Page 5 of Coach's Assist
I laughed softly. “It’s plenty fair. You’re still sick. Honestly, we shouldn’t have fucked in the first place since you’re so damn sick. That could’ve gone very badly.”
His eyes pinched as he lifted his head to look back at me once more. “But not because you’re my coach… right?” he asked, sounding suddenly much smaller than he ever had before. He sounded unsure and… scared. I didn’t fucking like it. Damien was always cocky and sure of himself. Not… this.
“No, baby,” I assured him as I finally found two cans of soup. I dumped them into a pot and placed the pot on the stove before turning on the eye to heat it up. “Thatshouldbe my reasoning, but it’s not.” Turning, I rested my back against the counter and crossed my arms over my bare chest as I let my eyes meet his across the space dividing us. “Ican’tbring myself to regret what happened between us, even if it might cost me my job.”
“I can’t either,” he confessed, sounding more like himself now that I’d put his fears at ease. “Even if this might cost me my entire future.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to let it.”
He got that pinched, stressed look around his eyes again, and I couldseehim tense. “What?” he finally said. “You can’t mean we’re going to write this off as a one-off. Ican’tdo that.” He shook his head. “No. No way in fuckinghell, Jett.”
“Calm down,” I soothed, leaving the kitchen and walking toward him. I took a seat on the coffee table in front of him and leaned in, my palms resting on his thighs. I could feel the heat from his fever bleeding through the sweatpants he’d borrowed from me. I needed to get him fed, give him some medicine, and put him back to bed, but I knew he wouldn’t let me do any of that if we didn’t clear the air first.
“Calm down?” he snapped at me, anger burning in his eyes.
“Yes, calm down,” I repeated, keeping my voice calm in the face of his anger and hurt. “You’re getting ahead of yourself and jumping to conclusions, baby.” He frowned, some of his anger bleeding from his expression. “I didn’t say this would be a one-off. Ican’tbring myself to just let this be a one and done kind of thing. I’ve wanted you for way too fucking long, and now that I’ve had you, the mere thought of never having you again makes me sick to my stomach.” He relaxed at my confession.
“So… what?” he asked.
“For now, we keep it a secret,” I told him. “It’s March. You graduate in May. Once March Madness is over, you should be receiving offers from different teams. Once you’ve signed a contract and have graduated, I’ll quit the school, and then, we’ll go public. It’s not the best plan, but it’s all I’ve got right now.” I squeezed his thighs. “Sound good?”
“We keep this on the downlow until I graduate but we don’t stop this?” he asked. When I nodded, he blew out a soft breath. “Okay. I can do that.” He smiled a little. “Don’t you go back on your word, Jett.”
I laughed and leaned in, pressing my lips to his in a soft kiss. “I won’t, baby. I promise.”
EPILOGUE
Damien
My chest was achingwith how hard I was playing. My legs burned. My musclesached. Sweat slicked my skin and dripped into my eyes, burning them. Every breath I took was puffed right back out as I dribbled the ball across the court, then passed it off to my teammate.
The time was quickly winding down with meresecondson the board, and we were tied. I didn’t want to go into overtime, and I knew my teammates didn’t either. It was our last game of the season—the fucking championship game—and if we could get that damn ball in the net before the final buzzer sounded, we would be taking home the trophy.
The win was so close, I couldtasteit.
My teammate passed the ball back to me when I was open, and I ran the remaining distance toward the goal, jumped, and sank the ball into the hoop, putting us exactly two points ahead. The buzzer sounded right after, echoing through my aching skull. As soon as my feet were on the ground, my teammates surrounded me, cheering and screaming. They raised me onto their shoulders, and I laughed, my grin so wide it made my cheeks ache.
The crowd was goingwild. And when I looked at Jett and saw him grinning too, pride and a hint of smugness burning in his eyes, my heart flip-flopped in my chest. Lifting two fingers to my lips, I kissed them, then raised them into the air, nodding once at him with a wink.
Fuck if the cameras saw. I’d secured us the championship, I was already promised a position with the LA Kremlins, and Jett had already told the school he would be quitting after the season was over. The contract I would be signing saidnothingabout the contract being null and void if I was in a relationship with my college basketball coach.
Trust me, I’d had the attorney Jett hired for me scour that fucking thing for that stipulation.
Once the guys set me down, I walked over to Jett and held out my hand with a shit-eating grin. “Well, Coach,” I said, drawling his title and making him narrow his eyes at me, “we fucking did it.”
He shook his head as he clasped my hand in his, giving it a firm shake. Both of us knew he’d much rather do something more than just shake my hand though. Fuck knew I wanted him to. But he wouldn’t do anything that would potentially ruin my career. Sometimes, I thought he cared about metoomuch.
“No,youdid it,” he told me, his voice just loud enough to be heard over the ruckus in the gymnasium. “And I’m so goddamn proud of you, Michaels.”
I swallowed thickly, then forced myself to release his hand. When he dragged his eyes over me, I knew that while he wasn’t giving me what I wanted right then, he wasdefinitelygoing to give usbothwhat we wanted later.
* * *
When I parked my car in front of Jett’s house, he stepped out onto the porch wearing just a pair of low-slung gray sweatpants that leftnothingto the imagination. “Fuck,” I growled as I stared at him through the windshield, drinking him in. How did I get so fucking lucky for this man to be mine? I didn’t care that he was damn near twenty years older than me. He waseverythingI’d ever wanted. Everything I could have dreamed of.
Angling out of my car, I smiled at him. “Hey,” I rasped.
“Hey yourself, champ,” he greeted, smiling at me just as easily. “Come on.”
