My Dad's Hocky Coach Is Obsessed With Me

Chapter five

Maya's POV

"Coach, wait! I have more questions!"

He didn't stop walking. I followed him into the corridor that led further into the athletic wing.

"Coach Garrison, hold on!" I hurried after him, but his stride was longer than mine.

"I want to ask you a question," I added in a raised voice, falling into step behind him down the corridor. "If you were dismissed from your old job for allegedly being inappropriate with a female athlete, why did you take this job again? Wasn't that just asking for another disaster?"

He stopped at those words, then turned around slowly, and the dark look on his face should have made me take a step back.

"Listen, whatever happened between us during the private session yesterday, was all in your head."

I snorted. "Yeah, right."

"You need to stop talking," he warned me. "I'm not answering any of your questions. Go to class, Fletcher."

"I'm just asking what anyone would ask." I insisted. "Would it hurt to know the truth?"

"Yes, it would. You don't understand anything!

"Maybe I understand more than you think," I argued. "I heard what those staff members said, but I think there's more to this story that you're not telling me. Doesn't it scare you?"

Coach Garrison's jaw worked. "Go home, Fletcher. This conversation is over."

"Does it scare you that it could happen again? Is that why you won't...

"Get out of here!"

"No!" I roared. "Tell me!"

To my utter surprise, the coach closed the distance between us in two strides..I stumbled backwards instinctively, but all he did was reach past me and push open the door of the equipment room to his left.

Then he walked me into it, his hand flat against my shoulder. He was not rough, but there was enough force that I knew that it would be useless to try and resist. The door shut behind us.

"You want to finish this conversation?" His voice was low and angry. "Fine. Yes, it scared me. It still scares me. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"I wanted to hear the truth."

"The truth is that I took this job because it was the only one available to me, and I have to be more careful than any other coach on this campus because one misread situation and everything I've rebuilt is finished. Your dad gave me a job where other university presidents wouldn't."

He was physically close, close enough that I had to tilt my head slightly to hold his gaze. I was suddenly, painfully aware of the small inches between us, how his naturally blue eyes bad gone dark with something I couldn't name.

"And you, with your prestigious last name, you're the most dangerous situation I could possibly get involved with at this point of my career." He continued. "I am trying to keep you at arm's length. Please, stay there."

"I'm dangerous?" I asked incredulously. "That's what you're going with?"

"Maya." It was the first time he'd used my first name, instead of Fletcher. "Stay away from me, Maya."

He'd said that, but he was still inching ever so close to me. It was almost as though he was fighting against himself—I could see it in the way he closed his eyes agonizingly for several seconds, the way he gritted his jaw, the fact that he was still walking towards me.

"I shouldn't be doing this," he whispered, almost to himself.

"Doing what?" I asked. But his hand came up and his fingers closed around my jaw, tilting my face up. His thumb moved slowly across my lips. The contact was very gentle, soothing even.

And I did the first thing that came into my head in that moment. I closed the distance and kissed him.

Coach Garrison's reaction was immediate. He kissed me back as though he needed the air in my lungs to survive. He pushed me backwards until my back hit the wall, and even then, he didn't stop. His large frame practically blocked me from moving.

My hands found his arms first, the muscle there solid under my palms, and I moved them up to his shoulders. I felt the physical tension held in them. His hands went to my waist and gathered me closer, one hand pressing flat against my back, then sliding lower to my ass.

All rational thoughts in my head disappeared in that moment. Everything that existed in that moment, for me, was his powerful body towering over mine, his hard but gentle hands on the most intimate parts of my body.

He kissed me like it made him angry, and I understood that completely, because it made me angry too. This s****l pull between us that neither of us had asked for and neither of us knew what to do with, it was maddening.

I was ready to throw caution to the wind and take it further, but then we were interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

"s**t!" I heard Coach Garrison curse as he yanked himself away. In fright, I stepped back into a shelving unit hard enough to rattle the top shelf. My heart was up in my throat, as I turned to the door to find the last person I wanted there, with a horrified look on her face.

Sienna had seen us.