Savage: A Pro Football Romance

by Michaela Scott

  And now that we are done with midterms, it’s time to pay the piper. First, I had to switch my glasses out for contact lenses, something which I was meaning to do at the beginning of the semester, but ended up putting off until this past week. Then, I had to agree not to do anything responsible or school-related for the whole weekend. One crazy Halloween party tonight, one daytime activity of Dani’s choice tomorrow, and then it’s back to the grind.

  Honestly, part of me feels like Dani’s right: I should stop worrying so much, get a little drunk, and enjoy the party.

  But does it really have to be this party?

  Dani narrows her eyes at me. “You’re thinking about hiding in a corner all night, aren’t you? I can see it in your eyes.”

  “I just don’t want to do something stupid! I don’t know how much alcohol is in this drink,” I look down at my cup, full of neon green liquid that the guy in the kitchen called “Liquid Rage,” “But it’s probably a lot. What if I embarrass myself and puke everywhere and everyone calls me puke girl until I graduate?”

  Dani gives me a knowing nod, like she finally understands where I’m coming from. “I mean, yeah, you might throw up if you drink too much, but Taylor,” she puts a hand on my shoulder, “I can guarantee you that the rest of that won’t happen. Do you honestly think you’d be the only person at this party who hasn’t gotten too drunk?”

  In the hallway behind us, two guys run by carrying a huge flatscreen TV. “I guess not…”

  “Right! We’ve all been there, and we’re all going to be there again. College is about preparing for the rest of your life, but it’s also about doing stupid, crazy stuff every once in a while. It’s about saying ‘yes’ when you’d normally say no, and watching something amazing happen. How else are you going to find out who you really are?”

  Dani has a way of making things sound like really good ideas. Sometimes they are, and sometimes…well, let’s just say that the last time she gave me a speech like this, she was trying to get me to eat a plate of super-hot wings.

  Still, I think she has a point this time. College isn’t just about work. It’s also about this.

  I let out a deep breath. “Alright. No hiding. I’ll try and have fun.”

  Dani smiles. “Atta girl.”

  She holds up her cup, “To saying yes.”

  We toast, and I take a long sip of my drink. I’m going to need it to loosen up in a place like this.

  Dani looks at my half-empty cup and grins. “Look at you. If you keep going like that, you’ll definitely be having fun by the time the football players arrive.”

  Oh, right. The football players. Dani heard a rumor in our dorm that there were going to be football players coming to this party. It’s probably the whole reason we went, honestly; Dani’s been drooling at pictures of our team’s roster all summer. She can name the whole team by heart, and she’s convinced that any second now, they’ll show up to this party and start hitting on us. That’s why she’s wearing her old cheerleading uniform as a costume.

  Whatever. I highly doubt anyone from the team is going to show up here, where the only thing to drink is the color of an overexposed leprechaun, so why worry about it? Let’s just have fun.

  I knock back the rest of my drink, take Dani’s hand, and lead her back into the crowd of dancing partygoers.

  Here goes nothing.

  ***

  I lean against the hallway wall, nursing my third cup of liquid rage and staring down the grandfather clock. It’s 1:30 AM.

  In the main room, they’re still dancing, although by now a lot of them have paired off and started making out on the dancefloor, and a good amount of them have moved over to the fancy couches to lie down. Dani’s having a good time. After a couple hours of waiting for the football players to show up, she found out that one of the heads of this frat plays Australian Rules football, and that was good enough for her. They’re making out on the back porch right now.

  And with no Dani around to make me be social, I’ve reverted back to my natural wallflower state, enjoying the relative quiet of the hallway and the ticking of the clock.

  But it doesn’t last long.

  “Hey, you’re that freshman girl, right?”

  A drunk guy wearing an upside-down visor stumbles into the hallway, leaning against the clock for balance as he looks me up and down. Crap. This is exactly what I was out here to get away from.

  “Your visor’s upside down.”

  The guy looks up at his forehead, looks confused, and then looks back at me. “What’s your name?”

  I look longingly at the front door of the frat house. Would it be bad if I just walked away from this guy and went back to my dorm? “Taylor.”

  He nods. “Nice. What are you doing out here in the hall?”

  Good question. “Uh…I’m just waiting for my roommate.”

  Visor Bro’s eyes light up. “Is she hot? I’m the only guy in this frat who hasn’t had a threesome.”

  Okay, I think we’re done here. But the good news is, I think this guy just gave me an out. “Well…maybe you can help me find her. She’s back there somewhere, dressed like a sexy peacock. Bring her back here, and then we’ll talk, okay?”

  “Hell yeah!” Visor Bro fist pumps so hard he almost falls over, and then stumbles towards the back of the house. And as soon as he’s out of sight, I make my move, setting my drink down on the floor and gunning for the front door as fast as I possibly can without making a scene.

  Come on…come on…only a few more steps…

  Finally, I reach the door, pull it open, and launch myself onto the front porch.

  Right into the guy standing on the other side.

  I smash into what feels like a jersey draped over a brick wall, bounce right off, and land on my butt.

  “Oh God, I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there!”

  But up above me…way up above me…the guy I bumped into just shrugs. “Don’t worry about it. It takes a hell of a lot more than that to bring me down.”

  Oh, great, just when I thought this party couldn’t get any worse…a football player actually shows up. And I just humiliated myself in front of him. Smirking, my new friend holds out a thick, strong-looking hand, and when I take it, he pulls me up to my feet like I weigh nothing at all.

  “Thanks,” I mutter, suddenly feeling every drop of that neon green drink bubbling in my blood. My eyes are fixed on the football player’s number, stretched tightly across his huge, ridiculously developed body.

  “Number nine…” Shit, did I just say that out loud? That’s his number. 9. I was just reading it! I hope he doesn’t think I know who he is!

  “In the fucking flesh.”

  Oh God, he totally does. I need to get out of here now, before I make an even bigger ass out of myself than I already have. But before I do, I look up at his face.

  Big mistake. I don’t know what I thought this guy was going to look like, but it wasn’t this. I mean, he does look like a football player. But he also looks like he just stepped off of a magazine cover. Short, messy brown hair, a tiny bit of stubble on his square jaw, and piercing hazel eyes that are looking way too deeply into mine.

  Why aren’t my legs moving? Why aren’t my legs moving!? After what feels like an eternity, I finally manage to get through to my lower body, taking several steps back from the huge, hazel-eyed football player.

  “Enjoy the party!” I say, my voice all breath, and then I hustle past him, hurrying across the front lawn of the frat house as fast as my legs will take me.

  Don’t look back. Do not look back. Keep looking at the road. If I look back, I just know I’m going to see number 9 staring at me from the porch. I can practically feel his eyes on me as I walk away. The thought sends little goosebumps across my skin even though it’s a hot, humid night.

  Don’t think about it. Think about my nice, quiet dorm room and my nice, soft bed…

  It’s not working, possibly because the bed in my dorm isn’t actually that soft. Damn it. Fo
r some reason, it’s hard to think about anything other than the hazel-eyed jock with the body that felt like granite underneath his jersey.

  I’m starting to sound like Dani.

  The frat house isn’t super far away from campus, but it kind of feels like it is. It’s next to historic old campus, so the streets are lined with swampy trees and dangling Spanish moss. But I will have to walk all the way across campus to get to my dorm, so as I head away from the party, I start bracing myself for a pretty long walk. And that’s when I hear it.

  “Where do you live?”

  I spin around, and practically run right into the exact same football jersey. Oh God, it’s him.

  “Murray Hall,” I squeak, looking up at the football god who just stepped out into the road, “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to make sure you get home safe.”

  He wants to…walk me home? Me? “Thanks, but you don’t need to do that…”

  He raises his eyebrows. “I don’t? Do you know which way campus is?”

  I look behind me, at the way I was originally going. “It’s this way, right?”

  He smiles and shakes his head, then points behind him with his thumb. “You were walking towards the highway.”

  He closes the distance between us in a couple of steps and then takes my hand. “Let’s get you home.”

  And just like that, a football player is leading me down the street. Now that he’s got his back to me, I can read the name on the back of his jersey.

  Wolfe.

  Oh, crap.

  You’ve got to be kidding me. I don’t know much about football, especially college football, but there’s one thing I do know. This isn’t just any college football player. This is Logan Wolfe.

  Logan Wolfe isn’t just the star of our team: he’s easily the best player in the country. Right now, it’s his world, and every other football player is just living in it. Even though I’ve only been at Golden State for half a semester, I’ve probably heard his name a hundred times on campus.

  But apparently, I’d never actually seen a picture of him. Although, now that I think about it, he does look a little familiar.

  Well, great. Not only did I embarrass myself in front of a football player…I embarrassed myself in front of the king of campus. And now he’s walking me home.

  I wonder if Logan thinks I’m super drunk, and that’s why he’s doing this. Like from the way I was stammering around him, he thought I was blacked out and about to pass out in a ditch somewhere. I open my mouth to let him know I’m not that drunk, but I can’t seem to make any words. Hey, maybe that’s a good thing. It’d probably just make things worse.

  My face burns as we pass the frat house. Even though Logan’s legs are much longer than mine and I practically have to run to keep up with him, walking past the huge open windows of the house feels like it takes an eternity. The lights of the party feel like a giant spotlight shining on us, and if anyone happens to look out the window right now, they’ll see me in a slutty witch costume, getting led back to campus by Logan Wolfe.

  And I know what they’ll be thinking, too. There goes Logan Wolfe. Looks like he’s getting lucky tonight. Typical Logan. He’s probably taking her to a dark, quiet place somewhere where he can fuck her.

  I start to flush at the thought. That’s what everyone’s going to be thinking as we walk back to campus. That I’m his newest conquest. The luckiest girl on campus.

  But they’re wrong. Logan saw me going the wrong way, and now he’s helping me get back to campus, because I guess he’s a nice guy. That’s all this is.

  So what’s with that warm, persistent little feeling down below my bellybutton?

  Eventually, we leave the lights and pounding bass of the frat party behind, moving onto the quiet, dark streets between the frat house and campus.

  “I’m not that drunk, by the way.”

  Logan turns back towards me with an amused look on his face.

  “I’m just saying, I’ll probably be fine once we get back into campus. You won’t need to take me all the way back to my dorm and tuck me into bed or anything.”

  Something glimmers in Logan’s eyes, and his lips widen into a smirk. “Tuck you into bed?”

  Oh God, why’d I have to say it like that?

  “Uh…yeah…I’ll be fine, is all I’m saying. Thanks for walking me back, though!”

  Logan shrugs. “It’s no problem.”

  But shouldn’t it be a problem for a guy like this? Doesn’t he have better things to do than help a lost little freshman girl get back to her home? Like, for example, go back to that party and start fucking every sorority girl in sight? By the time he gets back to the house, the party will probably be dying down.

  The more I think about it, the less sense it makes. I mean, he could just be a really nice guy, but from the way Dani talks about him, and from his reputation…I’m starting to think his intentions may not be so pure.

  As we walk through the sleeping neighborhood, images of him leading me off somewhere to fuck flash through my mind. Maybe he lives in one of these houses, and he’s going to lead me inside. Or maybe he’s just going to pull me off down the nearest dark trail and take me up against a tree…

  I try and pull myself together before Logan notices that my breaths are starting to come faster. If he realizes why that is, he might be tempted to make one of these ridiculous little fantasies a reality.

  But you know what the weird part is? The further we walk down this long, dark street, the more part of me starts thinking about what it would feel like if he did.

  Oh, look, the trees are starting to thin out a little bit. We’re getting close to campus now, and not a moment too soon. I can actually see the sky now.

  And now that I can see the sky, I notice a bright white light washing out the stars up ahead and to the left. It’s too bright to just be the lights of campus. Logan looks back and catches me staring at it.

  “Oh, that? They’re testing the lights out for the game this weekend. That’s why the sky’s lit up like that. It’s the football stadium.”

  “It’s really pretty.”

  Suddenly, Logan stops in his tracks. And since I’m still gawking at the stadium lights and not watching him, I practically slam right into him again. Only this time, Logan catches me, steadying me against his thick arm as he smirks down at me.

  “We could go check it out up close, if you want.”

  I bite my lip at the sudden request. Sure, it’s not exactly a proposition or anything, but coming from a guy like this…it might as well be. I don’t think Logan Wolfe is the type of guy who just hangs out with freshman girls.

  And you know what else? I know the way home now. I can use the stadium lights as a reference point to get back to my dorm, which means that I can go ahead and let Logan get back to his party.

  “Okay.”

  Wait, was that my voice? Did I just agree to an up close and personal stadium tour? What the hell has gotten into me?

  Before I can respond, Logan starts walking again, this time with more purpose than before. And as I watch his body walking ahead of me, I can tell that something’s changed. I can hear him breathing now, taking huge, growling breaths as he leads me towards the washed out part of the sky. I can see his muscles moving underneath his jersey, and I can feel the anticipation in his fingers as they grip my arm tight. If there was any doubt about his intentions before, it’s all gone now.

  Logan Wolfe wants to fuck me. And I might even let him.

  The light ahead gets bigger and bigger as we walk, and in a couple blocks, we’re going to be on campus. I shudder at the thought of getting led around like this in front of other students. What if I see somebody I know? I mean, I probably know three people here so far, but still! What would they think if they saw me, the nerdy girl from Murray Hall who’s been showing up at half the interest meetings on campus, getting led around like a groupie? My student body president dreams would be over!

  But thankfully, we don’t make it to
o far into campus. Instead, Logan keeps leading me towards the stadium, until the classroom buildings give way to an ocean of empty parking lots and streetlights, dominated by a massive football stadium ringed with towers of brilliant white lights.

  “You’re right,” I whisper, looking up at the stadium, “It’s beautiful up close.”

  Logan looks back at me. “Oh, this isn’t what I meant by up close.” He pulls out a ring of keys as he leads me across the parking lot, “I’m taking you out to the fucking field.”

  Well, the good news is Logan isn’t taking me to a quiet, dark place to try and fuck me. The bad news is that he’s taking me to a brightly lit football field to do it.

  And the closer we get, the faster my heart beats at the thought. Every couple of steps we take towards the stadium, I think of another reason why this is a completely terrible idea. Doesn’t the stadium have janitors walking around at night? If Logan has the keys, how many other people do? What if a helicopter flies over and sees us?

  But even as the reasons not to follow the ridiculously sexy football player pile up, my body refuses to listen to reason. Instead, I keep following Logan, my heart beating faster and faster as he unlocks the front doors and leads me through the dark, empty lobby and a maze of equally dark, empty hallways.

  Then, so gradually that it’s barely noticeable, one of the hallways opens up into a wide concrete tunnel, and before I know it, I break Logan’s grip, walking out onto the Golden State University football field, lit up just like it would be at a game, only with thousands of empty seats staring down at us. It’s such a mesmerizing sight that I almost forget where I am…and who I’m with. “Holy crap.”

  Logan’s body comes up behind me, brushing gently against me as he looks out at the field in front of us.

  “This,” he points over my shoulder, out at the field in front of me, “is where I play.”

  My body goes crazy at Logan’s gentle touch. My inhibitions are fading fast. If I’m not careful…