Roman (Raleigh Raptors #2) - Samantha Whiskey Page 0,19
gave him a mock salute and headed toward my friends.
Nixon’s eyes followed Baker until he cleared the doors back to the weight room. “Everything okay?”
“Fine.” I took the drink Hendrix offered and chugged half of it to wash the tension out of my throat.
“Looks really fine to me,” Hendrix rolled his eyes.
“You going to be able to deal with his shit all season long?” Nixon asked in that serious tone of his.
I took a deep breath and stared at the weight room door, imagining closing Rick’s head in it a few dozen times. “I don’t really have a choice.”
“If you want to throw him in front of the bus before we leave for the first away game, I’m here for that.” Hendrix shrugged. Guy didn’t even know the full history behind why T was living with me, but he still had my back. He was like that.
“I’ll help,” Nixon added, straight-faced.
A smile cracked across my features. “I might just take you up on that.”
We headed back into the weight room to finish our work out. Sure, I had about five million reasons a year not to start shit with Rick, but the money didn’t matter when it came to Teagan. I’d toss my NFL career in a heartbeat if it kept her safe.
I settled in on another machine and blatantly ignored the glare Rick shot my way. Until Teagan was ready to deal with what he’d done to her, the least I could do was ignore his shitty disposition…if she was ever ready.
“I’m just saying that I could get used to seeing you around here,” Mom said with a sly smile, twisting her glass of wine between her fingers as the four of us sat at my dining room table.
I groaned and wished for the thousandth time that our dads had come to dinner instead of our moms. But no, the two of them were off at a classic car convention on a boys’ weekend, leaving me to fend for myself.
“Oh, well—” Teagan started, blushing deep pink.
“Here, here,” T’s mom agreed, lifting her wine glass and grinning back at my mom. The two women couldn’t be any more different in looks—just like T and me, but they’d been close friends just as long as Teagan and me, too.
Teagan shot me a pleading look across the table, but I just shrugged and leaned back in my chair. Trying to detour our mothers from a topic of conversation was about as easy as rerouting a hurricane. It didn’t happen.
“Not that I didn’t like Rick, honey,” Mrs. Hall said with a faltering smile. “He just always seemed so…”
Abusive? Manipulative?
“Well, he liked to hover,” she finished quickly, setting her glass down on the table.
“He did,” Teagan agreed, tucking her hair behind her ears and shifting in her seat.
As awkward as this conversation was, damn did she look edible tonight. She had on her new, form-fitting jeans that hugged her ass like the work of art it was, and a blue, v-neck blouse that not only dipped to the curve of her breasts but made those eyes of hers stand out even brighter.
I reached for my water and drank, wishing it was something stronger so I could quiet the raging need in my body. Living with the woman I loved for the past month had me strung out in a way I’d never felt before. Not only was I trying like hell to hide my feelings for her—which was getting harder by the day, but I wasn’t sure how many more nights I could spend with that delectable ass curled up against my dick before she felt my feelings for her.
“You know I’m just here temporarily, right?” Teagan offered her mother a sturdy smile, but her fingers trembled slightly as she set down her fork, leaving her cheesecake half-eaten.
She was losing weight. I knew it was pretty much unavoidable given the stress she was under, but I still wanted to slide her dessert toward her or hell, feed it to her bite by bite.
Holy shit, I needed to get laid, but the last thing I wanted to do was leave Teagan for the night—or fuck some random in the backroom of a bar. Rick had nailed it on the head this morning—I wanted what I couldn’t have. Fuck, did I want her.
“Well, of course,” her mother answered, and I snapped back into the conversation, forcing my attention off Teagan. “But it doesn’t mean a girl can’t dream, right, Emma?”