TackledP: A Sports Romance(84)

"With Colton?" Her voice goes up an octave.

"No, not with Colton."

"Miss Rae?" A uniformed man gestures at me from a few yards away. "We'll need to get a statement."

"Shit," I mutter. "I have to talk to the cops."

"The cops?" Sable asks. "What the hell is going on?"

"That creep from Colton's team groped me," I whisper. "I have to go. Please cover for me."

"What?" Sable's loud screech is audible even when I hold the phone far away from my ear.

"I'm completely fine," I assure her. "I'll tell you the whole story when I get back."



* * *



It takes me an hour to get finished with the cops and then for Coach Walker to talk to me, assuring me that the athletic department takes sexual assault seriously and that Dillon will be kicked off the football team and, if he has any say in the matter, off campus. I don't know if he's worried I'm going to sue the athletic department or what, but he was serious as a heart attack.

The cops encourage me to file a restraining order.

I just want to go home.

I'm walking out of the hallway, into the middle of the commons, when I see him taking long strides through the building, moving with a purpose.

Colton stops short, just for a second, when he sees me. Then he walks over to me, his expression pained, and picks me up. He doesn't say a word to me or anyone else, just storms out of the athletic center with me scooped up in his arms like he's daring someone to ask what the hell he's doing.

"Put me down, Colton," I order once we're outside.

"I'm not fucking putting you down," he says. "I'm taking you to my truck."

"My car is parked in the parking garage! Put me down. Why the hell are you here, anyway?"

I should be happy to see him. Especially now that I know he was telling the truth, that he didn't say all of those things about me. I am happy to see him. Except that I'm annoyed by the fact that he just waltzed into the athletic center and caveman-carried me out of there.

"I'm here because I'm taking you home."

"I have a car," I protest, squirming in his arms. "And I don't need you to ride in on your white horse and rescue me."

Colton doesn't put me down until we're right beside his truck. And he doesn't just set me down. He drops his hand from behind my legs and pulls me against him so that I slide right down his body before my feet touch the ground. The familiar spark of electricity, the attraction that was there before, runs straight through me.

"Too fucking bad," he says.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said. Too fucking bad if you don't need me to rescue you."

I bristle, the throbbing of my palm from where I hit Dillon reminding me that I broke a guy's nose an hour ago. "I can rescue my own damn self just fine," I say firmly. "Who called you? Sable?"

"Yeah, and she didn't know what the hell happened, but she said someone groped you, so I'm taking you out of here and then I'm going to kill whoever touched you."

I exhale heavily. "Look, I'm fine. He tried to grope me. Or I guess he got a handful of boob. Over my shirt," I clarify. Colton's eyes go big and his nostrils flare. "Don't get all crazy. It wasn't a huge deal."

"Some asshole grabbed your boob but it's not a big deal?" Colton asks. His face is turning red.

"That guy," I say, sighing. "The one you got into a fight with before. Dillon Parker."

"Dillon put his fucking hands on you?"

Now Colton's face is a pretty impressive shade of burgundy. I'm not sure I've ever seen a human's face turn that color.

"It sounds worse than it actually was," I try to tell him. "And… I sort of broke his nose. I think. It made a pretty loud crunching sound and I'm pretty sure that's the sound of a nose breaking. So he got a two-second handful of boob and a broken nose, which is a terrible trade-off, if you think about it. That's pretty much it. It's not as dramatic a story as you'd imagine."

A smile tugs at the corners of Colton's lips. "You really broke his nose?"

"There was a decent amount of blood," I admit, shrugging.

"Did you punch him?"

"Palm, right up to the nose. Guess my brothers' endless attempts to teach me self-defense came in handy."

"Good girl."

"Coach Walker saw what happened and called the police, and Dillon was arrested. I have to go in and give a formal statement. He's going to get kicked off the team. Anyway, that's the extent of the story. It's actually not all that exciting. Now I'm going to get in my car and drive to my house and go to sleep."

"No." Colton opens the passenger side door.

"What do you mean, no?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. "What, are you kidnapping me?"