Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“Abe, this is your future. Didn’t you say there are talent scouts coming? Lincoln, drive back to the game. Hurry!”
Lincoln steps on the accelerator, and the Tesla surges forward. He loves to speed.
“Fine.” Abe pulls me onto his lap, his hands sliding up and down my thighs. “But you’re mine after the game. If Coach doesn’t kill me when I get there.”
Lincoln races down the roads like we’re in a James Bond movie. I hang onto Abe, who hangs onto me, and we get there in less than six minutes.
“I’ll see you after the game.” Abe kisses me, hard. “You’re staying right?”
I laugh. “Yes, I’m staying.”
“Because I’m not done apologizing.” He’s already jogging away backward. “You’re my girl.” He points at me.
“We’ll see,” I say, even though I am one hundred percent on board with Abe Oakley. “Go! Go and kick some ass out there!”
He grins as he turns, running like a demon to the locker rooms and out on the field. Lincoln and I follow through the spectator entrance. It’s the middle of the final quarter. Hard to believe because it feels like an eternity has passed since they took me away from here.
But Abe came for me. He did fight for me.
For us.
He told his dad I’m his mate—whatever that means.
Lincoln goes up to sit with Rayne, but I don’t bother grabbing a seat. I walk down the stairs and stand near the wall overlooking the field at the far sidelines.
Abe is over by the coach, clearly getting chewed out. The coach’s head comes up and both of them look our way.
I wave.
The coach stares a moment, then stares a moment, then lifts a hand.
Everyone in the stadium—I swear to God—turns to look my way.
Abe runs out to the field. His teammates shake their heads, hands on hips, like they’re mad at him, but as soon as they begin to play, it’s clear the Wolf Ridge High team functions as one organism. A synchronized team. A pack. With only nine minutes left on the clock, they run a perfect play in which Abe throws a forty yard pass. Asher catches it and scores the touchdown.
Abe steals the ball next play and throws to J. J., who scores again. Wolf Ridge High scores four more times, creaming their opponents and looking like experienced NFL players rather than teenagers. If there really are three scouts in the stands tonight, they’re going to be impressed.
Now I get it—Wolf Ridge football is all just for show. None of it is real because these players are superhuman. Tonight they needed to show off, and they did.
For the first time since we moved here, I cheer for their win.
The moment the clock runs out, Wolf Ridge players go nuts celebrating—throwing each other into the air and doing back flips. Abe comes running straight for me, though. He points his finger at me. “You,” he shouts, “are mine.” He points his finger at his chest.
Half of the Wolf Ridge fans look my way again.
“You hear that?” he bellows, whipping his helmet from his head and spinning it around. “Lauren Sterling is mine. Bow down to your fucking queen!”
“Cocky much?” I call back.
He stands below me, looking up. “Jump, my queen.”
I laugh, throwing a leg over the rail. “You want me to jump?” I sit on the railing, looking down. He’s not as far down as he was when I jumped off the cliff, but he’s still a good ten feet.
I don’t care. I feel invincible when I’m with Abe. I push off the railing, throwing myself forward and screaming as I fall.
He catches me easily in a honeymoon carry, spinning me around. “I need to get my dick inside you right now, princess,” he murmurs against my ear.
“I might feel better about that statement if you had showered.”
Abe tosses me five feet in the air and catches me again. “Wanna shower with me?”
“Not with the team.”
Abe snorts. “I would kill every one of those fuckers if they saw you naked.”
I laugh.
Abe carries me straight out to the parking lot, not stopping to talk to the team, get his clothes, or shower.
“Where are we going?”
Abe stops short, and I realize his dad has parked Abe’s Range Rover up front and is standing beside it.
“You played,” his dad says.
“Yeah.”
Abe’s dad lifts a hand to me. “Lauren, I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t know you were Abe’s mate.”
“She doesn’t know what that means, Dad.” The muscles under one of Abe’s eyes begin to tic. I can tell by the way he blinks hard, he’s having trouble seeing again.
“Put me down. I can drive,” I say in a low voice.
For once, Abe doesn’t front. He doesn’t pretend it isn’t happening. He sets me on my feet and follows my lead.
“It’s happening again,” Abe’s dad deduces. He opens the passenger side door.