Next Man Up (Making the Score Football Romance Book 2)

by Tawdra Kandle

  “Nate.” Mr. Wellman’s tone was mildly chastising. “Your mother just wants to make sure you’re safe, and that everything is being done to make your life as smooth as possible.”

  “But I don’t need her coddling me or running interference. I’m capable of handling this. I told you that you didn’t have to be here.” Nate pointed at me. “Tuck’s parents didn’t come. You know why? Because they know he’s old enough to make his own decisions.”

  I glanced from my friend to his parents. “Uh, well, Nate, I don’t think—”

  “Listen.” Ms. Alloway cleared her throat. “Nate, think about the alarm, and if you decide you want it installed, you shoot me an email, and we’ll talk. Mr. Wellman, Mrs. Wellman, while I appreciate your concerns, ultimately the decision lies with your son. He’s over eighteen, so he makes this call.”

  Mr. Wellman sighed. “Thank you, Ms. Alloway. We’ll discuss it with Nate, and I’m sure he’ll get back to you.”

  The older woman gave us each a quick smile. “Perfect. See you all later.” The rubber soles of her sneakers squeaked as she strode out of the apartment, through the open door and down the hallway.

  “Well.” I wheeled my chair back and forth a little, as I did when I was anxious or unsure of what to say. “This is going to be good, Nate. We’re going to have a great year.” I winked at him. “I’m going to head back upstairs now.”

  “Upstairs?” Mrs. Wellman tilted her head. “What’s upstairs?”

  “The apartment where Quinn is going to live this year,” Nate answered for me. “Tuck’s staying up there while his mom and dad are away. Gia’s there this summer, since she was doing summer classes.”

  “Oh.” Nate’s mother was a little taken aback, but she didn’t say anything else. I imagined Nate would get the third degree once I’d left.

  I noticed with interest that Nate very pointedly didn’t mention Zelda. He had never mentioned my friendship with her; we hadn’t discussed her at all since the early days, when Zel and I had still been barely tolerating each other. But one thing I knew about Nate was that he kept his mouth shut about stuff that didn’t concern him. So even if he had guessed that Zelda and I were more than just friends now, he wasn’t blabbing it around.

  “Yeah, it’s been convenient with classes and everything.” I doubted that the Wellmans realized that the second session of summer classes had ended a week ago. I glanced over at Nate. “Speaking of the girls, I heard Quinn came back early from Carolina. Everything okay?”

  “Yep, she’s down at the shore with her mom. We’re going there to see them this weekend,” he replied evenly. If I hadn’t known Nate, I wouldn’t have noticed the slight edge to his tone. Thanks to Zelda, who’d been very worried about her friend, I knew that Quinn hadn’t left Leo on the best terms. Her boyfriend, who played football for Carolina, had become something of a media sensation this summer, and that had made life difficult for the two of them. That had to suck; Quinn had been so jazzed about living with Leo while he worked a kids’ sports camp down there, but it hadn’t gone exactly the way she’d hoped.

  While Nate wouldn’t want his friend to suffer, I wondered how he felt about her being available again. It was a never-discussed but widely known secret in our group that Nate was hopelessly in love with Quinn. It was a shitty situation, since there was no doubt Quinn was well and truly hung up on Leo and probably always would be.

  “Okay. Well, I’ll talk to you later, Nate. Good seeing you, Mr. Wellman. Mrs. Wellman.” I waved and pivoted my chair, making for the elevator before someone brought up yet another awkward topic. I was more than ready to get back upstairs, lured by the promise of a naked Zelda.

  The elevator took a little while to get downstairs for me. Once I got to the third floor, I moved with more than normal speed toward Zelda’s door, my mind already on what we’d be doing for the next few hours. I was insatiable when it came to her, and since we’d become an official couple, it had only gotten worse. Or better, depending on the point of view; our sex life was just as intense and exciting, but now there was an added element of meaning and emotion that I’d never known.

  I’d just pushed open the door and was about to call out a smart-ass greeting when I heard Zelda cry out, her voice filled with a mix of terror and fury.

  “Get the hell off me. Get away! Stop it!”

  Adrenaline surged through me, and my fingers gripped the wheel turns on my chair. I couldn’t get to her fast enough. Why the hell was there a table in the hallway, making it harder for me to navigate—

  “Shut up, bitch. You know you want it. You spread your fucking legs for every other guy at this college. You think I don’t hear shit? Why shouldn’t do the same for me? C’mon, baby. I promise I can give it to you good.”

  I knew that voice. It was Matt Lampert, and by the slight slur and edge of mania, I could guess that he was jacked up on something. Shit. What the fuck was he doing here?

  Zelda’s bedroom door was open a crack, and I shoved through. What I saw made my blood run cold.

  Zelda was on her bed, her arms crossed over her chest. Matt knelt over her, his hands on her, and suddenly my vision had a red filter. Everything moved in slow motion.

  “Get the fuck away from her.” I scrambled for my phone and lifted it up. “I called the police already,” I lied. “And if you don’t take your fucking hands off her, I’ll kill you.”

  “Oh, yeah, wheelie boy? Just what the fuck do you think you’re going to do?” Matt rose to his feet and jeered. “Talk me away? Tell you what. You stay where you are, and I’ll let you watch. You can watch this slut open her legs for me.”

  “Get the hell out of here!” Zelda, once released from Matt’s grip, scrambled away. She’d almost made it off the bed when he grabbed her ankle and dragged her back toward him. She kicked, catching him in the gut, throwing him off-balance. I had finally gotten around the corner of the bed, rolling right into place as Matt fell toward me.

  “You fucking asshole!” I pulled back my right hand and pummeled him as hard as I could manage, furious that this fucking chair kept me from doing what every bit of my body was dying to do. I wanted to beat him bloody. I wanted to hear this fucker cry for mercy.

  I wanted him to die.

  Matt was stuck, his hips pinned between the edge of the mattress and my wheelchair. He couldn’t get away from my fists, and in his drugged state, he couldn’t fight back. He was strong, but he wasn’t at all precise or coordinated.

  “Eli. Eli!” Zelda gripped my arm, holding me back. “Stop. Stop it. You can’t kill him, baby. Don’t do this. He’s not worth it. Come on, now. Ease back. Let me get him out of here.”

  I was shaking. I heard was Zelda was saying, but I didn’t care. I wanted to kill him. I wanted him dead.

  Still, responding her pleas, I rolled backwards until Matt could get free. For a moment, he turned back to stare at Zelda, but she’d grabbed her phone, too.

  “Swear to God, Matt, if you don’t get the fuck out of here, I’m going to make it so you can never be free again. I’ll call the police. And if you ever try something like this again, I’ll cut off your fucking dick and leave you to bleed to death. Swear to God I will. Get the hell out of here.”

  Matt stumbled to the doorway before he turned to sneer at both of us. “You’re pathetic. I don’t want you, you fucking slut. Why would I want what every other loser on this campus has already tapped? I don’t take second-hand fucks.” He glanced at me. “And you—you’re not even a real man. You can’t stand to see some other dude getting what you can’t have, can you? I would’ve let you watch, fucker. I might’ve even let you touch her.”

  “Get out.” I ground out the words. “And hope to God the cops never catch up with you, because I’d like nothing more than to see your sorry ass rot in jail.”

  Matt looked as though he was about to say something else, but just then, there was a noise in the hallway. To his drugged and paranoid mind, it might’ve sounded like the police. Whatever the reason, he to
ok off, and I heard a yell as his feet pounded in the hallway. I wondered distractedly if he’d pushed someone aside in his rush to escape.

  For a long, silent moment, neither Zelda nor I moved. Then I lifted my eyes to her. “Zelda. Baby, come here.”

  She was huddled on her bed, up by the pillows, her face red and her eyes filled with tears that just about broke me. She shook her head and buried her face in her arms.

  “Zel, come here. Come to me. Let me hold you.” My voice cracked. “I need to feel that you’re okay.”

  She lifted her eyes to me, bleak and destroyed. And then, to my utter relief, she crawled toward me.

  As she did, I positioned my chair, locked it and hoisted my body onto the bed, meeting her halfway. When Zelda crept into my arms, I pulled her tight against me, sagging in relief.

  Her entire body shook, but I didn’t think she was actually crying. Her fingers dug into my arm, gripping me as though I was keeping her from falling apart completely, and maybe I was.

  “He . . . he just came in. He and Gia had a fight before she left. I thought he’d stay at his grandparents’ house, but then I heard him, and he was calling for her. I yelled out, told him she was gone, and he . . . came in here, and he started to take off his pants and say that if she wasn’t here to take care of him, I would do.” She looked up at me. “He said . . . he said—”

  “Everything he said was a lie, and it was trash.” I tightened my arms around her. “He’s worthless, baby. He’s an idiot asshole. You know that.”

  “Yeah.” She buried her face in the crook of my neck. “If you hadn’t come in then, Eli—if you hadn’t—”

  “But I did.” I rubbed a soothing hand down her back. “Not that I did anything. You took care of yourself, babe. You rescued yourself. You had him. You kicked him.”

  “And then you caught him and beat him almost to death.” Her fingers sought my back, gripped it tightly.

  “I wanted to fucking kill him,” I growled. “It . . . Zelda, not being able to protect you from guys like him—it’s excruciating. I want to keep you safe. I want to take care of you. And all I can do is roll around in this fucking chair.” My lip curled up. “I’m not even half a man.”

  “You are so a man. You are more man than anyone I’ve ever known, Eli. Violence and fighting and defending me—that doesn’t make you a man. The way you hold me. The way you comfort me. The way you stand up for me, no matter what—that’s what makes you my man.” She held my chin between her finger and thumb. “Don’t you ever think anything less, Eli. You are everything I ever wanted. You’re everything I’ll ever need.”

  I stared down into her huge blue eyes, filled with confusion and fear and need, and without stopping to think or consider, I lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her with lingering fury and possessiveness, the need to brand her as mine drumming through my veins.

  “Yes,” she murmured against me. “Now, Eli. Take me now, and let me show you how much of a man you are, in the only ways that matter. Make me yours.”

  I rolled to the side so that she was under me, my hand groping for her breast, my lips relentless against her.

  “Mine.” I replaced my hand with my mouth, seeking and ravishing, leaving pleasure in its wake.

  “Mine.” My hand slid down between her legs, rubbing roughly against her clit and then sliding two fingers into her, pumping until she was gasping my name and begging me to let her come.

  “Mine.” I brought her to the edge of reason and plunged with her over that sheer drop, kissing her again and taking every cry, every sigh and every breath as my plunder.

  And while my blood still thundered within me, while need and desire thrummed through my body, Zelda cupped my face and pressed the tenderest kiss to my lips.

  “Yours.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Zelda

  “Hey, Zelda, pass me another beer, please.”

  “Hmmmm?” Hearing my name, I glanced over at Gia, who was looking at me expectantly. “I’m sorry, did you say something?”

  “Yes.” Gia wore an expression of exaggerated patience. “I asked you to give me another beer. Are you okay? You’re kind of zoning over there.”

  “Yeah, fine.” I bent over the side of my chair and fished a bottle out of the cooler next to me. “I’m just listening to the pregame show.”

  “Huh. It looks like you’re texting someone.” Gia craned her neck, trying to see my phone where it was tucked between my leg and the arm of the chair. “What’s so important that you’re ignoring us for the phone?”

  “Nothing. No one. Um, school stuff. A class.” I clicked my phone back to the home screen and flipped it over so that no one could see anything. In his wheelchair across the room, I could practically feel Eli laughing at me.

  Jackass.

  The jerk had been texting me for the last twenty minutes, which doesn’t sound like it would be a bad thing . . . but he was texting me in glorious, sensual detail what he planned to do the next time we were alone together. The man had a gift when it came to description, and the more he texted, the warmer and more worked up I became.

  My only comfort was in knowing that despite his relentless teasing, Eli was suffering as much as I was. Since everyone had come back to school in mid-August, private time for us had been hard to come by. It was now October. We were both feeling the strain.

  Any other couple might be able to resort to hot and dirty sex in the backseat of a car, but that wasn’t really an option for us, considering Eli’s mobility limitations. We couldn’t creep off to a bathroom or closet or anywhere else. We’d joked about sneaking into each other’s rooms, but it was hard for Eli to come into our room unnoticed, especially because Gia tended to be a night owl who hung out in the living room. Lately, we’d been making more serious plans for me to slip down to Eli’s apartment, but we hadn’t actually done it yet.

  “If we told our friends that we’re together, just think how much less complicated this would be,” Eli had pointed out as we’d sat together in the student services café one afternoon. “Then they wouldn’t care that you were staying down with me or I was sleeping in your bed.”

  “I know.” I’d dropped my forehead onto my hand. “But I’m not ready yet. They would make a big fucking deal about it, and I don’t want that. I like what we have now. I know that once the world finds out, it’s going to get complicated. People will make assumptions and have expectations . . . I’m not ready for that.”

  Which was why we were sitting across the room from each other in my apartment on this Saturday afternoon, gathered with our friends to watch Carolina play. At least, that was how we were describing it; the truth was that Gia wanted to see if the coach played Matt, and Quinn was hoping for a glimpse of Leo.

  My poor Quinn. She’d come back this semester a quieter, sadder version of herself. I was worried, and I’d talked to Gia about how we could help.

  “I don’t think there’s anything we can do.” Gia had shaken her head. “I haven’t seen her like this since after her dad died, and even then, she had Leo, so although she was wrecked, she was also . . . I don’t know, peaceful. But now she just seems like she’s a zombie. Like part of her didn’t come back from Carolina this summer.”

  Now I ventured a glance at my friend. She was leaning forward, her eyes glued to the television screen. The announcers were discussing Leo and Matt, talking about how they’d both come from the same town and had ended up with very different college ball experiences. Gia took offense to something one of the commentators said and tossed a pillow at the TV, and then she and Quinn began semi-bickering on behalf of their respective men.

  “Quinn, I don’t get why you’re defending Leo.” Gia snapped at her, rising to her feet. “He left you behind fast enough when the college told him he needed to be a swinging single.”

  Quinn’s cheeks reddened. “That’s not how it was. I’m the one who told Leo we needed to take a break. I’m the one who couldn’t deal with all the press. It’s not his fault.”


  Next to me, my phone buzzed again. Gia and Quinn were involved in their discussion, and Nate was watching them. Discreetly, I flipped over my phone and read the message.

  Eli: If we left now, none of them would notice. Actually, I think if you strip naked now and come sit on my lap, we could be done and smoking a cigarette and they’d never realize it.

  I bit my lip to keep from snickering. Gia’s voice went up an octave, distracting me, and I saw Quinn slump onto the couch, answering Gia, weariness evident in her voice as she spoke about Leo.

  “We’re not together like that anymore—together, I mean. We’re just friends. For now. Again. Still. Whatever.”

  I couldn’t help snorting at that. I didn’t want to get involved, really, but Quinn needed a wake-up call. “Ohhhh. That must be why you’ve been dating so much, Quinn. You know, out every night, partying, sleeping with every guy you meet—all of that is because you and Leo aren’t together anymore. Just friends. Makes perfect sense.” I raised one eyebrow, hoping that I’d provoke Quinn into some kind of real response.

  But it was Nate who leaped to her defense, his eyes snapping with anger as he spoke tersely. “Quinn doesn’t date or party. And she sure as hell isn’t sleeping around.”

  I smiled at him, unfazed by his righteous indignation. “Like me, you mean, Nate? Don’t worry, hon. I was just teasing Quinn. We all know she’s not a super slut like I am.”

  For some reason, my closest friends hadn’t seemed to have noticed that I wasn’t as sexually active as I’d once been. I wasn’t sure whether I should be flattered or offended by that.

  From his chair, Eli sighed deeply. I knew he was already pissed at Gia going on and on about Matt and how he was getting a raw deal from his coach and team. Now hearing me call myself a slut was pushing him further to the edge. I could tell by the way his jaw was clenched that he was close to exploding, and I twitched with the need to comfort him, to assure him.