The kids all lit up when they saw Cullen approaching. Some yelled out “Hi Coach!” while others simply waved. He greeted each one by name, giving them a high five before asking collectively if they were ready for their last day. They all excitedly answered at once and Leona just laughed, shaking her head.
As more and more kids arrived, each one still greeted by name and given a high five, it was easy for Leona to see why they adored him so much. He very obviously cared about them and their time at this camp. If she hadn’t known better, she never would have guessed he was anything but a youth football coach, much less a celebrity athlete.
Once it seemed that everyone had arrived for the day, Cullen called her over with a wave of his hand. The smile on his face lit up her sides again, making those damn butterflies from this morning reappear. Slowly making her way over to the crowd, careful to keep what she felt was a safe distance from Josef, trying not to embarrass him, she joined the group. Cullen grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him.
“All, this is Miss Leona. She’s going to be helping me out for the day. I expect you to show her the same respect you show me. Understood?”
The group nodded, but Leona couldn’t help but notice some of the looks exchanged between kids. A few of them whispered to each other, no doubt wondering who exactly she was and where she came from. Suddenly a hand shot up. It belonged to an older girl, probably somewhere around fifteen or so. Leona could tell by the look in her eyes that she idolized Cullen for more than just his soccer skills.
“Yes, Cammie?” he asked.
“Coach, is she, like, your girlfriend?”
The question caught Cullen off guard, causing him to freeze in the spot he was standing in. He wasn’t prepared to answer that. Not just because it was asked by a camper, but because he didn’t know what she was to him, or what he was to her. Only adding to the pressure was the fact that she was standing right next to him and he didn’t want to risk upsetting her by answering incorrectly.
“I’m a girl, who is a friend. Does that count?” she asked, thankfully picking up the slack since he seemed to lose the ability to form words.
The girl shrugged, seemingly accepting of the non-answer that Leona had provided.
“Any more questions? Or are we ready to play football?”
The group cheered loudly, the potentially awkward moment having passed relatively quickly. Or maybe none of them thought of it as awkward, and it was just him who was stuck in his own head wondering what to say.
As he had last week, he split the kids up into two teams, trying to divide them so each team was an even talent match. Once again, he had a hard time knowing where to put Josef, but in the end figured it didn’t matter since he’d end up running circles around everyone anyway. He figured that at least if he put him on the team that had a couple extra of the younger kids that maybe that would give them a little bit more of a chance.
“So, where do you want me?” Leona asked him as the kids spread out on the field.
A smile spread across Cullen’s face. The question itself was innocent enough, and given that they were standing in a public park surrounded by children, it was a bit of a stretch to twist it into something dirty, but he couldn’t help himself. All he could picture as the words left her perfectly pink lips was her standing there naked, uttering that exact phrase before he had his way with her.
As if she could see the slideshow of images projecting through his thoughts, Leona shook her head, rolling her eyes and laughing. She walked the couple of steps over to him, so they were close enough to be able to hold a private conversation without the prying ears of his participants.
“Mind out of the gutter…Coach…” she said, emphasizing the last word. He knew she meant it to remind him to behave, but the only thing it accomplished was sending all the blood in his body straight to his dick.
“Why does that sound so fucking sexy coming out of your mouth?” he said in a low growl, his teeth gritted together.
She rolled her eyes again, but he could tell that his words had more of an effect on her than she wanted to admit.
“And to think you were worried about me behaving,” she teased. “So seriously, what’s the plan?”
“I was thinking that we could each captain a team and play with them, if you’re up for it.” He gave her a challenging look, moving his eyebrows up and down. “I mean, if you think you can keep up.”
“Excuse you? Challenge accepted,” she said, raising her chin indignantly. “Who gets Jo-bro?”
“You. I want to play against him, see how he handles a few things.”
“Let’s do this!” She turned to walk toward the side of the pitch her brother was standing on, swaying her hips exaggeratedly, trying to look confident.
“Lee,” Cullen called out. She turned around with all the sass he had come to expect from her. “Winner picks dinner.”
“You’re on!” she hollered, pointing her finger in his direction.
With a quick blow of his whistle, the scrimmage started. The kids were elated to have him out on the pitch playing with them and had even warmed up to Leona fairly quickly. Josef was right, though—she wasn’t very good. In fact, she was downright terrible. Every time one of the kids would go to pass her the ball, she would nearly trip over it trying to accept the pass. The one time she managed to receive the pass, a round of cheering broke out, not only from her team, but from Cullen’s team and everyone on the sidelines. When she went to turn and kick the ball, however, she totally missed it, completely whiffing by it with her foot. The effort behind her kick kept her body in motion, landing her on her ass with a thud. What had been cheers just a moment ago were replaced with gasps of concern and then some outright laughter, as she popped back up on her feet and brushed off her pretty little backside.
Cullen couldn’t help but laugh once he knew she wasn’t hurt. She must have heard his laughter from down the pitch because she turned and glared at him.
“You okay over there?” he called out, trying to control his laughter.
“Fine!” she answered back, still giving him the stink eye.
He knew she would make him pay for his laughter later, but in this moment he was getting way too much enjoyment out of seeing her like this. Sliding his glance over to her brother, he found him just standing there shaking his head in embarrassment. The sight made him laugh out loud again, earning another glare from Leona, who must have thought his reaction was still directed at her. That was more than fine, though. He knew exactly how he would make it up to her with his tongue tonight.
A little while later, Cullen finally decided to put Josef’s skills to the test. He watched the scene play out as if he were watching a movie. A defender on Josef’s team did a fantastic job of clearing the ball from the box and sending the long ball up to Josef, who received it against his chest, letting it bounce lightly to the ground to take control of it with his feet and then sprint off toward the other end of the field. Trying to read the kid’s movements, Cullen started running toward him, fast enough to hopefully catch him off guard, but still not quite at full speed. Waiting for just the right moment for the steal, Cullen lunged to his left, only to have Josef send the ball through his legs, skirting around him like he was simply stepping around a pothole. Still sprinting, Josef continued his way to the goal. Cullen turned around in time to see him taking the shot, only to find the left post rather than the back of the net.
Damn, that kid is good, Cullen thought. We just have to work on his finishing…
“Nice work, Josef!” Cullen called out to the kid, who was now sulking his way back to midfield.
“Did you just get nutmegged by my brother?” Leona asked, running up to stand beside him.
Cullen chose to ignore the mocking in her tone. “He did exactly what he should have there. That was part of what I wanted to see—his reactions to such moves—and he did everything right. I’m telling you, your brother is a hell of a player.”
“Still, you were schooled by a thi
rteen-year-old!”
“On purpose, Menina,” he reminded her.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself, Coach,” she said, jogging away to go give her brother a high five.
After lunch, Cullen had the kids scrimmage some more, this time without him and Leona leading the charge. Thanks to a lucky shot from Josef while the goalie for the opposing team was caught wrong-footed, his team ending up winning by one. When he felt that they were all mostly worn out, he lined them all up to work on some penalty kicks, and to give the couple of kids who were there as goalies some serious practice. At one point, Leona had lined up five or six kids at a time to take rapid-fire shots on goal, keeping the goalies on their toes. Everyone, goalies included, seemed to love this drill and Cullen wished he had thought of it himself last week.
Once everyone was good and tired, Cullen sat down and took selfies and signed all the memorabilia that the kids had brought, just as he had the week before. He’d always dreaded the meet and greets that the team put together, or any of the other miscellaneous public appearances that Oliver had set up. Not because he didn’t enjoy interacting with fans, but they always made for long, exhausting days. One could only sign their name so many times in a matter of hours. However, hanging out with these kids and hearing them talk about items they had, or tell a story about them seeing him play, was actually invigorating. He had enjoyed getting to know these kids, imparting some of his knowledge of the game into them, and working on basic skills. Maybe it was time he called Oliver back and had a serious talk about this coaching thing.
When he’d finished signing autographs and all the kids had been picked up, he turned to Josef, looking him up and down. It was amazing to him just how attached he had become to the little guy in just two weeks. Not that he would admit that to anyone but himself, but it was true. He had started to care very much for the kid and was seriously invested in what happened next with him as a player. Cullen thought of his buddy and former teammate, Gunnar Gracin, who was in charge of an academy team in Ireland. After he spoke to Oliver about his own future, maybe a call to Gracin would be in order about the next steps for Josef.
With the gear all gathered up, he wandered over to where Leona and Josef were hanging out in front of a goal, waiting on Anna to arrive to pick up Josef. They were laughing about something and based on the way their faces suddenly turned guilty-looking when he walked up, he assumed it was how Josef had gotten the better of him on the field.
“We need to work on your finishing, sir. That should have been a goal this morning,” Cullen said, trying to sound serious and encouraging all at the same time.
“I’ll make sure to practice extra hard, Coach, promise!”
“Let’s work on it some now, while we wait for your mom.” Cullen kicked the ball over to him.
Josef took the ball and dribbled it around Cullen and Leona. The smile on the kid’s face couldn’t have been any bigger had he just scored in the World Cup. Skipping slightly to the side, Cullen kicked out his leg, stealing the ball from Josef and running it closer to Leona. Just when he thought he had Josef, the kid appeared out of nowhere and stole it back.
They went back and forth like this for a while, when Cullen saw Anna arrive out of the corner of his eye. She walked onto the pitch and stood next to her daughter. It was still amazing to him just how much they looked alike. It was like getting a glimpse of what Leona would look like as she aged, and Cullen liked what he saw. Not that he would allow himself to think about anything past next week right now. He didn’t want to have to think about what accepting a job in Atlanta, or even simply the end of his vacation, meant for his time with the sexy little blonde.
The next time he got the ball away from Josef, he kicked it over toward the Filipe women. Thankfully it hadn’t had much power behind it and rolled slowly to a stop not far from their feet, not giving Leona a chance to recreate her maneuver from earlier today. The boys walked up to join them, and Anna greeted them both with a smile.
“Sounds like it was a good week?”
“It was,” Cullen said. “I think that Josef has really improved these last couple of weeks. I hope he feels the same.”
“I do! It was great!”
“Happy to hear it,” Anna said.
Cullen nodded at Anna’s approval. There was so much more he wanted to say, but he didn’t dare open his mouth and ruin the moment. Just like her daughter, he knew that Anna was a firecracker and, truth be told, she scared him more than a little.
He nudged the ball toward Leona and took a few steps backward and nodded toward the ball, trying to encourage her to kick it. Leona shook her head with a laugh, but took the bait, pulling her right foot back, and swinging forward.
Everyone was surprised when she actually made contact with the ball. Cullen was about to let out a cheer when a split second after her kick, the ball hit him squarely where he wasn’t wearing a cup.
“Ugh,” he let out, as the ball bounced off his crotch. He could hear her gasp, while Anna and Josef simply laughed. Fuck, that hurt…
Taking a moment to catch his breath, he could hear Leona hiss to her family, “It’s not funny!” which only made them laugh harder.
“Leona’s skills, however, could use some work,” he commented, finally standing upright again.
“C’mon, Josef, let’s let Mr. Cruz heal. We need to get home for dinner,” Anna said, her laughter finally subsiding. Turning to her daughter with a straight face, she looked her in the eye. “And you, young lady, better go tend to that. Make sure everything is still in proper working order.”
Turning to Cullen, she winked and then walked away.
Chapter Twenty-One
The ride back to the resort was full of Leona repeating “I’m so sorry,” and “I can’t believe I did that,” and “Are you sure you’re okay?” over and over again, until Cullen finally cut her off with a kiss. She melted beneath his touch and mewed softly as his tongue parted her lips, turning his dick hard instantly. When he pulled back and broke the kiss, the smile on her face was enough to make him question his promise to behave until they got back to the resort.
As promised, he let her pick dinner. For a moment he wondered what on earth he’d gotten himself into with the way her eyes widened and lit up when she verified that it could be “anything she wanted.” Certain she was going to name some super upscale restaurant, or worse, drag him to Paradise Point and make him go dancing, he told himself to suck it up. A deal was a deal.
Thankfully, that devious smile of hers simply meant she wanted to order in pizza.
When she walked back into La Isla Bonita with two large pizzas in her arms, she looked like a kid on Christmas. Her giggles bounced off the walls as she made her way out to the patio and slid the pizza boxes onto the metal table in between the two chaise lounges. Flopping down into one of the two loungers, she flipped open the top box, pulled out a slice of cheese pizza, and took a large bite.
“Mmmmmmmm,” she moaned, slowly pulling the stringy, cheesy slice away from her mouth.
“Pizza,” Cullen said, letting out yet another laugh on the subject. “I would have taken you anywhere, and you wanted to order pizza.”
“Pizza was always a special treat growing up. We didn’t order it very often,” she said, a little embarrassed about admitting such a fact. “I eat it more now, as an adult, and Miller makes great pizza, but it still always feels like a treat getting to order it from the little place downtown.”
Cullen felt an ache in his heart as she shared this. He knew exactly how she felt, and he hated that she was embarrassed about how she grew up. Even if they did have similar backgrounds in that respect, he hated to think that she might be holding back with him about anything. He wanted her to open up completely, and he wanted to know everything about her.
“I get it. Pizza to the Filipes seems to be the equivalent of chips for the Cruzes. There was a chippy around the corner from the building we lived in, and it smelled so damn good every time we walked by it, but it was
a rare occasion that we actually got takeaway from there. Takeaway was just not in the budget.”
“It’s still hard to wrap my brain around that you weren’t always rich and famous,” she said between bites.
“I was a child at one point, you know,” he laughed, opening the box and grabbing a slice of his own. He took a bite and relished the taste as the hot cheese hit his tongue. Maybe it was because he was sitting there with her, but for some reason, the pizza tasted better than usual tonight.
“Spend the day with me on Monday,” he blurted out.
“Come again?” she said, swallowing quickly.
"I know you have a lot of work to catch up on this weekend, but you’re scheduled to be off on Monday, yes? I want us to spend it together.”
“Should I be weirded out that you know my schedule?” she asked with a giggle.
“Vaughn happened to mention it when I asked him about today,” he answered with a shrug.
“I think I might need to talk to my boss about pimping me out.”
“Well, I am a VIP guest,” he said, mocking arrogance. “So, what do you say?”
“I can probably fit you into my schedule,” she teased back.
Cullen was up with the sun on Saturday morning, taking advantage of the quiet for a run on the beach. After returning home and relaxing on the patio, he started to realize just how tired he was from his non-stop schedule since arriving at St. Thomas and spent most of Saturday napping. The breeze off the back side of his villa had been a nice calm one, only showing up sporadically, enough to provide a bit of a respite from the hot sun now and then. It had been nice to have a day to himself, to be alone with his thoughts. He hadn’t put near as much thought into the Atlanta offer as he should have and he knew he owed Oliver a call. But now just wasn’t the time. He knew Oliver would ask how camp was and try to get him to cut the trip short now that it was over, and that was the last thing Cullen wanted. He couldn’t tell Oliver about how things had changed with Leona. Hell, Oliver didn’t know there even was a Leona, much less there were things that could change, and he wasn’t about to launch into an explanation today.
Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort Book 2) Page 18