The Wrong Quarterback (The Wrong Player #1)

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

PARKER

I spotted her sitting on the bench outside the building, wrapped up in her thoughts and looking like she hadn’t slept in days. Her eyes were shadowed as she stared blankly at the book in her lap, their usual brightness dulled by exhaustion. I rubbed at my chest, realizing that more and more I was affected by her moods. If she was unhappy, or sad, or tired…there was no way for me to be okay. I shifted the coffee cup in my hand, nervous as usual because I was about to talk to her.

I’d never had this much on the line before as I did with this girl.

“Hi,” I told her, amused at how surprised she looked every time I talked to her. If she knew how much I’d been watching her this week, she maybe wouldn’t have been so surprised.

She probably would have been creeped out, though.

“Oh, hi,” she said, a blush immediately creeping up on her cheeks. She started frantically brushing her hair back and adjusting her clothes, like there was any way that I could think she looked less than the most beautiful girl that had ever walked the planet.

“For you, my lady,” I told her, handing her the cup before sitting down next to her on the bench.

“Thank—thank you,” she said gratefully, immediately taking a sip, only to jerk back in surprise. “How did you know?”

I bit down on my lip, fighting the stupid grin that would give me away. The rush that came from making her happy was better than winning any championship game. “You had it written on your cup the other day,” I said, shrugging like it was no big deal, and I hadn’t taken a photo of her cup in her hand so I could make sure to remember it always. I also was obviously not going to tell her that I had gotten that exact drink every day, just in case she looked like she needed it. Peppermint mocha with extra whip and a shot of espresso was, in fact, not my favorite drink.

She stared at me, the exhaustion in her gaze replaced with something that made my pulse start to raise. “Thank you,” she said again, softer this time, like the words were for more than just the coffee.

I cleared my throat, suddenly aware of the heat climbing my neck. “Listen, I’m not going to be able to talk to you in class today. The Professor has a stupid rule I’m working to get rid of,” I said, glancing toward the building, where Professor Hendrick’s no-nonsense face loomed in my mind. “But just so you know, I’ll be thinking about you the entire time.”

Her eyes widened, and she glanced down, a nervous laugh escaping her. “Don’t talk like that,” she said, but there was a hint of something in her voice, a waver that told me I’d hit the mark.

I shrugged, not bothering to hide my smirk. “Can’t help it,” I said, meeting her silver eyes straight on. “I’m obsessed.”

She snorted, and I grinned. She thought I was joking…

“How about we have a sign?” I told her.

“A sign?” she asked hesitantly, taking another long draw from her cup.

“Yeah. Every time I’m thinking of you, I’ll turn my hat backward,” I said, gesturing to the Tigers ball cap I was currently wearing forward facing.

She looked amused. “I mean that could work, except you could forget, and then I would get confused about whether you were thinking about me or not.”

I nodded, pretending to think about it seriously. “That works for me,” I told her, backing away since I needed to get to class a few minutes before the students started to arrive.

She gaped at me as I walked away, and I winked before finally turning to watch where I was going.

I did sneak one more glance at her, though—because how could I not—and her eyes were definitely trained on my ass.

“Like what you see?” I called out over my shoulder, laughing as she jerked her gaze away, pretending to look at the grass beneath her feet as her blush deepened, and she gave a little scoff.

“That’s okay, keep looking, baby, just know I do the same thing every time too,” I told her, watching, entranced, as the faintest smile played on her lips.

Casey took another sip of her coffee, and I knew I’d gotten one step closer to my goal…

Winning her heart.

In class, I leaned back in my chair, watching as the students filed in. The room was loud with the usual chatter as students settled in their seats, flipping open notebooks and pulling out laptops. My attention was glued on the door, though, waiting. When Casey walked in, still clutching the coffee I’d given her, my pulse immediately picked up in anticipation, a thrum that made the corners of my mouth tilt up.

I stared as she settled into her seat, opting for one in the back toward the side this time. She finally glanced my way, trying to be discreet, but the way her eyes softened and her cheeks flushed gave her away. I didn’t waste a second and reached up, making a show of turning my hat backward with a slow, deliberate movement, eyes locked on hers the entire time. Her mouth dropped, and I grinned, winking before I quickly dragged my gaze away, realizing that I was not being nearly discreet enough. I planned on handling the issues Professor Hendrick was going to have with Casey and me, but that was another step in my plan—not something I wanted to deal with today.

Professor Hendrick started talking, her voice droning on about the intricacies of Roman governance or some other details that may have been interesting to me the first time I’d heard them, but were definitely not interesting to me now. Every time Casey’s gaze drifted back toward me, I caught her, a smile playing on my lips as I tapped my hat, a silent message: I haven’t forgotten.

She shifted in her seat, biting her lip and casting her eyes down, the pink in her cheeks spreading. I loved how easily she blushed, there was no way for her to hide how she was feeling from me. It also made the long, boring class feel like a game, with me trying to see how many times I could make that pretty flush appear. Every time I caught her staring, I would tap my hat, and every time, she acted like it was the most shocking thing she’d ever seen.

I wasn’t surprised when she fled the moment Professor Hendrick ended class. I let her go, knowing she had another class to get to, and besides…I had plans of my own.

“Something wrong with your hat?” Professor Hendrick commented as I gathered up my stuff to leave.

“Pardon?” I asked, pretending to be thoroughly confused by her question. The woman was as observant as a cat.

“I’ve just never seen you so distracted by a ball cap before, Mr. Davis.”

“Having a bad hair day,” I told her, flashing her a charming grin as she peered at me over the spectacles she was wearing today, like some kind of witch trying to see my brain.

“Have a good day,” I called to her before hustling out of the room, and I felt her eyes on me the entire way…

I walked into Casey’s dorm building, knowing that she was in another class for the next two hours and that her roommate was with her. It had been a minute since I’d been in the dorms. This was a newer building than where I’d lived freshman year. It still sucked, though. I couldn’t wait to move Casey out of here and in with me.

I could faintly hear the low hum of conversation and music filtering in from down the hall. The girl at the front desk barely glanced up at first, too absorbed in whatever TikTok dance was playing on her phone. Perfect. I cleared my throat, leaning against the counter just enough to catch her attention.

“Hey there,” I said, flashing a smile that I knew worked every time to get me what I wanted. Her eyes snapped up, widening a bit as she registered who I was. She practically threw her phone down, leaping up from her chair.

“Oh, hi! Um…can I help you?” she stuttered, straightening up and beginning to play with her hair.

“Yeah, you can,” I said, keeping my voice low, like we were in on some kind of secret. “My buddy, Jace, left something in a girl’s room, and he sent me to pick it up since I was passing by.”

“Jace Thatcher?” she asked breathlessly, and I held in my eye roll. Jace would be eating this shit up right now. He never got tired of the attention we got.

“Yep. Marbella Frank’s room. He left his lucky socks in there, and tomorrow’s a big game. He can’t play without them.”

Lies. All lies. Jace’s lucky thing was his hair, the reason he had long, flowy locks that we gave him shit about all the time. He believed he would have a Sampson moment if his hair was cut. Definitely no lucky socks existed. And although Jace had hooked up with Marbella, it was last year, and he wouldn’t even remember doing it if you asked him. I just remembered because she’d tried to sleep with me right afterwards by walking into my room naked in the middle of the night.

It was unfortunate that she was the only person I knew that was living in the same dorm as Casey, but at least I could use her name.

Her face shifted from awestruck to conflicted, the rules clearly warring with whatever flustered thoughts were running through her head. “I…I don’t think I’m supposed to give out room numbers. It’s, um, against policy.”

I leaned in a little closer, watching as her pupils widened and her breath hitched. “I get it, really. And I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t so important. Could you maybe make an exception? Just this once. It will be our little…secret.” Her eyes lit up at that idea. I glanced at my watch, annoyed that my minutes were ticking down while I was having this conversation.

She hesitated again, biting her lip and then glancing around, as if someone from Admin was lurking in the shadows. “Okay…but just this once,” she whispered, her fingers tapping nervously on the keyboard as she searched for the room number.

While she was focused on the screen, my eyes flicked to the set of three keys on the hook behind the counter. One of those had to be the new universal key the college had added to the dorms over the summer after a few too many “accidental” lockouts.

I reached over casually, fingers brushing the keys while the girl kept typing, completely oblivious. I slipped it into my pocket just as she turned back to me, eyes wide with guilt.

“She’s in room 314,” she said, almost whispering. “Please don’t tell anyone I told you.”

I grinned, giving her a wink that made her blush deepen. “Your secret’s safe with me.” I turned, heading for the stairs, my heart picking up speed as I climbed.

Room 314. Not where I was actually headed.

When I reached Casey’s door, I took a deep breath before sliding the key into the lock, the soft click echoing in the quiet hallway.

And then, I was inside.

I stepped into the room, closing the door behind me and letting the silence settle around me. Taking a deep inhale, I could faintly smell the vanilla and cherry perfume that she wore. My dick began to get hard just from that.

Looking around, it didn’t take long to figure out which side was Casey’s. The sweatshirt she’d been wearing yesterday, now neatly folded at the end of the bed, caught my eye immediately. The rest of the bed was unmade, sheets rumpled like she’d bolted out of bed this morning, probably running late.

I walked over to her desk, glancing at the books stacked haphazardly, some open with sticky notes marking pages. History, music theory, a novel with the spine cracked from too much reading. She didn’t just skim; she dove deep.

There was a framed photo beside the books, slightly askew, like she’d touched it recently. It was her and the guy I recognized from the obituary I’d seen online. Her brother. Dark hair, the same intense eyes, except his smile was broader, more carefree. Her arm was looped around him, and they were leaning into each other. It was obvious that they had been close. My heart ached thinking about her losing him. I couldn’t imagine losing my brothers.

I wonder if her heart would hurt for me like this when I inevitably lost my mom.

Don’t think about that.

I set the picture down and moved to her bedside table, noticing the small details. A bracelet, delicate and a little tarnished, half-hidden by a book. It was a romance book, or romantasy …I think that’s what people called it, with a birdcage on it that looked like gold liquid was coming out of it. Gild . I wondered if there was some hidden meaning there, and Casey also felt like she was trapped in a cage.

If so, I couldn’t wait to help free her.

There was a worn-out music sheet sitting next to the journal. The notes were smudged in places, the paper creased as if it had been handled over and over. Obviously I knew she played piano, but judging by this, it looked like she had been writing her own music at some point in time as well.

I really wanted to hear her play it.

My gaze drifted back to her bed, spotting a pair of underwear still tangled in the shorts set I assumed she’d worn to sleep.

Hesitating, I stared at it, trying to control myself and the fact that my dick was aching. This was just supposed to be a fact-finding mission, a way for me to find out more about her to help with making her mine…

I lost my internal battle and walked over, pulling out the underwear and bringing them to my face, moaning as I inhaled her sweet scent.

I wanted her cunt so bad.

I needed it.

Just a little longer , I told myself.

I glanced at the bed and then my watch, knowing I was running out of time. But I couldn’t help it. I slid into the bed, falling face first into her pillow so I could breathe in her scent.

Fuck. My dick was so hard, I couldn’t stop myself. I rutted into the bed, thinking about sinking into her. Abruptly rolling over, my chest heaving because I was so out of control…I pulled down my joggers so I could free my aching cock.

The head was already shiny and red, cum seeping out of it because I’d never been this turned on in my life. I wrapped her underwear around my dick, gripping it as tightly as I imagined her pussy would be.

And then I fucked my hand.

Over and over again, a porno flashing through my mind of all the ways I was going to take her. How I was going to shove my dick down her throat and choke her with my cock. How I was going to fill her pretty pink pussy with my cum after I fucked her holes with my tongue. How I would push her tits around my dick and fuck them, covering her neck and face when I came. How I would eventually take her ass, over and over again before I pulled out and sprayed my seed all over her back.

I was going to fucking ruin her.

Just like she’d already ruined me.

I climaxed hard, spots of black clouding my vision as my cum spilled out, the orgasm better than anything I’d ever felt.

I was shocked as I came down, feeling like I’d just had an otherworldly experience.

If this was what it was like orgasming just from the thought of her, I could only imagine how good it was going to be to cum inside her.

A brief image of Casey round with my child hit my brain…and my dick was suddenly hard all over again.

For fuck’s sake, Parker. Give her a few years.

At this rate my cock was going to fall off. I’d never in my life had to masturbate as much as I had since finding Casey.

I sighed, turning my head so I could breathe her in while I thought about what I had planned for tomorrow night. Her roommate had taken the bait, eagerly saying she’d go to the party and bring her roommate with her. Jace didn’t know why he’d been inviting a random freshman to his house, but he’d thought Natalie was hot, so he hadn’t complained. I’d also made sure that an invitation was extended to Andrews’s frat.

Glancing at my watch again, I knew it was time to go. They’d be coming back any time now. Studying some of the cum that had escaped her panties and ended up on my hand, I wiped it on her pillow.

I stared at it proudly as I slid out of the bed, adjusting the covers back to where they’d been. There, now her bed would smell like me too.

I was whistling as I walked out and locked the door. The girl at the desk was pretending not to be watching for me as I came back out into the lobby, and I shot her a little salute, pointing to my bulging pocket like I’d secured the socks.

Even though I’d actually taken Casey’s thong, and it was what was in my pocket at that moment.

No socks to be found.

I mimed zipping my mouth shut, and she giggled, giving me a flirty wave as I left.

I was ecstatic as I walked out of the door, eager for the night to come, and the party I was about to prep for.