6. Liam
Wakingup next to Emily was like waking up in heaven.
Her floral scent invaded my nostrils with that blonde hair splayed across my pillow like I’d just been imagining the moment I saw her.
Now, she was mine.
Her sweet virginity and her body.
She took my cock like a fucking champ, and the way she moaned had me hard all over again just thinking about it.
But the way she slept soundly next to me, I wasn’t about to wake her, especially when I still had to go to practice.
Though I didn’t want to shower her scent off of me.
I wanted everyone to know that the blonde bombshell was mine when they’d smell her sweetness on me.
I also didn’t want to wake her up, so I quickly washed up and brushed my teeth. Coming back to my bedroom, I put on some shorts and a T-shirt.
She didn’t even stir, still curled up in bed, wrapped up in my comforter like a giant cocoon.
I couldn’t help it and had to touch her, placing the gentlest kiss on her forehead as I brushed back her hair, letting the silky strands fall between my fingers.
“Hey, baby, I’m heading to practice, but I’ll be back in a few hours. I’ll bring home lunch, or we can head somewhere.”
“Mmmhmmm sounds good,” she barely mumbled before snuggling further into the covers.
If I was going to keep fucking her like this, she was definitely going to need to keep up her strength. I made a mental note to have something delivered for breakfast.
Usually, I’d find Michael in the kitchen, eating one of his American breakfast snacks, but he was nowhere to be found.
I didn’t even know for sure if he had come home the night before, but I was glad not to have an awkward conversation about where his baby sister was.
That was something we could deal with later.
Grabbing a few hard-boiled eggs and some soda bread out of the fridge, I ate those while putting in an order for scones and tea down at the local café. Hopefully that would be enough for Emily to at least start the day. I’d make sure she had a heartier lunch after practice.
After washing my dishes, I grabbed a sweatshirt, laced up my shoes, and headed out the door, still without a word or sound from Michael.
Pushing the negative thoughts out of my head, I hooked my earbuds to my phone and started the jog to the stadium.
It wasn’t even a mile from my flat and gave me a good warm-up before what would probably be a brutal practice.
Or at least I expected it to be, even with my hungover teammates.
But once I got to the locker room, my teammates started whooping and hollering, clapping me on the back with their ‘congrats.’
Well, all of my teammates except Michael, who sat on a bench in the corner, wrapping his ankles.
His eyes were bloodshot with deep circles underneath them.
I took another step to try and catch up with him, but instead, I felt an all too familiar grip of claw-like nails on my shoulder.
All of the breath whooshed out of me when I turned to meet the steely green eyes of the team’s physical therapist and my part-time fling, Ella.
It was probably a mistake to hook up with the team’s physical therapist, not just because we worked together, but because we also defiled most of the locker room and her office.
But that was before.
We hadn’t hooked up in months.
It was as if my body knew that my future was coming home to me.
Apparently, Ella didn’t get the memo the way she stood, her hands on her hips, puffing out her ample chest from her bright green team polo.
Usually, I’d say a few sweet words and apologize, then eat her pussy until she begged for me to stop.
But things were different now.
And by the way, she glared; she knew it too.
“Mind telling me about the rumors flying around the locker room?” she asked, her voice thick with venom.
“Why don’t we go somewhere private and talk about this?” I asked, gently taking a step forward.
She opened her mouth and then closed it again, glancing around the room to see all the guys’ eyes were on us.
She must have figured this was something probably not meant for a bunch of horndog rugby guys to hear, so she nodded.
“We can go to my office.”
Usually, I’d be watching the sway of her ass in her khakis or finding a way to brush up against her as we made our way down the hall.
But I kept my hands in my pockets, looking straight ahead and thinking of the best way to let her down gently. To explain everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
Once we were in her sterile office, closed off from the world with nothing between us but the exam table and some posters of the muscular and skeletal system, she finally turned toward me, arms over her chest this time.
“So how long have you been fecking Michael’s little sister? As long as you’ve been fecking me, I assume?”
I put my hands up, shaking my head. “Whoa, Ella, we haven’t been together in months.”
She blew a red curl out of her face and leaned against the wall. “Not that long. But apparently, enough time that you met, started sleeping with, and are now engaged to Michael’s sister? What, did you not wear a condom, and now we’re going to have little McCarthy running around the field?”
I froze.
No.
I didn’t wear a condom the two times we did it last night.
I didn’t even think about it.
I wanted to feel her.
To mark her.
To make her mine.
Ella rolled her eyes. “You can’t be serious?”
I shook my head, letting out a deep breath. “Look, it’s not like that, Ella. What we had was fun.”
“Fun? That’s what you call it? You shagged me on every piece of furniture in this office multiple times.”
Sighing, I took a step closer. “Yes. It was fun. But that’s in the past, and we can’t let the team or the press get a hold of that.”
She stepped back, wrinkling her nose like she smelled dirty socks. “Why would you say it like that?”
Running my fingers through my hair, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding in. “Because they’re the reason this all is happening—the engagement—all of it.”
She cocked her head to the side. “I don’t follow.”
“Apparently, that eejit of a reporter from one of the gossip rags was sniffing around, so Ava announced that I was having a private meeting with my fiancée, Emily, and things started spiraling from there.”
“Ava announced she was your fiancée, so it’s…it’s not real?” Ella asked, choking on her last words.
I swallowed hard.
Was it?
It was supposed to be pretend.
Though every moment I spent with Emily felt realer than anything I’d ever had.
“Aye. It’s just for the papers. Emily leaves in a week to go back to school, and then I’ll look like another heartbroken bloke, but better than a player in Ava’s eyes, I guess,” I said, somehow wishing I could take back the last words.
Ella opened her mouth to speak, but instead, her eyes widened as the door burst open behind us.
Michael stood there, nostrils flared as he glared at me.
“So that’s it, is it? You use my little sister to boost your reputation, then you can go back to fucking our physical therapist?” he growled, stomping into the room.
I stepped back, waving my hands. “Hey, man, it’s not like that.”
“Then what? What is it like? Because from what I just heard, that’s exactly what it sounds like. And here I thought you were trying to help her out, not just yourself.”
“How much did you hear?” I asked, going toe-to-toe with my snarling teammate.
“Everything,” a small voice said.
I looked to the doorway to see Emily standing there, tears in her eyes, but she couldn’t even look up at me.
She was dressed in some slim leggings and a t-shirt, hugging her beautiful curves as she held a bag from the café in her hands.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping around her brother, who, thank goodness, let me through without punching me.
“This delivery came to the door, and I thought maybe we could share it while you were at practice. I thought after last night…” Her words stopped as the tears tumbled down her red cheeks.
“Oh, mo ghra,” I whispered, reaching out for her, but she stepped back.
“I need to go,” she sniffled.
“Wait, you don’t need to go anywhere; we can talk about this.”
I took another step forward as she stepped out of my reach, but Michael’s gruff grip pulled me back.
“Let her go, man.”
I should have shrugged him off.
I should have run after Emily.
But instead, my feet stayed cemented to the ground as she dropped the bakery bag and then ran down the hall, out of my sight and hopefully not out of my life.