Chapter 33
BLAKE
Isat at the table with Trey, silently worrying.
Lucy had gone to the bathroom, seeming stressed, and then Trey’s sister, whose name I had forgotten again, had excused herself to the bathroom as well.
I wanted to go after her, because god only knew what she would say to Lucy, but I had no real excuse to leave.
Well, except to go to the bathroom myself.
“I’ll be right back,” I said.
“Don’t,” Trey said flatly. “It’s obvious you’re fucking her, and I want to know what your plan is here. Because you know they’ll fire you as soon as they find out, and the entire board is here, so I’m pretty sure they know.”
I shrugged. “My only plan is to be with her.”
He snorted. “Well, thanks for fucking over the entire team.”
In the past, that would’ve stopped me in my tracks.
I was responsible to my team, and my team alone.
But now, all that responsibility meant nothing.
My priority was Lucy, and Lucy alone. If that meant I had to quit, if we both had to transfer to another university with a good pre-vet program, then so be it.
I’d sell my house, pack us both up, and leave tomorrow.
As if reading my mind, Trey asked, “What about playoffs?”
“You’re a good coach,” I told him. “A great one. You can see them through.”
Saying that hurt my chest, but nowhere near what giving Lucy up would.
He blinked. “Is she really worth it?”
“And more,” I said easily. “She’s worth every goddamn sacrifice in the whole fucking world, even my life if it came down to that.
One day you’ll get that, Trey. You’ll meet a woman who flips your whole world upside down, until all that matters is her happiness.
One day, you’ll feel about someone the way I feel about Lucy. One day you’ll lo—”
There was a tap on my shoulder.
I turned my head to look at Lucy, bright eyed, blushing, and oh so beautiful, smelling of sex and sunshine.
Had she heard me? Maybe she had. It was time to tell her how I felt, after all. And if that meant finding out she actually didn’t feel the same way…well, better to know that now so I could set her free, even if I doubted my ability to let her go.
No, I’d lock her away forever and force her to love me before I could make that happen.
“Come dance with me,” she said, holding out her good hand.
A hand with red knuckles.
“What the—”
“Come dance with me,” she repeated, reaching for my hand. “Please.”
At her please, I rose, following her onto the dance floor. Even though the band was playing—an instrumental version of Hozier’s “Work Song,”—no one else was on the dance floor. But if this was what Lucy wanted, this is what she would have.
I pulled her into my arms, not bothering to keep things appropriate for the people watching, holding her tight as we swayed to the music. I looked down at her, grabbing her right hand and inspecting it.
Raw, angry knuckles.
With blood on them.
“Lucy,” I asked. “What the hell happened to your hand? Who do I have to kill?”
“I don’t think you have to kill anyone,” she said, but her voice was shaky. “I’m pretty sure I took care of it.”
Warning bells went off in my head.
“Lucy,” I warned. “Tell me right now.”
“Um…” she trailed off. “Professor Putrovski may have called me a slut a few times—”
“What?!”
“—And I may have punched her in the nose,” Lucy finished, looking up at me like she expected me to get mad at her. “Whoops?” she finished, offering me a questioning smile.
Her words sank in.
That bitch had called her a slut.
And Lucy had hauled off and punched her in the face.
I threw back my head and laughed, because only my troublemaker would do such a perfectly wild thing.
She watched me, biting her lip. Around us, people began to murmur, wondering why I was laughing so hard, but I couldn’t stop, practically wheezing from how fucking funny it was.
Finally, I calmed.
“Good for you,” I said. “I’m glad you punched her, so I didn’t have to. Is it her blood, or yours?”
She grinned at me. “Hers.”
Still holding her hand, I gazed down at Lucy as I lifted it to my lips, kissing each knuckle one at a time, aware I was getting blood on my lips and not caring.
Leaning down close, I whispered to her. “Your badassedness is only one reason I’m in love with you, little troublemaker.”
Her lips formed an O. An O I wanted my cock to slide deep into, but there’d be time for that later. First, I needed to share how I felt, even if it killed me.
“You’re in—"
“I’m in love with you,” I confirmed, heart in my throat.
“I love you. I love your strength, I love your sass, I love how fucking smart you are, I love your body and your mind, but mostly, I love how big your heart is. How you love animals as well as people, and how you love yourself, with this unwavering bravery that’s honestly inspiring.
I love every fucking thing about you, and even if you don’t love me back, I’m not letting you go.
Lie, cheat, or steal, even kill. You’re mine, Lucy Samson, and I’m yours,” I said, intentionally giving her my last name.
“We belong to each other until the day I fucking die, and after that, too.”
I stood there, having figuratively ripped my heart out of my chest and placing it into her delicate hands, waiting for the worst, hoping for the best. She could drop it on the ground and smash it with her foot, or she could hold it close for me.
It was out of my control now, and shockingly, it felt good.
I didn’t have to wait long, because Lucy was flinging her arms around my waist, saying, “I love you, Blake Samson. I’m not letting you go, either. I’ve loved you since I was a little girl. I’ve just been waiting for you to catch up.”
In that moment, I decided I didn’t give a shit about the people around us, or all the explaining I was about to have to do—not only about the fact that I was going to marry a student but marry my legal ward, at that.
I didn’t care about the scandal about to befall us, I needed Lucy more.
Wrapping a hand around her head, I leaned down and kissed her hard, forcing her to open her mouth under mine and diving in with my tongue, forgetting everything but the taste, the smell, and the feel of her.
She loved me. She loved me. She was fucking mine, forever, and I wouldn’t have to lock her away to keep her, I could just keep her.
For once in my life, someone belonged to me, and I belonged to someone else.
Our two broken souls had somehow found each other, and I thanked whatever fucking entity that had made this possible, because I was never, ever, letting her go.
I would have kept kissing her, until I heard a woman yelling something angrily. Pulling away from Lucy’s perfect mouth, I looked over her shoulder, where Trey’s sister stood, one hand over her bleeding nose, with rage-filled eyes.
Next to her stood the president of the university, Saul Glazer.
And a cop.
Oh, fuck.
“That fucking bitch punched me in the nose!” she squawked.
The music stopped. Gasps echoed in the big ballroom.
“Who the hell are you calling a bitch?” I said as I shoved Lucy behind me, facing the professor with her now messed up face.
“Your little slut,” she sneered.
I stepped forward.
So did Saul.
I turned to him. “Are you really going to let a faculty member speak to a young student that way?”
He winced. “I don’t love her language, but I like a student assaulting a faculty member even less.”
The cop was holding out handcuffs, clearly meant for Lucy. So I immediately dismissed the professor and Saul, turning to him instead.
“Don’t you come near her,” I warned. “You even think about it, and you’ll have to haul me in, too.”
“Then I’ll have to haul you in,” the officer said solemnly. “Because—”
“Because I’m pressing charges,” the professor spat. “And when I’m done with her, she won’t be a student at Tabb anymore. She won’t be a student anywhere.”
Rage burned through me, and it was only Lucy tugging on the back of my tux jacket that kept me from grabbing the professor by the throat, woman or not. I was going to destroy her if she even tried to hurt Lucy. I’d meant that before, and I meant it now.
“Unfortunately, we’ll need to bring her into the station to get a statement,” the officer said, clearly uncomfortable to be in the middle of all this drama. “You’re welcome to follow us there, but she’ll have to come in the back of my car—”
“Then I’m coming with you,” I told him flatly. “Lucy goes nowhere without me.”
More gasps.
“That’s not how that works, unless we’re arresting you, too…”
Taking three steps forward, I once again faced the president of the university—the university where I worked, the one that paid each and every one of my bills.
And punched him in the face to a chorus of gasps.
The gasps in the ballroom turned into screams, as Saul stumbled to his feet, blood trickling from his mouth.
“Blake, what the hell did you do?” Lucy asked, trembling.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, it’ll all be okay,” I promised.
“Arrest him, too,” Saul said, disappointment in his eyes as he spat out blood. “Blake, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but between getting involved with a student you never should have touched, and becoming violent to protect her, you aren’t the man I thought you were.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I’m better. She makes me better.”
It was true. I’d fought so long and so hard against losing control, I hadn’t realized what I’d gained. I’d give up everything else if it meant keeping Lucy by my side, safe and happy.
So I was glad when the cop, only having one set of handcuffs, used them on me instead of her before marching us both out of the ballroom and the building, directly into the back of his car.
At least we got to ride together, Lucy leaning her head against my shoulder, as we prepared to face what came next.
They separated us at the station, but they gave me my one phone call. I immediately called Micah, telling him I needed a favor from his brother Marcus.