“What are we doing?” Roman asked, his tone softening as I locked the door behind us.
“I need you,” I admitted the truth, panic still racing in my blood. I crushed my lips on his, siphoning off the love and heat and everything that was Roman to quell the tidal wave inside me.
I couldn’t let Rick win.
“I’m here,” he said against my mouth but took my face in his hands to draw my gaze. “What’s wrong, honey?”
Roman deserved to know how terrified I’d been at the simple thought of Rick intentionally hurting him…but I also deserved the chance to hold my own, to handle it on my own, and not use him as a crutch to solve a problem.
The idea, the images that flashed in my head when Rick rattled off his threat? I didn’t want to admit it, but it shook me worse than him sneaking up on me in the lady’s room. Because Roman…he was my everything.
And right now, I needed more than anything to feel him, love him, hold him. Needed to ensure my mind and soul that he was here and strong and wouldn’t be tainted by the darkness of my past.
“Do you trust me, Roman?” I asked slightly breathless.
“You know I do.”
“Then make love to me right now,” I said, my hands running over his body. “Please.”
A deeper understanding flashed over his features—some unspoken bond between us coiling and raging as he interpreted the panic racing right next to my need for him. And he didn’t blink before he hooked his hands underneath my ass and lifted me, spinning me to press me against the door.
A few breaths later, my leggings were gone, and he was burying himself deep inside me. I clung to his shoulders, completely at his mercy as he took me against the closed door. As he held my gaze and claimed my mouth, my body, my soul. As he pushed me farther and farther out of my panic, out of my fear, out of my doubt, and closer and closer to the pure love and empowerment that came with him.
God, he was incredible as he held me effortlessly, thrusting his hard length inside me until my eyes rolled back in my head. Until my toes curled and electricity shot down my spine. Until I shook around him as I flew apart, as I shattered and screamed his name.
“Teagan,” he sighed my name after he’d came too. He grazed his lips over mine, his eyes searching, loving. “Are you okay?” He asked, content to hold me like he could do it for the rest of our forever.
I leaned my forehead against his, my breath ragged from the way he’d claimed my body.
“I am now,” I answered honestly.
Roman smoothed my hair away from my face, something in his eyes searching for a truth I wasn’t ready to give him. Because if he knew what Rick had threatened…
I swallowed hard. I wouldn’t let that happen.
It was my turn to protect Roman.
And I just hoped like hell I was strong enough to do it.
17
Roman
The roar of the crowd fed my adrenaline as we lined up on the sixty for the snap. We were down, it was the fourth quarter, we had seven minutes to go, and this was our fourth down. We needed this, and we needed it badly.
Winning this one would put us first in our division and bring us into the New Year, holding a spot for the playoffs, and it was all on me.
I was pure energy on that line, my body humming with anticipation and ready to explode.
The ball snapped.
My feet flew, passing by Nixon only long enough to take possession of the ball. I tucked it securely into the cradle of my arm, then ran my ass off.
There. I spotted a linebacker and dodged his lunge, feeling the brush of his fingers along my arm as I made it past the line.
Baker appeared ahead at my left and threw a block to their cornerback that got me through another five yards, managing to stay on his feet just ahead.
Their safety rushed at us as my world narrowed to the breath in my lungs, the turf beneath my feet, and massive pumps of my legs, propelling me down the field. We’d secured a first down, and that end zone was calling my fucking name.
You can make it.
Another hit of energy burst through my system with the thought, carrying me even faster.
Just get past the safety.
Their rapidly-approaching safety was a heartbeat away from Baker.
Rick stumbled, tripping at my left and going down hard.
No!
I didn’t have time to make it to the sideline—
He hit me like a freight train at full speed, hurling me sideways. I heard the crunch. I saw…black.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
The words belonged to Teagan, but why did she sound so damned sad? So far away? I fought through the layers of fog clouding my brain and battled my own body into consciousness, prying open my eyes by sheer force of will.
The overhead lighting may as well have been a sleeve full of daggers stabbing into my eyes. Pain blared through my body like an alarm, radiating from my head and spreading down my side. I closed my eyes, and it lessened, but not by much.
I knew the sterile smell of a hospital all-too-well, and it filled my nose with every breath I managed to drag through the vise on my chest.
“So sorry. I should have listened,” Teagan whispered, and I felt her hand on mine, absently stroking my palm.
“Baby, there’s nothing to be sorry about,” I croaked, managing to drag my dry tongue across my parched lips.
“He’s awake!” She shouted.
Okay, she could be sorry about the shouting, because that shit hurt.
I braved the knives of fire in my eyes and forced my lids open in time to see her hasty retreat to the wall, making room for the team of doctors above me.
“There we go. Mr. Padilla, you are at Duke University Hospital. Can you tell me your first name?” The doctor shined a flashlight across my eyes.
“It’s Roman, and if you shine that thing in my eyes again, we’re going to have problems, doc.” I forced my hands to stay at my sides and not shove him across the room.
“Light sensitive,” he noted to a hovering nurse.
“Where’s Doc Overton?” I asked.
“Right here.”
Our team doc appeared at my left side, giving me the I’m-not-going-to-tell-you-but-you’re-fucked smile.
As his face came into focus, my stomach turned over, and my mouth watered. “I’m going to be sick.”
A blue tub appeared, and I jolted to a sitting position as my stomach heaved up what was left of my breakfast.
Light sensitive. Nausea. Fuck me. I had a concussion.
“How long was I out?” I managed to ask as they carted the tub away.
“A little under an hour,” Doc Overton answered. “We’re waiting on your CT scans.”
Jesus, I’d slept through that, too? Must have been some hit. As if acknowledging what put me here in the first place had switched on my nerve endings, my side erupted in acute agony. I hissed, automatically reaching for my ribs.
Doc Overton stopped me, blocking me with his arm. “Those are bruised.”
“Fuck.” No wonder it hurt to breathe.
Teagan sniffled, and I reached for her hand. She was pale, red-eyed, and mascara streaked as she stepped to my side, taking the space on the right side of my head.
“I’m fine, baby,” I assured her. “You’ve seen me take worse.”