Chapter 30
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Icould have stayed at that cabin with her forever.
Unfortunately, I’d already blown off two days of practice, and Lucy had an organic chemistry exam.
So with great reluctance and growing dread at what our life together might look like when we were back in the real world, Lucy and I set the house back to rights—as much as we could.
I left a note for our hosts, apologizing for the hole in the wall without explanation, promising to pay for the repairs.
“Ready?” Lucy asked me.
“No,” I said truthfully.
“Well, suck it up, buttercup,” she told me. “And put your game face on, because we need to go back.”
We hadn’t discussed what “back” looked like.
We went out to the car and I buckled Lucy in. Maybe it made her feel like a child, but the control it gave me over her safety, knowing she was secure, helped ease some of my anxiety. And she wasn’t complaining, especially when I leaned in to kiss her.
The ride back to Tabb was quiet. I drove one handed, the other on her left thigh, while she gazed out the window. The three hours passed quickly, too quickly, and then we were back, driving through Gehenom past the college bars and bagel shops.
“You should probably drop me off here,” Lucy said when we reached the bridge that would take us from College Village into campus. “If you’re seen dropping me off at my dorm after we both disappeared for a couple days, people are going to talk.”
I wanted to argue with her, to rail against her logic. If I could, I’d drive her straight to the dean’s house on the lake and tell him I was dating a student at Tabb who just also happened to be my ward, and he and the board could eat shit if they had a problem with it.
But what good would that do, other than get me fired, Lucy’s reputation ruined, and her chances at the pre-vet program destroyed?
I glanced over at her as I pulled to a stop. She was biting her lip, worrying at it, and I brushed my thumb over her mouth and teeth, easing her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked gently.
“I think you were right. We should’ve stayed in that random town,” she said. “I’m worried that now that we’re back…”
…you’ll go back to treating me like I don’t matter, she didn’t have to say.
“Lucy, we’re together now,” I told her firmly. “This isn’t ending because we’re back on campus. We’ll just have to sneak around for a bit while I figure something out.”
“Yeah? Like I’m your naughty little secret?” she teased.
“Something like that,” I said.
She looked at me, and I wanted to kiss her, but students were everywhere, on their way to study or drink their Sunday woes away. I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t care. I was going to fucking kiss her.
As I leaned in, she stopped me.
“We can’t,” she said fiercely, and I breathed her in for a moment.
“Don’t tell me ‘can’t,’” I growled, leaning in again.
“Blake, please. Don’t do this to us. Not yet.”
Damn it.
I fisted my hands, staring at her. “You’re mine, Lucy Braverman. I won’t kiss you right now and ruin both our lives, if that’s what you want, but you’re going to make it up to me later. If I have to tie you down spread-eagled to my bed so nothing gets in the way of me kissing you, I will.”
She smiled. “You make the sweetest threats, Coach.”
And then she was unbuckling her seatbelt, removing my feeling of control over her safety, and hopping out of the car. I watched as she swayed her hips down the bridge pathway, not moving my car until someone behind me honked, before driving home.
“What the fuck?” Trey greeted me when I joined him later that morning in the film study room.
I’d gotten home, showered, paced around my house and tried not to go watch the video feed of Lucy’s dorm room.
I knew she wouldn’t be there, but wanted to feel closer to her.
Really, I’d had to force myself not to shadow her from class to class to make sure she was safe and no campus douchebag tried to hit on her.
I only succeeded because I had to go to work.
“I know, I’m sorry. I had a family emergency,” I offered.
It was a pathetic excuse, and Trey knew it.
“You don’t have family,” he pointed out.
I did, in fact, have family now. Lucy was my family. I may have resisted that for years, but it was true, even if the way she was my family had changed drastically from what I’d ever expected. But if he wasn’t picking up on what I actually meant, I wasn’t going to explain it to him.
Instead I said, “I’m sorry I wasn’t here before, but I’m here now. Our next game is Saturday, so we need to get to work, not sit around and gossip like old women.”
Trey looked affronted. “I wasn’t fucking gossiping.
I was trying to figure out why my boss rainchecked a date with my sister, only to disappear for two goddamned days, not respond to a single text, and miss practice.
If you lack so much respect for me and this team that you can’t even explain where you were, then I have absolutely zero interest working with you anymore. ”
Ah, shit.
Trey was a great assistant coach; I couldn’t lose him.
But I also couldn’t tell him what was going on between me and Lucy, not with her entire future and mine in the balance. The stakes had never felt higher, and I still couldn’t come up with a solution to our problem.
As my mind raced through lies and I dismissed each one, Trey grew more and more frustrated.
“With all due respect, fuck this,” he said, turning toward the door.
As he put his hand on the doorknob, I stopped him, settling for a half-truth.
“When Lucy walked out of the arena that night, she stole my car, drove to a random bar off of Route 13, and was attacked by two men there. I went to get her and took her to the hospital, and I’ve been with her ever since.
I was only looking out for her. She may be eighteen, but I still feel responsible for her. ”
The bullshit I was sharing tasted sour on my lips. Taking care of Lucy wasn’t a responsibility I didn’t want, it was an honor I relished. Lying felt cowardly, and as I continued, I felt more and more pathetic.
Trey paused, turning, his face aghast with concern. “Holy shit. Is she okay? Why didn’t you respond to my texts and tell me?”
“She didn’t want anyone to know.” That was likely, and I was going to have to ask Lucy to forgive me.
“Okay.” Trey relaxed. I could see it in the way his tight, stiff shoulders loosened, no longer up around his neck. “Well, let’s get to work reviewing this game tape and then we can meet the team at practice. Oh, and my sister was asking about you.”
I don’t want anything to do with your fucking sister. She doesn’t hold a goddamned candle to my woman.
But I couldn’t say that, or Trey would take offense. Instead I hummed in my throat, found the remote for the big flat screen the university had bought for us, and hit play.
A couple hours later, we stood and stretched, having talked through our notes and feedback for the team based on what we’d seen on the game tape. I checked my watch.
“Emory’s still off his game,” I observed.
“Yeah. Like I said, he’s having woman trouble. I’ll talk to him,” Trey said.
Was the woman trouble related to Lucy? If so, I was going to have to nip that shit in the bud.
“I’ll talk to him,” I said.
Trey raised his eyebrow. “You sure?”
I nodded, cracking my knuckles, picturing beating the shit out of Emory if Lucy’s name came out of his mouth. “I’m sure.”
“All right. We need to head to practice,” Trey said, and I agreed.
I was tense on the walk from the film study room down the long hallway to the rink. This was going to be the first time I’d seen Lucy since this morning, and it felt way too fucking long.
Was I going to be able to keep my shit together when she inevitably showed up in a tiny, tight outfit and no bra, knowing my players were ogling every part of her?
That Emory was going to see her? Would I be able to stop myself from getting hard remembering what those tits looked like without clothes on, that perfect deep pink pussy, raw and swollen from the number of times I’d made her come with the vibrator?
As we walked, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent off a terse text to Lucy.
Are you still in your dorm?
She responded immediately.
no, im on my way to practice
why?
Turn that hot little ass around and go put on a bra if you aren’t already wearing one.
why?
Why? She was fucking playing with fire, and she knew it.
Because if you aren’t wearing one, I’m going to have to rip out the eyeballs of every other human in the vicinity, and I’d rather not go to jail before the game this weekend.
Instead of responding in the affirmative like a good girl, she sent me a series of kissy lip emojis like the troublemaker she was.
I cracked my knuckles again when we walked into the rink and scanned the large arena.
The team was stretching and talking shit, laughing.
Lucy was nowhere in the vicinity. Tension filled me, because even if she was late from turning around to put a bra on like I’d ordered, I still needed to see her with my own two eyes.
Ever since I’d seen her being held against a wall by those fucking assholes, I’d been hit with the overwhelming need to know where she was at all times.
I still wanted to put her in a goddamn collar and attach a leash to her so she was never more than a few feet away from me, forever.
I knew that was fucked up, and Lucy would never agree to it, but it didn’t make the craving go away.
Finally, she came walking in, swaying her ass, hair up in a high ponytail with pieces curling behind her ears. I immediately relaxed, although seeing her left hand in that brace made me want to beat those assholes to death all over again.
I glanced at her chest and she smirked, tugging down one loose sleeve to expose a lacy black bra strap, before winking at me as she walked over to the players box to grab waters and towels to organize and pass out to the team.
I reached for my phone automatically.
Pull that sleeve back up, troublemaker.
Feeling her phone vibrate, Lucy pulled it out of her purse, glancing at it. A smile spread across those pink lips and made her shine, brilliant in her beauty.
and what are you going to do to me if I don’t?
Oh, she wanted to play, did she?
Take it out on your sweet ass.
promises, promises
I growled under my breath, especially when she tugged her sleeve down even more, exposing even more glowing skin.
Trey tapped my shoulder. “Are you getting sick?”
“No,” I said shortly.
“Sure sounds like it,” he muttered, but let it go, calling out to Lucy, “You okay, kid?”
Lucy glanced down at her wrist like she’d forgotten all about it.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little accident.”
Emory, Mason, and Matt—Emory’s roommate—skated up to the box.
“What kind of accident?” Emory asked, sounding concerned—too concerned.
Lucy lifted a shoulder. “Nothing you need to know about.”
“Did someone hurt you?” Mason asked, sounding concerned, but in the you’re my fiancée’s best friend and so I’m worried because I have to be way that didn’t raise my hackles.
Lucy shut her eyes, and her voice was quiet when she said, “Yeah, just some assholes.”
“What the fuck?”
“Where the hell are they?”
“We’ll destroy them for you, give us their names.”
My team surrounded her, irate, and as territorial as I felt, I couldn’t help but be happy that they were so protective of her.
Lucy never had that, and as much as I could give that to her, I knew Lucy well enough to know that having other people care so much about her would settle some of the pain inside her chest that her parents had instilled.
Lucy turned her head, glancing over at me, a small, private smile on those lips I needed to take with mine immediately—but wouldn’t.
“Coach took care of it,” she said, softly but clearly. Her confidence in me settled my annoyance with my team.
“Good,” Emory said.
The team echoed their approval, and I blew my whistle and started issuing directions for practice.
I had taken care of it. Just like I’d take care of anything else.