Page 22 of Colt

My princess whipped around and grabbed her cell from the table, her fingers tremoring as she lifted it to her ear. “Hello?” She turned her back on me, speaking into the phone with a shake to her voice. “Oh, oh, hi, Christian. The alternator?” She paused then, “Yeah, that’s fine...”

My hands balled into fists. I tried to regulate my breathing, though the galloping of my heart made it a challenge. My cock kicked in my jeans, and I realized I had a fuckin’ half-chub.

Swiftly turning, I concentrated on anything other than Freya. I settled on the mental image of a school nurse who was the double of Miss Trunchbull, and thank God, it worked.

Half stunned, I switched on her TV and clicked through the menu to look for a movie, except I couldn’t concentrate. All I could think of was the softness of her skin under my fingertips, how right it felt to touch her.

I almost groaned out loud.

Freya was my boss’s daughter, my best friend’s little sister. Going there wouldn’t only be immoral but also suicidal if the club ever found out.

No fucking way.

A lone tear ran down Freya’s cheek as the closing titles faded from the TV screen. “It’s such an amazing movie.” She sniffed. “Poor Big Mike.”

At some point during the movie, we’d gravitated toward each other. We’d started out on opposite ends of the sofa but had somehow inched closer.

Freya sat with her back against my front, and my arm slung casually around her waist.

God only knew how it happened. We always watched movies cuddled together, so maybe it was just habit that drew me to her.

I gently threaded my fingers through her long, glossy hair. “Baby. It’s okay. The rich white folk saved the disadvantaged black kid and made him a football star. All’s well in the world.”

She twisted around to look up at me. “Stop being such an asshole. Where would Big Mike be now if the Tuohys hadn’t saved him from the laundromat and the pouring rain?”

I shrugged. “Probably would’ve ended up playin’ for Alabama, who became seven-time national championship winners. Obviously, he went to Ole Miss ‘cause of the Tuohys and Miss Sue. It’s their fault he ended up being the twenty-third pick in the two thousand and nine drafts. If he’d have gone to Alabama, he’d have wound up a top ten pick in the draft, which would’ve got him a hell of a signin’ bonus. Oher missed out on some good endorsements. He could've been an NFL great if he’d gotten into the right team.”

“But the Tuohys gave him a family,” she protested. “Nothing’s more important than having people in your corner.”

“Is that why he’s suing them?”

“Huh?” Freya’s mouth fell open.

“Yeah,” I went on. “Oher reckons the Tuohys made him sign a conservatorship after he turned eighteen and took advantage of him. So, it begs the question, what if they took him in to prey on him and make money from his athletic abilities?”

“Oh my God,” she whispered.

I nodded. “Michael Oher says the movie portrayed him as illiterate when, in reality, he graduated college with a criminal justice degree. He says the way he was portrayed was humiliating and they fucked him over.”

Freya cocked her head, thinking hard. “But when they took him in, he didn’t play football. They’re the ones who got him on the team by appealing to his protective instincts.”

I gazed down at her, almost in awe.

Anyone else would’ve agreed with me when I bamboozled them with facts, but not Freya. I loved the way she challenged me. Loved how she debated and put her point across. Her intelligence was the thing I loved most about her. She never bowed down to me, even though I was usually the smartest person in the room.

“Just remember it’s fuckin’ fictional,” I muttered. “When ya gonna realize life ain’t a rom-com? Shit happens, and most of it’s not good, Princess.”

She laughed. “You’re so jaded. Sometimes nice things happen. It’s all ying and yang. We get good, and we get bad. Life balances out in ways we can’t control, Colt. Often, when everything seems lost, other things happen to help us find our way again.”

Jesus, this girl.

Freya had always possessed a touch of spirituality, probably due to her mom who one minute was away with the fairies, and the next, could be holding a knife to your ballsack while cussing like a pirate.

Freya, on the one hand believed in medical science, which, by its own definition, was based on physics and biology. But she also believed in the human spirit, karma, and in people being reincarnated, each time to learn lessons and do better.

She was right in what she said—I was jaded—but there were reasons behind my attitude and beliefs, just like there were reasons behind hers.

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