Chapter Three
I woke up to the alarm and groaned. Sleep hadn’t come easily last night, and I didn’t want to go into the stadium today. I instantly felt guilty as I realized how much Coach had helped me in so many ways and this job was one of the bigger ones.
That idea made me get up and brew some coffee before I took a shower. I dressed in a fresh pair of pants and a tank top with a sweatshirt over it due to the brisk Fall wind. I looked in the mirror and pulled my hair back into a high ponytail before I put on enough makeup to look human.
I walked out of the house and decided to drive to work today. My old Camry was in the parking lot, and I unlocked it and slid inside before I put everything in its place. I had a thing about organization. I started the car and backed up. When Justin entered my thoughts, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.
It’s not like I wasn’t thinking of him last night. It was the only train of thought that I had during the dinner with friends and the bath I took later that night. I didn’t do that very often but it just sounded good to me last night. I lit a lot of candles and poured some lavender bath bubbles in and just relaxed as I played back the feel of him under my hands. I wondered if he was soaking in his hot tub too. Justin was one of the most gorgeous guys I’d ever seen, and that was saying a lot since I had worked with a hockey team during my internship before this job. Hockey was my preferred sport if I was being honest, but I was also starting to have an interest in football.
I pulled into the employee parking garage and found a spot on the second floor. The team was starting to arrive as well and I greeted the guys with a lazy smile while I sipped my coffee. I hadn’t met all of them yet but they seemed nice enough to me so far. Coach would make sure they stayed that way too. I went into the stadium to watch them practice just to kill some time and perhaps see Justin. I figured that I hadn’t seen them play as a team too much yet, so it wouldn’t hurt to become familiar with their playing styles. I walked down to sit next to Coach and he gave me a surprised look. “You’re here early.”
“I figured it’s best to be here when they practice, just in case anything happens.” I took another sip of my coffee and watched as Coach picked up his worn metal thermos and took a sip. I knew just what was in it: strong black coffee. That’s all he ever drank. He told the guys to run some laps and watched closely as they moved in a group to a steady jog.
“How was Justin?” he asked as I blinked and forced myself to sound neutral.
“He has a pulled shoulder. I am going to treat it with hot and cold therapy and keep a close eye on things. He knows that I’ll be brutally honest with you, particularly with the old injury that he didn’t want to admit.” I smiled as I heard Coach groan beside me.
“Stubborn assholes,” was his comment and I shook my head.
“You’re just as bad as they are, just from a different point of view,” I teased him, grinning. I looked back at the guys and saw Justin looking over at me with a curious gaze as he ran past. He was dressed in workout shorts and a fitted tank designed for workouts, and he looked damn good in them. “I’ve known you a long time.”
“That you have.” I could feel Coach’s eyes on me for a second. “How’s your mother doing, Jen?”
He knew all about her leaving when I was four and how my dad had remarried when I was eight. That would have been easy enough to adjust to, but she’d found me on Facebook two years ago and wanted to see me again. I had met her for lunch a few times but moving here had ended that. I wasn’t always sure how I felt about her. “We chat on Messenger sometimes, and she claims she wants to visit me here, but I don’t know. She still has a drinking issue, and I can tell that even when she says she’s sober that she…isn’t.” I shrugged. I loved my stepmom Rosie a lot but she wasn’t my birth mom, and I’d always wondered why my mother had left me that way. We hadn’t gotten that far during our short and awkward lunches.
“That's a shame. I’d like to see her try to make up for what was lost.” We were silent for a moment until he told the guys to run the bleachers.
I watched as the men ran up and down the bleachers with loud claps of their shoes, up and down. As a group, they were a whole lot of muscle and I watched their strength as they kept going. I admired athletes for their dedication and of course, their bodies. Not enough that I’d ever mixed business with pleasure before and I didn’t plan on changing that anytime soon. I could just look from time to time.
Coach led them through some intense conditioning as I focused on Justin’s face to try and estimate his level of pain. He seemed okay but he met my gaze a few times and I’d swear that I saw something dark in his eyes. He was looking at me almost as much as I was looking at him and I felt a flutter in my stomach. This was bad, dangerous. I couldn’t think of him that way even if he flirted ruthlessly with me and had those amazing eyes.
I reminded myself that he was a player and was reminded of that later as I looked over his bare back in my room. Scratch marks, thick and red, were scattered over his skin. I frowned and asked him how his shoulder was doing. “Pretty good today.”
“I hope she was on top,” I muttered low under my breath as I shook my head. I felt the muscle and found it more swollen than the day before. He froze as I pressed in.
“What did you say?” Justin asked in a staggered voice as I kept feeling around his body.
“Nothing. Just reminding myself of something,” I replied as I grabbed my heat pack and rubbed it between my hands to activate it. I placed it on his skin as I eyed the marks again and asked myself why I even thought he was attractive at all. I wasn’t like those girls that threw themselves at athletes, and I’d been strictly professional before now. Sure, Justin was sex on a stick, but that made him worse even if he was gorgeous.
I had a job to focus on, and Coach would have my head if he could read my thoughts. For that matter, he’d consider cutting Justin’s dick off.
I left the heat on and felt his other shoulder as well just to keep my hands busy. He was in great shape with not an ounce of body fat on his body. Justin wasn’t small being six three, and he was proportioned well. For a moment, I wondered what he looked like naked.
Stop it.
“That feels good. I like you touching me,” he told me as I closed my eyes. His voice oozed an erotic promise that reached every nerve in my body, and I realized how long it had been since I had good wild sex.
We both heard voices, and I glanced up to see Coach walking in with another player, who was limping. “Hey, Jennifer. Chase twisted something on the last drill, and the doctor is out for the moment. Can you take a look?”
“Leave the heat on,” I told Justin absently as I asked Chase to sit down on another table so I could take a look. Chase had dark Italian features that I probably would’ve found appealing had I not felt Justin staring at me. His eyes were burning into me as I felt Chase’s ankle and found it to be quite swollen, though likely just twisted and not broken. I had him move back to rest his leg on the table and gently placed an ice pack on his injury. He asked me how I liked it here so far. His demeanor was sweet and polite. I found myself missing Justin’s innuendos and I instantly cursed myself.
“I like it so far. It’s a great city,” I replied with a smile as I met his big, dark eyes. Coach had left us alone, and I watched as his cheeks flushed pink as he looked into my face. He was young, likely a few years younger than Justin and he seemed like a rookie player.
“It has some really nice parts. Have you been out on the town yet?” Chase asked.
I felt the heat and glanced up to see Justin staring at me as his eyes darkened. What the hell? I wasn’t his property, and I cleared my throat as I glared at him. “No, not quite yet. I just moved here and have been settling into things here at the stadium. What’s good around here?” I sensed that he was hinting to show me, but I had rules to follow.
Chase went on to tell me about the bars that the guys liked best and some of the delicious restaurants. I made a mental note to wander and find them as I adjusted the ice and felt the ankle.
“She doesn’t date players, Chase. Might as well stop trying,” Justin said across the room, and we both looked at him.
He struck a nerve with me, and I smiled sweetly. “Judging from the marks on your back, you’re not hurting for company. Don't worry about me.”