THE HARDEST YARDS (A BAD BOY FOOTBALL ROMANCE)

by Andrea Rose

  Leave me alone.

  “Wanted to check up on you,” he said.

  I walked him away from the DJ booth where Phoebe sat on a speaker, tied up in her phone.

  The Lightning were throwing a VIP mansion gathering to celebrate Tyler’s return to the game next week. They’d invited everyone and their mother to attend making it a struggle to push through to the balcony for fresher air.

  “Don’t check up on me. I’m just tired,” I shouted into his ear over the noise of the crowd.

  “Me too. Let’s call it a night.”

  “It’s ten.”

  “Phoebe’s not in the mood.”

  “She’s fine,” I scoffed. “Tell her to get off her phone and she’ll pay you attention.”

  “Can I say the same to you?”

  He seemed as suave as always. With the slight brush of his chin, he leaned in closer to my ear.

  “I gotta say, Ari, you’ve worn another dress that is making it very fucking hard for me to stay professional.”

  He gestured down at my chest and covered his satisfied grin.

  “What happened to being discreet?” he said.

  A half-exposed nipple hung from my dress. I squeaked and re-stuck the tape to cover up. “I—I…” Face burning, I pressed my fingers on my cheeks. “How long was that out?”

  “Long enough for me to get a few thoughts.”

  “I brought a shawl. Let me put that on for you.” As much as the lonely, single woman in me protested it, I dug through my bag.

  “That’ll just give me more things to mentally tear off you.”

  “How much have you had to drink?”

  “Nothin’ yet.”

  I studied him and slammed a beer into his chest.“Good. That’s for Phoebe. You are on lime soda, big guy,” I said.

  “Can I take you on that date yet?”

  “No.”

  He paused to imbibe the full beer in one gulp.

  “Why did you do that?”

  His eyes shifted.

  “Get back to your girlfriend. We need a new photo. People have stopped talking. Focus on Phoebe and only Phoebe. Get more intimate with each other, lean in a little closer, whisper into her ear and tell her to force a laugh at everything you say. We can’t risk a bad shot.”

  “Force a laugh, babe? I’m a natural born entertainer.”

  “Maybe I’ll find out one day. Get back over before you risk fucking us again.”

  “…Say ‘fucking’ one more time,” he brooded then bit his lip.

  “Playing with fire, King. Leave. Now.”

  I patted him in the direction of Phoebe and went to sit alone on a tufted leather sofa.

  An aching bled through my chest the further Tyler walked away. I turned over my shoulder only to see him zero in on me across the crowded room. He dropped his gaze quickly and rubbed at his head.

  This magnetism grew more intense the longer I spent in his company.

  I crossed my legs and tapped my smartphone. I wasn’t allowed to feel this way, not for a client, nor Tyler King, nor any man. I didn’t have time to build a career and sustain a relationship.

  Relationship, Ari? As if Tyler would be thinking that far ahead.

  The fuzzy feeling needed to stay just that: A feeling, or we were in deep shit.

  I touched my fingertips to my lips and took a deep breath.

  Hiding behind a blowing curtain, I snapped a photo of the lovebirds canoodling closer on their seat as instructed.

  She twirled a strand of his hair.

  I swigged another glug of beer…

  Tyler craned his neck, searching the room…

  Trying to find someone…

  Me?

  My vantage point kept me hidden.

  He buried his nose into Phoebe’s neck, his arm wrapped around her. She threw her head back in laughter. I cringed.

  Click, another picture.

  That was it: The snap that would have social media buzzing for days and that the public would mistake for love.

  I stared at the screen—far too long— then sent it away to my anonymous minions with the caption:

  Tyler King/Phoebe Kite - steaming up.

  The email would come from La Maison’s anonymous insider account,

  I’d write a bullshit quote of how the love birds seemed together,

  social media would go wild,

  the public would fall for it and everything goes…

  …Perfectly.

  Everything I worked for—Design a publicity strategy and watch all the wicked webs I could spin with public perception. I’d seen the power in my colleagues doing it, of Yuri rescuing celebrities destined for lives of obscurity and rebirthing them into superstars. I thought that would be me one day.

  …Before my heart got involved.

  Phoebe laughed again and Tyler kissed her on the head.

  Epiphany or not, if I were to keep on schedule with my cursed but necessary 10-Year Plan, I needed the career path to be the one thing that stayed on course. I’d vowed to avoid men and sex after Braydon.

  I’d stand by that.

  “There’s an interviewer here with a photographer.,” I jolted as Tyler leaned from behind a pot plant. “Says they need you?”

  “What? Where?”

  Tyler lead us away from the balcony into a walk-in linen closet.

  “You cannot keep coming back to me every time you’re bored. That’s what your girlfriend’s for.”

  “I can’t relax.”

  “Stop acting like I’ve set you up with Stalin. She’s a sweet, normal girl.”

  “I want a woman if I’m gonna keep this charade up,” he said, his hand clawed. “Someone more like you. Or you. Let me have you.”

  Stomach through the floor again, I rubbed at my nose then my chin.

  No words came.

  “Freak out face.”

  My head rolled.

  “I’m sorry. Can’t help it with you. You make it too easy.”

  “Oh my god. I have to leave now,” I said, panic kicking in at thought we were alone.

  My head fought my heart—A conflict I’d never faced. I paced toward the door.

  “I’m being inappropriate!” he said after me.

  “She’s your girlfriend, Tyler. Treat her like it. I don’t care how you do it, find a way to get along with her and forget about me. End of story.”

  I sidled angrily by a fellow party-goer, froze then exhaled when they paid no notice.

  “You leave, I leave this time!” Tyler’s voice strangled. “You’re not running again.”

  I stormed back and held my ground against him despite the challenge against someone of his stature.

  “Stay one more hour,” I asked calmly.

  “No. Not until you admit what I’m feeling isn’t one sided.”

  I rebelled, feeling an inward caving to him again.

  “I’ll lose it if I can’t pursue this,” he said.

  I grazed my teeth over my lip. Tyler narrowed his eyes, wondering what I was up to tucking my finger under the neckline of my top.

  His tongue pressed the corner of his mouth.

  My fingertips flashed barely a glimpse of my nipple again.

  “One…

  …more…

  …hour,” I rasped.

  Blood rushing in my ears.

  Tyler’s nostrils flared and he played with his stubble.

  My sleeve dropped down my shoulder, to hang over my breast. “One.”

  Hungry eyed, his fingertips brushed down the bare skin of my shoulder. Hairs prickled beneath his touch.

  He slipped the fabric back up my shoulder. “Teasing,” he said.

  “You tease.”

  He rested a hot hand on my waist.

  “Stalemate.”

  “I was out of ideas for what would keep you here.”

  “I’ll stay one more hour.” He swayed on the spot and lifted his hand from me. “But I’m trying to get affectionate with this girl I hardly know. Out of respect for
you, I can’t do that knowing you’re here.

  “Forget me. You’re not giving me enough.”

  “What else d’you need?”

  “Less playground nuzzling. More passion.”

  “More passion. Right.” His tone went dry.

  “Kiss her on the lips. We’re not in middle school.”

  “Oh, the lips. You’re happy watching me kiss another woman?”

  “You’re acting.”

  “You’re bluffing. You hate this, like I’d hate watching you with another dude.”

  I slapped my thigh. “I don’t care.”

  “No? Then how far do I need to go with her to make you care? If I put my tongue in her mouth, would you care then?”

  “Tyler.”

  “Bite her neck, keeping my eyes on you—You wouldn’t be jealous of her then?”

  “I have nothing to be jealous of.”

  “If I fucked her?”

  “Ouch.” I caught a hand to my heart. “Y—You go as far as you want to go with her and at no point will it bother me. I want you both to fall in love— It’d make my job a whole lot easier.”

  Tyler’s eyes darkened. “I’ve gone as far as I wanted. That happened about the time I shook her hand. Everything that followed were your orders and I was just following ‘em, sweetheart.”

  “Ari or Ariana. And I’m not doing this.”

  “Doing what? You’re the professional liar, not me. So I’m not gonna lie about the fact I’ve never felt this before and I’m sick of you glossing over that.”

  I exhaled through my nose. “You’re talking too loud,” I said. “I’m gonna walk away. Go back to your girlfriend.”

  “This ain’t right.”

  Tyler closed his eyes and smacked the wall behind me. I twitched in fright.

  “Ari, I’m sorry,” he breathed. The warmth blew at a loose stand of my hair.

  I crossed my arms over my chest and bowed my head.

  “Dammit!” I stomped a heel to the floor. “Fuck.”

  Too much one-on-one with Tyler had me weak at the knees again.

  I lifted my elbows higher on my chest.

  Risking it all for a feeling.

  “You see me the way I’m seeing you, don’t you?” he asked and leaned in closer. “You felt that thing and you’ve been ignoring it ever since.”

  I sidled further down the wall. “Aren’t you exhausted being the poster boy of scandal? Can’t you fight your impulsions for once and think about the bigger things at stake here?”

  “I’m exhausted full stop, sweetheart.”

  “I’m exhausted, too. That doesn’t mean I’m giving in that easy. Don’t you have bigger fish to fry with this Gavin shit?”

  “Gavin isn’t my priority.”

  “Fine. You care about me that much, you’ll let me leave now while you go have fun with Phoebe and do your best to not fuck this up for us.”

  Tyler, head hung low, sighed against the wall and caught my fingertips.

  “You’re running from me again,” he said.

  “Not because I want to.”

  He flashed another inappropriate smile then pulled me firmly by my side.

  “Don’t,” I warned softly and rested my hands to his chest.

  “You were the first girl to tell me no to a date and I’ve taken that as a sign you’re something special ever since. For some fucked up reason…”

  His thumb ran along my brow.

  “…You wanna fuck me.”

  “I want to fall in love with you.”

  I stumbled in place, my fingertips latching into his big arms.

  Tyler grazed his fingertips over my collarbone, reeling in closer.

  “I can’t take my eyes off you more than second,” he crooned. “You haven’t left my damn mind. I’m begging for those lips, for you to let me bite your neck…”

  His hand brushed my sleeve down again. I ushered him on in a hungered staring contest.

  “…I want to make love to you until you want nobody else in this world but me.” He cupped a firm palm to my breast and breathed onto my neck. “I’ll make you care.”

  “OK,” I exhaled.

  “Tell me to stop,” he said in a penetrating whisper, curving his hand around my neck.

  I clamped my eyes shut. Tyler wrapped me in a tight embrace and tugged my nipple gently between his knuckles. I arched back in his arms for him to continue tracing his touch over silk and skin.

  “Phase Two of your little plan might’ve come back to bite you in that gorgeous ass of yours.” Our eyes locked to each other’s, his thumb grazing my temple. “That thing that fuels me, makes me get out of bed in the morning, gives me focus…I’ve already found it.”

  “Ari…Ari…Where are you? Tyler? Arianaaa!” Phoebe’s voice penetrated the ringing silence.

  I breathed a wish. “Don’t say me.”

  Phoebe got closer. “Ari! Tyler! Ari, you left your Friend Tracker app on! Or someone has stolen my friends phone! In which case, give it back! She’s fucked without it!”

  Tyler rushed to slip me back into my top and steadied me until I could balance. My chest warmed in hives of arousal.

  Lonely Ari craved more.

  Don’t go yet, it begged. No matter what I say, don’t go.

  Heart thumping, adrenaline rushing, Tyler tucked his boner into his waistband the second Phoebe walked in the closet door.

  “…It’s you,” he said, arms out-stretched to Phoebe but eyes locked right on me.

  20

  Yuri barred me from the office all of Tuesday when I wouldn’t take some personal leave and sleep more than two hours a night.

  The security guards downstairs, friendly with me every other day, politely escorted me from the building.

  I had three choices:

  Work from home without my dogs for company,

  Spend the day with Tyler on his last few days off,

  Or meet with my lawyers.

  I went for the easier choice.

  An hour later paid in cash from my recent bonus, I exited from Swanson & Swanson Law into the muggy, stormy air of Brooklyn.

  If nothing else good came from Braydon, at least I’d learned more about New York’s judicial system and wrote new notes for my 10-Year Plan:

  No shared bank accounts.

  No boyfriends move into my apartment.

  No letting him pay for everything until he thinks he owns you.

  PRENUP!

  Stewing over news I should give in and accept the 50-50 custody offering of my canines, I slipped my phone from my bag and dialed Yuri.

  “Can I come back yet? I need the photocopier.”

  “Fuck off, Ariana,” she sung. “Get yourself a manicure. Your nails are horrendous.”

  Beep-beep-beep-beep…

  “Ohh…”

  I fumbled at the phone to try KK. She’d help simmer panic mode.

  ‘Hey, this is KK. Leave a message.’

  Beeeeeep!

  I stomped my foot. Of course that bitch had to still be in Australia, getting a tan, swimming with bitch dolphins and being in love. I’d direct my rage at her for now—She wouldn’t take it personally.

  I observed the street. Where do I turn…?

  The direction of Tyler, when I had no reason to see him today?

  Home, to stew over latest news I needed paperwork currently filed at my estranged parents’ house?

  No way.

  I needed someone to talk me down who wasn’t on my No Speaking list.

  I raised my hands to my head.

  Growling, I fished my phone from my pocket. “What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing….”

  Ring, ring…

  Heart thumped in my hollow chest. I started a small jog toward the river bank to start my journey home before the rain came.

  ‘My Queen,’ Tyler King’s sleepy husk answered. “Thought you said no talking for a few days?”

  “You sound tired.”

  “Big night brushing up on everything
before we enter the big ones. Leave on tour pretty soon.”

  A misty rain dampened my face and my eyes stung with tears that Tyler would be away most of the time until Spring.

  “Wow, Tyler,” I said. Stay focused, Ari. Focus. “I’m so happy for you. Just, make sure…”

  “I’m committed to this you and me thing, y’know, professionally. Ye of little faith, have faith in me. I’m taking Phoebe to the game next week…”

  I lingered.

  “Y’still there?”

  “I had no one else to call,” I blubbered into the side of my glove. “I’m sorry.”

  “Sweetheart, hey. What’s goin’ on? Need me to beat someone up?”

  I laughed. “No, thank you. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”

  “That’s why you need me. How’s the case coming along?”

  “You told me to stop working on it, remember? But I do have a working title for you.”

  “I meant your case, with the dogs. You haven’t mentioned it in a while.”

  “No personal talk in business hours.”

  “Fine. Then gimme that working title.”

  “The Con-Spiros-Cy.”

  “Eh.”

  “What do you mean ‘eh’? It’s clever. Or The Con-Spiros-Cy…King…or something?”

  “Colder. That’s just…confusing. Is he the King in this story or am I?”

  “Well, you both are in different ways—Like I said, working title,” I sneered down the phoneline. “And screw you.”

  His breath blew into my ear. I pressed harder against the phone.

  “You alone?” he said quietly.

  We all promised transparency, me, him and Phoebe.

  “I…I’m so fucking alone,” I admitted.

  A long pause.

  Too long.

  “Uh, me too, babe,” he offered back. “…What I mean to ask is are you alone today?”

  “Oh…Oh shit.” I rubbed my eye, cheeks burning with embarrassment. “I didn’t meant that. I mean…I did mean that. I am alone walking to the subway station.”

  “Let me see you. I swear it’ll be a definitely casual business brunch between colleagues at your apartment. I’ll wear a disguise if it’ll chill you out.”

  I sniffed. “What disguise would ever work on you?”

  “You’re considering it.”

  “No. I’m trying to keep you on the phone. You keep my mind off other things.”