Page 40 of The Way We Fight

When the whistle blew for half time, everyone started to jog to their locker rooms, me included. I slowed my trot, just to let Levi catch up to where I was, then without even looking at him, I said. “We need to talk. Now.”

He stayed quiet and jogged faster, disregarding me as if he didn't even hear me. I stopped jogging and let him go, tempted to not even go to my locker room for half time. I had water on the field, but I craved those fifteen minutes out of the eye of the crowd.

I started jogging again, making my way to my sanctuary. When I reached the corridor, Levi was long gone with his team, deeper into the tunnel. I made the turn into my little alcove and entered my room, stopping in my tracks when I realized I wasn't alone.

Closing the door, I eyed Levi as he stood against the wall with his arms crossed. I leaned on the closed door, facing him with my hands behind my back. We stared at each other for a minute before either of us spoke.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Is that what we need to talk about?”So, he did hear me, he did get my message.

“Yeah, it is. You're scaring me.”

“I haven't said a word to you,” his voice was angry, confused. “How the fuck am I scaring you?”

“You're not scaring me as a coach, you're scaring me as a human. Something happened.”

He sighed heavily and looked to the ceiling. “I can't win, I’m tired of trying.”

“Football? The Jets are up by fourteen–”

“Everything!” he yelled. “I have so much shit on my plate, so many people I have to make happy, so many people I need to piss off and I can't concentrate on any of it.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He looked at me like I was crazy, shaking his head and scrunching his nose. “Fuck, no. I’m not talking to anyone, much less you.”

I flinched from his hatred and anger, realizing I had overstepped. Somewhere along the way, I started caring about Levi more than I should have. It probably happened when he took care of me after the game in Chicago, letting me have control.

I should have listened to myself,that it wasn't my problem. I should have moved out of Levi’s way and told him to leave. I should have let his ire be his own downfall.

But instead, I walked three long strides to stand in front of him and went down to my knees. I looked up at him, like I did when we were in the middle of the ring. I tried to tell him with my eyes alone what my intentions were. He fixed me last week, so I was going to fix him that time.

His breath sucked in as I reached for the waistband on his joggers. I slowly lowered them down and opened my mouth. From the moment I knelt in front of him, he was hard, so by the time I pulled his cock out, he was ready for me.

Though I was slow with his pants, I was quick to take him in my mouth, knowing our time was limited. I kept my eyes on him as I wrapped a hand around the base where I couldn't reach with my mouth, pumping him hard and fast. I swirled my tongue, remembering the last time I sucked his cock and what I knew he liked.

He hissed, and moaned, his eyes closing as he gradually lost control. I pulled my mouth back and kept stroking with my hand while I spoke to him. “Get out of your head, Coach. I want you to go back out there and yell at me, insult me, threaten me. But don't you dare go back out there and succumb to the pressure. You have more fight in you than that.”

He stared down, absorbing my words as I wrapped my mouth back around him. I took my free hand between his thighs and slightly stroked, teasing him as if I was going to touch him in other places.

The tease was all it took, as he growled and started moving his hips to match my motions. He started jerking and his knees started to shake right before I tasted him on my tongue. His release was long, and I swallowed him down quickly, knowing we were out of time.

Backing away, I gave him room to pull his pants back up and adjust himself while I watched from the floor. He didn't say anything, or even acknowledge what had just happened, he simply moved around me and left, slamming the door on his way out.

Chapter24

Levi

She was returning a favor and that was all there was to it.

But it worked.

With everything compounding into a level of stress that made me worry for my own pending heart attack, it felt good to have her mouth on me. Not just because of the release but because for those few minutes, I wasn't alone.

She and I had a lot in common, with pressure that surmounted the average person in our same positions in the league. We may have been at each other’s throats but that wasn't because we didn't understand each other, it was because we were so much alike.

Our night in New York was long gone from being a part of my stress, and I was sure it wasn't an issue for her either. We had crossed way more lines than an anonymous one-night stand.

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