“Aye aye, Captain.” The director rolls his eyes, but I notice the small twitch of his lips. He loves me.
This exclusive interview with Kenneth Greenbaum, head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is actually a big deal. I scored the sit-down after relentlessly pursuing him and the Buccaneers organization to open up about the game against the Cowboys a few weeks back and the controversy surrounding the questionable calls at the end of the game. That game had sealed the team’s fate on the season, knocking them out of the playoffs, and social media has been blowing up about it ever since.
Adding to the intrigue, Coach Greenbaum himself made some pretty heated comments about the one-sided calls shortly after the loss, but was immediately muted by his superiors. His comments fueled the fire of suspicion regarding referee bias and interference during games, sparking serious speculation on Twitter and the like. Under pressure to speak out, the organization finally acquiesced and gave Greenbaum the green light for this interview.
See what I did there? Greenbaum, green light? Heh.
We’ll film the interview today, and FNN will air it tonight. The network is making a whole big thing of it, capitalizing on all the internet hype and promoting it like crazy. FNN getting this exclusive interview is huge, not to mention the boost it will give my career. I fully intend on pushing the envelope with my questions to Greenbaum, which will hopefully prompt an official investigation by the commissioner. And hell, if there’s evidence of a mafia affiliation—which is looking more and more likely—the freaking FBI should be involved.
This needs to be exposed.
I smile when I hear Kade hot on my heels as I leave Set B and walk back to my office. Then I frown. The envelope with the note and pictures that was delivered to my office flashes through my mind. It might sound ridiculous, but I’m still not sure how seriously to take the warning. It could just be a scare tactic to get me to back off. But that doesn’t answer the question of how whoever sent it even knew about the story in the first place.
And I can’t ignore the threat on Kade’s life.
Scare tactic or not, I don’t take death threats on people I love lightly. But what the hell am I supposed to do? Throw my hands up and let corruption go unchecked? Allow these stalker photographing jackasses know they’ve riled me and think I’m weak? Everything’s been quiet for weeks since that envelope, but this Greenbaum interview could stir the pot again. I can’t take chances with Kade’s life. But would these people really go that far?
Something tells me I don’t want to know the answer to that.
Something also tells me that Kade is better off knowing about the situation than being kept in the dark. I’ll feel better if he’s aware and on-guard at all times until this blows over. I’ll tell him tonight after the interview. Maybe once we’re in bed, after the first round of sex. He’ll be more amenable after an orgasm, probably less inclined to fight.
He’ll still be furious.
I don’t turn around to face him until I’m leaning against my desk and he’s closing my door.
“I don’t like you doing this Greenbaum interview,” he says, his voice as no-nonsense as I’ve ever heard it.
He tucks his hands inside his pockets, staring intently at me. His posture is casual, but I know there’s a storm brewing beneath that calm surface. I’m unfazed by his overprotectiveness because I know where it’s coming from—where he’s coming from. I’ve come to expect it now.
“Because you’re afraid of the possible repercussions it might have on me.” I’m more afraid of how it will affect you.
His mouth tightens. “Don’t belittle my concern for you.”
“I’m not. I just think that in this case it’s unfounded. It’s just an interview, Kade.”
“But I know you’re going to use this interview as your opportunity to spark controversy.”
His expression dares me to deny it. I don’t.
“I know you too well. You’re going to poke the bear, aren’t you?”
I bristle at the sound of his frustration. “Am I not supposed to do my job? Should I just sit back, shut up, and enable whoever is involved in this scheme?” I wave that question off. “No, it’s not even a scheme. This is straight-up criminal what they’re doing. I cannot do my job with one hundred percent integrity if I don’t follow my instincts and bring scandals like this to light.”
He stalks across my office and hauls me against him. “Goddammit, Sam. I don’t expect you to enable any criminals. I just don’t know why you can’t back off this one and leave it to the higher authorities. You already did your job. Hell, you went above and beyond your job.”
I lay my hands on his chest gently, comfortingly. “And Mike asked me specifically to do this interview. My job isn’t done yet. Besides, if I ask the right kinds of questions, viewers will draw their own conclusions. They’re not stupid. Rumors are going to spread before the story even breaks. And then I can’t be blamed for anything.”
“It still makes me uneasy.”
“I understand that. But can we just agree to disagree on this one?”
His gaze falls to my lips, and his demeanor changes. “Maybe we can work out a deal.”
Now we’re talking. “What kind of deal?”
“I’ll let this go…” he says, trailing off.
“If?”
His grin is dangerously sexy and full of heat. “If you can make me forget why I’m mad at you in the first place.”
Oh, yass. That I can do.
I push him backward until he falls down into my desk chair. Bending over and sticking my ass out as far as it will go, I say against his parted lips, “Challenge accepted.”
I willingly drop to my knees, pulling my black pencil skirt up and exposing my stockinged thigh, complete with lacy black garter.
Kade’s eyes take in my choice of undergarments and he groans. “Remind me again why you don’t want anyone here to know about us yet.”
For the last two weeks we’ve been keeping our relationship a secret, for so many reasons. The least of which is that I don’t want the added pressure of coming out to our co-workers as an official couple when Kade and I are still working through our own issues. We don’t need anyone else’s opinions thrown into the mix.
Then there’s the most serious consequence of our intimacy going public, which is that Kade could be fired. It’s not like there’s some “no workplace relationships” clause in our contracts, but his position is still in its trial period. The board doesn’t need significant reason to let him go if they choose to. Also, any publicity of our leaked relationship could turn negative, what with the fallout of my broken non-engagement with Aaron drawing the kind of attention that it did. I could see FNN wanting to avoid another round of “The Men of Samantha Lawrence” media frenzy by simply removing Kade from the equation. Then again, our ratings did significantly spike after Aaron and I broke up, so who knows.
For now, though, I’m fine with keeping this our little secret. If I’m being entirely honest, it does also add a tad more excitement to our workplace escapades. And there have been quite a few of those in the last two weeks.
“I’ve explained why.” I pull his belt through the loops and open the button on his pants. “Now, would you rather me go through the whole spiel again, or put my mouth to better use?”
He spreads his legs, making room for me as I pull his jutting manhood from the confines of his briefs.
“You want me to fill your mouth with my cock, baby?”
“Unless you want to spend our limited time alone arguing.”
The creases in his forehead smooth. “Suck me off,” he commands. “And don’t stop until you’ve swallowed all of me down.”
Which is exactly what I do and without mercy. While I kneel on the floor of my office, Kade fists my hair and grunts his release, spurting down the back of my throat. While I like a dominant man, I’m also not into that whole submissive shit. If that gets your rocks off, more power to you.
But that’s precisely
what I feel as I lick Kade clean: freaking powerful.
Because even though I’m the actual one on my knees, I just metaphorically brought Kade to his. And getting a man like Kade off with nothing but my mouth, knowing he hasn’t exactly been celibate over the years, is one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced in my life.
My skirt falls back into place as I rise to my feet and wipe the corners of my mouth with my finger. Satisfaction swarms me as I watch him come down from his high.
“Still mad?”
Even after getting one heck of a blow job—tooting my own horn here, I know—he’s still able to pull off that whole master of all that I survey look. It’s ridiculously sexy, the way he’s practically glaring up at me through glazed eyes. I’m suddenly ready for that giant tool of his to fill another hole of mine.
“What are you talking about?” he deadpans. “Who’s mad?”
I toss him a saucy wink. “Glad to hear it. Now, back to work.”
I shove him out my door before I get desperate enough to climb onto his lap and take my leather desk chair for a ride.
It’s an hour later as I’m leaving my office for hair and makeup that I’m taken completely off-guard. I’m walking out my door, checking email on my phone when a voice comes from the other end of the hallway, shocking the hell out of me.
“Hello, Samantha.”
My head snaps up, my feet halting. “Aaron?”
Chapter Forty-Five
“No One Like You”
by Scorpion
Kade
Since leaving Sam’s office earlier in a blissful state of physical relaxation, I’ve made it a point to bury myself in work until her Greenbaum interview because you’re damn right I’m watching it from behind the cameras.
I’m replying to some texts as I make my way over to Mike’s office to relay all my leads on new stories when I hear a man’s voice coming from the direction of Sam’s office. I look at the time on my phone. She should be heading over to hair and makeup right now. I roll my eyes at her ever-present struggle with punctuality, but then I frown.
I don’t recognize the male voice.
I switch directions, and that’s when I see him exiting her office.
Aaron fucking Simmons.
The Prince of Football, as some have dubbed him. He’s likely to eventually inherit the commissioner’s position from Simmons Sr. because everyone seems enamored of the father and son duo. When he and Sam were dating, the papers had called the relationship “a match made in heaven.” The Prince and Sweetheart of Football.
That’s still irritating as shit to hear.
And I still want to punch the man’s teeth in. Simply for ever having what’s always been mine.
What the hell is he doing here talking to Sam? The memory of him calling her the night we had our impromptu touch football game surfaces. Have they been talking?
I stomp over to him, fire igniting my blood. Unfortunately, he’s turning in the opposite direction as I close in. He gives me one brief cursory glance and then struts away, dismissing my presence. I don’t know which pisses me off more. The fact that he’s here to see Sam in the first place, or the fact that he looked at me as if I presented no threat whatsoever.
Sam’s eyes widen when she sees me. “Hey. Did you need something? I need to get over to hair and makeup now or I’m going to be late.”
I swing my gaze from the now empty hallway over to her, infusing steel into my voice. “What the hell was he doing here?”
Her eyes flick tentatively down the hallway before coming back to me. “He wanted to talk to me.”
“About what?” My patience is holding on by the thinnest of strings.
She hesitates. That’s when I know I’m not going to like the answer.
“He wanted to get back together.”
Oh, that motherfucker.
“What did you tell him?”
Her brows knit together. “Do you really have to ask me that?”
“Humor me.”
She sighs in consternation. “Of course, I said no. He and I have been over for a long time. And I told him I’m seeing someone.”
That information mollifies me slightly. But I wish she would have told him who, specifically, she’s dating. I want him to know whose bed she’s lying in every night the next time he looks me in the eye. And whose bed she’s not in. I want him to see the claim I’ve put on her, and know who she damn well belongs to. Yeah, Sam is her own person. Always has been. But she’s also mine.
And Aaron Simmons needs to back the fuck off her for good.
But right now, I convince myself that Sam needs a quick reminder of why she’s with me.
Without ceremony, I push her back into her office and slam the door closed. Pinning her to the wall with my hips, I take possession of her luscious mouth with every ounce of passion I have coursing through my veins. Shoving my hands through her mass of hair, I cradle her head at an angle, allowing my tongue to dive deeper. Her moans fill my ears. When she wraps her leg around my waist, I consider taking her right here against the wall of her office. I can tell she’s creaming for it. My hard-on certainly wouldn’t protest.
I tear my mouth away instead. Call it selfish or whatever, but it turns out that I was the one who needed the reminder. A reminder that she wants me, not Simmons. That I finally have her all to myself. I needed to feel her body respond to me this way, knowing full well that she still wants to be with me despite the shit I pulled years ago.
She’s still my Sam.
“Made your point yet?” she asks, breathless.
My eyebrows climb up my forehead. “You tell me.”
“It never needed to be made, but I’ll take a kiss like that any day. Maybe I should bring more of my exes around.”
I grind my back molars together. “I wouldn’t recommend it. Exactly how many are there?”
She smacks my ass before sliding out of my grip. “I have to go. And I’m not taking the rap for being late this time.”
“You going to tell the hair and makeup people that you’re late because you were kissing the hell out of me in your office?”
She definitely needs their help, too. Her hair is all mussed from my hands, her lipstick smudged in the corners. Not that I would care if they didn’t fix anything at all. Let her show millions of viewers the way she’s been marked by Kade Jennings. In that case, she might as well be wearing a sign that says, “I have a boyfriend and he did this to me.” The caveman in me pounds his chest like King Kong at the idea.
“You’d love that wouldn’t you, Jennings?” After blowing me a kiss, she’s out the door with a quick flutter of her eyelashes and whip of her hair.
I fall back against the wall, sighing. Why do I feel like she’s somehow always able to get the upper hand on me?
My dick stirs in my pants.
Oh, yeah.
That’s why.
Chapter Forty-Six
“Wanted Dead or Alive”
by Bon Jovi
Sam
I don’t just walk into my condo tonight.
I freaking twirl through the front door.
Riding my high mixed of adrenaline from my interview and a good alcohol buzz, I toss Kade a dazed smile over my shoulder.
He looks amused as he locks my door. “Feeling good?”
My loose muscles certainly are. “How do you think the interview went?”
Everyone at FNN had trudged down the street to the bar to grab some drinks and watch the interview together when it aired. Even I’ll admit the interview was punchy, pithy, and topical. Plus, it gave Coach Greenbaum a platform to voice his frustrations, so all the better.
Kade slowly follows me into the living room, smiling lazily as he watches me sprawl out on the couch.
“You were brilliant, as always.”
“You think so?”
“You killed it, Sam. It’s already all over Twitter. #RefsOnPayroll is trending. They’re saying you had balls to slam Fernadino and the other refs the way y
ou did. Everyone thinks you’re a badass.”
That’s the other reason I feel so invincible right now. It’s nice to follow your instincts, do your job well, and be respected for it.
“Do you?”
He chuckles. “I know you’re a badass.” Then his expression sobers. “I’m proud of you.”
Warmth expands out of my chest, spreading throughout my limbs. Could be from the alcohol, could be from hearing that Kade is proud of me. Those words tend to do all kinds of weird things to my insides. I suddenly remember the conversation I had with Aaron earlier today after his surprise appearance in my office. He said he still loved me. He wanted to give our relationship another try. And he’s willing to do whatever necessary to make that happen.
That confession couldn’t have been more shocking to me, for a couple of reasons. First, I may have turned down his unofficial marriage proposal, but our split had still been pretty mutual. He’d more or less said he didn’t want to waste any more time with someone who wasn’t yet ready for children.
So, why then had he reeked of desperation in my office today? He hadn’t been his usual cool and collected self. In fact, the only thing that hadn’t been out of place was his impeccably pressed and wrinkle-free suit. Heaven forbid he ever go around looking less than put together. I had been in such a hurry to get ready for the interview, I hadn’t truly processed the entire episode. But it’s dawning on me now.
His behavior had just been…bizarre.
Although, seeing Aaron again does shed some light on how different he and Kade really are.
Aaron is the safe, color-inside-the-lines type of guy that you can always count on to pay the bills on time. The type to only have sex in bed, right before falling asleep. He could offer me a compliment just as easily as he could tie a Windsor knot, and somehow make each task look seamlessly robotic. He’s not the type you pick out in a bar and think that one’s trouble. The word risky would never be associated with Aaron. Could he provide the white picket fence, suburban lifestyle that looks appealing, at least on the outside? Absolutely. I could have stayed with him and had a pretty stable life with a precise timeline and few surprises.
The Unforgettable Kind Page 27