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Nolan’s hands gently held my back as the two of us melted into each other like two halves of a whole finally coming back together again. His lips covered mine and that same sense of comfort I felt before from being in his arms filled me. His teeth grazed my bottom lip. His hands slipped between me and the table as his fingers dug into my ass. Desire for him to mark every inch of me, to claim me as his, surged as his lips latched on to the soft spot under my ear again, as if he knew I’d simply fall into oblivion at his touch.
I yanked at his sweatshirt, suddenly desperate for fewer layers between us. Nolan’s lips left my body for only a moment as he ripped the sweatshirt over his head before returning his lips to mine. My breaths came in heavier as his fingertips left my ass, slipped under my sweater, and trailed up the smooth skin of my stomach.
“I want you so bad, Lottie,” Nolan breathed into my ear. If I hadn’t lost my mind yet, his husky voice tickling my ear took away every responsible brain cell I had. I gripped the bottom ofmy sweater and pulled it over my head, leaving me sitting before him in only my bra.
“I’ve never seen anyone more beautiful,” Nolan whispered as he pulled away to look at me for a moment. His fingers gripped the sides of my hips and squeezed. “If you’d been alive during the time of the Romans, your beauty would have been immortalized in stone.”
I simply wanted to cease to exist in that very moment. My hands buried themselves in his hair as I yanked him back to me.
“Holy shit—” Nolan and I jumped apart at the sound of a third voice in the training room. Derek stood near the doors with wide eyes and his mouth gaping open. I scrambled for my sweater to try and cover myself as I wished for the ability to disappear right into the floor. Nolan stepped in front of me, blocking Derek’s view. I pulled my sweater back on and tried to smooth down my hair, so I looked a little more put together and not like I’d just been caught making out with the team’s quarterback in the place I worked.
“Dude, can I steal that line about the Romans?” Derek asked, his eyes still wide and unblinking as he continued to watch us. “I had no idea you had those kinds of moves.”
“Derek.” Nolan tried to stop him in his tracks.
“If I had any idea you were a romantic like that, I would have been coming to you for advice for years.”
“Derek.”
“By the way, I totally called this.” Derek motioned between me and Nolan. “And I will be claiming this relationship at the wedding when I’m the best man.”
“Derek! Please leave.” Nolan raised his voice, finally getting Derek to stop talking.
Derek’s gaze bounced from me to Nolan one more time before he disappeared back out the door to the training room.
“I cannot believe that just happened,” I breathed as I covered my face to try and hide my embarrassment. Nolan’s hands wrapped around my wrists as he gently tugged my hands away from my face.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded.
“That could have been so much worse than it was,” I told him. “Derek was probably the best-case scenario. I can’t believe I let myself do thathere.”
Nolan’s thumbs rubbed small soothing circles on the backs of my hands. “I’ll talk to him. It’ll be okay.”
“We needed to be more careful than that,” I continued, realizing how close I could have been to losing my job if anyone else had walked in. I felt stupid for jumping straight into the deep end the second I was blinded by my feelings. “We can’t do that again.”
“Derek has been joking that we would eventually end up dating since the moment all of us met. I’m not sure what exactly he saw there in the beginning when the two of us hated each other,” Nolan joked, trying to lighten my mood.
“We aren’t dating.” The words slipped from my mouth like a different kind of reflex.
“I’m not sure what you’d call what we’re doing then, Lottie.” Nolan dropped my hands and I tried to ignore the cold, empty feeling that replaced the warmth he provided.
“Whatever this is,this”—I motioned between the two of us and waved to encompass the training room—“can’t happen again.”
“That’s fair,” Nolan agreed. “But my feelings for you aren’t going anywhere, Lottie. If you want to wait until after the season, that’s fine. But I’m not changing how I treat you. That would be a disservice to what you deserve.”
I had always been the girl with her entire life put together—the seven-year plan, the to-do lists, the planner, the career goals. And while I may have planned out my life so much that I’d actually missed out on living it, I had never guessed that truly living life meant risking parts of myself that could be so easily ruined by someone else.
Nolan’s eyes were soft as he watched me try and sort through my feelings.
Growing up, I never had the best example of what a healthy romantic relationship looked like. But here was Nolan, doing his best to let me lead whatever was happening between us without letting me stomp out the feelings he had for me. He was working through his own problems that affected him deeply, but still took the time to be considerate of me. For the first time in my life, I felt truly lost and unsure of what I needed to do next.
“I think it would be best if we waited until after the season to do anything official,” I started. “If that’s what we truly want then. For now, we can just get to know each other.”
That muscle jumped in Nolan’s jaw. But he still managed to give me a short nod of agreement.
“We have a plane to Wisconsin to catch,” I reminded him as I went to grab my carry-on for the game tonight. “And you have a rookie that needs your help.”
