Page 4 of I Want to Know What Love Is

When we get in the locker room, I start ripping my practice jersey off on the way to my locker. Shelby is on my heels and crowds me, talking in his hushed voice of discretion which I normally admire but today it’s getting to me.

“W.T.F.? A date with an SPU coach? You really have a date with her, don’t you?”

“No. It’s nothing. She’s nothing.”

“She’s fucking sex on a stick and a damn neon distraction. Get her out of your head right now—”

“Already gone.” I stare him down as I strip off my pads, fully aware of the danger-zone level of distraction that Amanda Lake could be. If I let her. But I’m not going to.

He backs off and heads for his locker. Stripped down to skin, I grab a towel and wrap it around my waist as I face my locker. As everyone files in, I see Randy heading for the training room.

Thank fuck for small favors. I grab a second towel to hide my semi-erection and head for the showers. Turning on the cold water full blast, I shudder and promise myself that I will not let Amanda Lake become trouble number three.

I have more than enough trouble to handle between my parents and Dean Lassiter.

But my gramps image materializes behind my closed eyelids shaking his head, warning me that you can’t cheat fate and that trouble always comes in threes.

I laugh at myself. “Gramps, you’re killing me,” I say out loud under the cover of spraying water. But I can handle coach Lake. There’s plenty of coeds who’ll take the edge off my desire. If she’s trouble number three, then I got this beat.

Easy-fucking-peasy.

I shut down the shower, grab my towel and barely have it wrapped around my waist when the locker room door swings open and Coach Ryan walks in. No big deal.

Except Coach Amanda Lake is right behind him.

My eyes snap to hers and whatever I thought a second ago vanishes in a cloud of sudden hard and hot lust. An automatic smile stretches my mouth wide and the devil dances on my shoulder doing an irresistible jig of temptation.

Not being the type of guy to ignore temptation, my body buzzes until the vibration reaches my fingertips. I loosen my hold on the towel in a silent game of chicken. Who’ll flinch first? Will she look away before I drop the towel? Everything in me wants to rattle her too-cool ass, to see a hot blush rise up to pink her cheeks, to see her sweat. And most of all, to see her eyes go glassy with desire.

But of course, since we’re in a fucking locker room full of guys in various stages of undress, and because coach Ryan practically drags her away as he yells at us to get decent and stop staring, none of that happens. I re-grip my towel before it slides and she looks away as they move on. But not before I see her frown.

She fucking frowns.

What saves me though, is when coach mutters something under his breath about her staring. At me. What almost makes my grin widen is her response.

“I’m not a nun and these men aren’t boys.” She looks back over her shoulder at me and says, “Far from it.” Then she marches ahead of coach Ryan and through to the field house office the coaches share adjacent to the locker room.

I’ve been doing a good job of tuning everything out but Amanda Lake.

“WTF was that about?” Jasper comes up beside me.

“I feel cheap now,” Shelby says, “like we’re on display. Like we’re exhibits at a zoo.” He gets some laughs. His ability to pull off extreme sarcasm is legendary.

“She can look all she wants. I’ll take a piece of that,” Randy says.

“Shut the fuck up.” I raise a hand to quash the dirty talk. “Enough. It’s not the first time a woman’s walked through the locker room. Hell, Sadie from the SPU Daily comes in here all the time.”

I turn to the crowd of guys behind me who stopped everything to stare after Coach Lake, and I eye them each until they simmer down.

“Sure, but Sadie don’t look nothing like that,” Jasper says. He’s the biggest lineman and most respected, a true leader. I stifle the urge to smack him knowing that impulse is all kinds of irrational

“Get dressed, Jasper. She’s out of your league.”

“And I suppose you think she’s in your league?” He smirks at me and I reign in the fuck yeah that lurks inside me. Instead, I attempt to get back my sanity.

“She’s a coach,” I say, reasoning with myself more than Jasper. “She’s on the fucking staff at SPU. She’s in the strictly off-limits league. For all of us.” I end the conversation with stern finality heavy in my voice as it carries through the room, bouncing off the tile walls. Too bad it’s bouncing off the sense of reason inside my head, not able to penetrate as I tighten my fist on the towel and head to my locker to dress. Or maybe I need to take a few moments to calm my dick before I dress.

Fuck. I think I can safely say that Amanda Lake is absolutely my trouble number three. A big-ass pile of gorgeous fucking trouble.