Page 29 of Through the Flames
The shouts from the sidelines faded whenever I caught a flash of her shimmering, vivid hair.
“I don’t know what lit a fire under your ass, but remind me to stay out of your way,” Jax mumbled as he shuffled past me, clearly noticing something was different.
They had no idea how different. No idea what kind of major effort it had been to keep myself in check for months now and how close I was to breaking.
My thoughts were pinballing, two things battling for focus. The playbook was in one half of my head. Ella in the other.
I needed to cut off their outside route.
I needed to cut off the guy two rows behind her who kept leaning too close.
She was in the stands, and I couldn’t fucking touch her. So I drove my shoulder through their receiver instead. A neat hit. Clean. Almost beautiful in its brutality.
Let her see what it looked like when I was done holding back.
My teeth clamped down on my mouth guard as I watched the receiver opposite me, his line set up in a spread formation. They thought they could isolate me one-on-one.
We were in the third quarter now, and the game was tight. The score wasn’t reflecting how fucking hard we’d worked.
Their wide receiver thought he was fast, and I almost wanted to snort when I watched his twitchy little ass. I’d seen this fucking route in my sleep.
“You gonna actually hit me this time, freak?” he chirped.
I cocked my head to the side. “Better hope I don’t.”
The ball was snapped, and the wide receiver took off. Stutter-step, then right into a slant.
I broke on the ball with full speed, zero fucking hesitation.
Bringing my shoulder down, I read his route. Timing was everything, and I was on fucking top of it.
Hitting the receiver mid-route with perfect form, the loud crack of our pads crashing into each other was drowned out by the roar of the crowd as the ball popped loose.
I cast a glance at the ref as I jumped up. No flag on the play, and the guys on the bench were losing it.
They knew better than to swarm me or touch me excessively. I wasn’t the type for big celebrations on the field anyway.
She saw that.
Iknowshe did.
The fierce surge of victory coursing through me as I felt her eyes on me after this play went beyond the scoreboard.
My lips pulled into a grin beneath my helmet, an uncharacteristic move for me on the field, and I was sure I looked almost feral, but Ella was watching me, and it couldn’t be contained.
I was locked in, eyes burning beneath my helmet. The crowd noise melted away. All I could see was the field and my girl.
Every play I tore into was fueled by my obsession. It wasn’t just about defending this turf; it was about marking my territory and silently claiming something nobody else should dare touch.
The offense lined up. Taking my stance, I felt my muscles twitch in anticipation as my eyes flicked from side to side, trying to get a read on my opponents.
I could smell the sweat and adrenaline, could hear the snap echoing in my ears.
Dom was in my periphery, always a little too loose, always a little too wild. I hated that sometimes. His recklessness was a liability, and yet I recognized some part of myself in him.
We were polar opposites, but the way he was chasing Sierra made me question if maybe I wasn’t the only one hiding my crazy.
Snap. Dom took a breath — too long.
