Read Online Dominate (University of Gatica #5) by Lexy Timms - Free Book Online

cuddling, and she wasn't going to send him that kind of signal. Not now. Carefully, she pulled off him, and reached for her underwear.
    Tyler levered himself up on his elbows, eyebrows furrowing.
    “Aileen?” he asked softly, his voice as unsure as his expression. He sounded like he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to the question that was obviously running through his mind. “What is it?”
    She didn't turn to look at him as she pulled her shorts and then her sports bra on, and she heard him move behind her, rising from the bench. She dragged her shirt overhead.
    Hands closed abruptly around her biceps, still gentle despite the fact that Tyler was obviously frustrated with her lack of answer. She didn't want to look at him, though, couldn't speak to him. If she did, she wasn't sure that she could stop herself from crying.
    His hands turned her around, and Aileen clamped down on her emotions, refusing to let them out on her face.
    “Aileen,” he said again. “What the hell is going on? Why did that feel like... like that? So different?”
    She pulled back, and he let her go.
    “Because it was goodbye,” she said.
    “Goodbye?” His eyebrows arched upward. “What the hell do you mean?”
    “I mean that we can't keep doing this.”
    He looked at her like she'd lost it. Aileen pulled her hair back into a ponytail and caught it up with one of the ties she kept around her wrist. Tyler was still staring at her. “We can't keep doing this...” he said, like all he could do was echo her.
    “You're going to be joining the NFL, and I'm still going to be here at Gatica. It wouldn't work, Tyler.”
    His mouth opened, and then closed again. The look on his face made her heart feel like it twisted in her chest. “You're breaking up with me.” His voice was flat. “Seriously, Aileen? You're going to fuck me in the locker room and then tell me 'Oh, by the way, have a nice life'?”
    She flinched. “It’s not like that.”
    “No? Then what is it like?”
    “It’s like this isn’t going to work, and I just wanted to have one more good moment, I guess. I thought it was the best way to say goodbye.” Aileen pushed a stray lock of hair back from her face. “You’re NFL now. You’re not going to have time for a college girlfriend. Especially not from Boston.”
    “That’s what this is about?” Tyler demanded. “The NFL? After I specifically had a clause put in my contract so that I could spend the rest of the school year with you, you’re going to break up with me because I got drafted?”
    “I don’t want to hold you back.”
    He got up from the bench and took a step toward her, hand held out, but Aileen retreated from the attempt at touch, shaking her head. He dropped the hand back to his side. “You’re not going to hold me back. I don’t know what makes you think that—”
    “I am. You’re going to be a professional athlete on a pro team. You’re going to want to enjoy that to the fullest. And having some girl waiting for you back at your alma mater isn’t how you do that.”
    “Do you even hear yourself?” Tyler snapped. “Aileen…”
    “You’re going to have women hanging all over you,” Aileen shot back, refusing to let a sob escape. If she started crying, she wasn’t sure that she would stop. He’d want to comfort her, and she would almost definitely let him. She couldn’t let that happen. “Celebrities. Models. Cheerleaders. How am I supposed to compete with that?”
    His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak, but she turned away.
    There was a moment of silence.
    “I guess I need to focus on the game anyway,” he said behind her. “Or I might not make it into the NFL after all.”
    She heard his footsteps moving toward the door of the locker room. He paused there, and for an instant she thought that he might come back, but she should have known better. They started up again, moving down the hall and away. She listened until they were gone, straining for one last sign