“I have to go. I’m sorry.” Seline reappeared just as I was hooking Bart’s leash up to his collar. “You already knew.”

  “I know you,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks for the talk.”

  “Will you listen?”

  I pursed my lips together but didn’t respond to her question. She made a loud argh sound.

  “I figured. But you’re just putting off the inevitable. Trust me, this man is not going to give up until you give in.”

  She was right, and I knew it. Hell, even Bart probably knew it.

  When you gave your heart to someone as an adult, it felt different than giving it away as a kid. For whatever reason, it seemed like you had more to lose as a grown-up.

  When we were young, we bounced back easier. We tried again. We didn’t let love make us quitters. We chased the high, searching for our next Prince Charming, determined that he was looking for us too.

  But somewhere along the way, we stopped believing in fairy tales, in being saved by a knight on a white horse and in happily ever afters. We knew that they existed; we just didn’t think they happened to us. Disappointment eventually piled up, leaving us jaded and bitter.

  If I gave in to Crew Maxwell, I knew without a single doubt that I was going to fall harder for him than I’d ever fallen for anyone in my life. And that scared the hell out of me because loving like that meant that it could break me even more than I thought possible.

  Could people survive shattered hearts?

  SEXY TEXTING

  SUMMER

  Seline’s words, even though there hadn’t been many of them, repeated inside my head as I lay in bed, Bart taking up the other half. Her message had been loud and clear, and I was starting to believe it more than I wanted to. That small seed of hope was blossoming inside my chest, where it had no right to be.

  Why couldn’t I just put Crew in a box with all the others and close the lid?

  I berated myself for my inability to not have feelings for him. It wasn’t just his flirting, the apparent chemistry, or the way he looked at me. It was ... something else entirely that I couldn’t quite name or place. I’d be lying to myself if I said this didn’t feel different with him. It did.

  Crew: Are you awake? I’m sitting here, in my room, and I can’t stop thinking about you.

  Me: You meant to send this to someone else, right?

  Crew: No.

  Me: Go away.

  Crew: Never.

  Me: *picture of Bart on the bed*

  Crew: That isn’t even remotely fair.

  Me: What isn’t?

  Crew: He gets to be in your bed, but I don’t.

  Me: Ha! He’s nicer than you are.

  Crew: That’s not true.

  Me: His only negative is that he sheds. Do you shed?

  Crew: Yes. But only when I’m between your legs and you’re tearing my hair out with your hands.

  Me: ...

  Crew: You’re picturing it now, aren’t you? I sure as fuck am.

  Me: Crew.

  Crew: Admit you want me, Summer. Just fucking admit it.

  Me: I can’t.

  Crew: You can. I know you don’t believe me, but I fucking miss you. You’re the only person I want to talk to and tell things to.

  Me: I’m the only non-football person you know. That’s why.

  Crew: That’s not why. Do you miss me?

  Me: No.

  Crew: Liar.

  Me: Fine. Only because I’m super bored. You’re my only client, remember?

  Crew: The team loves me.

  Me: Are you surprised?

  Crew: A little.

  Me: Why?

  Crew: I don’t know. I figured they wouldn’t accept me so easily. That they’d haze me or be egotistical pricks. But they’re actually really nice.

  Me: I’m glad you’re making new friends, honey. Be a good boy.

  Crew: If I’m bad, will you punish me?

  Me: Why do you turn everything into sex?

  Crew: Have you seen yourself? Go look in the mirror. I’ll wait.

  *waiting*

  Crew: You’re stunning. You’re fucking gorgeous, and I dream about you day and night. I won’t apologize for it.

  Me: You dream about having sex with me?

  Crew: I dream about having a life with you. And sex is definitely part of that life.

  Me: I have to go. I’m walking Bart. There’s a squirrel.

  Crew: We’re not done with this conversation.

  THERE WAS OBVIOUSLY no squirrel, but Crew saying that he dreamed about having a life with me had almost made me drop my phone and Bart’s leash. He continued to surprise me, and, God, I wanted to believe the things he said. It was easier for me to dismiss him when all he did was constantly bring up sex. But when he got deeper than that, my heart pounded and raced. I stared at his message one more time before moving to pocket my phone when it suddenly rang.

  Glancing down, I saw Crew’s name on the screen. I thought about not answering but caved. “Yes?”

  “How’s the squirrel?” His voice reverberated through the phone, and my knees grew weak. I hadn’t realized how much the sound of it affected me or how much I’d missed hearing it.

  “Safely in a tree,” I lied.

  “I’m going out with the guys in a little bit, but I wanted you to know that I’ll be calling you later. I want to talk to you.”

  “What about?”

  “Us,” he said point-blank, and I stopped moving, holding on to Bart’s leash as tight as I could.

  “There is no us.”

  “Not yet. But there will be. When I get back into town, I’m taking you out on a proper date. I’m not waiting for our contract to end. I’d rather die before waiting that long to taste you. I miss you like crazy, Summer. I should be thinking about this damn team and how to win this upcoming season, but all I keep thinking about is how to score the girl who’s stolen my heart.”

  I stood completely still, like everyone within a mile could hear the things Crew had just said to me. I had no idea what to say in response. My ego urged me to argue, just to make him fight even harder for me, but the rest of me wanted to cave.

  “I’ll call you tonight,” he said before ending the call.

  I looked right at Bart, who was staring at me, sitting like a good boy.

  “Your dad is very bossy,” I said, and he barked.

  FORCING THE ISSUE

  CREW

  There was no other way to handle Summer than to be aggressive with her. If I played it cool or too laid-back, she’d leave me in a heartbeat, and I couldn’t have that. I had to take the reins and force her into submission. Deep down, I knew she’d love it even if she fought against it at first.

  Strong women needed even stronger men.

  And I was going to show Summer that what she needed was me.

  I was currently at a bar with my teammates. It’d started off nice, empty, pretty much just us and the two bartenders. But word must have spread that we were in town because I watched as it slowly filled up with scantily clad, desperate women on the prowl, all pretending not to see us while they took pictures, using their friends as decoys just to get us in the background. Did women really think we were that stupid?

  It didn’t matter. I only had eyes for Summer. My mind was on her twenty-four/seven. I hadn’t been lying when I told her that. I should be eating, breathing, and dreaming about football and how to win this season, but instead, I was dreaming about eating her. Among other things.

  Every time I imagined this upcoming season, I saw her there. When I pictured my future, my home, my life, Summer was part of it all. There wasn’t a time when I didn’t see her by my side.

  So, when an attractive female walked up to me, basically shoving her fake tits in my face, I reared back, making sure she knew I wasn’t interested. It didn’t deter her as she bent down and asked for a picture, her finger running down my shoulder as I flinched from the unwelcome contact. I offered a halfhearted shrug, and before I knew it, she was sitting on my lap, her arm wrapped around my neck. As soon as the photo was taken, I shoved her off of me.

  “I’m not available,” I said, and she gave me a trying-too-hard-to-look-sexy grin.

  “Neither is half your team, and they’re still going to fuck my friends later,” she said like she was proud of this fact. Like screwing guys who weren’t single was some sort of badge of honor to be displayed proudly on her lapel.

  The whole cheating aspect of the game wasn’t something that I promoted. Why get married and have kids with someone if you were just going to fuck around in every city we visited? Stay single then. Less people got hurt that way.

  Trust me, my opinion on that front was not at all popular. But it didn’t change my mind. The only thing I’d learned over the years was to keep my mouth shut about it. What the other guys did had nothing to do with me and wasn’t any of my fucking business or concern. But I still thought it was shitty.

  “It’s not going to happen,” I said again, once I realized that she wasn’t going away.

  “I can rock your world like it’s never been rocked before,” she said, her tone one hundred percent serious.

  I stopped myself from laughing in her face. “I highly doubt that.”

  “I’m double-jointed.” She leaned down once more, telling me that tidbit in my ear, and I pinched the bridge of my nose like her presence was giving me a headache.

  “And I have the biggest cock in three counties,” I countered with some equally ridiculous shit. “I’m going to ask you to respectfully get the fuck away from me.”

  Her eyes grew wide, but her forehead didn’t even move. “You don’t have to be so rude.”

  “I do because you won’t listen.”

  “Fine. I’ll find someone else then.”

  “Good luck,” I said, raising my beer glass toward her as she finally left me alone.

  I reached for my phone and sent Summer a text, reminding her that I would be calling later and to not even think about blowing me off. She sent back some smart-ass response, and I told her that if she didn’t answer, I’d fly out, and we’d have this conversation in person. She was much more agreeable after that, clearly unsure of what I was capable of doing or not when it came to her.

  I was exhausted, anxious, and wanted to call my girl. The rest of my teammates weren’t ready to leave and were all grown-ass men, so I didn’t give a fuck what they did as long as they showed up for drills in the morning on time and ready to work.

  I figured they’d give me a ration of shit about me wanting to bail early, but they were otherwise occupied with Miss Double-Jointed and her friends. I used that to my advantage as I called a car and snuck out alone.

  Once I was in my hotel room, I tossed off my hat and jumped onto the bed, phone in hand. I stared at it for a minute, maybe two, trying to plan exactly what to say to Summer. She was going to resist my idea, give me reasons why it was a bad one, and I needed to have a comeback in response.

  You don’t need a comeback, idiot. You just need to prove it to her with your actions. Your words and your actions have to match.

  I pressed her name and watched as the phone connected and started ringing. Summer answered quicker than I’d thought she would. Actually, I figured she’d make me go to voice mail on my first try.

  “Hello?” Her voice was flirty, and I could tell she was smiling.

  “Hey, Duchess,” I said, the nickname naturally sliding out and without thinking.

  “Argh,” she groaned through the line, and I laughed.

  “Stop acting like you don’t like the name, Summer. You like it now. If I stopped calling you it, you’d miss it,” I teased, hoping it was the truth.

  “Fine. It’s grown on me,” she admitted before adding, “a little.”

  “I’ll take it,” I said as Bart made some sound in the background. “Oh man. I miss him too. Hang on. I’m calling you back.”

  “Wait, what?” she started to argue, but I’d already ended the call and pressed the video-chat button instead.

  “I should have known,” she said as Bart’s face appeared on the screen.

  “Hey, buddy. Do you miss me?” I said, but Bart kept moving in and out of the frame, even as my talking to him grew more frantic.

  “I don’t know that dogs can see our phone screens. Do you think they can?” Summer asked as her face appeared, and my dick instantly grew hard at the sight of her.

  “I think they’re more affected by sound and smell maybe,” I offered, like I was some sort of Jedi Master on the subject. “God, you’re truly beautiful.”

  Her face disappeared as the phone screen turned black. I heard shuffling sounds, like the speaker was being covered before she reappeared, her lips pressed together in a thin line.

  “Everything okay?” I asked, and she grimaced.

  “I get uncomfortable when you compliment me,” she admitted, and I realized that she was cracking the door to her heart open and letting me peek inside.

  “Why’s that?”

  She shook her head, like she was having some sort of internal battle. “Because I don’t know what you want, Crew. Like what you really want.”

  “I want you. I’ve been telling you that.”

  “Yeah, but every guy says that.”

  “I mean it though. I’m not going to disappear when our contract ends. Hell, I’d only chase you even harder to get you to give me a chance.”

  I watched as her eyes oscillated between looking at me through the screen and somewhere far off in the distance. She wanted to believe me, to trust what I was saying ... but she didn’t.

  “I know Seline talked to you,” she said, and I sucked in a long breath, filling my chest and lungs with air.

  She figured that I’d somehow gotten insider knowledge that I could use to my advantage. And in a way, I guessed I had but not like Summer was assuming.

  “She did. Are you upset?”

  “I was.”

  “She didn’t tell me anything that you hadn’t hinted to already. Eventually, I would have put the pieces together on my own,” I said, and she stared at me, so I continued, “I can’t imagine the lines of shit you’ve heard in the past. It makes me fucking insane to even think about, so I try not to.”

  “You try not to think about what other guys said to me?” She interrupted my train of thought.

  “I can’t even think about another man touching you without wanting to break his fucking hand, so yeah. But that’s not the point.”

  “Oh. What is the point then?”

  I sat up in the bed, grabbing the extra pillows and stuffing them behind my back. I felt myself getting a little too amped up. “The point is, I can’t imagine what you’ve heard. What lies you’ve been told. But that’s not me. I don’t play games. And I’m always upfront and honest with any woman that I’m with,” I said and watched as she noticeably winced at my mention of other females.

  She wanted me just as much as I wanted her. And we were both possessive of the other. I liked that.

  “If I just want to have sex, they’re very aware. I don’t lie. I don’t trick. I don’t say cheesy one-liners to get them into bed. I don’t have to do any of that.”

  Summer cleared her throat. “Well, good for you. I’m so happy that all of your past conquests have been so agreeable.”

  I was fucking this all up. I wasn’t even sure how I’d steered us toward the topic of me and other women, but here we were. “I just meant that I want to be with you. I want to date you. I want you by my side at every event and every party. I want to look up in the stands during my games and see your gorgeous face there, cheering me on. I want to come home at night and see you waiting for me in our bed, with our dog.”

  She sniffed, and it stopped me mid-speech. “How can you be so sure? I’m not trying to be cynical. I’m sincerely asking.”

  “I don’t have the answer to that question. At least, not with words. All I know is how I feel and that I’ve never been able to picture anyone by my side—until I met you. I always figured I’d be alone. You know?”

  Summer stayed silent on the other end as we both watched each other, our eyes never breaking contact. A moment beyond words was brewing between us, that connection deepening. She had to know I was telling the truth.

  “When I get back into town, I’m taking you out,” I informed her. I would not be taking no for an answer.

  She nodded as she said, “Okay,” softly into the line.

  “And as far as I’m concerned, you’re already mine,” I said with a grin. “Talk to you tomorrow.” I ended the call.

  Dropping a bomb like that on Summer and leaving her to contemplate it on her own, where she couldn’t argue back defensively, was a little abrupt but hopefully an effective strategy.

  Either that or it was going to backfire in my face.

  SO F’N EGOTISTICAL

  SUMMER

  Ughhhhhh!!!

  Crew was so damn irritating. His ego knew no bounds. Up until the end, that had been the sweetest phone call I’d ever had in my entire life. No man had ever said those kinds of things to me—and meant them. And I sensed that Crew did. That the things he was telling me weren’t going to fade with time or once our job ended.

  But then he had to go and say that I belonged to him before hanging up on me.

  I’m his.

  Give. Me. A. Break.

  I wasn’t his. I wasn’t anyone’s. And if that was the truth, then why the hell was I so turned on by his demanding mouth?

  Something about Crew claiming me was sexy as sin even if it was a tad bit annoying. Crew was turning me into someone I didn’t recognize. A woman who hadn’t ever ventured this far with a client. A woman who actually liked having a bossy, alpha male in her life.

  A girl who enjoyed being told what to do?

  Who knew? Not me—that was for damn sure. I thought about calling Seline and getting her opinion but assumed that she’d tell me to get over myself and give in to Crew. Instead of overthinking, I grabbed the remote, turned on Netflix, and surfed for a new series to lose myself in.

 

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