Chasing Football Dreams (Diner Girl #2)

Chapter Eight

M y shoulders jerked at the sound of Zoey screaming and thrashing her hands around as if she were trying to fight off someone.

I reached for her, touching her shoulder softly not wanting to scare her, and whispered her name. “Zoey, love,” I kept repeating even though she pulled away from me.

I clenched my jaw when her whimper sounded like a wounded animal when she fully pulled away. I hated this part. I felt powerless when she got nightmares. She whipped the blanket away from her and crawled away from me, giving me her back as she sat on the edge of the bed.

“Zoey,” I softly said, sitting upright and scooting in beside her—our feet dangling off the bed. She avoided looking at me.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and sighed in relief when she came to me. She dropped her on my shoulder and I felt wetness dripping against my skin. I touched her face, tilting her head back and seeing the tears. This girl barely cried. It hurt me to see her like this. She doesn’t deserve this pain.

I wiped the tears away with my thumbs and kissed her on each cheek before pulling her onto my lap and comforting her.

“I’m sorry,” I barely heard her whisper as her voice was muffled in my shoulder.

I tightened my hold around her. “No, love. There’s no need for that,”

“I hate getting them. They feel so damn real,” I was relieved to hear her voice.

She pulled back, wiping away her tears.

“Is it a recurrent dream?” I asked, letting her go when she pulled completely away.

I turned to face her when she was sitting perked up against the headboard, pulling the blanket up when she realized she was naked. I hid my smile when I saw her blush. She shouldn’t have let me have a taste of her because I was hooked on her.

“Yes,” She answered breaking my thoughts. “I am locked away in a small room. It looks like a girl's room but everything is covered in dust and I feel like I am wrapped in a bubble of despair. My hands and feet are tied. I am crying. I hear heavy footsteps. The door opens and a man walks in, holding something in his hand I beg him not to hurt me but he doesn’t care about my pleads as he covers my mouth with his massive hand,”

A tear escaped from her eyes. “He is strangling me and no matter how I try to fight him off. I am too small to do anything,”

“He wins every time,” She dropped her gaze to her hands resting on her lap.

“No, he doesn’t because you are here. You are alive,” I encouraged her, taking her hands between mine not liking the way she was giving up.

Zoey is everything but a quitter.

“I am afraid to open my eyes. Afraid that you don’t exist,” She touched my face with her shaky hand like she had to make sure I was there. I rested my hand over hers to show her that I was real. This between us was real. It wasn’t a dream.

“How can I help with these dreams, baby?”

Her smile was small but grateful. “You are already helping,” She leaned forward, skimming her hands over my shoulders and twisting them behind my neck. The blanket fell away when she pushed up on her knees in front of me.

I met her lips midway and I got drunk on her taste.

I didn’t want to take advantage of her when she was feeling like this but Zoey’s stubbornness pushed me down onto my back and she was in control. I let her overpower the monsters in her head and gave her control of her decisions.

Zoey demonstrated her hot-headedness and stubbornness when she didn’t back down even after she was almost abducted. Zoey didn’t deserve any of this. She was kind. Thoughtful. Beautiful. Loving. All she wants is someone to give her back the love she hands out. I can see that little lost girl in her eyes every time she stands on the field guiding my team to victory. I can’t give her back her past but I can give her a future with a promise that she will forever be loved.

I watched her with a hazy gaze when she pushed the blankets away and settled on top of my lap. My body was already having a hard time surviving after I had a taste of her.

I saw the tears in her eyes and I went to cup her face in my hand. I kissed her cheek, wiping away the tears. “I wish I could wipe away these monsters inside your head,”

“You can’t always protect me,” Her defiance was killing me.

I rolled her onto her back when I noticed her attention was somewhere else when she turned her face away from me.

“It’s not about protecting. You’ve demonstrated that you can handle protecting yourself,” She doesn’t need a prince in armor to come to save her. She can slay any beast but every warrior needs a sidekick.

“People were right when they called me a freak,”

It maddened me that she would see herself as a freak for something she had no control over. “You’re not a freak,”

“Please. I grew up in an orphanage where nobody dared to love me. I get nightmares which most definitely look like they could be suppressed memories,”

I took the opportunity to lower my mouth to her neck and sucked on the soft skin to distract her.

I couldn’t stop myself from softly grazing my teeth in the crook of her neck. “You’re not a freak,” I reminded her again.

“Duncan—oh-my-god…,” Her words came out as a moan with her body betraying her when her back lifted off the bed and pushed against mine.

I ventured lower, my hands skimming up her hips with my lips placing open kisses on her stomach. Her muscles tightened making her abs contract—making her utterly irresistible.

“You were taken from your parents and forced to believe they died. That’s not a freak to me. It takes strength to overcome what you have. You didn’t let anything define you,” I looked at her with my lips hovering over her skin.

“It’s starting to,” She whispered.

I brushed my hand up her leg and let my fingers drift into her sleeping shorts where I found her dampened core. I pushed her panties aside, stroking her and plunging a finger into her wetness.

Her back shot off the bed as a moan rumbled through her chest. I worked my fingers in and out of her, watching her lose control and listening to her soft begs. Ever since I got a taste of her and touched her like this—I couldn’t stop wanting to touch her intimately. I wanted her, skin to skin settle deep inside of her and hear her moaning my name.

I watched her with a grin as her body spasmed and listened to her outcry. Her hands shot out to grab hold of the bed and clutch the blanket between her fingers.

Her eyes fell shut. Her chest rose and fell with every breath. I pulled my fingers from her wetness and crawled back up her body. I landed a few kisses on her chest and cheeks.

“It’s been tough concealing my emotions around you ever since I saw you that night at the bleachers. You left me tongue-tied when I saw you again at the diner but I knew from that moment, I wanted to be the reason for your smile and laughter,”

“What took you so long?” She asked.

I closed my eyes, embracing the comfort of her hand brushing through my hair. “I felt like you deserved someone better,”

“Why’s that?”

I reopened my eyes finding her judge-free gaze focusing on me. “You are the example of what a good person looks like while I am the complete opposite,”

“You are not a bad person. Bad things happened to you,” She urged me to lower onto my elbows and met my lips. She pushed my lips apart and kissed me passionately to the point where I was ready to take her right over and over.

I slowed down the kiss, loving her little rambles when she realized what I was doing. She threw me over onto my back and straddled my waist. She pushed her hands up my naked chest and skimmed them slowly back down making me moan at her touch. I met her halfway when she leaned forward finding my lips.

My hands went to cup her ass and involutory jerked my hips. Her moan in my ears drove me batshit crazy and I was almost tempted to let her have her way with me.

“Zoey,” I grumbled when she broke the kiss to make her way down my chest. Her lips closed around a nipple before leaving a trail of open kisses down my waist.

I dropped my head back. My hands were in my hair as I moaned at the feel of her lips on my skin. “Fuck,” I was trying to be the good guy here.

“You are going to be the death of me,”