Penalty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (Alpha Second Chances Book 3) (6 page)

Her hand covers mine, and warmth spreads through me.

“Did you ever visit the area? After you guys left?”

I can feel her face turned to me, finally away from the window and the passing scenery.

I shake my head. “Like you said, too many ghosts.”

We drive around for almost two hours before she says she’s tired and needs to go to bed.

“You can stay with me tonight, if you need to,” I say as we pull up to the campus lot.

She shakes her head.

“I’ll be fine,” she says with a brave smile.

I walk her to her dorm, holding her hand.

“See you tomorrow,” she says once we reach her room.

She reaches up to kiss me, and then I reluctantly watch her disappear behind her door.

I stare at it for a few seconds before I finally turn away, one mission in mind.

I pull out my phone.

Did you mail Maddy something recently?
I text Beth.

I am still too enraged to talk to her in person, and I instinctively know the last thing I need to do is give any validity to potential claims.

Who is this?
she texts back.

Yeah, right. There’s no way she removed me as a contact yet; she was convinced I’d come back around. I see her deal clearly.

Well, she can play as indifferent as she wants, but she needs to answer for what she did to Maddy.

You know exactly who. This is not a game, B. Leave Maddy alone.

Or else what?
comes back quickly.

She’s got me there.

I haven’t exactly come up with a plan yet, but I certainly can’t say anything more specific over text anyway. Texts can be screen-capped, forwarded, shown to authority figures.

Don’t worry,
she texts back.
I won’t lay a hand on your precious Maddy’s head.

Part of me wants to be relieved, but the smarter part says there’s something more to her words. Beth is very careful with how she uses them, and I get the sense she’s not quite done with us.

I also have no solid evidence of otherwise, and chances are, I’m just being paranoid.

The best thing I can do at this point is take her at her word instead of stressing over nothing.

Beth has already sent her message and probably got her petty vindictiveness out of her system.

She’s probably just trying to get in my head and fuck up my big event in a few weeks.

Yup, that’s it—psychological warfare.

If she keeps me thinking she’s planning more attacks, she could throw me off my game and do exactly what she threatened earlier, messing with my future without lifting a finger.

I can’t let her get in my head.

I
t seems
Beth has satisfied her need for revenge.

Over a week has passed, and Maddy has received no more nasty surprises.

I haven’t heard hide nor hair from Beth in any way, although I still spot her from time to time around campus, but she always pretends she doesn’t see me.

I wonder what she told her friends.

There’s no way she let anyone know I dumped her—she’s way too proud for that.

At best, she probably made it seem like we came to a mutual decision, or that she realized the error in her own ways for settling for little old me and has her eyes on a larger prize—someone already pro.

At worst, she made me out to be the bad guy in more concrete ways—although I’m not sure what she can use to paint me horribly besides the brief period we had an open relationship. The most she can do is present me as a playboy cheater, which, although not exactly true, still isn’t exactly reputation-damaging. It’s exactly what most probably expect me to be, so no one cares.

But no one has been looking at me weird, so I figure Beth went with a more benign option.

Things are normal again, and I feel a freedom I haven’t felt in a long time and hadn’t realized I missed, even though I’m still not single; things just feel different with Maddy.

I look forward to seeing her every day, and thinking about her or catching a glimpse of her sends a rush of joy and pleasure through me.

It’s quite addicting.

Despite whatever praise I get in football, despite how many pretty chicks bat their eyes at me, I realize I’d been missing a different sort of contentedness. With Maddy, I actually feel good about myself in ways I didn’t realize I needed; she makes me more than happy.

I don’t want to let this feeling go.

Even now, I’m dreading the upcoming trip I had looked forward to for years now because it means I’ll be away from Maddy for a few days.

I won’t get to touch her, kiss her. I can’t fill my eyes with her in person instead of over Facetime or something. I won’t get to run my hands through her amazing hair, hold her slim naked form against me.

I have this need for Maddy that, had I been able to examine it objectively, would probably be frightening; it gives her too much control over me. But it just feels too fucking good.

Maddy could easily be the destruction of me—of everything I’ve built—and I’d go down with a goofy smile.

I haven’t told her about my upcoming trip yet, but it probably won’t phase her much anyway. She seems to delight in solitude and silence.

I can only dream she misses me as much as I know I’ll miss her.

In any case, it’s just a few days; we’ll get through it.

* * *

T
ravel day
for the NFL Scouting Combine arrives quickly, and instead of being filled with sadness at leaving Maddy behind, my chest is swelling so much with joy, I’m almost sure it will split open soon, unable to contain the pressure.

Maddy is clearly distraught at my impending departure, and it’s not that I like seeing her like that—it’s that I realize she
does
feel as intensely about me as I do her.

She’s practically wringing her hands, her eyes wider than usual and looking sorrowful.

“Just a few days, right?”

“That’s right, baby. I’ll be back before you know it.”

She looks so nervous now that my chest starts to deflate while the rest of me fills with worry.

“Is something wrong? Did Beth threaten you? Did she send you another ‘gift’?”

“No, it’s not that—it’s just… ” She closes her eyes briefly, and I watch her regroup before my eyes, shaking off the anxiety that gripped her.

Her body visibly relaxes, and she looks calm now, gifting me with a small smile.

“I’m just going to miss you a lot. That’s all.”

I immediately bend to grab her small lips with mine.

I kiss her deeply, my hands coming to her arms as my tongue explores her sweet mouth, then one hand travels to the back of her head, holding her to me.

When I bring myself to pull away, I feel like I’m about to overflow.

“I’m going to miss the hell out of you,” I say, my voice deepened by the emotions taking over me.

God, I want to be inside her right now, buried in the warmth and comfort of her slight body.

I check my watch.

Our flight leaves later this evening, so I have almost two hours before I have to meet up with the others for the ride to the airport.

“You want to see my room?” I ask.

She gives me a wry look.

“Subtle, Abe.”

“Well, you’ve never been there before and since I can’t really hang out in yours, come see if my place is somewhere you can see yourself hanging out in now that we’re out in the open.”

Her face relaxes into a smile as she nods.

* * *

“
Y
ou’re shitting me
—you live here? Wait, this… are those massage chairs? In your lounge?”

I grin at her reactions.

My dorm isn’t exactly standard. Bentley Hall is pretty pimped out for the sake of sweetening the pot for certain prospective students—students like me, in particular.

“One of the perks of being a student athlete,” I say.

“No, but this is like a frickin’ luxury hotel or something!”

“You haven’t seen anything yet.”

I decide making love to her can wait a little longer and give her a tour of the residence.

Her mouth pretty much stays hanging open as she sees the movie theatre, the game rooms, the gym.

It stays hanging open as she takes in the rooftop pool and Jacuzzi, the spa.

She is in absolute disbelief that we have our very own chef. Maid service.

Soon, I start thinking of shoving my cock between those parted lips of hers.

“And now for the grand finale,” I say, leading her toward my room.

“How is this fair?” she asks wondrously.

“Well, we bring a lot with us when we attend, so I think it’s pretty fair. As a result of us, the school gets all kinds of prestige and makes a lot of money.”

“I didn’t mean to imply… ”

“I know. But people tend to forget or overlook how much we’ve worked to get here and resent the perks we busted our asses for.”

“I understand,” she says humbly. “I actually do look forward to watching you play someday; I want to see the moves that get you a concierge for your dorm and free drinks 24-hrs a day.”

I can’t help but smile wide at that.

Once I open my door, my thoughts quickly shift.

Maddy isn’t even wearing anything sexy—she never has to in order to get me going. Her flesh isn’t exposed in a way that stirs my imagination, none of her tempting feminine parts are on lewd display. Just feeling the way I do about her makes me want her more than anything. Watching her shy smile, her warm brown eyes, the familiarity of her soft essence turns me the fuck on.

All I want is to be a part of her in so many ways, and in this base sense, I partially accomplish that goal.

I close my door behind us, and she is completely unaware of my immediate intent as she glances around my pimped-out room, furnished with state-of-the-art appliances, the latest video game consoles, comfy furniture.

While her eyes are taking in my 48” flat screen, my eyes are helping me decide which part of her outfit to attack first.

I spin her to face me, and her impressed look quickly shifts to one of realization as it becomes clear to her I’m about to ravish her.

“Um, are these walls… ?”

“It’s up to you to be as quiet as you can. The walls aren’t thin, but I’ll probably make you scream.”

She swallows hard before she smiles. “We’ll see about that,” she says lightly.

I love her fake bravery, but I can feel her trembling already.

I go for her top first, pulling it off in one swift motion.

“Oh,” she says in surprise as I toss it, all signs of her previous confidence and bravery vanishing.

Despite what looks like an instinctively protective cross of her arm over her chest, I make sure her bra quickly follows.

“You’re okay, right?” I ask once it looks like she’s actually worried.

She nods but still looks a bit frightened as I start shedding my own clothes.

My eyes stay on her face as I strip down.

“I just… you’re… ”

“Yours,” I say, guessing at what has her shaken—she’s overwhelmed.

She’s still so new to all this, and being trapped here with me, on my territory, knowing I’m in control like this, shakes her. Right now, she has to trust herself to my hands.

I hope she’s not worried about being used—she has to know what we have is far more than the physical. She has to know how I feel about her.

I help her out of her jeans while she tries and fails to keep her eyes away from my thick, erect cock.

It must be awkward for her—me standing here completely naked, inescapable evidence of my need practically in her face with our height difference, while she’s still partially clothed.

Though not for long.

“Abe,” she whispers as I pick her up to deposit her on my bed and cover her with my body.

“Yes, Maddy?” I say patiently, though my cock is raging at me to bury it inside her immediately.

Her mouth moves a little—like she’s trying to force some words out and they’re refusing to cooperate.

“Maddy?”

“I’m not on the pill or anything, you know,” she says hoarsely.

Part of me doesn’t believe that’s what she meant to say, while most of me is a tiny bit disappointed she didn’t say something else—something I didn’t realize I wanted to hear.

But most of me is too fogged by desire and driven by lust to examine any of it.

“I don’t care,” I say as I plant my broad body between her slim legs, positioning the tip of my throbbing cock at her slick entrance.

I rub the head over her heated core, picking up some of her wetness before pushing inside her, not stopping until I’m buried all the way in her tight, warm depths, to the hilt.

“We’ll deal with anything that happens,” I say before moving inside her with long, deep strokes.

* * *

I
briefly worry
my preoccupation with Maddy will affect my performance, and though I miss her by the time we start the ride to the airport, and throughout the short flight, when I touchdown in Indianapolis, I pretty much immediately shift to a different mode.

I have trained for this event for a long time, and my body is programmed to do what it’s supposed to do in front of all these scouts and coaches.

As for my mind, I want to succeed even more; I want to impress Maddy, even though I know she doesn’t exactly care for sports and probably only thinks of quarterbacks in terms of vending machines.

Still, I want to be successful—I want her to be proud of me.

I find myself energized in a different way over the days of drills and tests, the displays of strength and endurance. All the simmering emotions in me find a suitable outlet here, and I’m suddenly working at next-level beast mode.

“Ho.ly. Fuck. You’re killing it out there,” one of my fellow competitors says after the interview portion.