Page 7 of Maverick
I couldn’t help the grin that quirked my lips. “It was great.” Stetson leaned across the counter to the bartender, and I sighed with relief when he handed over a bottle of water. “I probably should have taken him up on his offer to help me clean up, that’s all.”
“You refused aftercare?”
“No! I just…” I picked at the water bottle, surprised by my best friend’s sudden dominance. “Maybe I didn't take as much as I needed.”
“And he just let you?”
“What would you do if a complete stranger told you ‘no?’” I snapped. Maybe my tone was a bit harsh, but my head was too fuzzy to think straight—and I had to get out of there before I started searching for the biggest man in the room with locs that Ireallyenjoyed burying my hands in.
“Let’s go.”
After sending one more text, Stetson grabbed my hand and hauled me across the club. We burst into the cool night, and the fresh air combined with the water seemed to clear my head a bit more. Before I knew it, Barrett appeared to drive us back to the hotel.
I rested against the window, the glass refreshing on my heated skin. Though the drive was short, I found myself dozing. It was Barrett and Levi’s soft voice that roused me once the car stopped. “What’s going on?” I murmured, even more confused once we got in the elevator and they pressed the button fortheirfloor, not mine.
“I might not be a dom,” Stetson said, “but I know a couple of them. You’re not getting out of this without aftercare, Mav.”
I was too far gone to argue. I leaned on Barrett, letting Levi guide the way to their hotel room. Perched on the bed, one man undressed me while the other ran a shower.
They at least let me bathe on my own and when I stepped out, Stetson stood in the middle of the bathroom with a hand on his hip—and the leather skirt in the other. Ducking to hide the flush rising over my cheeks, I snatched it from him. “Don’t you know not to touch things that don’t belong to you?”
Apparently, he found it while digging for my room key so he could collect some of my own clothes. Barrett helped me into a pair of underwear and sleep pants, and then I was swiftly tuckedinto the extra bed in the room. “Are you hungry?” he asked me. “We’ve got leftovers from dinner.”
I was so tired that my filter was nowhere to be found, so I happily accepted.
Stetson and his men doted on me the rest of the night. Well, Stetsonpretendedto while pestering me for details about who I’d hooked up with—and where that skirt came from. The attention was nice, but as I laid down to sleep, I couldn’t help but let my mind drift back to that mysterious man in the back room at Peaches…
4
MAVERICK
Two Weeks Later
Swearing,I threw my car in park and bolted into the stadium.
I was late. I couldn’t believe I was late on my first fucking day with a new team.
Two weeks of nightmarish travel plans that included canceled, rescheduled, then canceled again flights left me with two days to move everything I owned from Georgia to Alabama. I’d hardly broken Auburn city limits in time to see the sunrise—and my couch, seeing as my bed wasn’t ready yet.
I crashed. Hard.
Hard enough to miss my eighteen alarms going off.
By the time I rose from the dead, I didn’t even have time to shower. Instead, I threw together a messy duffle bag and rushed out the door with a premixed protein shake. I chugged it on the ride over, only to immediately regret doing so.
The air was thick and heavy. Mid-July on the Gulf Coast was miserable., and I was about to spend hours training in the heat and humidity. The trip from my car to the stadium was enough to have sweat soaking through my shirt.
I rushed into the locker room to change and upon running onto the field…
Fifty pairs of eyes turned my way.
However, there was one particular pair that caught my attention.
Quinton “Diesel” Webster, the defensive team captain, watched me with a brown-eyed scrutiny that stopped me in my tracks. He was tall—taller than me—with deep umber skin and long dreadlocks tied into a bundle at the back of his head. The reminder ofanotherDiesel with similar locs kicked up emotions that I’d rather not feel in front of my teammates. Could he… No, that wasn’t possible.
“Nice of you to join us, Crawford.”
With that, he went back to his speech. I slipped into the crowd, crouching to the ground in order to stay out of the way and trying to ignore the shiver his voice sent down my spine. Was it familiar?
