Page 57 of Stealing Home

I point to her plate. “Finish eating, I’m not done with you yet.”

20

Scott

I groanwhen my alarm goes off in the morning. All I want is to remain in the bubble with Harlow where nothing but the two of us exists. We slept curled around each other, so when I try and get up, she starts to stir. Wanting another moment with her before I have to go, I pull her closer to my chest rather than get out of bed.

“It’s only six, you’ve got another hour to sleep,” I whisper.

Harlow yawns. “I want to get up with you.”

Kissing the top of her head, I breathe in the sweet scent of her shampoo and hold her tight for a few more moments. “No, sweetheart, stay in bed. If you get up with me I’ll end up missing practice to work you out instead. It’s just a few hours, I’ll see you tonight.”

Her hand fists in my hair, and she pulls my mouth to hers. Just as I feared, I’m lost in her. The feel of her underneath me makes me forget my responsibilities.

“Can you be fast?” she asks me.

“Only one way to find out,” I tell her.

Turns out fast is a relative term. With Harlow in my arms nothing else matters. I take my time, learning what makes her breath quicken, what makes her thighs tighten around my waist, what makes her tremble in my arms. Most of all, I soak in the connection between us.

When I’m finally able to force myself away from her, I’m scrambling to make it to practice on time. I rush into the weight room and find most of the team already spread out among the stations.

“Nice of you to grace us with your presence,” Campbell says when I sit on the weight bench ready to do my first set of bench presses.

“I’ve never missed a practice. What I’m doing or where I go off the field is no one’s business.” I lay down, and grip the bar ready to tune him out. Campbell has been trying harder lately to get under my skin.

“Ignore him,” Taylor murmurs as he steps over to spot me. “He’s still hoping you’ll fuck up and he’ll get to take your place.”

I grunt in reply and lift the bar off the stand. “He can try. Me being here isn’t what’s keeping him in left field,” I tell Taylor. I don’t lower my voice, because I don’t give a fuck if Campbell overhears me. He didn’t make the cut before I got here, and he certainly won’t now.

Campbell notices I’m annoyed and continues to pry, “You shacking up with a chick or something? You’ve been gone a lot lately.”

“Have you missed me Chase?” I blow him a kiss.

He snorts. The hate between us is mutual. I’m just glad he’s graduating at the end of the year. “Hardly, but Katrina has been moping around the house waiting for you to show up.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m sure you can console her.”

Campbell picks up a set of free weights and starts doing biceps curls. “Nah, she’s too clingy.”

“You mean she wants a player she’s sure is going pro,” Max taunts him from across the room.

“Fuck you, Ortiz. I’ve had scouts come check me out,” Campbell shoots back.

Max laughs. “Those scouts are coming to check out Ryan and you know it.”

The tension in the room thickens as all of the guys watch to see if today is the day Campbell gets his ass handed to him. His only friends on the team are Marco and Quinn, and even they wouldn’t step in if it came to blows. The coaching staff would, but Max and I are too level headed to rise to Campbell’s attempts to bait us. He’d love it too much if we got ourselves benched for knocking his bitch ass out. No way in hell would either of us give him the satisfaction, or let the rest of the team down for the momentary pleasure of punching his smug face.

Will, ever the peacemaker, speaks up to deflate the mounting hostility. “Guys, we’re all on the same team. Scott doesn’t have to tell us everything if he doesn’t want to.”

Taylor gives me a look, reminding me I’m walking a fine line by seeing Harlow. I don’t feel guilty because of Coach, but I do feel bad for what it could do to our team. Not enough to break things off. No game is worth losing her.

My roommates deserve more from me than I’ve been giving them. Taylor knows about Harlow, but Will and Max still don’t. It isn’t that I don’t trust them. They were there for me when I found out about Mara’s cheating. I know they’d have my back if I told them, but it wouldn’t be fair to put them in the position of having to keep such a big secret.

It’s not like I’m not keeping other secrets from them. I’ve always been an extremely private person. After my dad almost lost my mom because of the money he inherited, my parents encouraged my sister and I to keep the extent of our wealth a secret. Through his photography and investments my sister and I each have trust funds in the amount of ten million dollars, the same amount he and my mother started with. Keeping it secret has let me form friendships without wondering if they were only there because of my money.

When you’re forced into the limelight, even on a small scale, you either let it change you, or you adapt. My parents learned this the hard way when true crime junkies latched on to their case following my mom’s kidnapping and the attempts on her life when she and my dad first got together. As a photographer, my dad prefers to be behind the camera, but there was a time when there were more pictures of him on the internet than ones he’d taken. It’s why he turned our family home into a secure compound and tried to shield us from the public eye.

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