Kickin' It (Red Card #2)(36)

Matt hung his head and grabbed my glass, filled it up again, handed it back, and asked, “Is there more?”

I snorted. “Oh yeah, the jackass pursued me the rest of the season . . . constantly cornering me, taunting me. I rejected him every time. I talked to the AD again and one of the girls from my team, but they believed him over me. He’d poisoned the well, and whenever people saw us together they assumed the worst, that I’d done the cornering, the seducing. And the morning of the championships, he—” I hugged my arms around my waist and tried to tuck myself away from the world.

Matt chugged his drink and pulled me into his embrace, surrounding me in his protective warmth, rocking me back and forth as my teeth started to chatter.

“It was raining,” I whispered against his chest. “I ran back into the locker room, the game wouldn’t start for another two hours. He was waiting. He pulled me into his office, called me a cunt and numerous other things. I stood there and took it, asked to leave, and he—he hit me when I refused to have sex with him.”

“He hit you?” Matt’s voice was so on edge I wasn’t sure if I was safer out of his arms or in them.

“Yeah. He tried to pull my shorts down, I kicked him in the shin, ran out of the locker room with him chasing me literally onto the field, and when he called me a slut in front of the entire team, I lost it. I just . . . punched him. I didn’t care who saw, didn’t care that it would ruin my entire life, because in that moment all that mattered was that he’d feel the same embarrassment and pain he’d caused me. The media was already camped out, they saw it all.”

Matt rocked me back and forth. He ran his hands over my hair, and then he said something I had no idea I needed to hear until that moment.

“I believe you.”





Chapter Eighteen

MATT

She sagged in my arms like she’d been carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and I felt like the biggest dick in the universe for not seeing it sooner.

The way she hated being backed into a corner.

Her fear of darkness.

The way she lashed out.

Her behavior toward men in general.

I should have seen all of it.

From her attitude to the way she carried herself, I should have known. I was better at my job than that, not that I was trained to notice those sorts of things, but I’d still like to think I should be better. I’d let my own anger at my attraction turn me into someone I didn’t even recognize.

And now I just felt guilt and a hell of a lot of shame that I’d possibly made her feel even worse about herself when all I wanted was to take all the pain and humiliation away.

“I feel guilty for not telling Willow,” she said against my chest, her breath warm, her body hanging on mine like she couldn’t stand on her own two feet even if she tried.

“Why haven’t you told her?”

“Talking about it makes it real,” she whispered in a hoarse voice. “I just . . . I hate him so much, I hate him.”

“Want me to send a guy after him? I’m sure we could make it look like an accident.” Her lips twitched while she wiped away another tear. “Think about it, we make it look like an accident, superglue his dick to his hand, turn on the puppy channel, and then pump his drink full of Viagra. Nothing worse than when a pug does it for you . . .”

Parker burst out laughing against my chest. “Sounds like a plan, I’ll ride shotgun.”

“Attagirl.” I hugged her tighter. “You aren’t the only victim in this, Parker . . . just think about what that means . . . and know that as your agent I’ll stand behind you no matter what you decide, but as your friend I encourage you to go to the proper authorities, because he’s just going to keep doing it until he gets caught. He’s a narcissist through and through.”

“I still . . .” She pulled away and looked up at me, a mixture of hope and worry in her eyes. “I still let him,” she said, her voice cracking.

“I’m going to ask you something, and no matter what your answer is, know there isn’t any judgment, alright?”

She nodded.

“Would you have let him had he just come on to you and not mentioned your career? Making or breaking you?”

“No.” She said it quickly and then slumped forward, her forehead resting against my chest. “I’m a horrible person.”

“No!” I gripped her by the shoulders. “You’re not a horrible person. You were put in a shitty situation with someone who abused his authority. That’s not on you, that’s on him.”

“I wish I believed that,” she said with a watery smile.

“Give it time.” I wiped the tears from her cheeks with my thumbs. “And until then, we drink.”

“Matt Kingston encouraging alcohol consumption during training?” She laughed through more tears. “What happened to you?”

“Parker Speedman,” I said simply, as if she should know she was the driving force behind a lot of my behavior lately. The sad part was that I knew in that moment, I would never act on any of my feelings, no matter how deep they went. I would die keeping them to myself.

Because the last thing she needed was another man in her life to let her down.

“Deadpool 2 sound good?” I grabbed the remote while she started refilling our drinks.