“Nothing, I just, I don’t know. I am having a bad day I guess. Just been feeling strange.”
“You can talk to me about it Laurel. I don’t know if I would be any good for you, but I will always be here to listen if you need me to be.”
“Thanks Max. You are a really good friend. I never would have thought that possible with one of the players, but you aren’t like the rest of them.”
Max felt that he was almost glowing with her praise, but it still made him wonder why she was so upset in the first place. What was the rest of them like to her that she would seem so upset about it?
“Are you sure you are okay?”
She said that she was, her eyes not quite agreeing, but he knew not to push. Something was going on with her and Max just didn’t want to be one of the people that she pushed away. He meant what he said and had come to see her as a good friend. He could talk to her about anything and didn’t feel judged. She would give her opinion, but it was always to help him. He had never known a woman or anyone for that matter that made him want to be better. Max knew that he was lucky to have met her.
“No I am okay, really. But thanks for caring Max.”
***
Laurel tried to push the bad out of her mind and most of that bad at the moment was Zach’s words. She didn’t think that Max was how his roommate made him out to be. Everyone on campus knew what everyone else did and since the night with Denise, Max hadn’t been with anyone else. If he had, he had kept quiet about it and either way, she liked the idea of it. She would have been lying to herself if she hadn’t have said she was attracted to him. She was, very much so, but she still had rules to follow.
The next class that she had with Zach, she ended up not even going. She couldn’t fathom talking to him again and Laurel knew that she would not be able to hold her tongue if she did. It was a week before he seen her again and when he came walking towards her, she groaned inwardly.
“Hey coach. Good to see you. I didn’t see you last week. Are you skipping class?”
She shook her head that she wasn’t. “I’ve just been busy. Are you ready for the game tonight?”
Laurel wanted to talk about anything, but what they had spoken on before. She didn’t want to talk about personal matters with a man like Zach, but she could talk about the game. It was a safe subject and it was her default conversation.
He didn’t seem to notice one way or another and Laurel was happy to take his mind off of what she was sure he was going to want to talk about. “I am ready for the game. Who are you starting tonight?”
She gave him the names from her notebook and started to relax a little. Maybe he had just been having a bad day the time before, she thought to herself. He didn’t seem to be so upset like he was before and she spent most of the class talking to him about the strategies. She wouldn’t have normally talked to him in class, but he wasn’t so bad when he wasn’t trying to get into her pants.
After class he followed her out to her car. “Thanks for bouncing the ideas for the game with me. I like to get feedback from the players. The information you guys give me is very important.”
“No problem. I am here for whatever you need Laurel. Anything at all.”
She looked down. The needy look was in his eyes again and she didn’t know how to stop it. When he leaned in, much like Max had done before, she stopped him with a hand on his chest. “What are you doing Zach?”
“What you want me to do.”
He added more pressure to her palm that was trying to stop him, but he was too strong. The grip on her arm was hard, almost to the point of being painful and his tongue was pressing into her mouth suddenly. Laurel had to stop herself from biting the intrusion and she used all of her strength to push him away. When he looked back down at her, the dark eyes made her nervous. There was nowhere to go though, her car’s door on her back.
“Stop Zach.”
He moved into get another kiss and she slammed her foot down onto his. The large, blonde man doubled up in pain, but she didn’t care.
“You bitch.”
For a minute, she thought he was going to hurt her. He looked like he wanted to beat her into a bloody pulp and Laurel had to wonder if there wouldn’t have been pedestrians looking over at them, if he would have. Men like him, looking as he did, scared her and though she hated the fear, it was hard not to feel that way about him. Zach was a scary man when he didn’t get what he wanted. She couldn’t help it, if what he wanted was her.
“You are such a damn tease. I should have known that you were just being nice to me.”
“I thought we were just talking. I didn’t mean to hurt you Zach. I just wanted you to stop. I like you as a friend, nothing else. I thought I had made that clear before?”
He didn’t want to answer her and gave her a dark look before he turned around and started towards his truck. Laurel shouldn’t have been satisfied with the bit of a limp that he had acquired. She shouldn’t have, but there was some kind of satisfaction in seeing it.
Zach just reminded her why she stayed away from guys like him. It also showed her that she shouldn’t be spending so much time with Max. It was innocent and she had really liked their time together, but it was causing problems, that much was clear.
Chapter 7
“I just wanted to let you know what was going on Coach. There is something going on between the two of them and I know that you wouldn’t stand for something like that.”
Billy was practically salivating on the other side of the desk. He had been trying to get rid of Laurel ever since they decided to make her a hired assistance, as opposed to the intern. He had been getting extra stipend for the season for taking her on, but now she was getting paid and he was being shafted. Billy knew that there would be something to get her out of there. He hadn’t thought it would be that though.
“Are you sure Zach? Those are heavy allegations to put on someone. The coaches are not to fraternize with the players, whether they are students themselves or not. Something like that could get her fired.”
A blind man could have seen that the old man was a little happier than he should have been about the idea of Laurel being fired. He had worried about her taking his job and now that his would be intact and she would be the one to go, Billy couldn’t have been happier.
“Yeah I am sure.” Zach knew that she must be with Max. That was why she had turned him down, he was sure of it. His pride was still stinging from her refusal and the way she had turned him down. She had been condescending and it made him feel like he wasn’t good enough for the uppity bitch.
“Well thank you for bringing this to my attention Zach. I know that you guys like the assistant coach, but it is wrong for her to be with any of the players. Max just came into the school and program not too long ago. It makes me wonder if there were others.”
Zach didn’t say one way or another. He knew that she hadn’t been with any of them, but before she started tossing around rumors of what he had done. Zach planned to just get rid of her for good. It was bad enough that their coach had been a girl, but one that was a year younger than him to boot was more than he could bear. She had been teasing him since she started and Zach was going to put an end to her reign.
Billy had his own reasons to want her gone and as soon as the young man left his office, he was on the phone with the dean. He set up a meeting for later in the day. Billy hadn’t been that happy in a long time and he hoped that he would get to be there when she was fired. There may be further implications for her as a student. The man would be more than happy to not have to see her in the halls of the school either.
***
Laurel got a call from the dean later in the evening a little while before the game was about to start. She had twenty minutes when she got the call and he was adamant that she go to his office so they could talk. She didn’t like the sound of it one bit and reminded him that she had a game to go to.
“No you don’t. I will see you in fifteen minutes Laurel. I don’t want
to do this over the phone.”
She agreed, not really having a choice and went towards the dean’s office instead of the playing field. While the call was strange and she wondered what it was about, she was more curious of who was going to coach them and how the game was going to go without her. Billy hadn’t been there all season and to think that he would just pick up where she left off was not very plausible.
By the time she got there, her nerves were high. There was a feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her feel sick. Something bad was about to happen and there was a moment where she just wanted to turn around and walk away. Laurel didn’t want to know what was coming next.
When she knocked on the man’s door, he called her in. Dean was waiting for her and his face said it all. The feeling in her gut was right and something was very wrong.
“What’s up Sir?”
He motioned her down to the chair across from him and she did as he suggested. Laurel wanted to tell the man to just come out with it. She was feeling the strain from the waiting for it.
“I don’t know how to say this Laurel. I have known you for a long time and I was happy to have you come on with us as an assistant coach. You were the youngest ever, but I think we have jumped the gun. There is more to coaching then just great strategy, which you have and which we are going to miss here at Parbrook.”
Miss? That was all that she heard out of the whole sentence. She was being fired and the old man across from her was struggling to do so.
“Wait, Sir, what is this about?” Laurel couldn’t take it anymore and had to just come out with it. Whatever it was that he was having trouble dealing with, she knew that it had to come out and she couldn’t stay there and listen to him beating around the bush any longer.
“Laurel, you read the handbook when you were hired on, the responsibilities of the job and so on?”
“Yes.” Still not sure where he was going with it, Laurel could feel herself getting restless. “Yes I read the handbook.”
“It has come to my attention that you have broken several of the rules that are in it and I am going to have to let you go. The board will be looking into disciplinary actions for you as a student that may include expelling you.”
Her head reeled and she still wasn’t sure what he was firing her and possibly kicking her out of the school for. “I don’t understand Sir. What rules have I broken?”
“Conduct and fraternizing rules. Not to mention the question of where you have been doing these things.”
She got an idea then of what he was talking about. Her mind instantly went to Max, but they hadn’t done anything. The part that made her pause the most was the comment of where she was breaking the rules.
“Sir, you can’t think that any of this is true?”
“So you would deny it?”
Laurel shook her head. “Of course I do. This is nonsense and I want to know who has told you such things?”
He sighed. “I am not at liberty to tell you the source of the information. But I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to do this. I will have to bring in more people and this can get ugly for you and the other person involved. Is that really what you want to do?”
She looked down and then sighed heavily. It didn’t matter what she said or how she proved it, it was almost impossible to do so and that meant her name dragged in the mud while she tried the hopeless effort. Laurel knew that the best thing she could do for herself and her family’s name was to just go with it. Maybe in that way, it wouldn’t branch out and ruin the rest of her life, but she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t admit to anything because there was nothing to admit to, but at the same time, she wasn’t going to fight it.
Chapter 8
Laurel heard a knock on her door later that evening and was a little tipsy when she tried to stand up and answer it. She wasn’t expecting anyone, her roommate out with her boyfriend for the night. Laurel was a little shocked to see Max there.
“Hey.”
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
She was going to say no, still sore about what had happened, but Max was pushing through the door. “Look, I know what happened. The coach told us that you were going to no longer be our coach.”
“Yea, well it’s kind of hard to when I get fired.”
“You were fired?”
“Yeah for diddling with one of the players. Do you care to take a guess at who the player was?”
“You don’t mean me?” Max was thinking more about her with another, than the fact that she had been fired. “You were with one of the players?”
She shook her head. It was already pretty cloudy and his rapid response questions were hard to deal with. “No, I was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with you. When I tried to deny it, the dean reminded me how quickly rumors could spread across campus and he threatened to bring you into it. I didn’t want that for either one of us, so I am just accepting it. The job didn’t pay much anyways.”
“I am sorry. I don’t know why they would think that. I would never say something out of the ordinary about you. My roommate thinks there was something else going on, but I told him that there wasn’t.”
“Who is your roommate?”
“Zach.”
It started to make a little sense then and she found her glass on the coffee table before she took another drink and sat down. “Yeah the little prick came on to me a couple of times recently and I finally had to get a little nasty with him. You were mentioned. I guess he was the one that had it out for me. At least it makes sense now. I was driving myself crazy with it, trying to figure out who it was.”
Max was devastated for her and that it was somehow his fault. His mind was eased that she was not with anyone else and though he shouldn’t have cared, he really, really did. He had held her as a friend, only because they couldn’t be anything more, but he wanted them to be more.
“I will go talk to the coach.”
“No, Billy is part of it, I am sure. He thinks that I want his job. I just pissed them both off in one way or another.”
“I wish there was something that I could do Laurel. I feel bad about it.”
Max had come to sit next to her on the couch. It was then that she took another drink, a small bit spilling on her chin and the front of her shirt. She didn’t really care, but the action seemed to pull in Max’s attention. He looked at her, his thumb brushing the liquid off of her chin. “Anything at all that I can do for you, just ask.”
He was still touching her softly and his dark eyes held hers for a time before she looked away. Laurel wanted something, but didn’t know how to ask for it. It wouldn’t be the first time that she had been short on words around him. “You could give me that kiss.”
Max was leaning in and his lips touched her softly. Her eyes closed and she opened her mouth to his attempt to enter. She wanted the man badly and he was the only thing good from that day. Laurel just wanted to feel good and he was doing just that. Moaning softly against him, his body covered hers more and more. He was so big, making her feel tiny, trapped against him.
Her hands went up to his chest and he pulled away, panting slightly not sure if she was trying to stop him. Max had lost himself for a moment and imagined that she was overwhelmed by him. “Don’t stop Max. I have been dying for you for a while now.”
Laurel pulled him back down to her and it was her lips and mouth that were being so insistent. Loving the way she felt above him, when she became the aggressor, Max pulled her onto his lap. It put the power in his hands even more and he was now touching her from all sides. Her legs straddled his and he pressed up from below, while his lips tasted hers, his hands pulling her closer to his grinding body. All together it was enough to drive her completely crazy.
When his hand moved down to press between her legs, she whimpered and ground herself down on the new touch. His hands were working off her pants and he finally lifted her up enough to get them off. He needed her and didn�
��t know if he would have any other chance. Max was afraid that she would change her mind.
Settling her back down, it was Max that groaned with the wet heat that met his fingers. Laurel was moaning, rubbing herself against him and begging silently for more. It was only when her hands started to rub on the hard length beneath her that he was able to stop what she was doing long enough to pull himself free. Her fingers were around him and tugging on him before he could stop her. She rose up and positioned herself above him and their eyes met before she started to sink down on him slowly.
“Oh Laurel.”
She was perfection and wasn’t even all the way settled before he was thrusting upwards from below. Max was not letting her have her way. He was lodged deep and took over. Laurel put her arms around his neck to hold on as the movement became too much and she was crying out next to his ear. He pushed her back and she shook as he drilled deeper, not giving her a moment’s break before the next slide in.
Her body was weak, Laurel could barely take the insistent pounding, but she could tell it wasn’t enough. She was no longer able to work her body on him like she had before. Laurel was trembling so hard and her body was so sensitive.
Max must have realized that because he was lifting her and setting her on her couch on her back before sliding back in. His body wedged her legs wide and he felt deeper then and able to move much easier. He took her breath away over and over again. Max kissed her as he started to lose himself inside of her. She was everything that he had hoped for and waiting for it, waiting for her, made it all the more sweeter when he finally got her.
***
Max laid with her on the couch for a while. Their sweat-slickened bodies were cooling off and she was asleep by the time he finally untangled himself to get up. There was no stopping the torrent of emotions that he felt with her, but there was another part of him, reminded that he had other things to take care of as well. Max wanted her back as his coach, even if that meant that he couldn’t have her. Laurel deserved to be happy and he knew that the game made her happy.
ROMANCE: MC BIKER ROMANCE: CARSON (MC Biker Romance)(Bad Boy Motorcycle Club Romance) (Contemporary Military Romantic Suspense Thriller) Page 10