“Hey, ladies. Not drinking tonight, huh?”
Seriously? Jessi might not like the saying “girls’ night out,” but it pretty much communicated “no guys.” What did they not understand?
“No, sorry. We both have busy days tomorrow and just wanted to catch up a little,” Allie replied sweetly, but directly. The woman had a talent for spinning bullshit.
“Mind if we catch up with you?” the other man said.
Jessi didn’t look up, and Allie didn’t need to be told to try and draw attention away from her. They’d made it in here without being recognized, but this was an Olympic year and her face was everywhere. It was only a matter of time before someone recognized her. With the two men walking up but not sitting down, the people around them were starting to look.
This would not make good press, no matter how innocent the truth of the situation really was. The story would be spun to make it look like the country’s best shot for Olympic gold had been seen outside the facility, trolling for men in a sports bar. When she’d started swimming, a story like that could have been kept under wraps or controlled via good PR people like Allie. Now, everyone had a cell phone, and it didn’t matter what was actually happening. All that mattered was how it looked on Twitter.
“Sorry, guys, it’s just the two of us. Thanks though, we appreciate it.”
“You okay there, sweetie?” Patently ignoring Allie, one of the condescending dickheads reached out a hand and tilted Jessi’s face up.
That was too much. She started to admonish him for touching her when she saw recognition in his eyes. Crap, crap, crap!
“Hey, aren’t you...”
“I am.” Jessi took the bull by the horns. It was the only way she knew. Beating around the bush with this was only going to make things worse. “I really appreciate you guys offering us a drink, but obviously I can’t drink right now, and I need to be getting—”
She didn’t get to finish. All of a sudden, Dalton was at their table, looking pissed off and ready to fight.
“Oh, Jesus,” Jessi muttered to herself. It was just a little flirtation. Sure, she didn’t like being touched, but she had this under control.
To her surprise, however, despite his death glare, Dalton kept his voice calm and addressed the man who had touched her. “Hey, guys. Look, this one can’t drink, and it looks like they both told you they weren’t interested. You need to leave them alone.”
“Who the hell are you? Her daddy?”
Okay, whoever decided that women were drama queens clearly hadn’t experienced man drama.
“Nope. I’m her coach.” Dalton stared at both of them. The look on his face was designed to let arrogant, self-entitled swimmers know that the conversation was over. Apparently, these men didn’t swim, because it didn’t work.
“Well, Coach. She can tell us to go if she wants us to go.”
“Dalton, people are starting to look,” Allie warned in a low voice.
“Yep,” Dalton agreed after a quick look around. “Time to go. Come on, Jessi.”
Dalton started to reach for her, putting himself between her and the two men. He was careful to allow her to get out of the seat without the whole bar getting a good look at her. She could see Sawyer coming up behind them from the men’s restroom. He had obviously gotten the gist of things, and Jessi knew he’d come up on the other side of her. The need for media control didn’t happen often, but they all knew the drill, just in case.
Thankfully, the hostess had given them shitty seating, so they were right by the door. Jessi hesitated just a little in order to give Sawyer some time to get to the table. It was a moment too long. Dickhead Number One had taken out his phone and was getting ready to take a picture.
“Smile, cutie. I’m going to post this everywhere! This is so awesome: ‘Flirting with America’s Sweetheart in a bar!’ That’s the status!” The jerk nodded his head and smiled at Dickhead Number Two. He really seemed to think that was funny.
Jessi was pretty sure the idiot wasn’t trying to be malicious. He was just trying to get a little bit of fame. The fact was, in today’s day and age, if you were even remotely famous, you were everybody’s and anybody’s. The idea of privacy meant nothing.
Dalton grabbed the guy’s wrist and squeezed. “Don’t be an asshole. Just leave it and let her go. She’s earned a night out to herself.” His voice was calm, but his outward appearance was anything but. He looked scary.
The guy and his friend definitely noticed, and in the timeless tradition of assholes everywhere, puffed up.
Dalton looked like he was getting ready to show them just what good shape bad-boy ex-swimmers stayed in when a voice of reason settled over the situation.
“Hey, hey, hey, let’s settle down, boys.”
Thank God—it was Sawyer.
“Jessi, why don’t you take a picture with these guys and sign an autograph? Guys, I’m her head coach, and I gave her a night out. Would you mind if we just left it at that?”
For whatever reason, the men relaxed and gave in. Jessi mentally shook her head. Sometimes she thought Sawyer might be a vampire, given his ability to get people to do what he wanted.
She sighed and moved to insert herself between the two men. Dalton looked ready to kill someone but had physically relaxed. Sawyer took the phone and gave it to Dalton, who in return, gave Sawyer an “are you fucking with me?” look. Sawyer gave him a hard stare and inserted himself in the picture. The plan, no doubt, was to turn this into an innocent PR moment. Coach and swimmer smiling for the locals.
As if on cue, Allie had gotten up herself and aimed her own phone. She sweetly chirped, “Smile!” She clicked a button, and a flash went off.
As soon as she had the shot, she went straight to tapping on her phone. Jessi would bet money she was uploading the picture to the team’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. She was doing what she did best and getting a head start on spinning this thing into a positive story.
The bar’s other patrons caught on quickly. Jessi took pictures with a few more people before Sawyer put an amiable stop to things. He discreetly passed her over to Dalton and whispered something in his ear before he let go of her arm.
Normally, Jessi would be offended by all the manhandling. She could take care of herself, damn it. But right now, things were getting crowded, and some people had been here drinking for hours.
While Sawyer and Allie handled the crowd, Dalton slipped her out the door. It had started to rain, forcing them to run to his car.
“Motherfucker.” He slammed the door and started the engine.
“How is Sawyer going to get home? I assume you guys came together.” Jessi was a little shell-shocked from how quickly events had unfolded.
“Allie’s going to take him back to the facility.” His answer was short and clipped.
What the hell? Why was he mad at her? “Are you upset?” Jessi asked.
“Yes. Yes, Jessi. I’m fucking pissed.”
“Why? What did I do?”
Dalton gave her an incredulous look. “I’m not pissed at you, damn it. I’m pissed at that asshole who touched you. You’d told him fucking no. I saw it. He deserves to be lying on the floor right now with a broken nose. He’d better give Sawyer Jameson a big ol’ fuckin’ thank you, because he’s the only reason that guy is still standing.”
Jessi stayed quiet. There was really nothing much to say, but inside, her heart was fluttering. He had been willing to fight over her? Okay, she was a modern woman, but...that was seriously freakin’ hot.
“Thank you,” she said quietly.
“For what?” Dalton spit out.
“For sticking up for me. For taking care of me.”
Dalton snorted. “Shit, Jessi. I almost created a huge scene in there. Your image would have taken a serious blow if I’d hit that guy. You shouldn’t be thanking me. You should be mad as hell at me.”
“Yeah, probably, but you didn’t, and I’m not.” She took a deep breath and reached out her hand to calm him and to
get his attention. She really wanted him to understand her gratitude. But with fists in a death grip on the wheel, her only option was his thigh. She touched him there, enjoying the feel of the strong, long swimmers’ muscles that flexed in response to her caress. “You do take care of me. You know that, right?”
Dalton looked down at her hand, then at her. He turned his head back to the road. “Jessi, you need to stop touching me.”
She could have been hurt, and probably would have been, but she saw the look in his eyes when he’d stared at her. She recognized the strain on his face for what it was and calmly squeezed his thigh. “I know. I just wanted you to know that.” She let go.
Despite his words, Dalton trapped her hand. “Jessi, this isn’t a good idea. I don’t want you to be hurt, and I appreciate the vote of confidence, but I’m really not good for you. You’re probably not good for me either.”
That cut through her, and she pulled away. When had she ever not been good for someone? She looked down at her now folded hands. Her chest hurt, and her eyes stung. She was the girl men took home to meet their parents. She was always good enough...except when it came to Dalton. There she had never measured up.
Damn it. She was going to cry. She held her breath and tried to hold it together. It wasn’t working. She quickly scrunched her eyes closed in an attempt to keep the tears in. One misbehaving droplet escaped and fell onto her leg.
“Shit. Jessi, please don’t cry. Why are you crying?” Dalton pulled the car into a parking lot and turned to look at her.
“I don’t know. I think it’s just the stress and what went on back there. It’s just a lot. You think you’re ready for things like that, but you never really are, you know?”
Dalton wasn’t precisely sure what Jessi was talking about. She was probably talking about more than one thing. He took a closer look at her, trying to figure out what was going on in that smart, funny head of hers. His heart broke.
Jessi was always positive. She was always on top of things. She was always smiling. Right now, she looked small. She was curled into herself and looking down into her lap. In that moment, he didn’t care what it cost him. He needed to touch her. He reached an arm over and took a curl into his hand to stroke it. It was soft, and yellow, and perfect.
“I know, Jess. I know exactly how it is.” Now he was the one who was talking about more than one thing. “The media and image shit is one thing. But this thing—this thing between us? Don’t think that I don’t want it. I do. But I let you down before, and Jessi, it sucked. Trust me. I never forgave myself for Brazil. Coaching you is making things better. I finally feel like I’m doing something right by you, and I don’t want to fu—”
He didn’t get to finish. Jessi lurched her upper body over the bench seat and grabbed his face. “Screw the past, Dalton. I’m a big girl now, and I know what I’m doing. I’ll tell you when you’ve fucked up.”
She kissed him. Hard. When the shock of what was happening started to wear off, Dalton took control of the situation. She might be a spitfire, but there were things that needed to be said. Terms that had to be set. “Jess.” He tried talking through the kiss. It didn’t work. “Jessi!” he said, more forcefully. “Hold up. Hold up.”
She looked down at him with doubt in her eyes. Shit.
“I didn’t say stop. Just...wait a sec. I think we need to talk about some things. I really, really want to continue with this. But we’ve got to decide where this is going. What we both want. Things like that.”
Her eyes went from doubtful to devious in a split second. It was like he’d given her a green light or something. She giggled.
That was not the effect he was going for, but her next move made his dick jump. She batted her eyelashes and gave him a demure look. “Yes, Coach,” she said in a flirty little voice.
Holy fuck. That was hot. He was breathing hard and it took everything he had to separate himself from her. He had to separate himself from her. They were in a parking lot, for God’s sake, and they had just spent some serious energy trying to keep her image clean. They couldn’t be caught out here going at it.
Besides, he wasn’t kidding. They seriously needed to talk. Like everything in their relationship, things went from cold to hot fast enough to give him whiplash. He wanted to do this right—talk it out, make sure they both understood what the other wanted. Grownup shit like that.
Dalton took a deep breath and straightened himself up in his seat. “Good.” He nodded and started the car. “As long as we understand each other.”
Yeah, Jessi apparently didn’t understand a damn thing because she was fumbling with his pants before they got out of the parking lot.
“What in the hell has gotten into you?” He gasped as she shoved her hand down his pants and freed his straining cock from the confines of his jeans. He was no prude, but he had to admit to being shocked, because as far as he knew, Jessi was.
She gave him a wicked smile. “I’m absolving you from any guilt you might have about taking advantage of one of your swimmers.” She went down on him. Shit. Jessi Pruitt was giving him road head. He was so screwed.
“Jess, baby. You gotta stop. Someone’s gonna see us.”
“Nu uh,” she mumbled with a full mouth. She released him with a pop and looked up at him. The sight of her guileless blue eyes looking up at him, her wet, pink mouth an inch away from his glistening, straining cock, nearly had him blowing his load right there.
With her mouth not otherwise engaged, she spoke with a little more clarity. “They won’t see us. They’re gonna see you.” She giggled and went back to her sucking.
Oh fuck, that felt good. He knew this was just about the worst thing that he could be doing right now. The only thing that could possibly be worse than this was what he was about to do when he got her alone. And he was getting her alone, damn it.
He took—very slowly—one of the less traveled roads back to the complex as Jessi altered between using her mouth and hand on him. She was in the process of doing the former, his hand resting on her head, when he pulled on her hair a little.
“Jess, you need to stop. If anyone is watching, they need to see two of us pull up. Give me a second to get under control, and I’ll meet you in your room.”
She came up gasping and settled into her own seat. She wiped a hand across her mouth. Christ, that was hot. He righted himself and zipped up, which was a difficult feat in his present condition. She didn’t talk as they pulled into the swimming facility. He was starting to get worried that she’d come to her senses when she looked over at him and whispered, “Don’t take too long, Coach.”
Then she opened the door and ran out into the rain.
Jessi hurried to her room and closed the door behind her. She was breathing hard and berating herself. She could not believe she’d just done that! This was nuts! It didn’t matter though. She grinned and gave a low chuckle. No amount of self-remonstrating could save her tonight. She was a woman on the prowl. Then she looked in the mirror.
Yikes! She had hoped she looked sexy, mysterious, and naughtily disheveled. Instead, she looked like she’d been dunked in water. She huffed, then shrugged. Since Dalton saw her wet more often than he saw her dry, she figured it was a lost cause to try and fix herself up. By the look and feel of things in the car, he liked her looking wet just fine. So instead of trying to look like something she wasn’t, Jessi busied herself by lighting all the candles she’d saved for personal time.
Just as she was finishing, a knock came at the door. Despite the fact that she had been waiting desperately for that knock, she jumped. She was so nervous and so freakin’ needy. Her body throbbed for Dalton. Even so, she’d gone back and forth in the last few minutes she’d spent alone in her room over whether or not she wanted him to change his mind.
There was no doubt that it would be better in the long run if he did. But Jessi was tired of planning and following the rules. The long term was lonely. Tonight she wanted some company.
She opened the door. “What
took you so long?”
“Hey, Jessi, can I go over some tape with you? We’ve got an issue.”
What the hell? Her face must have shown her confusion, because Dalton gave her a withering look. Oh, he was putting on a show in case anyone was listening. Sneaky. She liked it.
“Of course, Coach! I was just talking to my mom. Let me say goodbye, and I’ll sit down with you.” She started to close the door.
Dalton put out a hand and pushed past her, murmuring, “Don’t overdo it.”
“I have no idea what you’re referring to,” she giggled, and closed the door, only to find herself spun around and pushed up against it.
“Did you take the long way around the commons?” Dalton breathed into her mouth before shoving his tongue into it.
Jessi pulled away, gasping. “Yes,” she said as she started working his shirt up. She was rewarded with smooth, tanned skin and twelve pack abs. Thank God for men who swam. “What took you so long?”
“Stopped in the commons to make an appearance and talk with some of the coaches,” he said breathlessly. “Damn near killed me.”
Jessi laughed but the sound changed into a moan as Dalton worked his way down her neck.
“Baby, you are going to have to be quiet, and I’m sorry for that because I’m going to do the 400 IM on your ass, but we can’t let anyone hear us.”
“Uh huh,” was all she could manage.
She struggled with his shirt. Dalton tore it over his head, providing her with a delicious view of his pecs before he crushed his mouth onto hers in a brutal kiss. He started to walk backward, making his way to the bed. His legs hit the edge, and he fell to a sitting position. Jessi managed to stay standing, his knees on either side of her.
Dalton looked up into her eyes. He was a beautiful, tussled, fallen angel with mayhem on his mind. Lord, he was perfect for her.
Dalton grabbed her thighs, just under her butt, and pulled her closer to him. Looking her straight in the eyes, he said, “God, baby, you are so beautiful.”
In the Fast Lane (Fast Series Book 1) Page 10