5

Miles

Hope You Find Yours

For the next couple of days, every move I made was entirely dictated by my cock. It didn't go unnoticed. Especially when I accidentally hit Sullender in the head with a football.

Five times.

I didn't care; I was sightseeing. And the sight was sexy as hell.

Cleo's hair was pulled up in a bun every day, but as the hours wore on, more and more strands came undone, lining her face perfectly. It caught my attention every time. And always with those pencil skirts. Hugging her ass, cupping her ass. For days, those skirts teased me in ways I could never understand.

The lunches, the meetings, the game reruns, and all of the afternoons with the traveling scouting team were endless teases, until finally, Thursday.

I drove my car to the back of the hotel and waited. Even if I was ten minutes early, I'd been around the block with dates. I knew how the dance went.

Apparently, Cleo made different plays.

Three minutes after seven, she hurried out of the side gate.

I was awestruck. That was the only word for it, and I'd never get used to it.

The way she effortlessly slid into the car seat, poised, ready, with her red hair freshly brushed down her back and an equally red shade of lipstick along her lips. I wanted to mess that up.

I eased the car from the curb. "You're late."

"Late? You're in college. You should be able to read a clock."

Feisty.

I raised an eyebrow. "Date time runs contradictory to regular time."

"Is that so?"

"It is."

She shook her head, and the scent of her perfume washed over me. "It's just a tour - can you be late for a personal campus tour?"

The teasing note in her voice made me grip the steering wheel with my left hand. I was hard already. Forty-five seconds into a date, hard as a diamond. Definitely a record for me.

"Spoken like somebody who never gave campus tours."

Cleo snickered. "Like you've ever given tours in your life."

"An assumption."

"I bet you played football since you could walk, and I work as a PR intern, I give plenty of tours."

I swung a grin her way, completely entranced by this woman. "I worked at my uncle's mechanic shop in high school. I wasn't just throwing cowhides."

"Were you a sign waver? A twirler?" Cleo asked before cutting off my reply. "Wait, Miles, we're passing the biology building. Where are we starting the tour?" She smirked my way. "Are we leaving campus? I see where this is going…"

"The tour. Right." I craned my neck and nodded to the left. "Yeah, you said it. That is the biology building."

"Uh-huh."

"And the—look at that—the red building."

"The law library?" Cleo raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, the law library. Full of laws."

"Actually, it's in renovations," she teased. "It's full of nothing."

I sighed dramatically. "Damn."

"No offense, Miles, but…how do you not know your own campus?"

My car pulled up to the law library, and I stuck my head out to look at KYU. The college was a well-endowed school in a bustling Oklahoma town that practically catered to it. A place I had never been comfortable in.

"I don't like it here," I answered honestly. "I don't really know anybody. They transferred me again pretty quickly once I won the third award. By the time I got here, all the groups had settled in." I shrugged. "Everybody knows everybody from high school, or they met at the beginning of the year. They don't know me. I don't know them."

But I knew where the conversation was heading.

Why don't you give Marrs a try?

I'd been through the conversations with recruiters, scouting teams, and random KYU donors. Even if I was enamored with Cleo, I knew her job. I knew the drill.

But Cleo just stared at me.

I frowned. "What?"

"I'm…I'm so sorry."

"For what? You didn't do anything."

"No, but…." Cleo wrung her hands and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd picked up the same girl who'd snapped at three of my teammates yesterday for leaving their locker room a mess, didn't I? But she didn't look ready to get into a sales pitch.

She looked…concerned.

"I'm so sorry because that sounds so lonely." She smoothed down her skirt. "Marrs is a big family and I can't imagine how that feels. I'm sorry, Miles."

"It's fine."

"Have you tried…talking to your coach about it?"

"Which one? The one they fired at the start of the spring semester or the one they'll probably fire after summer training?"

Cleo didn't laugh at my joke. Her lips didn't even twinge.

"Miles? I am sorry." She sighed. "I really hope it gets better."

"I'm feeling pretty great right now," I assured her.

"No, I know—"

Trying to brighten the mood from where I'd dampened it, I leaned in a little closer. "I've got this gorgeous redhead in my car. And I'm waiting for her to figure out she can do better."

"Miles." She bit her lip. "I hope you're able to find…people you're comfortable with. I hope you find yours."

A smile tugged up on my lips and I leaned back in my seat.

Her expression didn't change. "Why're you smiling?"

The reasoning settled somewhere between my throat and my chest, a stupid, ridiculous reason I didn't want to share. The situation was shit, sure. But I liked Cleo caring about it. I liked the way her eyebrows furrowed and the way her hand raised over the seat like she wanted to touch my arm. And those gorgeous caramel eyes gazing at me, holding me tight, like she needed to.

I didn't say it to garner sympathy. I didn't. I meant every word. But she was the first person with the first genuine response. No sales pitch.

"The campus tour is finished," I announced.

A touch of amusement crossed her face. "Is it?"

"Yes, campus tour's over. Return the headphones, the whole thing." I tapped the dashboard and motioned off towards the empty campus, completely devoid of life on a lazy summer evening. "But I have a part two. It's thirty minutes out."

"Thirty minutes?" Cleo hesitated.

"Thirty minutes there, thirty minutes back, but we won't be standing there. You won't be getting back until late."

"See, I have…some reports to finish…."

Damn .

"I understand."

"It's not like that, I promise. I actually have stuff to finish before Ryan joins in with video calls tomorrow." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Our team captain is horrible with computers."

"I'll drop you off."

"Let me think—"

My heart sank, but I tried not to let it show. "I don't want to keep you from anything."

"You know what? I work…I work damn hard for Marrs."

Hands still on the steering wheel, I didn't know what to say to that. How do you tell a woman you're incredibly impressed with her everyday work ethic and that it's incredibly sexy? The kind of power suit before a business meeting touch, the one that Cleo slipped into effortlessly.

I nodded. "You're fucking right you do."

"I work fucking hard for them!"

"You do."

"And I love it, I do, but I deserve a break."

I had replies, but they weren't the kind that you offer to a girl after only knowing her for a couple of days.

Stay the weekend at my house and I'll wash every damn dish.

Let me take care of you.

All of it wanted to come out. I could feel it, grinding away at the back of my teeth. I wanted Cleo spread out on my bed, enjoying the peace and quiet from everyone who took up her schedule.

Didn't she give them enough? Why couldn't they get off her ass?

I'd known this woman for less than a week and I would gladly take up a spot as her top advocate.

"Miles?" Cleo's eyes blazed. "I haven't had a date in two years. Two years! I keep denying them because there's so much to do, and I'm so tired of it. I had to tell two of your teammates no yesterday. I should be celebrating and not—"

"Hold on." I jerked over. "Two of my guys asked you out?"

"Oh—yeah—"

"Which ones?"

She paused. "Which ones?"

"Yes," I replied instantly before I reconsidered. "Eh. I'll find out."

"Why would you find out?" Cleo laughed more out of surprise than anything else. " Miles? "

"Thirty minutes out. We better get going," I answered instead. "Do you have everything you need? Do you want to stop at a coffee shop before we get there?"

"Why would you find out who tried to ask me out?"

"Because they should know better. If they're yelling at me for staring at you throughout practice, they know you're mine. And they need to know to keep their hands to themselves." I could feel her eyes on me. "Trust me, Cleo. You deserve better than some KYU dipshit with three girlfriends across state lines and a short-lived career in the NFL."

Cleo's voice was soft. "You barely know me."

"That's fine. I know what you deserve. It's an easy thing to pick up about you."

"What do you mean?"

I shifted the car in reverse and cranked up the speed once we hit the highway. Closer to the city, the speed traps spring up, but once we crossed into the backcountry, I could really test my car's engine. I took one last look at the beautiful girl next to me before I focused on the road.

"You deserve someone that'll take care of you the way you take care of everybody else," I said, pressing down on the accelerator.