beats in my blood when I look at her.
The way my brain serves me up memories of the sounds she made when I shoved her legs apart and buried my face in her cunt.
The way she tasted. The low moan that fell from her lips when I slid inside her for the first time.
The look on her face when she came on my fingers. My tongue. My cock.
I shift in the spot where I stand frozen on the field, trying my damnedest to fight my body’s habitual reaction to the memories of that night because a hard-on in football pants is hell.
Okay, so this is way beyond teenager with a crush territory.
“What the fuck, dude,” Drew hisses. I whip my head towards him, having forgotten entirely that he was standing right there. He’s smirking at me, arms crossed over his chest. “Why are you looking at the team psychologist like you want to devour her whole?”
Because I do.
I shake my head, turning back to watch Tyler head out onto the field, hating the fact that I feel a trickle of relief that he’s not touching Maddy anymore. “What? I’m not,” I say, in the most pathetic denial of all time.
He rolls his eyes, and I hear the words he doesn’t speak.
Tell it to someone who believes you.
Shit.
“If you’re planning on breaking your, like, years-long dry spell, maybe choose someone with just a little more distance from the team than the GM’s niece and the person in charge of our collective mental health. That’s a big bucket of nope, Cam.”
With that, he jogs out onto the field, catching the pass Tyler rockets to him and firing it back. Scrubbing my hands over my face and shoving my fingers through my hair, I walk towards the field too, and if my route happens to take me straight past Maddy, well, that’s just the way that goes.
Damn Drew’s big bucket of nope straight to hell.
“Looking good, Wildcat,” I say as I sidle up next to her and stop, my eyes glued to the field like I’m surveying my teammates as they warm up.
“You can’t call me that here,” she says in a low voice, her eyes still glued the field too.
I bump my shoulder with hers, and warmth spreads through me from the contact. From the way she huffs out a breath, her fingers flexing on the pink water bottle she holds, I know she felt it too, and everything inside me lights up. “Is there a place I can call you that?”
When she turns to face me, her green eyes locking on mine, my heart kicks up, and I feel my smile spread. She’s so damn pretty. “Why do you look so pleased with yourself?”
I take a quick glance around and see assistant coaches and staff milling around, some of the guys chatting with trainers on the sidelines and others deep into their warm-ups on the field, and Coach standing with one foot propped up on a bench, studying his clipboard like it contains the secrets to the universe.
“Because it’s a football Sunday, and I get to go warm up in a few minutes and then go play my favorite game.
Because I heard from my kids right before I came out here, and talking to them before a game is good luck.
And because I walked out of the tunnel just now and saw you. Seeing you makes me happy.”
Maddy rolls her eyes and takes a sip from her water bottle. “Were you by any chance present for the conversation where I told you we can only be friends?”
I nod, focused on her mouth but not because I want to kiss her—although, fuck yeah, I do—but because every time she talks, I catch a glimpse of what I’m almost positive is her very orange tongue.
Glancing at her water bottle, I notice little orange drops around the top and chuckle when I realize that her water bottle is, in fact, full of orange soda.
Why do I find that so damn delightful?
“Wildcat, we are friends. It’s just that I also remember you look really hot naked and you whimper when you come. I can’t just un-remember that, you know?”
Maddy inhales sharply, looking around quickly, likely to make sure there’s no one else within earshot, which of course, there isn’t.
I said I would never get in the way of her job and I meant it, even if her insistence on being just friends makes the competitor in me want to prove her wrong.
And even if all I want in life is to have my hands on her again.
With her hands on her hips, she gives me what I think she thinks is an irritated glare, but her orange tongue blunts the effect.
She’s so cute I just want to cuddle her up and also fuck her into my mattress. It’s a really, really appealing combination.
“Hey, Maddy! Cam! Watch this!” We both look over as Tyler grins at us, bounces once on his toes, and then runs across the field at top speed, vaulting over three defensive linemen kneeling in a row on the turf.
The second he clears them, they all pop up and cheer, the rest of the guys on the field joining in.
“Perfect ten, Ty!” I call, amused, as always, by his antics. That guy wouldn’t know game day jitters if they walked up and introduced themselves.
Maddy just rolls her eyes. “Why did I think working with you overgrown children was a good idea?” she mutters, taking another swig of her drink.
Grabbing her water bottle from her, I take a sip, laughing when my suspicions are confirmed. “Drinking orange soda out of a water bottle is a baller move, Wildcat.”
She yanks the bottle away from me. “Water is the most boring drink in the world. I prefer to hydrate with sugar and carbonation. Can you get out on the field already? It’s weird that you’re just standing here while the rest of your team is warming up.”
I consider pointing out that warm-ups don’t officially start for another five minutes and half the team is still fucking around, but I’m already pressing my luck, so instead I just shrug. “Yeah, but I wanted to give you something first.”
“Is it your blood oath that no one associated with this team will find out about the night we spent together?” she asks dryly.
I grin. “Close.” With a wink, I toss her the Ziploc bag I grabbed from my locker before I came out to the field.
She catches it and glances down then back up at me, her freckled nose crinkled in confusion. “What am I looking at?”
I cluck my tongue. “An M&M’s connoisseur such as yourself should recognize your favorite candy when it’s in your hand. I thought you might need a pre-game sweet treat.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Why are they in a Ziploc bag?”
Spinning around, I walk backwards towards the field, still facing her. “Because you like all the different flavors, and I didn’t want you to have to choose. Every M&M’s flavor is in there except caramel. Caramel M&M’s are the worst.”
Maddy’s entire stern demeanor disappears and she laughs, her eyes full of fun when she looks at me. “They really are the worst.” Opening the bag, she takes a handful of M&M’s and tosses them into her mouth. “Go score a touchdown, Cam,” she says, her voice muffled by the candy.
“Offensive linemen don’t usually score touchdowns.” I drop my voice so only she can hear it. “But if I did score one, I would score it for you.”
With a wink and a grin at the way a soft pink flush crawls up from her chest to her cheeks, I turn and jog onto the field, feeling her eyes on me the whole time.
And nothing could make me happier.