Free Coming Apart at the Seams by Jenna Sutton Page B

up, she found him staring at the water.
    â€œDid you say something?”
    â€œNo,” he muttered without looking in her direction.
    Pulling her purse onto her lap, she rummaged around in it until she found the bag containing her gift shop purchase, a metal moon keychain. She fished it from the bag and turned to him.
    â€œI bought you something.”
    He brought his attention to her, and she pressed the keychain into his palm. His long fingers curled around it, and he brought it close to his face to study it.
    â€œIt’s the moon—for those times when you want to be far away. Maybe it can be your good luck charm for training camp.”
    Closing his hand over the moon keychain, he dropped it to his lap. “Thanks.”
    A few more words slipped past her lips without thought. “I’m going to miss you while you’re gone.”
    Silence hung between them as they gazed toward the water. Then he leaned his head against hers. “Ditto,” he said, his voice barely a whisper of sound.

Chapter 8
    Nick circled the block near Teagan’s condo for the fourth time, trying to find a parking space big enough for his Escalade. Cambridge had to be the absolute
worst
place on the planet for parking, and he barely resisted the urge to bang his fist against the steering wheel.
    He hadn’t seen Teagan in almost a month, and this was the first opportunity he’d had to visit her since he’d left for training camp. He’d gotten stuck in traffic, and now it was almost seven o’clock.
    Like most NFL teams, the Colonials conducted their training camp away from their home base. He’d spent more than three weeks in Arizona with his new team along with a handful of days in San Diego for their preseason game.
    Although he’d been exhausted from the stress of camp and the pressure of his first game as a Colonial, he’d had trouble falling asleep. After lying in bed for two hours without nodding off, he’d taken matters into his own hands. Literally.
    He’d started off fantasizing about one of the blondes he had been fucking before he left. She was tall with a decent-sized rack and narrow hips. He couldn’t remember what color her eyes were, and he was a little hazy on her name, too.
    Sometime between the first stroke and his climax, her hairhad turned dark and shiny and her eyes had become smoky blue. And those weren’t the only changes, either. Her tits had grown larger, her hips had become fleshier, and she’d shrunk about five inches in height.
    She had transformed into Teagan, and he’d come so violently he worried he had ruptured something. Afterward, he was horrified. He never,
ever
thought of Teagan when he masturbated.
    But then he’d given himself a free pass. Training camp was so intense there was no time for any extracurricular activities, which meant Nick had gone without sex for thirty long days. Surely he could be forgiven for one lapse in judgment.
    When he had woken up this morning, he’d felt happier than he had in weeks. He’d texted Monday—that wasn’t her name, that was just the day of the week when they had sex—and they’d met in a hotel room downtown where he’d done her against the wall, on the bed, and in the shower.
    He would have preferred to spend that time with Teagan, maybe take her to lunch so they could catch up. But he didn’t know where she was interning because she’d never mentioned the name of the law firm.
    Noticing a car pulling out just a few steps from Teagan’s building, he rushed to nab the spot. Since he’d moved to Boston, he had become a pro at parallel parking. Once he had eased his SUV into the space, he jumped out and headed toward the building. He ran his fingers over the moon keychain Teagan had given him before pocketing his keys.
    Although he usually took the stairs to the sixth floor, he decided to use the elevator because it would get him to her sooner. In