Chapter 58 Lincoln
LINCOLN
My words hang in the air between us.
She says nothing, and I begin to panic that I said too much.
Today has been…fuck, it’s been everything.
The highs have been incredible. But the lows...yeah, they’re best forgotten about.
“I know you’re scared. Worried about your job. But I swear to you, I won’t let anything happen.”
“How can you say that? You’re just a player.”
Okay, ouch.
She’s right, though. I am just a player. But I’ll lay down everything to ensure she doesn’t lose her position.
I’m not going to let her get this far to have it all taken away from her. She’s already lost too much.
“Parker, I just—”
“Enough,” she says, holding up her hand to stop me. “I’m too tired for this,” she explains, her eyes glassy with tears.
You asshole, you’re making her cry.
“I’m sorry, I just—” I take a step forward, but my leg gives way and I stumble, cursing as my muscles pull.
“For fuck’s sake, Linc,” Parker complains. “Take your sweats off and get on the bed.”
Excitement flashes through me.
Not needing to be asked twice, I tuck my thumbs into my waistband and shove them down my legs before crawling onto the mattress and flopping onto my back.
Resting my hands behind my head, I wiggle my body.
“I’m all yours, pretty girl. Have your way with me.”
“I should send you back to your room with an ice pack.”
“Yeah, you probably should. But you won’t.”
She stands at the side of the bed with her hands on her hips.
I desperately try to keep my eyes on her face and not allow them to drop to the way her nipples press against the thin white fabric of her tank.
Honestly, the fact that it’s a little see-through is the only thing stopping me from demanding she strip it all off and pull my T-shirt on again.
“I’m going to sleep after I’ve done this,” she explains.
“Fine by me.” I smile up at her as she glares at me. But as she crawls onto the bed, she loses her fight, and her eyes trail down my body.
Shamelessly, I clench my abs, making the lines that disappear into my boxers even more defined.
“I know what you’re doing,” she warns.
“And I know that you like it,” I counter.
She shakes her head as she gets settled between my legs.
It’s dangerous, and my cock jerks in excitement. But as much as I try to talk him down, he doesn’t listen, and the second her fingers connect with my thigh, he swells.
She doesn’t comment. Instead, she focuses on the job she started back at the arena hours ago.
I groan as she digs her thumbs into my muscles in the most dizzying way.
She’s so fucking good at this. But then, she always has been.
I was fifteen when she first talked about her desire to become an athletic trainer. Clark was the first to let her test out her skills, then Rett. And once she was confident with what she was doing, she asked me if I would allow her to work on me.
Fuck, that first time was hard. Pun most definitely intended.
I was a horny, almost-fifteen-year-old with zero control over when I got a boner.
But as painful as that part of my body was, where she was touching felt so fucking amazing, I couldn’t stop her.
Before long, after training and game massages from Parker became a thing.
With her confidence growing, and thanks to Clark’s connections, she found herself shadowing the doctor and PT who worked with our youth teams, and that continued into college.
Sure, it might have been Clark’s legacy that helped her get into the position she was in, but it was her skill and determination that kept her there.
By the time she graduated, she was a huge part of our old college team.
Of course, she still had years of training to get the qualifications she needed, but no one had any doubt that she’d end up exactly where she is now.
She works with focus and precision, loosening up my muscles, all the while ensuring nothing short of an inferno is happening beneath the surface.
“I missed having your hands on me,” I confess.
“Please, don’t,” she begs.
“I’m talking professionally, Donnelly. You’re the best I’ve ever had.”
She blushes so hard her ears turn red.
“I appreciate that.”
“It kills me that I’m going to have to move to another trainer.”
Her head lifts, her eyes locking on mine.
“Why?”
“Because while your job might be safe, treating me would be a conflict of interest.”
“I’m not letting you switch to Mitchell,” she snaps.
If I have my way, none of us will be switching to that asshole.
“Let’s just take it one day at a time,” I say softly.
She continues working, the air charged and crackling between us.
Eventually, though, like all good things, it comes to an end.
Parker sits back on her haunches and looks down at her hands resting in her lap.
She looks utterly defeated, her shoulders slumped and her pretty, red hair hanging around her like a curtain.
“Babe,” I whisper, hating that she’s hurting and that it’s because of me.
I want to be making her feel better, not worse.
“Look at me, please,” I beg.
It takes her a few seconds, but eventually, she lifts her head.
Once again, her eyes are full of unshed tears.
“I’m sorry. I never meant to make your life harder. I just…I want…” Fuck. “You.”
Her chest heaves as she stares at me, her eyes wide and circled with exhaustion.
Her walls are down. Crumbled around her feet.
I hate it.
I want her fight, her sass, her witty comebacks and insistence that she hates me.
I know how to handle that.
This…this I have no fucking clue how to navigate.
A sob erupts, and I act on instinct, sitting up and pulling her into me.
“Please don’t cry,” I whisper as I hold her tight.
Her body trembles against mine, her tears soaking my chest.
I don’t move. I won’t.
If she needs me, I’ll stay like this all fucking night.
Eventually, her sobs subside and her hands slide up my chest before her arms wrap around my neck.
She pulls back and hesitantly looks up at me through her wet lashes.
“You can go, if you want. You don’t need to stay and—”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I assure her softly. “I’m sorry about today. I was trying to do something nice. It backfired.”
“It was nice. I really appreciated the coffee. And I’m sorry too. I’m trying to do the right thing, and yet, all I want to do is the wrong thing.”
At her confession, my lips twitch into a smile.
“Tell me more about this wrong thing. Sounds fun.”
She smiles too, the twinkle I love so much coming back into her eyes.
“You’re a nightmare.”
“Maybe so, but I’m your nightmare, if you’ll have me.”
“This is crazy, Linc.”
“I know,” I agree. “But don’t you think we’ve waited long enough to find out if this could actually be something?”
“What if it goes wrong? What if I can’t—”
“What if it goes right?” I counter, lifting my hand to cup her cheek, my thumb dragging over her tempting bottom lip.
Her eyes shutter at my touch, and when they open again, they’re blazing with fire.
Fuck, I want her.
I want her in a way I’ve never wanted anyone or anything before.
“Parker,” I breathe.
“Please,” she begs.
Fuck if I’m able to deny her of anything.
Leaning forward, I brush my lips against hers in a soft, almost innocent kiss.
Her arms tighten around me, her fingers twisting in the too-long hair at the nape of my neck, urging me to take it further.
My cock aches, desperate to do so, but I know it would be the wrong thing to do.
It takes every ounce of self-control I possess, but I pull back and rest my forehead against hers as our breaths mingle.
“W-what are you doing?”
“For once in my life, I’m doing the right thing. We need to sleep.”
“Yeah,” she agrees softly.
Still holding her tightly, I drag her with me as I fall back onto the bed. Together, we get under the sheets, and no sooner have I flicked off the light than I gather her up in my arms again, breathing in her sweet scent.
“Just give me a chance, Parker. I promise, I’ll be so fucking good to you.”
She whimpers in the darkness, but she doesn’t say anything as I press a kiss to her forehead and hold her even tighter.
I don’t slip out of bed before sunrise the next morning.
Kodie already knows where I am, so there’s no need for sneaking through the hotel to attempt to look like I’ve been in my own bed all night.
Instead, I stay exactly where I am, entwined with Parker, and just watch her sleep.
The sight of her with her hair splayed across the white pillow, her full lips parted and her eyelashes fluttering as she dreams is mesmerizing.
Time ceases to exist as I lie there with the sun brightening the room, improving my view of my girl.
Eventually, her cell begins blaring with her alarm, and she stirs to life.
The second she realizes I haven’t left, she tenses, her eyes opening.
“Y-you’re still here,” she rasps, her throat dry with sleep.
My smile grows. “Couldn’t drag myself away.”
“But shouldn’t you be…” Her words trail off.
“Shouldn’t I be doing what?” I ask, curious to know what she thinks we do in a hotel room the morning of a game.
“Umm…”
“There isn’t anywhere else in the world I’d rather be right now than watching you wake up.”
Heat blooms on her cheeks and spreads down onto her chest.
“How do you look so good?” she asks, making me laugh.
“Babe, I’m a mess compared to you.”
She shakes her head. “My hair will be a matted mess, and my—”
“You’re beautiful,” I say, leaning forward and stealing a quick kiss.
She gasps as our lips connect, but she doesn’t pull away.
“How long do we have?”
My eyes bounce between hers.
“Nowhere near long enough for all the things I want to do to you.”
Her blush deepens.
“We’ll be home tonight,” she muses.
“We will,” I confirm.
“What happens then?”
“If you’re asking if I’ll still be sleeping in your bed, then the answer is yes.
If you’re asking if I want you to go back to wearing my clothes to sleep in, then the answer is also yes.
If you’re asking what happens next with us, then that’s up to you.
I’ve already waited for what feels like a lifetime for this, pretty girl.
I can wait a little longer as long as I know you’re mine. ”
“So…no more online dating?” she asks with a wicked glint in her eye.
“And no more bunnies,” I confirm.
My words give her pause, and I allow her the time to process her thoughts.
“When was the last time you were with someone?”
I think back, but it’s all a blur. That’s all women were to me. A means to an end, a bit of fun for an hour or two before I turned my back on them and forgot they existed.
“Before Thanksgiving. Possibly even before Halloween. I can’t really remember.”
“That’s a long time for the infamous Lincoln Storm.”
I shrug. “The whole thing lost its appeal.”
“Why?”
I exhale, trying to figure out how to put how I feel about that way of life into words.
“Because it was fake. Empty. Unfulfilling. The complete opposite of everything I feel when I’m with you.”
“Why now?”
“Because as scary as this is, at some point, you will meet someone else, and I might lose you for good. And that prospect is utterly terrifying.”