17. Lucia

Lucia wrapped herself in the hotel robe, hair tied up in her microfiber towel. She lay on her bed, looking up at the ceiling and pondering the fire she knew she was playing with. After her call with Isa, she’d sat in the shower, hoping to find answers in its scalding embrace.

Isa’s words rang in her head. “I just don’t think you would’ve been intimate with him if you didn’t have feelings for him,” she’d said. “Just be careful, okay?”

Careful of what? She was happy with how things were. Teasing him at the picnic had been fun, and they’d set boundaries for the future. And honestly? If they slipped up again, she wasn’t going to complain. Her pussy throbbed just thinking of their night together.

She let her hand drift lower absentmindedly, noticing how slick she’d become at the thought of him. Well, touching herself to thoughts of him wasn’t off the table, was it? She parted herself, rubbing up and down slowly. She swirled her middle finger around her clit, the thought of Colton’s body over hers encouraging her.

Her breaths became shaky and stilted. Just as she started to close in on her climax, her phone rang. She thought about letting it go to voicemail but decided against it. Her mood was further ruined when she saw who was calling.

“What do you want?” She sounded irate, but more than that, she knew she probably sounded seductive as hell.

“Been thinkin’ about me?” She could hear his dumb grin from over the phone.

“I’m busy, Colton. What do you want?”

“Can’t a guy check in on his girlfriend every once in a while?”

“Fake. Fake girlfriend.”

“Fine. Fake. So what’cha doing?

She sighed, seeing her moment slip away. “Nothing anymore.”

“Good, I love to hear it. Come hang out, I’m bored.”

“That’s anti-boundaries. We agreed not to hang out outside of work.”

“Team bonding?” When she didn’t respond, he continued. “Then bring your little tablet and tell me all the things I need to do better.”

“On the field? Or do you need bedroom pointers?”

“You tell me, Luc. Anything you want me to do better?” Husky. His voice was oh-so-husky and she swallowed over the desire that grew inside her at the sound of it.

“What do I care? Won’t benefit me.”

“Just come, please. I’m bored.” He didn’t know how badly she’d wanted to come until he’d ruined it.

“I hate you.”

“If you show up in a Vipers shirt, I’m ripping it off of you.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

He grunted. “Room 1524.”

Lucia skipped the snacks, throwing on the Sabers sweatsuit she’d gotten her hands on. When the doors to the elevator opened, Cooper stood in the corner.

“Going up?” His smile was wide like he knew her secret.

“Oh, hi, Coop.”

He tipped his cowboy hat in greeting.

She noticed that the button for the fifteenth floor was already lit up, so she cleared her throat and stared ahead. “How’d you get out of the door taping?”

He chuckled. “At this point, it’s a joke. Coach Turner doesn’t care, and he’s realized adding more sprints or reps to practice won’t stop us from doing what we like.”

“It’s so silly and outdated.”

“Eh, it’s tradition.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. They both stepped out, and she took in the tall, glass window overlooking Dallas.

“Thank you.” It was so quiet, she thought she’d imagined the words.

“Huh?” She stopped, scanning the hallway to figure out which of the many halls would take her to Colton’s room.

“It’s that way.” He pointed to their left, his eyes crinkling with a smile. “I’ve never seen Colton like this. Goofy. Happy. Actually having fun during the season.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s normally so serious, sometimes even in offseason. It’s different. So thank you.”

“Oh, I don’t think…” She didn’t even know how to finish that thought.

He shrugged again. “All I’m saying is something about this is different for him. And I’m glad. It’s about time.” He turned, walking down the hall opposite where he’d pointed her. “See you around, Lucia.”

Lucia tried not to read into his words. She knew Colton had only initially helped her out of a sense of obligation and pity. He’d felt bad that he’d gotten her into another sticky situation with the media. Still, Cooper’s words were the validation she needed to know that she’d been doing something right. Maybe she’d been helping Colton in more ways than one.

His room wasn’t far, and she knocked on the door, a little dazed from her conversation with Cooper. When he opened the door, he looked her up and down hungrily before his eyes turned worried as they landed on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing.” Unsurprisingly, he was wearing what had quickly become her favorite outfit on him. The white shirt and dark sweats slung low on his hips reignited the feeling she’d had in her room less than a half hour before.

She walked past him, trying to squash the thought of him pressing her against the wall. Instead, she focused on Cooper’s words. “You didn’t tell Cooper about us?”

“Us?” He closed the door, his head cocked slightly to the side.

“You know, us.” She waved her hand between them. “The fact that this isn’t real.”

“Oh.” His expression soured, and he walked past her to the bed. “I’m not much of a dater. I’ve had my share of”—he glanced at her before cutting his eyes away—“flings. But I haven’t been in a relationship since college. I’ve been so focused on the game from the moment I turned pro. So, yeah, my friends are really happy for me that I have someone, and I don’t want to take that away from them.”

“Have you thought about a real girlfriend? I hear they’re really easy to find for NFL quarterbacks. Especially Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks. They might even make you real happy. Make you more bearable.”

The thought wasn’t a pleasant one. She didn’t like thinking of him dating someone else one bit. She wasn’t even sure where the words had come from, but she almost wished she could take them back. Seeing Colton happy with someone else had the potential to hurt her feelings more than Max cheating on her, and that was an unsettling realization.

“‘Real happy?’ What does that mean?”

Lucia shrugged as she approached the desk, setting her tablet down.

“Do you think I’m faking happiness?” he probed.

“I don’t know. I’m just saying…you’re not horrible to look at. If you wanted a real girlfriend to, you know, fulfill your needs, make you happy, and be all the things you want, I’m sure you wouldn’t have to look far.” Now she was rambling and heading into territory she really didn’t want to be in.

“Was that your twisted way of giving me a compliment?” He lay down, his hands behind his head, biceps bulging as he watched her at the desk.

“Shut up.”

“For the record, I’m not really looking for a real girlfriend. I’ve got my hands full with you.”

Her pulse hammered at his words, but she covered it with a roll of her eyes. “I mean when we break up. After the season.”

“I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. I’m not sure it’s in the cards until I’m done with the NFL. I can’t really afford to be in a serious relationship when I have to spend as much time as I do training.”

There was that nonsense again. He acted as if half of his friends weren’t married with children. “What’s your excuse for Rudy? And Sam? And all the others who are on your Super Bowl-winning team with wives and children. Plenty of NFL players have partners.”

“Yeah? And what about you? What are you going to do after the season?”

If he was asking about her love life, that would be a bust. “I sign a contract somewhere that will let me work with them until they’re ready to promote me to head analyst.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. And stop fiddling with the tablet. Come sit, we both know you didn’t prep anything for us to work on.”

She hadn’t realized she was playing with the case of her tablet until he pointed it out. Just to spite him, she sat in the chair.

“Why aren’t you looking for a real boyfriend?”

She’d known the question was coming, but hated that she couldn’t sidestep this one. “After Max, they’re not for me. I was already pretty sure I wasn’t cut out for a relationship. He confirmed it.”

His eyes darkened, his jaw set. Dangerous. This man was dangerous, and god, did she like it.

“Do you still have feelings for him?”

She scoffed, “Colton, we’ve talked about this. You know I don’t. Love just hasn’t worked in my favor.

He looked at her like he didn’t believe her, so she continued, “I’m serious. So serious that I can honestly tell you I’m glad Max cheated on me.”

She’d had inklings of that fact for a few months, maybe from the moment the news had come out, but it’d solidified when she’d realized that Colton cared more about her than Max ever had. It hurt, but she knew it was true. She just hadn’t known it was something she was going to voice.

“What?” he asked incredulously.

“I’m not glad that it was so public or that it forced me to leave a job and friends I love. But I can’t even begin to tell you the relief I felt at finally having an out. Our college years weren’t so bad, other than around rivalry week. But once he got into the league, he changed. He’s a good quarterback, and going in the first round proved it to him. He wasn’t a very good boyfriend after that, but any time he thought I might be getting ready to leave him, he found a way to reel me back in. I won’t bore you with specifics, but any time he did something wrong, he figured out how to fix it. He’d treat me the way I should’ve always been treated for a few days, and I’d give up on the notion of leaving him. He was all I knew, and to me, it just made sense to stay.”

Whether good or bad, Max had been the constant that her father never had. In her mind, having him for as long as she had represented that she was doing everything right in her relationship.

“When he cheated on me, I finally had a valid reason to leave him. And I know that, to some, I had plenty of valid reasons before then, and I get that. But to me, at that time in my life, it wasn’t so easy. So yeah, I’m glad he cheated on me. All I was in Richmond was a numbers girl. The professional woman who worked hard, whose accomplishments had to remain quiet because Max couldn’t handle being overshadowed. But here, I’m more than that. I have Jenna and Leigh. And you. And the team. And I can be whoever I want to be.”

It felt good to get that off her chest. She hadn’t told anybody, had hardly admitted it to herself, but she knew it down to the depths of her being that it was true. It was why she hadn’t been able to voice her frustrations that first day to Isa when the news had broken and she’d been in a state of shock. She hadn’t realized then that, in addition to feeling angry, she was relieved.

Colton had stilled as she spoke, his eyes on her, eyebrows drawn. In a pained voice, he whispered, “Of course you’re more than numbers, Luc. You are the most intelligent person I have ever met, and that’s in everything, not just football and data. You—” A strangled noise left him, and she wondered if he’d been about to say something he shouldn’t. Something neither of them should have voiced.

Sensing that he needed comfort almost as much as she did, she stood and walked over to sit beside him on the bed. She kept her distance from him, but when he slid his hand across the bed toward her, she moved hers so that her pinky met his.

She hadn’t realized that he’d put on Pretty Woman until she heard Julia Roberts telling the saleswomen what a huge mistake they’d made by not helping her the day before. Lucia smiled, knowing Colton had put the movie on for her before she’d even come into the room.

His bed was twenty times more comfortable than hers, and she sank into it happily. Around the time Richard Gere threw a wad of cash on the bed, Lucia’s eyelids began to feel heavy, and her phone vibrated beside her. Colton was already glaring down at it, and before Lucia had decided whether to let it ring out or send it straight to voicemail, he’d picked it up.

“What are you doing?” she hissed at him.

“Lucia Moretti’s phone.” Colton’s voice had an angry edge to it, but she was thankful he held his temper at bay.

She heard an angry male voice on the other end, and she jumped over him to try to grab the phone that was firmly locked in his hand.

“May I ask who’s calling?” He paused. “Max?” Another pause. “Clark? Hmm, that doesn’t sound familiar. Maybe you have the wrong number?”

“Colton!” Her whole body was on top of his as she grappled with him for the phone. He wrapped his free arm tightly around her, anchoring her to him and holding her arms down in the process. His entire body was solid muscle, hard like stone, and she wiggled against him to try to pry the phone from his grasp once again.

His pupils dilated as she rubbed against him in just the right way, his brows drawing together. When she realized the reason, she rubbed her hand against his hardening cock, a smirk on her face.

“Give me the phone, big boy,” she whispered. The last thing she wanted was for Max to hear that little nickname. His arm slackened a bit, just enough for her to wiggle free and grab the phone.

“Hello,” she said coolly.

“Lucia, what the fuck was that? You’re screening my calls via that asshole? Are you blind?”

Colton’s jaw was clenched like he’d heard the words Max was yelling at her. She walked into the bathroom, ignoring the embarrassment heating her insides. Colton was probably judging her for not having Max blocked, much less speaking to him. Especially after what she’d just admitted to him.

“I don’t have him screening my calls, he’s just being silly.”

“He’s being an asshole, is what he’s doing.”

“Can you blame him?” Her words were so sharp that she surprised even herself. She’d rarely stood up for herself in her relationship with Max, but she was tired of this game he was playing. She’d finally managed to escape him, and he just wouldn’t leave her alone.

“The fuck does that mean?”

“It means, why the fuck are you calling me? Why are you still texting me? We’re done. You made sure of that the minute you went out with that woman.”

“Amelia has nothing to do with this.”

Amelia. She had a name. And what a way to find it out. Like he still spoke with her, intimately. Sure, she could admit she was relieved that their relationship had ended, but that didn’t change the sting of knowing that he’d preferred someone over her. Suddenly, her whole body felt heavy, drained and exhausted.

“Please stop calling me. Unless you have something important to say, please leave me alone.” She hated how the words sounded so weak, like she was pleading with him. She should’ve blocked him, but even still, something inside of her wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Is this important enough? Your boyfriend is the biggest asshole on the face of the planet. He’s going to ruin you. You’ll come crawling back to me soon. And by the way, the next time my name comes out of his mouth, I’m serving his ass. You let him know that.”

Tears pricked Lucia’s eyes. She’d told Colton that the only valid reason she’d had to leave him was the infidelity, but more and more, she hated herself for not seeing the abuse as reason enough.

“Like I said, unless you have something important to say to me, please stop calling.”

“Lu, I do. I do have something important to say to you, okay? I’m sorry, baby. Look, it was a mistake, and I know that. Let’s talk it out. If it’s what you want, I’ll stop calling after you let me explain myself. When you’re not with him.”

She knew she should just say no. She knew she’d probably live to regret it, but wasn’t this what she’d been waiting for? For him to want to talk it out and apologize? And she’d had enough realizations about her relationship with Max that she no longer felt like a conversation with him would lead to her going back to him. Even if she didn’t necessarily believe he’d leave her alone, it was worth a try.

She dropped her voice, not wanting Colton to hear her relent. “Fine, but I’m busy with the season right now. I’ll let you know when I have some time. Give me some space until then. And you and I will just be talking, Max. Nothing more than that.”

“Of course, baby. Just tell me when.”

The word, which used to be a comfort, only made her skin itch.

“Goodbye, Max.” She clicked her phone off, walking back into Colton’s room. His head turned from the TV, eyes fixed on her face, concern written in every groove of his face and every shift in his chest.

“Luc…” So oddly tender.

She shook her head, climbing onto the tall bed and sinking deep into the warmth of the sleek sheets. She felt a gentle hand trace up and down her waist, lulling her into sleep’s clutches.

It was hours later when she awoke, the TV still humming softly, lights off, a strong, muscled arm tight around her, pressing her back into a solid chest. She thought about trying to leave but remembered the cold, depressing ride she would face to get to her floor and instead nestled closer, thankful for Colton’s presence, more and more an anchor in the raging waters of her life.