Page 52 of Dream Chaser
She flipped a switch in me I didn’t even know I had—the one that makes you want to ask someone to stay, not just for the night, but maybe the morning … and maybe the day after that. Dangerous territory. Heartland. Which is funny, considering she just stormed in here with the same fire she stormed into my life with, burned herself into my sheets, and now looks like she’s trying to put herself back together without breaking in front of me.
She pushes up on her elbows, the blanket she’d pulled over herself slipping a bit, providing me with a nip shot. Yeah, Iz’s tits are fucking epic.
“I should go back,” she says quietly, but it hits me like a slap.
I sit up, rubbing the back of my neck. “Yeah, I get it.”
She turns, almost surprised I didn’t push back. Hell, I surprised myself.
“I’ll walk you.”
She raises a brow. “Afraid I’ll get lost?”
“Nah,” I mutter, pulling on my sweats. “Just afraid you’ll run into your dad.”
That earns me a snort. But she doesn’t argue when I step behind her and help slide her old man flannel shorts on, which are oddly sexy as fuck. I allow my fingers to ghost over her hips like I’m committing them to memory.
She pulls on her top, and I can feel the shift—her spine straightening, chin lifting. But when I hand her the bra she ditched halfway across the room, she blushes.
Blushes.
Fucking hell, this woman.
I toss on a hoodie, grab my key card, and hold the door open for her. She steps out, glancing left, toward the room where her parents are.
I take her hand. “We’re going right.”
“But my room’s?—”
“Still is. We’re taking the scenic route, remember?”
She rolls her eyes but follows.
I angle my body so if any doors swing open, especially one with Jake Ross on the other side, she’s covered. We make a loop around the sixteenth floor, her steps getting slower, mine more reluctant as we continue on. At the final corner, I stop.
“Last turn,” I say.
She looks up at me, eyes soft. Vulnerable. Still glowing with what we just did. What we are now, even if neither of us knows exactly what that is.
I reach into my pocket, pull out the second key card, and press it into her hand. “I’m not asking to interrupt your life, Iz,” I say, voice low. “Just your night. Whenever you want.”
She doesn’t come back with the fact we’re heading back to Blue Valley tomorrow. She gets that it’s symbolic.
She closes her fingers around the card, turns, and walks away. And that? Wasn’t a no.
On the way back to my room, I spot a woman—heels in hand, makeup smeared, and hair tousled—sneaking out of a teammate’s room.
She barely makes eye contact as she disappears around the corner.
My jaw tightens. I don’t say a word until I pass the door she exited and see Nicks leaning against the frame like nothing’s wrong.
“The fuck, man?” I say, low and sharp. “You’ve got a wife. Kids. And she deserves better.Theydeserve better.”
He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “You know this lifestyle, Skinner. It’s just part of it. Don’t act like you’re some saint. You’ve got a trail of girls, and the whole league knows you’re one of the biggest players on the fucking field.”
I step closer, voice cold. “I’m single. And when I’m not? I won’t cheat. I won’t disrespect the woman I’ve told I love her, made her a mother, the one who made me a father. So don’t lump me in with you, man. You made vows. I didn’t.”
He scoffs and disappears back into his room.
