Broken Saint (Seattle Saints #1)

30. Ella

30

ELLA

I roll over and press my face into the pillow beneath me, breathing in his scent.

A satisfied smile spreads across my lips as I think back to the night before.

The little tryst in the restaurant and then at the club really was just the beginning of what Colt had planned.

My muscles ache and my pussy throbs as I think about what happened the second we got inside his apartment.

I’d barely made it two steps before I was in his arms, and I was naked before we even hit the couch.

Heat rushes through my system as I remember him laying me out and then dropping to his knees to eat me again.

He had the bright lights of Seattle behind his head, but the only thing he was focused on was me.

It was a heady experience.

I lost count of how many times he made me come before we finally made it to the bedroom. And I have no clue what time we finally passed out. All I do know is that it was later than it should have been, seeing as Colt had to be up at the crack of dawn to get to the facility for training.

He told me that he wasn’t going to wake me as he left, and he probably wouldn’t have if he hadn’t stopped to kiss me. I’m so fucking glad he did.

“I want you here waiting for me when I get home, Bombshell,” he whispered roughly in my ear. “We’re going to have dinner, then embark on a repeat of last night. It was epic. You are epic.”

I was still smiling long after he left the apartment, and I drifted back off to sleep happier than I remember being in a very, very long time.

Breathing in another shot of the man I can’t stop thinking about, I stretch my legs out and groan at the pull of my muscles.

While a repeat of last night might sound incredible, I’m not sure my body can keep up with his.

He’s in prime condition from all his training. He has to be. He plays for the freaking Seattle Saints. All I’ve done over the last few years is make every excuse under the sun as to why I can’t exercise and eaten one too many tacos.

Throwing the covers back, I pad naked to the bathroom and gasp the second I get a look at myself in the mirror.

“Jesus, Colt,” I mutter, my eyes roaming from love bites to teeth marks to bruises.

I did say I wanted a physical reminder about last night. I certainly got one—or twenty.

I clean up and brush my teeth before finding a Saints shirt in Colt’s closet and heading out to his kitchen to see if there’s coffee.

As I move through the open-plan living area, I can’t help but notice how sparse and impersonal it all is.

It’s the kind of home that I would have predicted for him when we were in college. But it doesn’t gel with the man I’m getting to know now.

Thankfully, though, I do find a coffee machine sitting on the side of what I can only assume is a barely used kitchen.

I can imagine Colt doing a lot of things, but for some reason, cooking isn’t one of them.

With a mug in my hands, I walk toward the floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over downtown Seattle.

The sun has risen and is glinting off the buildings, and the sky is a beautiful blue. It’s nowhere near as hot as what I left behind in Texas, but something tells me that it’s a perfect Seattle fall day.

I stand there for the longest time before something buzzes in the room.

I scan the furniture for my purse.

I might not have taken it with me into the club last night, but I remember carrying it up here. I also remember dropping it.

Walking toward the front door, I find it half kicked under a cabinet.

With a laugh, I pull it out and flip it open.

I have a whole stream of messages waiting for me, but it’s the most recent one that makes me giddy with happiness.

Letty: Kane says Colt hasn’t stopped smiling since he turned up this morning. Good work, girl.

Clutching my cell to my chest like a lovesick fool, I climb onto one of Colt’s kitchen island stools and read through the rest of her messages from this morning.

I’m still laughing at her demand to know if I’ve died and gone to orgasm heaven when I hit call on her number.

“Oh my god, she is alive,” she announces happily.

“It was touch and go there for a while, but Colt?—”

“Gave you the kiss of life?”

“Something like that.” I laugh.

“Tell me everything, El. Literally every single detail.”

“I might regret this,” I mutter. “But are you busy today?”

“Never too busy to hear about the sex fest that was your night, Miss Myers.”

“I was wondering if you wanted to come hang out. Maybe bring your yoga mats.”

She barks a laugh down the line. “You need to do a little stretching, huh?”

“I need to do a lot of things right now. Most pressing is to shower.”

“Okay, listen. Give me an hour. I’ll get a sitter for Ky, grab us food, and we’ll stretch and talk it out.”

Guilt twists in my stomach. “Ky can come,” I argue.

“Trust me, he’ll have more fun where I’m planning on taking him. Just worry about washing the sex smell and cum off you, and I’ll take care of the rest.”

“You really have a way with words, Let.”

“See you soon.” She blows me a loud kiss before hanging up.

Lowering my cell, I look around, wondering what Colt would think about having Letty in his home.

Picking my cell back up, I find his contact and shoot him a message.

It delivers, but it doesn’t show as read. I’m hardly surprised, but it still makes me nervous.

After replying to Mom to give her an update, I ignore the messages from him and take my ass to the shower.

I spend longer than I planned standing under the rainfall shower head, letting the warm water soothe my sore muscles,so when I get out and hear a buzzer ringing, I panic.

Quickly wrapping a towel around myself, I rush toward the door and pull it open, expecting to find Letty on the other side.

“Oh crap,” I gasp when instead of my best friend, I find a young and totally mortified delivery man. "Sorry,” I mutter, attempting to adjust my towel to cover up, well, everything.

“Delivery for Miss Ella Myers?” he asks, looking everywhere but at me. Dude can’t have had his driver’s license all that long, and here I am practically flashing him.

“Yeah, that’s me.”

I take the box he thrusts at me, and the second he can run, he does.

Shaking my head at the poor kid, I kick the door closed and carry the box to the counter.

It’s massive, but also not very heavy.

With my brows pinched, I pull the lid off and find a note.

Bombshell,

I loved waking up with you in my bed this morning.

Thought I owed you some new ones, seeing as I keep stealing yours.

Don’t forget, I want to come home to you tonight.

Yours,

Colton.

My heart rate picks up and my hand trembles as I hold the note.

Yours .

Fuck, how I hope that’s true.

Placing it on the side, I pull the tissue paper aside to reveal the contents.

“Oh my god,” I gasp when a La Perla box stares up at me.

All my life I’ve yearned for La Perla lingerie, but I have never been anywhere close to being able to justify the price.

Ripping the lid off, I dive in, desperate to see what he’s chosen for me.

By the time I’ve emptied the box, I have tears streaming down my cheeks, completely overwhelmed with what I’ve just experienced.

All of the lingerie is beautiful. Not that there was any doubt it would be. But the size and the styles he chose are perfect. They’re exactly what I would have picked for myself.

Sniffling, I lift the ivory box from the cushion of tissue. I’m about to begin packing it all away when another wrapped gift catches my eye.

Unwrapping it quickly, I can’t help but laugh when I find a pair of Saints-blue panties. They’re nothing special, not like I’ve already unpacked, but the second I turn them around, I understand their importance.

Rogers #42 is stamped on the back.

I’m still laughing when the buzzer rings again, only this time I check the peephole before throwing the door open and letting the person beyond discover what a mess I am.

“Oh my god, what is going on?” Letty asks after studying my smiling yet tear-stained face.

I shrug. “It’s just Colt. Come on.”

I drag her over to the lingerie strewn over his island bench and let her see for herself.

“Boy has good taste,” she muses. “I mean, I already knew that because he’s obsessed with you, but still…”

“He is not obsessed,” I hedge.

“El,” she sighs. “That boy has been gone for you for years. He’s just too pig-headed and scared to see it.”

My heart flutters with the hope that what she’s saying is true.

It sure feels like it might be right now.

“What if all of this is too good to be true?” I ask, quietly voicing my biggest fear.

Colt is making it so easy to remember all the reasons I fell so hard for him back in college.

“You’re allowed good things to happen in your life. You deserve it. More than deserve it.”

“Things like this just don’t happen to me, though.” I hesitate, swallowing my nerves. “For years, this is all I’ve dreamed of, but I knew it was unreachable.”

“Colton has changed, El. He’s grown, and life has moved on. All that shit he used to spew in college is long gone.”

“Is it, though? You’ve seen him in the media just as much as I have.”

“Yes, but I’ve also seen him in real life. He hasn’t been happy for a while. The others have seen it, too. I think Kane knows more, but he won’t betray Colt’s trust. But I think he needs you right now just as much as you need him.

“I know this is probably easier said than done after everything, but you need to trust him, El. Trust him, and talk to him. There is so much more to him than the young man we knew at MKU. Find out who he is now.”

“You’re right,” I agree. “I’ve already seen it.”

“See? There you go,” she says, a wide smile pulling at her lips. “You’re both grownups now. Things change. How we see the future changes, and something tells me that he’s seeing you in his.”

“God, I hope so.” Tucking my hair behind my ear, I quietly voice something I haven’t even been able to admit to myself this far. “I want it, Let. I want all of it. Him. Here. This.”

Her eyes go all soft and sappy and she reaches for my hand.

“Then I’m not the one you should be telling.”

“What if I scare him off?”

“What if you don’t?”