“You know you’re trouble. Now focus. Thirty minutes are on the clock. Then it’s game time.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
Luca
“Luca,” a soft, sweet voice whispered. “You big lump. Get up.”
“Hm?”
“Your alarm is going off for the third time, and you’re using me like your personal blanket.” Her voice held more rasp, and it warmed me inside out.
Sleep clogged my mind, but the feeling of peace radiated through me. There weren’t a million what-ifs sprinting through my head, causing anxiety to riddle my every move. Instead, I was happy. I blinked, becoming more aware, and my face pressed into Lorelei’s neck. I inhaled, her sweaty and sleepy scent absolutely delicious. She ran her fingers through my hair and down my upper back, and images of the night before came at me hard.
Her face as she moaned. The sound of my name on her lips. Her body. Fuck, her muscles and way she moved. How well we fit together. I groaned and tugged her harder against me. “Shh.”
“Luca.” Lorelei laughed and pushed my chest away.
I didnotlike that.
I growled against her skin, a startling weight pressing on my heart. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to break this connection and end the night. She was so warm and perfect and sexy. My entire life was all focus, zero play, and I wanted to hang onto the reprieve so damn badly. Even the usual guilt that came with thinking about Dean dulled when she was in my reach.
She yawned before glancing at her watch. “It’s 6:15. Don’t you have to be at the gym in twenty minutes?”
I did the quickest math since times tables in elementary school. I could remain in this happy bubble for three more minutes and still get there without being late. Three more minutes of perfection before my life went back to my schedule. “I’ll make it,” I said, my lips grazing the spot beneath her ear. “Let me enjoy this until I have to leave.”
She sighed, a happy contented sound. Her sleep voice and intoxicating scent had a hold on me, somehow wiping all the perseverance I had away. One night with her and I wanted to burn my entire rule book and dance around while flames engulfed it.
She wiggled against me and shifted her weight so her face was right in front of mine. She stared at me, her brown eyes filled with sleep and warmth. Would she ever look at me like that again?
When I left her bed… that was it. That was our deal. And no matter the reasons the compromise made sense; it didn’t make it any easier.
“Last night was wild, huh?” she whispered, a hint of vulnerability in her voice.
I nodded.
“Totally worth it though.” She smiled and quickly kissed my mouth. “I’ve never done a one-night-only passion affair before. I’m a fan.”
“Plan on doing this again, Lorelei? With someone else?” I asked, before my brain could tell me to shut the hell up.
Irritation flashed on her face, and the loss of her warmth filled me with dread. A soul crushing, panic-induced dread.
She wet her bottom lip and scooted away from me. She rolled off her bed, her spine and perfect ass on display before she pulled on a purple fuzzy robe from her desk chair. When she faced me, her face was back to normal, but that felt… worse. I wanted her reaction, her fire.
“This was special, Luca.” She hugged herself. “It meant something to me, butI am nottrying to break our deal. We both know the stakes, so I’m walking away satisfied, happy, and without a single regret. I’m going to shower, so please, let yourself out when you’re ready.”
She squeezed my calf on her way to the door, leaving me alone in her bed with her perfume lingering on the sheets. She said the right things that I wanted to hear—it was special, she enjoyed it, wasn’t trying to distract me from my goal, but my heart still felt battered, and I had no idea what to do about it. Plus, my dumb ass had made a comment in jealousy before I thought it through.Ifshe wanted to bring a different guy back here every night, she could. She had every right, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I’d have to invest in better headphones to ensure I didn’t hear anything because the thought of listening to her moan out someone else’s name would cause a vessel in my forehead to pop.
Groaning, I pushed out of her bed and quickly put on my pants. This wasn’t even a breakup, yet it felt like one. A huge one, at that. I ran my hand over my face, rubbing my eyes until I saw stars. My stomach sank, and instead of feeling relieved at finally being with her, I felt worse.
God, I needed to knock this shit off. We had a huge game this weekend. We’d be on ESPN when we played Iowa, and this big of a game meant more eyes on our team. More exposure never hurt, and there were a million things I could be doing to get prepared. Instead, I was in my quarterback’s sister’s room, pining for her.
Enough.
I snuck out of her room with the intention of being friendly to her the next time I saw her and that was that. We’d be friends who got it out of our system. We’d laugh and remember the time together. Nothing more.
Nodding to myself, I rushed through my routine to get to the gym on time. The guys I usually did rounds with were already there. Timothy, Shawn, Lawrence, and Preston made up most of the O-line. They were built like houses, and Shawn was having a hell of a year.
“Monroe, you look like you might think about maybe smiling,” Timothy said, hitting me in the shoulder. “Did you break curfew or something?”
