19. Lucia

Three days later, Lucia was still reeling from the conversation she’d had at Colton’s house. She hadn’t meant to tell him so much about her relationship with Max, and she certainly hadn’t meant to explore her relationship with her parents any further, but something about the way he’d looked at her, like he’d wanted to know every little thing about her, had made her feel oddly seen.

She’d known his dad had messed him up pretty badly from past conversations with him and what she’d gathered at his family dinner. She’d known that he felt the only way people would love or care about him was if he kept winning because that’s what his dad had conditioned him to believe. What she hadn’t known was how hard he’d tried to fit himself into two different worlds that refused to let him in. Despite his best efforts to joke with her afterward, she could tell how heavily it weighed on him, and it hurt to know how poorly he’d been treated.

She wanted to show him that none of that mattered to her. While his culture and football were important parts of him, they weren’t all of him, and they didn’t define him. She wanted to make sure he knew that, no matter how their relationship ended.

Her eyes found him on the sidelines, sitting on a bench, head in his hands. Her heart hiccupped at the image, feeling an unusual need to go down onto the field and hug him. He’d played a pretty good game so far, helping the Sabers take an early three-score lead, but defense had started struggling during the second half, leaving them down by four points.

As defense got a stop and special teams ran out onto the field, Cooper walked up and patted Colton on the shoulder to tell him it was their turn to take the field. Colton stood, putting his helmet on and clapping his hands. They only had ten seconds left in the game, and they needed a Hail Mary if they wanted a serious shot at playoffs.

Lucia bit the tip of her pen cap anxiously, watching Colton get set up on the field. Any noise from the fans in the stands faded away, and she could hear her heart racing in her ears. For her, and Colton too, this was more than just the team winning. It was what they had been working toward all season. She knew he had it in him, had watched plenty of his film to know he could make it happen. It would be up to the o-line to keep him safe and up to his receivers to run their routes properly and get away from coverage.

Chris, the center, hiked the ball to Colton, and Lucia forgot how to breathe as he caught it and looked downfield. Cooper was struggling to get open with two defensive backs running alongside him, which left Devin, who wasn’t doing much better. Tennessee had pushed all their backs to the end zone, knowing what the Sabers would try.

The analyst room was silent as Colton slapped the ball once and then sent it up toward the end zone. He’d chosen Cooper, and Lucia’s heart stopped completely as the ball sailed toward the tight end.

She couldn’t see the field well enough from their box, turning her attention to the TV just as Cooper jumped higher than a safety, and the ball landed squarely in his hands. Lucia jumped up with the rest of the analysts, screaming along with them as cords and papers were knocked from the tables.

She watched Colton jump up in the air, pumping a fist before lying on his back and looking up at the sky. The tension she’d seen in him just one play earlier was gone, and the TV showed how wide his smile was. When he stood back up to shake hands with the other team, she thought he turned to look at her in her box.

When he waved, she knew he had.

She waved back, grin wide. Wrapped up in the moment, she blew him a kiss, promising herself it was only because people were watching. She ignored the voice in her head that told her she was lying to herself, too excited to care. Her heart was so swollen with pride, she felt it beating out the craziest of rhythms.

Post-game moved quickly, and before Lucia knew it, she was being shepherded out onto the tarmac and into the private plane. She hadn’t even had time to stop outside of the locker room but knew Colton probably wouldn’t have had time to talk to her before the press conference anyway.

Lucia heard the players and coaches get on the plane, but the privacy curtain was closed so she couldn’t see Colton. She settled into her seat, pulled out her tablet, and began going through the film she’d received from the game.

A few moments after they’d reached cruising altitude, her phone buzzed.

Colton

Come say hi.

She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face as she responded.

Lucia

No 3

I don’t want to walk by the whole team.

Colton

Not even for your boyfriend who had a very long day and deserves a hug?

I’ll meet you halfway.

She sighed, closing her tablet and placing it in her purse.

Lucia

Fake. And fine, I’m coming.

When she walked past the privacy curtain, she entered the small, empty flight attendant area. A moment later, Colton walked through his own privacy curtain, a heart-stopping grin on his face as he scooped Lucia into his arms and twirled her around.

“Hi,” he whispered.

“Congratulations, Superstar.” Her grin matched his as she looked up at him. Something on his face changed at her words, and he set her down against the wall, his warm hands molding to her waist.

His eyes dropped to the new necklace she’d purchased during a late-night shopping spree a few days ago. He slid a finger underneath the pearl pendant. “This new?”

She nodded wordlessly, trying to calm the feeling his touch elicited inside her.

“I like it.” His voice was husky, and there was that damn heart hiccup again. His hand dropped back down to her side as he said, “Thanks for being the best analyst a quarterback could ever ask for.”

She scoffed, “Oh, please, Colton. You could’ve done that in your sleep. You were throwing like that long before I came along.”

Her breath caught as his face dropped toward hers, his lips inches from hers. “No, Moretti. You were the only thing on my mind when I threw that pass. I heard your voice coaching me, not Turner or Fillmore. Not even my dad.”

Her heart tripped at his words, and her body warmed at having him so close. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and they stayed there as his tongue slipped over his bottom lip. His gaze flicked back up to hers, pleading, a question clear as day in them.

She leaned forward and kissed him, expecting it to end with a light peck. She was pleasantly surprised when his tongue slipped between her lips and his kiss became deeper, needier.

She was panting when he pulled away, his left thumb finding her parted lips and running across them. His right hand, which had stayed anchored to her waist until then, drifted lower toward the warmest part of her.

“You soaked for me, baby?”

She sucked in a breath at his words but didn’t respond, her brain practically short-circuiting.

“I just wanna make you feel as good as I feel right now. Let me do that for you.” His finger lightly brushed against her inner thigh through the fabric of her pants.

“We ca—can’t,” she managed to stutter out. “Someone could walk in.”

His lips dropped to the shell of her ear, even as his hand stilled against her. “Wasn’t being in public the standard you set?”

She shivered at his breath on her ear, and god, she wanted it. She let her head fall back against the side of the plane where she rested, nodding once. She was strung so tight, want coiled so taut inside her, she was sure she would come within seconds. And something about letting him do something so filthy to her when the rest of their team was celebrating feet away excited her.

He flipped her so his back was against the plane and hers was against his hard chest. One rough hand held her to him by the center of her stomach, and the other pulled at the button of her pants, yanking down the zipper and slipping inside.

Her head fell back against him as his fingers slid under her lacy underwear, so far past caring whether or not someone might walk in on them. He rubbed the slickness around, the side of his thumb circling her clit. She was nearing the point of begging when his finger finally sank into her.

The hand that rested on her stomach flew to clamp over her mouth as a whimper left her. “Careful, sweetheart. I love it when you moan for me, but I’m not so sure the staff will feel the same.” His warm breath heated her neck, and she bit down on her lip. He added another finger, pumping them inside of her slowly while he rubbed her clit.

Her hips bucked, begging for more. He chuckled, increasing the pace to match, and one of her hands came around to lace in his hair tightly. The feeling inside her continued to build, her hand tugging harder.

“That’s right, ride my fingers, pretty girl. You wanna come for me? I want you to come for me.” His words almost pushed her over the edge, but what finally did her in was the graze of his teeth against her neck.

Her hips moved again, and he held her tight as she began to shake, seeing stars. Every cell in her body spasmed, tingling and throbbing. Pleasure tore through her, and she was thankful his hand remained over her mouth. She choked on a moan as his fingers curled deep inside of her.

“That’s right. Come all over my fingers, Moretti. They’re all yours.”

When she finished, her head turned to the side so she could look at him, feeling the flush of her cheeks. His grin was wicked, and he took the fingers that’d been inside of her and put them in his mouth, his eyes locked on hers.

Sex with Colton had been spectacular, by far the best she’d ever had. Had he placed himself in a prime position to have ruined all other men for her? Probably. Okay, definitely. But nothing put him firmly in first place more than the orgasm that’d just ripped through her as the entirety of the Sabertooths’ staff, players, and coaches talked and laughed feet away.

“Come over later.”

At her narrowed eyes, he laughed.

“Not like that. The media—and Tessa—will want to see you with me to celebrate this game, or they’ll assume we’ve broken up.”

She wasn’t sure if her brain was just scrambled or if he was actually making sense, but she was thawing to the idea.

“Come on, it’s Thanksgiving. We need to be with the ones we fake love. I’ll be a perfect gentleman and keep my hands to myself.” His voice dropped. “If that’s what you really want.”

She pulled away from him slightly, adjusting her pants and blazer and then running a hand through her hair. “Okay, for the media. But you better keep your hands to yourself.”

As the final word left her mouth, TJ, a running back, walked into the little space. When he saw them, he grinned knowingly.

“Hey, Colt, Lucia. Didn’t mean to interrupt.” He continued walking back toward the staff section, likely to use the bathroom.

“A kiss goodbye?” Colton asked, laughing when Lucia smacked his shoulder. He opened the privacy curtain, waving his hand in the direction of her colleagues. “For the people?” he whispered.

She was going to kill him. She was going to kill him dead. Still, she pushed herself up using his shoulders and pecked his lips, hating the wide grin on his face.

When she returned to her seat, head spinning, heart racing, and feeling as though the eyes of the entire staff rested upon her, she found a new text message. In response to her last message about her coming, he’d responded:

Colton

Oh, you most certainly did.

Meet me in the facility garage.

She resisted the urge to send a picture of herself childishly sticking her tongue out at him and shut off her phone.

Colton had been right. Four people were outside the gate of his house, snapping pictures of them as they drove up his driveway. Lucia rolled her eyes at his smug expression.

They’d grabbed snacks from the facility—most of which were gross protein shakes or protein bars, but Lucia was a beggar and therefore had lost her right to choose—and when they got to the living room, they laid them out on the coffee table.

“Do I get to pick the movie tonight?” Colton opened the box of pizza he’d conjured.

“Do you ever?” She watched his arm flex as he reached for the remote, her mind flashing back to the putty he’d turned her into on the plane. Shaking her head, she continued, “But I will give you options tonight. We can either watch The Bachelor or a romcom.”

“Wow, you’re so good to me.”

Lucia swiped the pizza he’d lifted to his mouth, taking a bite. “I know.”

Colton glared at her. “You’d think you’d be a little nicer to the man who had you clutching at him and practically moaning his name as you came a few hours ago.”

Lucia gaped at him. “Wha—shut your mouth! Off limits! Anti-boundaries!”

“Oh, now it’s off limits, but on the plane, it was all ‘Colton, make me come’ and ‘Colton, look at my bedroom eyes.’” The pitch of his voice went up when he pretended to be her.

“I never—”

“‘Colton, your fingers feel so good inside of me.’” He was laughing hard, his shoulders shaking at the look on her face. She turned the TV to an episode of The Bachelor to spite him, ignoring his offers of pizza and burrowing under a blanket that she’d found on his couch.

After the first episode, Colton pleaded with her, “Lucia, please. Tell me how to convince you to change it to anything else. I will proudly recite every line of Pretty Woman if you make it stop.”

“Beg.”

His pupils dilated. “What?”

“Beg for my forgiveness.”

He tsked as he dropped to his knees in front of her. “I thought you wanted me to keep my hands to myself tonight.”

“Yes, use your words.”

“Not the kind of begging I hoped you meant, but fine.” He clasped his hands together. “Lucia Middle Name Moretti, please forgive me for teasing you about how well I know your body. I will never mock you in that high-pitched voice ever again.”

“Liar. And I don’t have a middle name.”

His eyes remained steadfastly on hers, and he stuck his bottom lip out, pretending he was about to cry.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine, we can switch it.” She closed out of the reality TV show and searched for one of her beloved romcoms.

“You just like seeing me on my knees.”

She absolutely did. She loved him on his knees in front of her. And while that thought in and of itself wasn’t scary, the realization that came from it was. She actually liked Colton. Like, maybe less in a platonic hey it’s fun to spend time with you as a friend way and more in a shit I may be developing feelings for you that I don’t comprehend but are definitely not okay way. Every moment she’d spent with him, she learned something new and endearing, a puzzle piece to help her see the whole picture of Colton Beaumont.

And none of that boded well for her, because their end date was fast approaching, and he’d only ever agreed to this because he felt bad about the part he’d played in causing their…situation.

She made a point to remember to text Isa about their plans for her visit to Charleston. If there was anyone who could help her get her head on straight, it was Isa. And maybe she’d invite Jenna and Leigh just to prove to herself she had friends in Charleston who weren’t her fake boyfriend. The fake boyfriend who she would only be seeing in professional settings after January.

She sank lower into the plush couch at the thought, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself and ignoring the concerned look Colton tossed her way as You’ve Got Mail began playing.