by Lucy Snow
Morris stood up. “Let’s go to the quarterbacks’ training room, should be in there.”
I nodded and followed him down the hall after Morris passed by me, and a couple minutes later he opened the door into the quarterbacks’ training room. I spent a lot of time in here, so I knew it well.
“Lance Parker, meet your new athletic trainer and physical therapist.”
Oh. OH SHIT.
It was her.
The girl from last night.
The girl I had just woken up next to a couple hours ago.
The girl I wanted to see again more than anything, whom I never thought I’d see again.
It was Charlotte.
“Charlotte Calloway, meet Lance Parker, starting quarterback for the New England Patriots. He’s your most important customer.”
Well, if anything, I wouldn’t forget what this trainer looked like any time soon. Or her name.
Shit.
CHAPTER 04 - CHARLOTTE
When I woke up that morning Parker was gone. I wasn’t entirely shocked by that, but it was more than a little disappointing. Of course, visions of us spending the day together, having sex in between serious bouts of getting to know each other, and maybe, just maybe, stopping our sex and talking enough to eat a little bit before diving right back into bed, all those thoughts disappeared once I looked at the clock and realized I had somewhere to be.
And that somewhere, unfortunately, was most definitely not my bed, naked, with Parker in it. Most unfortunately.
So this was what the morning after a one night stand felt like. It wasn’t something I wanted to repeat often, or at all, but I certainly didn’t feel the waves of revulsion and guilt I had always assumed I would. Stupid media!
Mostly, though, I didn’t have any time for thoughts like that - I had somewhere to be, and that somewhere just happened to be the Patriots facility. Luckily I was already pretty close.
I jumped into the shower still holding my toothbrush and vigorously brushing my teeth. After I came out, fresh and clean, I stood in front of my mirror and did my make up, before pulling on my clothes. I tried as hard as possible not to think about Parker, but memories of his hands all over my body, of his cock pushing into me came flooding back every time I happened to look at my bed.
Last night was amazing. If I could do that all over again every night with him, that would be just…perfect. Anything else was just gravy on top.
He didn’t leave his number, though, so I figured I’d never see him again. I knew that at some point soon I’d have time to sit down and think about that, and probably get really sad about it, but today was not that day. It was my first full day in a new part of the country, and coincidentally my first day on the biggest job of my life.
A boy had to come a distant second to that today, right? Right? Even a boy that sexy, that confident, and that good at making my body ache with lust? Yu-hup, even a boy like that.
I got on the bus a few minutes later, just narrowly getting on right as the doors were about to close. I grinned at the surly bus driver, who just motioned me toward the back. I paid, and sat down. If I had missed this bus there would have been no way to get to the facility on time. Everything was coming up Charlotte today!
Except, you know, waking up to an empty bed when just before it had Mr. Right in it. Oh well, more on that later. Happy thoughts!
By the time I got to the facility I was just in time for my first official meeting with the head of Athletic staff.
Mr. Morris pulled me into his office and I sat down. “Welcome to your first day, Miss Calloway.”
“Thank you so much for the opportunity, Mr. Morris, I’m really eager to get started.”
“That’s great to hear. We’ve assigned you to the quarterbacks’ staff for this season, just to see how you do.”
I didn’t know much about football, but I knew that quarterbacks were probably the single most important players on the team. Actually it was probably single most important position in all of professional sports. Commentators divided football teams into two groups - ones that had a good quarterback, and ones that were looking for a good quarterback.
“I can see by the look on your face that that’s unexpected.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think I’d be working with quarterbacks right from the start.”
“I can understand the feeling. However, two things conspired against you in this situation, Miss Calloway.” He smiled. “We had a sudden opening on the QB training staff, and the New England Patriots have one hiring rule.”
“What’s that?”
“We hire the best,” Morris said with a flourish, “and then we make them prove they’re the best each and every day, right from the start.” He paused, clearly to let me take in the obvious double implication in that sentence.
“Well, sir, thank you very much for the vote of confidence. I will do my best.”
“See that you do, Miss Calloway.” He stood up, and I stood up after him. “Now, shall I take you to the quarterbacks’ training room so you can get situated?”
“Yes, please.”
We left Morris’ office and went down the hall and around some turns. The facility itself was huge, full of different wings for athletics, medical, game preparation, and offices for all the staff. There were even living quarters here!
It astounded me that there was all this infrastructure in place just to help big men run around in tight pants and hit each other while fighting over a ball every Sunday.
Of course, I knew that football was a big deal, and a huge multi-billion dollar business, but at the same time, at its core, it really was about the men in tight pants.
And now it was my job to make sure one man in tight pants, in particular, stayed healthy and was able to recover after each game and prepare for the next one. Yikes.
I didn’t know anything about the Patriots roster, who was on the team, or who I was going to be working with. All I knew is that teams usually didn’t have more than 2 or 3 QBs on the roster, so at most I’d be working with 2 or 3 men in tight pants.
I had enough trouble keeping track of one man out of tight pants, so more than 2 or 3 might have been a little much to ask, especially when the tight pants became part of the equation.
Yeah, I might have tight pants on the brain right now. Couldn’t be sure.
Finally, we arrived at the room labeled “QB Training/Recovery,” and went inside. There were all the familiar tools - ice baths, training table, massage table, all the gear I’d need to make sure the quarterbacks could play effectively. The rest was up to them.
“Why don’t you stay here and get acquainted with your equipment while I go find the guy you’ll be working with.”
“Sure, thanks, Mr. Morris, for the opportunity and the pep talk.”
“It was my pleasure, Miss Calloway, just make sure we did the right thing in hiring you.”
“I’ll do that.”
“Great. I’ll be back soon.” Morris left the room and I busied myself with looking around and checking things over, making sure everything was clean and well stocked.
I didn’t need to check, because the Patriots were very obviously a team that made fastidiousness into an art form, but I liked to know the details of the stuff I’d be working with.
A couple minutes later Morris came back in the room with someone.
What? WHAT?
It was him. The man from last night. Mr. Right Then, the guy I had spent the night with.
“Lance Parker, meet your new athletic trainer and physical therapist.”
Lance..Parker? Parker from last night was really Lance Parker? What the hell?
I tried to keep the astonishment from off my face but I knew right that second that I was doing a really terrible job doing so. Parker, well, Lance, had a shocked look on his face too.
Morris didn’t seem to notice. He turned to me and continued as if nothing was wrong.
As if I wasn’t about to start working with the man who I’d just had my first one
night stand ever with.
“Charlotte Calloway, meet Lance Parker, starting quarterback for the New England Patriots. He’s your most important customer.”
Ugh. This was gonna be bad, I just knew it. On the one hand, my body immediately began aching for him all over again, seeing him there all dressed up like he just came from something almost formal.
On the other hand, though, I was gonna have to touch this man…for a living. Wait, there was a downside to this?
Oh yeah, he was a glamorous star athlete who probably had girls all over him all the time, and who probably brought home another girl every single night.
“Nice to meet you, Lance,” I said, reaching out my hand and emphasizing his real first name as heavily as I could without making it seem awkward. “I’m Charlotte, looks like we’ll be working together this season.”
Lance took my hand in his, and flashes of him pressing me against the wall as we kissed just hours earlier flitted through my head - I tried to wave them off but they kept coming. “Thanks for coming on board, uh, Charlotte, it’ll be good to work together.”
“I’m sure of it.” We were still holding hands.
Great, just great, Charlotte. Way to fall in lust with literally the worst guy in New England to fall for. Brilliant move. And just before your first day of…working with him! Or, more specifically, working ON him.
Because, you know, that’s what you do now! You work on Lance Parker’s body. For a living. Just great.
Lance and I must have both realized we were still shaking hands at the same time, because we both pulled our hands back at the same moment, both of us wearing sheepish looks.
Morris kept on like there was zero tension in the room, and zero knives with which to cut it. “I’ll let you two get acquainted. Glad to have you aboard, Miss Calloway.”
“Thanks again, Mr. Morris. I won’t let you down.”
“You wouldn’t have time to even if you wanted to.”
He smiled at us both and left the room. We were alone. As soon as the door closed I had my hands on my hips, getting up in Parker’s face.
“What’s the big idea, anyway?”
Lance just stood there like a statue, his mouth opening and closing but no words coming out. “Huh?”
“Last night, dummy. Giving me a fake name like that. Do that to every girl, eh?”
“To be clear, Miss Calloway, it was my last name I gave you.”
“Factually correct, ‘Mr. Parker,’” I countered with.
“And we both know, Charlotte,” he said, emphasizing my name in a way that would have made me swoon if I wasn’t so mad at him already, “that factually correct is the best kind of correct.”
“Be that as it may, Lance, that whole nonsense about having two last names was just a game to you?”
“Uh, yeah, wasn’t it to you too? We were flirting at a club, I didn’t think it really mattered what we said.”
I looked down, reaching up to pull an errant lock of hair back behind my ear. “OK, you have a good point there, fine. But still, you should have told me your real name.”
“I just didn’t want you to know who I was.”
“You didn’t want me to know who you were? The starting quarterback of the New England Patriots?” Now I pointed at him, hard, poking him in that perfectly chiseled chest of his, the chest I’d pressed myself against over and over while riding his cock a few hours ago. “Don’t you think I should have known that from the start?”
Lance stayed standing there, letting me poke him. “I just didn’t want you taking me home for the wrong reasons.”
“The wrong reasons?!”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to sleep with you just because you wanted to get with a pro athlete.”
“You think that’s what I wanted? To have a one night stand with a professional football player? Do you even know me?”
Lance laughed, his laugh warm and rich and sexy and gorgeous and I could not believe how much I both hated Lance Parker and wanted to jump into his arms right at that moment. “No, Charlotte, I don’t know you at all. But I had to plan for the possibility that you recognized me and that all you wanted was a night with a starting quarterback.”
“Well, that’s not what I was looking for.”
“Well, you got it, even so.” He thought about it a second. “Would that have changed anything if you had known?”
“Maybe. Yes, it would.”
“Really?”
“Of course it would, I’m not some athlete-chaser! I’m not interested in being ‘the girl from last night,’ indistinguishable from ‘the girl for tonight.’” I even made the air quotes at the right time, which I was momentarily proud of. It’s the little things that matter.
Lance laughed again. “Now who’s pretending they know all about whom?”
I bit my lip and kept silent for a second. “You’re right, that was a little unfair of me, I apologize.”
“Thank you.” Lance looked around like he was surveying the place. “Everything here to your liking?”
“What? Oh, yeah,” I looked around too. “Everything seems in order, I’ll know if I need anything when we get started working together.”
“Seems like we already started working together last night, didn’t we?”
I knew my face must have exploded in crimson at Lance’s words. He stood back and laughed again. “Let me be very clear, Lance Parker,” I said, sticking my finger in his face and waving it back and forth, like I meant business, because, you know, I actually did mean business. “If I had known that we would be working together, regardless of your chosen occupation, last night would have gone very differently. Are we clear?”
He leaned in, and I could feel his warmth on me, his smell taking me over. I wanted to collapse in his arms right then and there; the room was filled with good places for us to fuck. Sigh. “I am well aware of that, Miss Calloway. And let’s be clearer - I can keep things professional if you can, understood?”
“Loud and clear, Lance Parker. Professional it is.”
“Great.” Lance moved back and lifted up his wrist, looking at his watch. So few people wore watches these days, I kinda liked that Lance still did. “I gotta go, I have a QB meeting in a few minutes.”
“Sure. I’ll be here setting up.”
“Great. Schedules are all on the wall so you’ll know when we’ll be coming in, barring anything unforeseen.”
“We?”
“Primarily me, yeah, but we have another QB on the roster, as a backup. Oliver Lee. They took him in the third round this year. I haven’t really talked to him much.”
I figured that. Football teams, and sports teams in general, were a little weird - you had to have at least two of every position on your roster to account for the possibility of injury, but it wasn’t like the two quarterbacks would ever be friends. One was trying to keep his job, the other was secretly hoping the other would fail so he could come in and save things. It was more than a little odd.
“Got it. Just the two quarterbacks this year, then.” At least there would be fewer men in tight pants on my watch. I guessed that was a good thing.
“Yeah, though one of us is all you’ll need.” He cocked his eye at me when he said it, and I felt new waves of lust pulse through me.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?” Lance’s eyes widened in surprise. He definitely wasn’t used to dealing with a woman with spine.
“Don’t do that thing.”
“What thing?”
“You know what I mean, Lance, don’t do that thing where you turn me on.”
He laughed again. “I’m turning you on right now?”
“You know you are, you know how much I want you, don’t give me that. This job is really important to me, and I need to make the best of it. Please don’t give me a hard time about what happened last night.”
“Interesting choice of words, there, Calloway. ‘Hard time.’ Very interesting, indeed.”
“Shut up!” I knew I was blood
red all over again. This was going to be impossible.
“I couldn’t help it, you just made it too easy.”
“I’ll be on the lookout in the future against that.”
“Don’t, it’s more fun this way.”
“Not for me, Lance!” I almost-yelled, needing him to understand this. “Look, you’re a made man around here, you can come and go as you please. I’m just the training staff, I can be replaced and no one will remember I was even here in a couple days. I need this job. I moved here from far away just to do this, not to end up in bed with an athlete.”
Lance got quiet. “I’m not here to jam you up, Charlotte, we both have the same goal. We both want New England to win a championship this year, right?”
I nodded.
“And though I’m out on the field and under the bright lights during the games, you’re nearly as important to that effort. If I can’t play, or can’t play effectively, then we don’t win. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“So I’m not here to make your job tougher. We’re on the same side on this one.” He stopped, then smiled. “But you gotta admit, this is fucking hilarious, isn’t it?”
“No, it’s not! It’s terrible!”
“It’s a little funny. Come on, give me that.”
“OK, fine.” I really had a tough time disagreeing with such an earnest and gorgeous face. The name thing aside, it really didn’t seem like Lance had a disingenuous bone in his body. Of course, I didn’t really know him at all yet. “It’s a little funny,” I agreed, finally nodding.
“Thank you.”
Lance turned to go. “I have a meeting to get to.”
“Yeah.” He turned and was about to open the door. “Lance?”
He stopped and turned back around. “Yeah, Charlotte?”
“It was just a one time thing, right? Last night?” I tried to make it sound like I wasn’t hoping he’d rush over and kiss me, press me up against the wall and do naughty things to me instead of going to his meeting, but I wasn’t sure how successful I was.