The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player #1)

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

PARKER

M y phone buzzed as I walked into the student tutoring office.

I scoffed as I stared at the text.

Jace: Send help. I need an IV. I think I might shrivel up and die.

Matty: WTF is wrong with you?

Jace: That girl last night was like some kind of vampire. But like one that sucks cocks. I think she sucked all of the cum out of my dick.

Jace: I’m dying.

I blinked at the phone, unsure of what I was reading.

Matty: I might be the one dying because now I’m going to have this image in my head until you say the next stupid thing.

Jace: This is a real life emergency, Matthew. What would your life be like if I was six feet under? Huh? Think about that before you come at me with your unhelpfulness.

Jace: And you, QB. Who would catch your balls and take care of your balls and make sure your balls were put in the right place.

I almost tripped on air reading that one.

Matty: Why exactly was that so sexual?

Jace: It wasn’t. Why is your head in the gutter?

Jace: As I was saying. SOMEONE brING ME BLUE GATORADE.

Matty: Why not red Gatorade? You don’t sound like you’re dying to me if you’re being picky about the color of your liquid consumption.

Me: Good point, Matty.

My footsteps echoed over the tiled floor as I approached the desk where a nervous, dark-haired girl was staring at me like I was an alien that had just landed in front of her. If I had actually needed help, I could have used any of the team tutors that were on call almost twenty-four seven. But since I had straight As, and I didn’t want those tutors…that wouldn’t have been helpful.

Thus I was here.

Me: Sorry, boys, you’re by yourselves on this one. Matty, I suggest some orange juice. That usually perks him right up.

I pocketed my phone, ignoring the barrage of texts that followed.

The girl continued to stare at me once I got up to the desk. I smiled at her and her face paled, like she was going to faint.

“Hi,” I said, annoyed when she squeaked, got up from her seat, and ran out of sight.

I glanced at my watch. According to her schedule on the school portal, Casey’s first shift as a tutor was still open tonight. I was going to be really displeased if that spot was filled while I was waiting for someone competent to help me out, and I had to figure out that problem as well.

Sometimes being so awesome was really a burden.

Noticing an old-school silver bell on the counter, I banged on it a few times, until finally an ancient-looking woman popped her head around the corner. Speaking of vampires…she looked like she’d woken up from the grave and decided to come to work today.

She glared at me, her lips pursed. Yes, this was a woman who could help me. I could tell she’d made up her mind about me before I even opened my mouth. Dumb, muscle guy, here for a quick fix.

Perfect.

I leaned casually against the counter. “I need to get a tutor.”

The woman walked over to the desk with a sigh, and I thought about taking a picture of her and sending it to Jace to see if this was who he’d been talking about. She was so pale, I was pretty sure I could see the veins running under her skin.

I smirked at the thought.

“What subject?” she asked sourly.

“Calculus,” I said, leaning forward so I could look at the computer with her as she went through names.

She scowled, squinting at the screen as she scrolled, finally stopping on the first calculus tutor available, someone named Hollow Thornley.

“Nope, sorry, she won’t work,” I insisted quickly. “She hates me. My best friend broke her heart and it brings back bad memories when she sees me.”

I had no idea who Hollow Thornley was, but knowing Jace and Matty, it could be the truth.

The lady coughed, shaking her head at my argument. “There’s very few available,” she growled in a croaky voice.

I pointed to Casey’s name on the screen. “What about her?”

The woman leaned closer, going through Casey’s information. “She’s a freshman, brand new,” she warned.

“Perfect,” I said quickly, wincing at how eager I sounded.

The woman didn’t seem to notice my…enthusiasm. “Name?” she droned, her claw-like hands hovering over the keyboard.

“Davis,” I said vaguely, hoping I’d read the situation correctly and she had no idea who I was.

The woman nodded and typed what I’d said before she handed me the appointment details and shuffled away from the desk—probably to go back to her coffin and take a nap.

I was whistling as I left the building, wishing that the day would go faster.

I got to the library twenty minutes early, determined not to miss out on a second with her. To my surprise, Casey was already there, sitting at one of the long wooden tables near the back by the windows. Her head was down, her hand nervously fidgeting with a pencil. I couldn’t help but grin as I watched her. How could I not? She made me happy just looking at her.

She just didn’t know that yet.

I watched her for a moment, wondering how it was possible for her to make a baggy sweatshirt look better than the sexiest lingerie I’d ever seen. Her hair was down, falling in waves almost to her waist, and she was surrounded by textbooks and notebooks, a feat since school had barely started.

I decided not to even try and wait for my appointment time, the longer I got with her, the better.

People were whispering as I walked through the room, but that wasn’t anything new for me. Eventually, she would get used to that too. And realize that it was a very small list of people whose opinion or attention actually mattered.

None of the sheep in this library were on that list.

I pulled out the chair next to her, making sure to brush against her as I sat down. Her eyes darted up, and she froze for a second, staring at me in shock.

“Hey,” I murmured. “It must be my lucky day.”

Her cheeks immediately flushed, and she literally gulped as she continued to gape at me. I’d always prided myself on self control, but having those silver eyes on me was literally making my dick ache.

“They forgot your first name,” she blurted out.

“Hmm?”

“They just put ‘Davis’ on the sign-up form online. I—I didn’t know it was going to be you,” she explained, looking adorably frantic as she began organizing her papers like I was going to have a problem with the fact that they weren’t perfectly lined up.

“That’s weird,” I said casually, scooting my chair even closer to her so my thigh was pressed up against hers.

She stared at where we were touching, her eyes darting from my leg to my face, and then back again as she debated asking me to give her some space. There was also the little fact that her boyfriend had asked her to stay away from me.

My grin when she didn’t say anything felt so wide, I probably resembled one of those scary clowns that had terrified kids since the dawn of time.

I needed to tone it down.

“Umm…right. So calculus. You need help with calculus .” She cleared her throat, peeking at me. “Right?”

I chuckled, taking the opportunity to brush her hair behind her ear. Fuck, it was soft. I was really going to enjoy wrapping it around my fists as I fucked her from behind.

Slow down, Parker.

Casey shivered, inhaling deeply. After a second, I leaned forward, my lips almost brushing hers.

“Breathe,” I murmured.

Her breath left her in a sexy gasp, and I inhaled, because I wanted her air inside me.

We stayed like that for a second, just staring at each other, until the bang of someone dropping a book nearby made her jump and jerk away.

I had the insane urge to find whoever had dropped that book…and murder them.

“Alright, Teach,” I grinned, leaning back in my chair, even though all I wanted was to scoop her into my arms. “So, you’re going to make sure that I don’t fail, huh?”

She licked her lips nervously, her fingers tightening around the pencil she was holding. I frowned when I saw her hand start to shake. As soon as she noticed me watching, she dropped the pencil, yanking her trembling hand into her lap.

I filed that away as something I needed to follow up with. If she had an injury, I needed to know how to help her.

I needed to know everything about her.

“I’m sure that’s not going to happen,” she said shyly.

“What?” I asked, realizing I’d missed something she’d said. Unacceptable. Her voice was just a little distracting, like a drug that could make me do anything.

“You’re not going to fail.”

I propped my chin on my fist and stared at her, amused…and a little entranced. “Why do you say that?”

She flipped through some more papers, clearly trying to distract herself from looking at me. It was so cute, how nervous she was. “You just seem like the kind of guy who’s very…capable.”

“I’m not sure that I’ve ever been described as ‘capable’ but I like it.” I picked up a strand of her hair and absentmindedly played with it.

“Do you have any work for me to look at so I can see what you need help with?” she asked, pulling her hair from my fingers and tossing it over her other shoulder and out of reach.

“Yes, right here,” I told her, grabbing the calculus assignment I’d brought with me. I was actually in calculus two years ago, so this was an old assignment. But there was no way she’d know that.

She picked up the paper, her brow furrowing as she scanned my answers. I’d intentionally changed a few things, to make it look believable.

“Okay, it looks like you’re having trouble here,” she mumbled, pointing at a section I’d intentionally messed up. “And this one too. But these are more algebra issues rather than calculus, so that will be easy to fix.”

I leaned forward, my arm brushing against hers again, just enough to make her flinch. “I don’t know…looks pretty hopeless to me,” I mused.

Her blush deepened, and she shook her head quickly. “No, it’s not…you just need to focus more on the structure here.”

I watched her closely as she talked, trying to sound professional. She was really struggling, though, her eyes darting up at me every few seconds, constantly fidgeting in her chair. She was doing everything she could to act like this was just a normal tutoring session, but she wasn’t very good at faking that.

As she worked through my mistakes , I glanced over at her notebook. Her own homework was sitting there, half-done. It didn’t take long for me to spot some of her answers—ones that were wrong.

“Hold on,” she said, suddenly standing. “I’ll be right back, I—just need to run to the bathroom.” More like she needed a break from the sexual tension between us. But I wouldn’t call her out on that.

“Of course,” I told her, admiring what must be the world’s most perfect ass as she walked away. It was a rare thing when a backside was as good as a frontside. I was a lucky man.

The moment she’d disappeared around the corner, I reached over and grabbed her notebook. It didn’t take long to correct her mistakes—just a few quick fixes. I made sure to erase everything thoroughly, so she wouldn’t notice anything had been changed.

“Hi, Parker,” a breathy voice called my name right as I was finishing. I slowly set the pencil down and dramatically sighed in annoyance, just so the witch who had shown up wouldn’t miss it.

“McKenzie,” I finally said in a bored voice. The fact that she still was trying to get me to fuck her after the hot sauce incident was just another blaring sign that this chick was absolutely insane. There should be a neon sign attached to her head that warned all mankind that they should keep ten feet between their dicks and this girl at all times.

“That was a really good game this weekend. I mean—you were amazing,” she gushed, her voice ten times higher pitched than it normally was. Like I was supposed to be turned on by that.

My eyes widened when I finally looked at her. What was she wearing? It was like a scrap of cloth. I’m surprised nipples weren’t showing. She either had a fetish for the library, or she’d known I was in here and purposely showed up.

And then she put her hand on my shoulder.

I immediately stiffened and grabbed her wrist, pushing it off of me. “If you ever touch me again, I’m going to make sure that the whole campus knows what happened that night. Do you understand?”

Her eyes went wide, her lips doing a fake trembling thing. Fuck , this was probably turning her on.

“That was just a misunderstanding. I tried to tell you that,” she cried.

Before I could respond, Casey came back, her body language stiff and cold as she sat down in her chair, intentionally scooting it over this time so there was space between us.

Fuck. Now I was even more furious.

“Go bother someone else, McKenzie,” I said loudly, and she immediately dropped her little act, her cheeks growing red.

“Parker—”

“Now,” I growled. Casey shifted in her seat at my tone. Don’t worry, baby, I’d never use that tone on you , I wanted to tell her.

I turned my head toward Casey, and McKenzie stayed there for another few seconds before realizing she wasn’t going to get what she wanted from me. She left with a huff, and the air in the library felt immediately less toxic.

Casey was studying my assignments, her pencil scratching against the paper as she fixed the mistakes. I scooted my chair toward her, erasing the space she’d put between us.

“Sorry about that,” I told her, leaning in again, this time letting my hand rest on the table so our pinkies touched.

“I imagine that happens a lot,” she murmured, still not looking at me—but she didn’t move her hand.

“I have no interest unless?—”

I let the sentence hover, and she finally glanced at me. “Unless what?”

“Unless it’s from you,” I told her meaningfully.

She snorted, and I grinned.

“None of that… nonsense during our sessions, Parker Davis,” she muttered, her cheeks on fire again.

“It’s not nonsense , but I like that you didn’t outlaw it outside of our sessions,” I purred, hooking my pinky with hers.

She stared at where our fingers were intertwined for a good thirty seconds before she finally shook her head and yanked her hand away before loudly starting to explain one of the concepts I’d gotten wrong.

I laughed and then pretended to be absorbing what she was teaching me while I lusted after the sound of her voice.

“Thanks for helping me out with this,” I said when she’d finally taken a breath. My voice was low, like I was confiding in her. “You’re pretty good at this.”

She swallowed hard, her eyes flicking to mine. “Thanks.”

Her blush deepened again, and I could tell she wasn’t used to compliments. Every time I complimented her, every time I touched her, it was like she didn’t know how to react.

I frowned. How was that possible? The whole world should be falling at the feet of this beautiful, talented, fucking incredible girl.

“Do you think you can try it now?” she asked in a choked voice, pointing to a problem she’d just gone over.

I nodded and reached across her, again letting my fingers graze hers for just a second. She jolted in her seat, but didn’t say anything.

“Relax, Casey,” I said, smiling softly. “You don’t have to be so tense. It’s just tutoring.”

Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Instead, she nodded, watching while I did the problem exactly correct. Her smile was blinding when she glanced over what I’d done.

“That’s perfect,” she said excitedly.

“It’s only because of you,” I told her with a wink, the smile on my face fading as I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

Jace had just strolled into the library, an amused look on his face as he stared around the room, like he’d stumbled into an alien landscape.

I was pretty sure Jace had never been in a library before. Which meant that his presence was because of me. The second he spotted me sitting with Casey, his grin widened. I shot him my best fuck off look, but he pretended not to see it.

“Fancy seeing you here, Parkie-Poo. You usually like to study in a more… private setting,” Jace said when he reached the table. His voice was loud enough that a few people in the surrounding tables glared at him, their expressions quickly changing when they realized who he was. Even if you hated football, there was little chance you hadn’t seen the huge banner hanging down the English building, complete with his man bun in all of its glory.

He sat down across from Casey and propped his chin up in his hands, batting his eyelashes at her in a way that made me want to kill him. “Thank goodness, you’re getting help. I know how much you… struggle with your classes.” He smirked at me mockingly.

If he kept pausing like that, I really was going to reach across and strangle him.

Of course he was referencing the fact that I had straight A’s in all of my classes—and I always had. He was also referencing the fact that along with being a Heisman finalist last year, I’d actually been awarded the Academic All-America Team Member of the Year.

But Casey obviously didn’t know any of that, and I needed some time to seal the deal before she found that out. At least a few more tutoring sessions.

When Casey looked down at the table, I flipped him off, mouthing leave to him frantically.

Jace, however, thrived on pushing my buttons. His grin only grew as he turned to Casey, eyes narrowing slightly as he appraised her. “How come you haven’t introduced me to your friend yet…your very pretty friend, Parkie? I’m Jace, Parker’s hotter, smarter best friend.”

I snorted at that, and he raised his eyebrows at me. “You should tell her, QB, tell her how much smarter I am than you. And hotter too.” He wiggled his eyebrows a little more for good measure.

Out of all the things he could try and blackmail me on at the moment, this was what he’d decided to do…

What a guy.

“He’s much smarter than me,” I told her, trying to keep a straight face, although it was really hard. “And as you can see, much hotter,” I continued, even though I didn’t want her even looking at him.

I only wanted her eyes on me.

Jace held out a hand toward Casey. “Charmed, I’m sure,” he said in an affected English accent.

Before Casey could react, I smacked his hand away, a sharp thwack that had him laughing. “Touchy, Parker,” he said, mock innocence dripping from his tone as he wiggled his fingers and shoved his hands in his pockets.

Casey looked between us, wide-eyed, like she was caught in the middle of a conversation she hadn’t quite signed up for. “You have a lot of nicknames,” she finally told me, and I barked out a laugh as I thought about grabbing her a cup of ice or something to help cool off her face since she hadn’t stopped blushing since I’d gotten here.

Jace wasn’t done torturing me yet…of course.

“I really didn’t know you were into libraries,” he said, shifting his gaze back to me. “Or…extracurriculars.” The teasing lilt to his voice was subtle, but it made my jaw tighten.

“Want to hear a joke?” he asked Casey suddenly.

I groaned. “Please, no.”

“It’s a good one. It will impress her.”

I growled at him, and he grinned. Asshole. “You don’t need to impress her.”

“Ignore him,” Jace said to Casey, and my annoyance faded for a second because her smile was so fucking pretty. “He’s just jealous because of the whole smarter and hotter thing.”

Casey laughed, and I reached under the table to try and adjust myself. At this point, maybe I would just die because all the blood in my body had gone to my dick.

“Okay, prepare yourself, because this is a good one,” he told her.

Casey nodded, the soft, sweet smile still on her face.

“Why couldn’t the lizard get a girlfriend?”

I sighed in exasperation, but like everyone else in this library today, he ignored it.

“Because he had reptile dysfunction,” Jace finished proudly.

I groaned, but Casey was laughing. Hard.

And now it was definitely time for Jace to go, because I didn’t want anyone making her laugh like that—but me.

This was becoming a strange, slightly scary trend in my thoughts. I’d have to examine that closer…

When someone else wasn’t making her laugh.

“Alright, on that…note, I think it’s time for you to be leaving. Don’t you have that meeting tonight, Jace?” I asked, hoping he could read the “you will die if you don’t leave now” in my expression.

Jace’s lips twitched, but I must have finally looked scary enough that he got the point. “Yeah, that meeting . I’d better get going to it,” he said in an amused voice, standing up from the table. “It was a very huge pleasure to meet you, Casey,” Jace continued dramatically before winking and sauntering away.

By the time he was walking out of the library, he’d somehow ended up with a girl under each arm. Which, of course, didn’t prevent him from yelling, “See ya later, QB,” as he left the room.

Casey giggled again, and I sighed in mock annoyance. “Sorry about him,” I told her.

Her smile was shy as she finally looked me in the eyes. “He was funny. I liked him,” she answered.

“But not more than me, right?” I found myself asking, like a pathetic, insecure fool, as I leaned in closer to her, taking the occasion to play with her hair a little more.

She blinked a few times, studying my face with those gorgeous starry eyes—and yes, I was very well aware that I’d never used that particular descriptor on anything before in my life.

The way I was acting was very new to me.

“Not more than you,” she finally whispered, and somehow, it felt like the biggest victory I’d ever won.

We only had ten more minutes left in our session, but I made sure to keep pushing the rest of the time, testing her reactions. Little touches here and there, small compliments that made her blush even deeper. I didn’t go too far—just enough to keep her on edge, to make sure she would be thinking about me long after the session was over.

By the time we finished, I could tell she was flustered—and I badly needed to jack off. Casey gathered her things quickly, like she couldn’t wait to escape. But I wasn’t about to let her go that easily.

“Hey,” I said as she stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “Can you put me on your schedule for Thursday, after practice?”

She hesitated, her eyes flicking to mine before she nodded. “Yes, of course," she finally said, taking a step away.

“I’d better get your number, just in case practice runs long or something.” I smiled at her innocently, like I didn’t have plans to text her constantly. “Wouldn’t want to keep you waiting on me.”

“Oh, right,” she said, way too trustingly, rattling off her phone number for me after I got out my phone. I immediately sent her a text.

“Now you have my number too,” I told her, winking. “Feel free to use it anytime…and I do mean anytime .”

“Oh, I—” she stuttered, and I took advantage of the moment to reach out and pull her into a quick hug, trying not to come from how good it felt to finally have her in my arms.

I may have held on for a little too long before I released her.

“Bye,” she squeaked, stumbling a few steps away before giving me a cute little wave and all but running out of the library.

I resisted the urge to go after her, promising myself that soon, she wouldn’t want to run away at all.