Team Player 2: A Sports Anthology

by Paige, Rochelle

  “Hot damn! Your man is on fire.” Britney tapped her bottle against mine. “If he keeps playing like this, you’re going to have to come to the rest of the games this season.”

  Since I didn’t know how long it was going to take to resolve Rowan’s stalker situation, I couldn’t commit to Britney’s suggestion. “This was a one-time thing. I’m sure Rachel will want to use her ticket during the next home game.”

  Britney aimed her thumb in direction of the girls we’d gotten into the argument with earlier. “Football players are notoriously superstitious. If Rowan kicks ass on the field, a bunch of the guys would volunteer to give up their tickets in a heartbeat. If their current flavor of the week doesn’t understand the game comes first and complains too much, they’ll be replaced with someone who does.” A wicked gleam entered her eyes. “Maybe I’ll suggest to Roger that he gives up his ticket.”

  “Who’s Roger?” I asked.

  She grinned. “He plays on the offensive line, and the teenybopper behind us is currently riding his dick.”

  I grinned back. “Have I mentioned how much I like your style?”

  “Not yet, but all is forgiven if you buy the next round of beers, too.”

  I laughed and raised my almost full bottle to grab the beer guy’s attention again. “Sure, I can do that.”

  The cost of a couple more beers was a small price to pay to keep Britney happy. Not only was she a lot of fun to hang out with, but she was also a font of information when it came to people connected to the team.

  Rowan

  Off days were some of my favorites during the season, second only to game days. Thirty-six hours wasn’t long enough for the aches and pains from my game to disappear, but this one was still better than most because Sera was in my bed. It was the first morning since meeting her when I didn’t have to hurry out the door to get to the stadium. Rolling onto my side, I enjoyed the sight of her sleeping beside me. I reached out and lifted a long, dark curl off her pillow and wrapped it around my finger.

  “I guess you haven’t figured out that I’m a light sleeper yet.” Her voice was raspy from sleep, and my morning hard-on flexed at the sexy as hell sound.

  I was grateful for the loose fit of my athletic shorts and the sheet draped over my lower body when she turned over and blinked up at me. Resisting the temptation Sera represented had been difficult even when my schedule was jam packed, but I had a feeling it would be impossible with her to myself today.

  Things on the stalker front had been quiet, without any new developments since Carl hired the security team. I still felt like he’d been overreacting, but now I was grateful for it because I might never have met Sera otherwise. Our situation was unusual, with her moving into my home the same day we met and technically working for me, but we’d grown close over the past week. Sleeping with someone night after night was bound to do that.

  “I figured that out the morning you almost shot my mom,” I teased.

  She sat up and flared at me. “I did not almost shoot your mom!”

  “I don’t know.” I grinned at her. “It seemed like a close call to me. I mean, you had your gun out. For all I know, the safety was off.”

  “That goes to show what you know,” she snorted. “My Glock doesn’t have an external safety.”

  “Really?” I glanced over her shoulder to look at the drawer where she kept her gun at night.

  I must’ve looked concerned because she added, “You don’t need to worry about an accidental discharge. There are three independent internal safeties to prevent that from happening.”

  I gave her a sheepish look. “I don’t know much about guns. Football has been my thing since my mom let me join a team when I was seven. It was only touch, not tackle, but I fell in love with it right away.”

  She shifted on the mattress, sitting cross-legged and grabbing a pillow to set in her lap. “Your love for the game came through loud and clear when I saw you play on Sunday.”

  “I don’t think the day will ever come when the game won’t still have my heart,” I admitted.

  “Then why are you leaving it?”

  Curling up to sit across from her, I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed. “It's my mom. She’s been the only constant in my life, ever since I was a baby. She had me young but didn't let that stop her from being the best damn parent I could possibly ask for.”

  Sera’s green eyes filled with confusion. “I’m missing the connection between your mom and retiring from football early. She’s really proud of what you've accomplished.”

  “I know she’s proud of my career, and she’d never ask me to stop playing. This was my decision, and mine alone.” I looked around my master suite, taking in the huge space and pricey furnishings. “I've earned more than enough money to be set for life, so leaving football now won't hurt me financially. But like I told you before, I live and breathe football during season. It’s never been an issue for me, until now.”

  “What changed your perspective?” Sera tilted her head back and stared up at the ceiling. “She’s sick, isn't she?”

  I hadn’t been expecting her to figure out my mom’s secret so easily. “How did you guess?

  “I figured it’d have to be something big for you to make a drastic, life-changing decision. And it was because of your mom,” she explained her thought process. “Then I remembered how she got a little shaky the other day, and you freaked out. At the time, I just assumed it was because you’re overprotective, but now I realize it’s more than that. Plus, I thought it was weird how she loves coffee so much but only allows herself one cup a day. And I spotted a weekly pill organizer in her purse yesterday morning. ”

  “Damn.” I shook my head. “You're more observant when it comes to my mom than I am.”

  “Don’t feel bad, paying attention to small details most people wouldn’t notice comes with the job,” she reassured me. “How bad is it?”

  “She’s only forty-eight, but she was diagnosed with heart disease a few months ago. She has atrial fibrillation where her heart has an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, or heart failure.” Just thinking about what could happen to my mom had me choking up, and I took a minute to pull myself together before continuing. “She didn't want to tell me until the season was over, but she almost passed out one morning and finally told me what was going because it was the only way to stop me from calling an ambulance to take her to the hospital.”

  I was fiddling with the edge of the sheet, and Sera laced her fingers through mine. “I can see how the threat of a trip to the hospital would get her to confess.”

  “She said she didn’t want the news to mess with my head and fuck up my season. But my mom means more to me than football. I can't run the risk of not being there for her when she needs me.” I squeezed her hand. “The only reason I’m finishing out the season is because she taught me to honor my commitments.”

  “You’re a good man, Rowan Charles.”

  I’d heard similar compliments before, but the words had more meaning coming from Sera. “That’s yet another thing I owe to my mom.”

  As she rose on her knees and leaned toward me to brush a kiss against my cheek, I held myself utterly still. I knew that if I got my hands on her, I’d have a hard time stopping with only a kiss. It took everything I had in me not to drag her lithe body onto my lap, but I wasn’t going to let the need that’d been growing inside me day by day fuck shit up between us. I’d never doubted my self-control before, but Sera pushed me to the limits of my endurance.

  Considering what we’d been talking about, I knew she’d meant the gesture to be sweet. I just had to convince my dick that she wasn’t trying to be sexy before she noticed it was about to bust through my shorts to get to her.

  Sera

  After spotting the hard-on Rowan was sporting—which was impossible to miss, considering the size of what he was packing down there—I dropped back on the mattress and sat cross-legged again. It was either move away from him or jump his b
ones, and I wasn’t ready to cross that particular professional line. Not yet. I was a heck of a lot closer than I was willing to admit, though. “What’s the plan for today?”

  “I need to lift and get a run in.”

  His answer wasn’t what I was expecting to hear. “I thought it was your off day? Don't you ever take a break?”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Not during the season. That’s why early retirement seemed like the only solution with my mom’s health situation.”

  If he kept on being such a nice guy while we sat here talking in bed, I would end up tempting him into showing me exactly how bad he could be too. We needed to get this show on the road before that happened.

  Thinking of the workout room he had in the basement that could easily compete with most small gyms, I asked, “Do you like to run inside or out?”

  “I use the treadmill when I’m at the stadium, but I prefer to head outside for my run when I’m home. But if someone needs to check my route first, I can hit my workout room instead,” he offered.

  I shook my head. “No, that's fine. Just give me five or ten minutes to get ready, and I'll go with you.”

  He flashed me an apologetic grin. “As much as I'd like to have you with me, I'm not sure you'll be happy with how far I plan to go. It’s not by accident that I’m one of the top five rushing QBs in the league.”

  Running wasn't my favorite thing to do, but I’d survived a hell of a lot of it when I was enlisted. “How many miles?”

  “You good for five?” he asked.

  I heaved a sigh of relief because I thought he was going to say at least ten miles. “Yeah, I can do five.”

  “All right.” He grinned at me, rubbing his hands together. “Let's do this.”

  I hadn't thought it was possible for a guy to be sexy and adorable at the same time, but Rowan’s boyish excitement over running with me didn’t detract from his hotness level at all. If anything, it added to it. Hopefully, getting hot and sweaty in an unenjoyable way would put a damper on my libido.

  Half an hour later, we were ready to head outside after getting changed, gulping down a couple of those god-awful smoothies Rowan swore by, and stretching. Less than a minute into our run, I realized my hope was in vain—he could run me until my muscles cried out, and it still wouldn’t stop me from wanting him. I was starting to think nothing would, but definitely not running because he looked so damn good doing it.

  Rowan moved unlike anyone I'd ever seen before. His stride was even, his muscles bunching with each shift of his body. He was basically a running machine, and it didn't take long for me to seriously doubt my ability to keep up. About two miles in, my heart was already racing in my chest. Between the pace he set and the view I had from running behind him, my breathing was doomed.

  I’d never been much of an ass woman, but Rowan’s behind was a masterpiece. Rock hard and rounded, his runs did a lot for his glutes. I would be more than happy to stare at it all day, even if it meant more than a five-mile run.

  A little less than thirty minutes after we started out, we were nearing Rowan’s house again. As we ran by the place he bought his mom, I asked, “Why didn't you just move Rachel in with you?”

  Although I was out of breath and had to pant out my question, you would never have guessed Rowan had just run five miles when he answered, “Because she refused to move in with me. When I suggested it, she said her health wasn't anywhere near bad enough to live with her son because it would cramp her style. Hers, mind you. She wasn’t worried about mine.”

  “Your mom cracks me up.” We reached Rowan’s driveway and started to do a few stretches as a cooldown. “She has a key to your house and knows the security code so she can come and go as she pleases—which is often—but she won't move in with you.”

  “I learned a long time ago that my mom’s mind works in mysterious ways.” He lifted the bottom of his shirt up to wipe the sweat from his face, giving me a nice, long look at his six-pack abs. “I’m better off letting her do her own thing than trying to talk her around to my way of thinking.”

  “That's a good plan when it comes to any woman.” I dragged my gaze away from his stomach as he dropped his shirt back into place. “Including me.”

  “I think you mean something more along the lines of especially you,” he corrected with a sexy grin aimed my way as I followed him into the house. “My mom likes to joke about how she brought me into the world so she can take me out of it. It’s funny as hell since she doesn’t even like to kill spiders on her own, but you’re a whole other story. But we both know you could actually do it if you had to. Maybe I’m crazy, but I find your dangerous edge sexy as fuck.”

  Rowan’s confidence was a major turn-on. He seemed comfortable with what I did for a living, which was unusual for most men. Even some guys who worked in the same field as I did had a hard time dealing with a woman like me.

  Not Rowan.

  He wasn’t deterred by my past in the military or what I did for a living. The incredible man standing in front of me was a famous athlete. He could have basically any woman in the world, but I had no doubts about the strength of his desire. Rowan wanted me.

  The only thing standing in the way of Rowan and me acting on our chemistry was the fact that I was here to protect him, not sleep with him. Or at least that was what I kept telling myself. But maybe I’d been wrong to keep denying us both what we wanted. It wasn’t like I would be the first person from Kane Security who had crossed the line from professional to personal with a client. Brecken had met Hadley when we’d gone into the jungle to rescue her from a kidnapping, after all. If the boss could find love on the job, why couldn’t I?

  Rowan

  Disheveled and flushed after our run, Sera was sexier than usual. I couldn’t stop thinking about all the other ways besides running that I could make her look the same. We’d have a fuck of a lot more fun with any of the ideas that popped into my mind. Images of us together—each one filthier than the last—played like a movie in my head.

  My dick was as hard as a steel pipe, tenting the front of my shorts and making it impossible to hide from Sera. She eyed my hard-on, and her green eyes filled with heat. Her lips parted on a sigh, before curving up in a small smile of feminine satisfaction.

  “What’s that look for, angel?” Please let it mean good things for me. Hot, sweaty, naked things.

  “I was just thinking about how badly I need a shower after our run.”

  Fuck. I would give my left nut to see the water beating down against her bare skin and trace the path of the droplets with my tongue. I was so busy fantasizing about showering with her that it took longer than it should’ve for me to register that she’d stripped her shirt off. Then she pulled her sports bra over her head and tossed both items at me before racing toward the stairs.

  The scraps of material acted as a red flag did to a bull and had me charging after Sera. All I’d needed was a sign from her that she was ready to explore the explosive chemistry between us, and she’d just given it to me. I caught up to her midway and swept her off her feet, tossing her over my shoulder.

  “Took you long enough,” she laughed, taking advantage of her position to lightly swat my ass.

  When I reached the top of the stairs, I swung her down so I could hold her securely against my chest. “Not so long that I didn’t catch up with you.”

  “True,” she conceded with a smile. “So I guess this means you’d like to limit our water usage by showering together?”

  “I have a feeling your plan to use less water”—I carried her into the en suite bathroom—“is about to take a drastic turn for the worse.”

  “I bet you can come up with something to make me feel better about my failure,” she suggested after I set her down on the floor. Dipping her hand into the waistband of my shorts, she wrapped it around my dick. My hips punched forward, and I pressed my hardness into her palm.

  “Challenge accepted, angel.” After tugging her hand out of my shorts, I walked over to t
he glass-enclosed shower and flipped on all the showerheads. I set the water temperature hot enough to fog up the windows and turned back to Sera.

  I kept my eyes locked on green orbs as I kicked off my shoes and stripped out of my shirt, shorts, socks, and boxers. Staring at my hard length, she bit her bottom lip. “It looks like you’re issuing a challenge to me in return.”

  I winked at her as I grabbed a couple of extra towels and hung them closer to the shower. “They’re one and the same.”

  She was down to just her panties when she asked, “It’d be super cliché of me to comment on your size right about now, wouldn’t it?”

  I stalked over to her and slid her panties down her legs. When they were on the floor, I glided my palms over the silky skin of her inner thighs. “I don’t know. Is this the part where I reassure you that I’ll fit?”

  She waited until I was cupping her pussy, a deep growl rumbling up my chest when I felt how wet she was for me, to answer. “I’m looking forward to feeling how well you fit.”

  “Perfectly,” I promised, wrapping my arms around her lower back to lift her. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and I padded over to the shower. With her hot pussy pressed against my dick, I didn’t want to put Rowan down. But it’d be beyond poor form for me to just thrust inside her without any foreplay, especially our first time.

  I swatted her ass as a signal to let go, and her legs unwound from my waist. Bending my head low, I sucked one of her nipples into my mouth. Her nails dug into my biceps as her back arched to press her tit closer to my mouth. After playing with her other breast, I tilted her head back to claim her lips. Our tongues tangled together as the steam built up around us.

  She reached between us and stroked her palm up and down my cock. After pumping my hips a few times, I pulled out of her hold. “Hey, I wasn’t done with you yet,” she complained.