Страница 9 из 95
I stormed through the tu
I didn’t recognize the receiver who caught the pass in the end zone, but he circled around the goal posts and walked beside me on the sidelines. His dreads clacked with crimson beads, matching his eventual uniform once the guys do
“Hey, there, baby. I was hungry for something sweet.”
He was a worse flirt than Jack. I wasn’t in the mood. Didn’t stop him from trying.
“You’re the little drop of chocolate I’d love to—”
Caleb West, the largest man on the team as well as the gentlest teddy bear they signed, thundered from the sidelines to my side. He carried a water bottle and nearly chucked it at the receiver’s head.
“Whoa.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “She’s too good a girl for you. Beat it, rookie.”
The receiver scowled, took his chances, then bolted when Caleb took a step too close.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No problem, little lady.” Caleb gri
“Not today, but do you remember you have a radio show tomorrow afternoon, broadcasting live from the new sushi place on fifth?”
“Yes, ma’am. Looking forward to it. Bringing my kids so I can see their faces when I give them raw fish. They still haven’t forgiven me for squid ink pasta.”
“Why can’t all my clients be like you?”
He laughed. “You here to kick Jack’s ass?”
“Changed out of my heels into flats to do it.”
Caleb pointed to the crowd of players ru
“Give him hell…but leave him in one piece?” Caleb said. “We’d like to make it back to the championship.”
“A quarterback doesn’t need both kneecaps, does he?”
Caleb sauntered away, shu
I picked a cautious path between segments of the team completing their conditioning exercises and ru
Jack was no exception.
In the hot July morning, he shed his shirt and sweated with every completed rep of his crunches. He didn’t take a break or a breath before flipping onto his stomach and leading his men in a variety of push-ups that only tightened every muscle in his absolutely flawless form.
His entire body was ripped, bulging with muscles, tattoos, glistening sweat.
Perfect.
I forced myself to remember that the striking body I admired belonged to the arrogant and infuriating man who dared to tangle with me.
He was lucky he was so damn big—one of the largest quarterbacks in the league. If he were just one foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter…I might have taken the chance to stomp really hard on his toes.
The rookies collapsed against the turf. An offensive lineman fell too. Jack counted off another five one-armed pushups before letting his men groan against the field. Now was my chance.
“Jack.”
The bastard gri
He made no attempt to move. The entire offense stared at me like I was a piece of meat Jack was about to drag back to his cave. I was so glad my skirt was knee-length and respectable.
“Jack? I need to talk to you.” I smiled at the quarterback coach consulting with his other specialized perso
He leaned to the player next to him, the team’s real criminal and the absolute worst influence on Jack. Bryon Washington was a gifted ru
Enough of this.
“Jack-ass! Come here!”
The team hooted. Jack rose to his feet. “The little woman calls. See the shit I put up with?”
“Now.”
“I pay her to abuse me like this.”
“Not nearly enough.”
Jack took long strides to reach me, his signature swagger. He wasn’t flirting. He was baiting me, like he always did. Waiting for the moment I’d snap and he’d have his fun.
It ended now.
“Hey, Kiss.”
Jack sauntered before me. He rubbed the sweat from his face with a towel, but he didn’t bother to cover his chest. I wasn’t used to seeing him without a shirt, and I tried my hardest to not admire the dozens of tattoos and colorful ink cradling his muscles. It was just another reminder of his misbehavior and arrogance and how unbelievably built he was…
His voice rumbled deep inside me. “Couldn’t stand to be away from me?”
My eyes snapped up to his. I cleared my throat. “We need to talk.”
“Uh-oh.” He got off on teasing me, but at least he wasted billable time. “Trouble at home, Mrs. Carson?”
He laughed, that cocky baritone always at my expense. I forced him away from the field. He followed me to the tu
He stretched his arms, every motion bulging muscle on top of muscle. “Think we could talk inside? I’m kinda bruised from the accident. We could sit in the spa tub together.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Would you prefer the hot tub in our honeymoon suite?”
I poked a finger into his chest, instantly regretting touching his heated, fiercely defined body. A shiver trembled from the tip of my finger all the way through me, centering in a very wrong place.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” I said.
Jack glanced me over, amused. “I got us out of trouble.”
“No. You got you out of trouble. You put me in the middle of all of this!”
He provoked me with an impish arch of his eyebrows. “You’re not breaking up with me, are you? Come on, Kiss. I’m a great catch.”
“I don’t want to be your fake girlfriend.”
“So…you wa
“Screw you, Jack. Can you be serious for ten seconds?”
“Who says I wasn’t serious, Kiss?”
Enough of this. “For like, one minute, can you possibly think about anyone other than yourself or your little play-maker?”
He took offense when I pointed at his mesh shorts. “Hey. Don’t call him little!”
“You could have gotten me fired today!”
I held his stare. His blue eyes practically crackled, bright and full of energy. It might as well have been plutonium. He was too dangerous to let near.
“You told a lie that might have cost me my job,” I said.
“Did Jolene fire you?”
“No.”
Jack groaned and headed to the locker room. “Then what’s the problem? Just relax, Kiss.”
I was not letting him get away. The last time I challenged him at the practice facility, I’d chased him through the halls and into the steam room. He’d dropped his towel and exposed not only himself, but the entirety of his offensive line. I still couldn’t look those men in the eye.
I grabbed his arm and forced him to pay attention to me. “The problem is you lied to the league president. He wants you out of the game, and he’ll do anything to get his way.”