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It’s funny how I grew up on my grandmother’s stories about the manor and her first love. Sometimes I just listened to humor her, but now I know how she felt.
Thankfully, later comes quickly because of the time taken up with the team’s celebrations, autographs, and our congratulatory pep talk from not just Coach Donovan, but Jakobe, too.
I’ve been keeping things cool with him, and myself away from Evan.
The only thing that rubs me the wrong motherfucking way is that Autumn has to pretend she’s interested in Evan to create a diversion so she can be with me.
Basically she’s pretending they’re dating, so they’ve gone out on a few lunch dates and sometimes he’ll hang out with her family.
She's been doing her best to keep things looking legit but not seeing him too often. I know what Evan's like. That will only work for so long until it doesn’t. It's a miracle he's lasted this long without getting a real kiss orsomething more.
Every time I know he’s been around her I feel like I’m gonna lose my shit again, but it is what it is. And as much as I loatheto admit it, Autumn came up with a good idea, because it’s working. No one suspects us in the least, and only a handful of people who know about us know.
I hang back in the locker room when everyone has left, and that’s where Autumn and I meet.
I booked a hotel room for us, but since I had this fantasy of being with her in the locker room’s shower, that’s where I’m taking her first.
Within seconds we’re naked in another forbidden lock of passion, and I’m buried to the hilt inside her, relishing every inch of her body.
We stay in there for far too long. Risky long.
The janitor almost catches us, and we just about manage to make our grand escape to the hotel, where I finish feasting on my girl.
I don’t see her again until the next game, where we have a repeat of the wild session we had nights before.
Thursday comes and we’re back in New York. At sunset she meets me at the manor.
I delayed the sale of the house for a while, just until the end of Autumn’s sabbatical. I felt it made sense for us to meet here while she’s doing her research. That worked in our favor, too, because no one questions her when she spends the night here. They think she’s researching.
Jakobe believes I either forgot about her or didn’t want to risk pissing him or Evan off and jeopardizing things for myself. Nothing is further from the truth.
I cook her dinner tonight, then we watch TV like a normal couple and go to bed like a normal couple. Whenever she’s here the house feels like our place, and it makes me remember the time my parents and I spent here with my grandmother. Those were good times I’ll never forget. I guess I wanted to sell the house because none of those people are alive anymore. Only me.
The house feels alive with Autumn in it, and I feel alive, too. The longer I’m with her the more obsessed I become with that feeling.
In the early hours of the morning, she lies in my arms, and we watch the stars through the window. We’re silent until she shuffles and turns to face me and I run my fingers along the smooth skin of her waist.
A playful smile brightens her face and she touches the dragons inked on my chest then moves over to the Japanese characters on my arms.
“What do these tattoos mean?”
“Was that an excuse to touch me?”
She giggles. It’s the best sound. “Yes and no. I always wanted to know.”
“The writing meansRespect the Dragon. When the guys started calling me the Dragon a few years back, I thought it would be cool to get a tattoo. Then the fans started and it became a trend.”
Her face brightens. “It must be nice to be so famous. I still feel so silly that I didn't know who you were.”
“That's okay. I understand. It was nice that you didn't know me.”
“What’s it like, Luc? Do you enjoy the fame?”
“Yes and no.” I borrow her words. “At first the fame was everything. Of course, it went to my head. I grew up in my father’s fame, but when I got my own it was something else and felt like I’d finally made it in life.”
“But you did, and your fame is on another level.”
“Yeah, until I realized that, as fun as it is, sometimes I just want things to be normal.”
