She’s everything.
For so long with her, I’ve kept my distance personally. I’ve locked all these desires, these feelings in a tight box and tried to smother them, refusing to let them see the light of day. Now that I’ve touched her, held her in my arms while she came, there’s no way I can let her go. There’s no way to rewind the clock.
Lily was always supposed to be mine, from the first moment I saw her, from the moment I knew she was legal.
That’s the only fact I know, the only thing that my mind can grasp hold of right now.
My entire fucking body tenses the minute my office door opens.
Lily. It feels like I haven’t seen her in—
“Hey, Coach Big, I was wondering if you have a minute to talk?”
I nearly groan aloud when Dean Kelly comes in.
Aubrey Kelly is a good woman. She’s sweet, damn good at her job and has achieved a lot for as young as she is. She’s also always been into me. She makes no point in hiding it. Doesn’t even try. She flirts, she invites me to dinners, and finds reasons to stop by my office on a regular basis.
But I don’t want Aubrey. I’ve always wanted Lily, even when I was trying to contain my need for her. And despite not leading her on, despite brushing her off, she is persistent. No one but Lily will do. So I brush off Aubrey’s advances at every turn. Knowing that Lily will be here any moment means that Aubrey showing up now is the last thing I want.
“Morning, Dean Kelly. What can I do for you?”
“Marcus, I told you a million times to call me Aubrey,” she chastises, blushing softly, although I can tell she’s not embarrassed at all.
“Aubrey,” I acknowledge, my gaze darting from her to the door to look for Lily. “What can I do for you?”
I’m feeling so damn tense, it’s not funny. I need her out of here, I don’t want anything to keep me from Lily.
“It seems like forever since we’ve talked. How is the school year going for you?” she asks, and I have to bite my damn tongue to keep from growling at her to get out of my office. I suspect telling her I need her to leave so I can fuck one of my students is not how to secure tenure.
“It’s good, busy as usual with the upcoming track meets we have scheduled,” I tell her, proud that somehow my voice has managed not to sound tight and angry.
“That’s why I’m here, actually,” she says, surprising me.
“It is?”
“Yes. I have an upcoming meeting concerning our sports budget and as I was poring over the ledger, I realized that I didn’t know anything about your… needs.”
“Needs?” The way she says that tells me this has nothing to do with school and everything to do with her. “Dean Kelly—”
“I said Aubrey, remember?” she says, her voice dropping down a decimal and sounding sultry.
Fuck.
I don’t need this shit.
I know where this is going and I need to shut it down before Lily shows up. Before I catch her, she walks around my desk and sits on the side of it, looking down at me and if I doubted it before, I don’t now. It’s there in the way she’s looking at me, in the way she’s leaning down, in the way her shirt is opened just enough to give me a view of cleavage.
“I think I’ve made it clear before, Markus, but maybe you didn’t understand. I’m afraid I can be horribly obtuse at these things.”
“Dean Kelly … Aubrey, I think I should tell you—”
“I really like you, Markus.”
Fuck.
“And I respect you, but—”
“I think we could be good together, Markus. We fit. We’re both professionals, we understand what’s important in life—”
“Aubrey, I need you to—”
“God, you don’t know how much I wanted to hear you say that, Markus,” she says, happiness moving over her face.
Christ.
She doesn’t let me finish. I was trying to tell her that I need her to stop. I need her to understand that I was off the market—permanently. But I don’t get that chance because she bends down, coming closer. Panic is moving through me. I need to shut this down. I put my hands up to stop her, to keep her away. But then I hear a gasp from the door.
My gaze and Aubrey’s jerk to the door and I see Lily standing there, her eyes wide, hurt clear on her face.
“Lily—” I yell, but she takes off running, not giving me the chance to explain.
Chapter Ten
Lily
I know just running off like that makes me seem pretty insecure and childish, but at the time it had been this instinctual move, just leaving because I didn’t know what else to do.
I find myself leaving the locker room and heading toward the front doors. Was I really this foolish in thinking that I had any chance with Coach Big?