Sidelined: A Wilde Players Dirty Romance

by Terri E. Laine

  Cassidy

  With his brace off, Fletcher stands before me bending his injured knee in a lunge position. I watch like a proud mama. He bends a little further to pick up the football at his feet. Next thing, he’s sending the ball in a beautiful spiral my way. I catch it, wanting to jump up and down in excitement, knowing that I’ve done all I can for him. He will either prove his worth to his team or I’ll look like the worst physical therapist ever.

  His eyes dance as he stalks toward me. “Am I good, doc?”

  Tears threaten to fall. “You’ll do well tomorrow.”

  “All thanks to you. I’m not gonna lie. These past few weeks have been brutal, but I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. We should pack.”

  Pursing my lips, I give a slight smile. “You should. I’m not going, Fletch.”

  His face falls. “Cass—”

  I hold up a hand. “Let me explain. While I’d love to go with you to watch you crush it…” He smiles. “I have appointments. I don’t have someone to take my clients in-house. If I send them somewhere else, I risk losing them to my competition.”

  “You could have told me.” His tone carries an accusatory ring, and he’s right. I could have.

  “I tried to see if Cory could work his schedule in my favor, and he couldn’t. You were so happy about me going, I didn’t want to say anything until I’d exhausted all my options. I’m sorry. Really I am.”

  And it’s not the whole truth. He doesn’t know how much I’ve agonized over how to make this work between us, the distance. How we could both have our careers and be together. And I came up empty unless I give it all up.

  I squeal when he scoops me up into his arms. “If you’re not going with me, then I have to get my fill before I go.”

  He jogs up the porch stairs into the house and doesn’t break stride, with the exception of opening and closing the door. The dogs think it’s a game and make chase. But once we reach his room upstairs, they aren’t quick enough before he closes the door on their excited faces. I almost feel bad until he dumps me onto the bed.

  His shirt is off in one swift motion. Then he hooks a thumb in the waistband of his shorts, making my mouth water.

  “See something you want?”

  I mumble a yes.

  “Show me that pretty pussy of yours, Cass.”

  Damn, if he couldn’t make me wet by just talking. I squirm out of my workout pants under his lingering stare.

  “No panties, Cass?” His brow arches.

  I shrug. “I didn’t see a point.”

  “Fuck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have finished that workout.”

  “But now you can finish me off.”

  “I want to taste that sweet pussy. Face down, ass up, Cass.”

  Like a wanted woman, I get in that position, feeling vulnerable, but safe at the same time. The bed shifts, and then his hot mouth tastes me, making my eyes roll back. His tongue slides through my folds but goes a bit higher, and I shudder.

  “Fuck me, Fletch,” I beg.

  “And what do I get if I get you off?”

  “Whatever you want,” I say mindlessly.

  “What if I want to share you, Cass?”

  Before I can answer, he shoves into me, and his thrust makes any questions disappear off my tongue. But he isn’t done.

  “Have you ever been fucked by two guys?”

  His hand is on my shoulder, pressing me to the mattress. I’m barely able to shake my head as the idea makes my pussy quiver. Then I feel the invasion as he presses a finger inside me.

  “Imagine it,” he says as his strokes become ruthless and punishing.

  And I do. The faceless guy in my head stands before me in my imagination as Fletcher fucks me from behind. That’s all it takes to push me over the edge screaming because his thumb finds my clit at the exact moment.

  A couple more punishing thrusts and he empties himself inside me. He collapses on top of me, flattening me to the bed. I don’t mind. His warmth envelops me as the heat on our skin slowly cools.

  “Don’t get any ideas, Cass. I’ll never share, even if the idea intrigues you.”

  I say nothing because it does, though Fletcher has no problem getting me off.

  When I wave goodbye to him the next day, I try to convince myself the only reason I agreed to stay at his parents’ place is for the dogs. But the truth is, I feel safe in his sheets on the bed the two of us shared.

  “What do you say, guys? Up for a walk?” I say to Boomer and Brady as their tongues hang from their mouths. I toss the stick, and they take off.

  Fletcher is only supposed to be gone for a few days, and I’m already lonely without him. I’m in the kitchen filling the dogs’ bowls when the call comes.

  “Mrs. Miller?”

  An hour later, I’m still shaking as I drive into Bransonville. When I pull into the inconspicuous shop, I have no idea what I’m in for. The office is staffed with a kind looking older woman.

  “May I help you?”

  “Yes, I got a call from my insurance adjustor about my car?”

  “Are you okay, dear?”

  I nod. “I’m Mrs. Miller.”

  My name seems so ordinary as I say it, but it feels so foreign on my tongue.

  “Ah, yes. Would you like to see it?”

  I give her my silent agreement. The car isn’t mine, and I’d almost gotten exasperated with my agent trying to explain that the car didn’t belong to me, but my ex-husband. After he explained why the car was in the shop, I had to see for myself.

  “Here it is.”

  And there it sits. The breath rushes out of me as I stare at the thing. The hood of the car holds a large dent, and the windshield is splintered with a million cracks, yet holding together. The kicker is the huge dent in the front near the radiator that easily resembles the straight shape of a leg at impact before a body would be tossed in the air to land hard on the windshield.

  “This is your car?” the woman questions.

  We trade a few more questions and answers before I leave.

  Rage clouds my rational mind as I drive home. That isn’t exactly my destination. I make a call before I pull up at Calvin’s last known address. I have no desire to talk to his girlfriend and have managed not to do so until now.

  The door opens a crack, and a woman with hair that looks bleach fried answers the door. Her face withers into hate when she recognizes me.

  “What do you want?”

  Never could I understand what Calvin saw in her. He can talk circles around her. What do they talk about at night? Then again, my ego isn’t seeing the bigger picture. She’s better in bed than I was. At least that’s his excuse to me.

  “He ain’t here, if that’s who you are looking for.”

  There isn’t a reason to debate. “Where is he?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

  The door closes in my face. I have no choice but to leave, so I drive back to Fletcher’s place and let the dogs out. I fill their bowls before getting into my car and going back home. I check the streets for cars I don’t recognize before I get out. My keys rattle in my hands because I’m still reeling over the news. I close and lock the doors, leaving my purse on the table by the door before heading into the kitchen.

  “There you are.”

  Calvin’s arm is a steel band around me, pinning my arms at my sides. And the metal at my neck tells me I’ve been wrong about him. He is very capable of hurting me, and this time he means me harm.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to show up. Have you been with him?”

  He actually gives me a sniff, which makes my stomach revolt.

  “What are you doing?” I ask, sounding calmer than I feel.

  “Cassie, I never wanted to hurt you, but I have to choose my life over yours.”

  Spikes of fear stab at my chest. “What does that mean?”

  He edges me toward a chair that looks as though it’s been waiting for me. I’m shoved in it, landing hard and awkwardly. I turn to straigh
ten myself out so I can see what’s happening.

  “Don’t test me, Cassie. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  He holds some wire hangers he’s undone. I sit quietly as the cold blade is pressed to my neck. “Twist this around your wrist and the chair.” There’s determination in his eyes. Rising anger has me snatching the proffered wire from his hand, and I twist it around like he expects me to. Once I’m done, he does my other wrist and comes back to secure the one I did so I can’t move and feel it pinch at my circulation.

  “Calvin, what are you doing?” I ask again.

  He leaves and comes back with my purse. Dumping it onto the floor, he finds my phone.

  “What’s your passcode? I need to unlock it.”

  When he’d been on the floor, I’d considered kicking him with my unbound feet. However, he’d been just far enough away, and I hadn’t been sure I could have done it. I decide to hold that card until I have a for sure shot.

  I do what he asks, even knowing what’s coming next. Calvin may be book smart, but he’s criminal dumb. This is playing out like some movie he’s watched. He has to know there is no way he can get away with this. But I say nothing.

  He scrolls through my contacts until he finds the one he wants and makes the call.

  “Sorry, this isn’t your baby, “ Calvin says.

  Fletcher’s enraged voice comes through, but barely distinct. He’s obviously yelling. Today is the day he’s supposed to meet the coaches. I’m surprised he’s answered his phone.

  “Yeah, well, if you want her back in working order, you’ll stop demanding and start listening.”

  There is a pause.

  “Good, now I want you to bring me a million dollars cash.” Calvin listens for longer than I imagined he would. “Makes sense. Twenty thousand then.” He nods to no one. “Fine. Don’t tell anyone or bring the cops. Otherwise, she dies with me. And I’m not going to jail.” Another pause. “I think you know where. You have twelve hours.” Pause. “You’re a guy of means. Find a way.”

  He hangs up and smiles at me. “You’ve really got that guy all wrapped up, just like you had me.”

  I harrumph. “If I had you, why’d you cheat on me?”

  The answer isn’t really important. But maybe if I can appeal to the guy I used to know, I can get out of this.

  “I thought you understood my end game. You knew my plan for the future.”

  “Wind turbines,” I say matter-of-factly.

  “Exactly. Clean energy. I get that land, and I get the investors. We would have been set for life. I didn’t plan on the old man having a daughter he wanted married off. So I seduced Tara. I had no choice. I’d borrowed money that needed paying back. She turned out to be a good lay. I told you all of this.”

  He had, but it seemed ludicrous. The truth is, he banged her because he wanted to and hadn’t denied it.

  “I asked you to sell a number of times. You didn’t. I held off the guys as long as I could siphon money from the old man for…” he makes air quotes, “my wedding with Tara, the farmer’s princess.”

  “You borrowed money from a loan shark.”

  Shrugging, he says, “No one believed in me. You didn’t believe in me.”

  “I did. I just didn’t see how you would finance this.”

  “I needed a little capital. Besides, it’s too late for all that.”

  “And you brought a loan shark to my house,” I say, thinking of the night he’d shown up.

  “No!” He looks at me incredulously. “That was the guy that sells me the coke. I need that to take the edge off, you know.” No, I didn’t. “We did have good times, and maybe we can have more.”

  “You aren’t the man you once were. I don’t know why you’ve fallen so far.” Anger makes me say things I shouldn’t. “You so easily gave up on a million dollars for twenty thousand. Or maybe that’s all I’m worth.”

  It’s dumb to think that way, but who imagines themselves in this situation. I laugh, trying to fight back tears.

  “Oh, you’re worth it to that asshole. He’s willing to wire me the rest of the money. He just can’t ask the bank for a million dollars in cash on short notice.”

  Duh, which shows how coked up Calvin must be.

  He steps closer to me. “Maybe if I got you pregnant, you’d forget about that asshole and stay with me.”

  There is no fucking way I’m going to let him touch me, so when he gets close, I kick out. He tumbles back, and I get to my feet hunched over. I barrel forward.

  “No fucking way!” I shout. “And I know about the car. You’re the one who hit Fletcher.”

  Impact. He crashes back down from where he tried to stand. And the damn chair is made too well that it doesn’t fall apart like they do in movies. The fall throws me off balance, and he lands a kick to my gut. The air leaves me, and I gasp.

  “How’d you find out about the car?”

  I’m sucking in a breath, and it takes me a moment to wheeze out, “Insurance agent.”

  “Of course,” he says, getting to his feet. “I couldn’t pay the deductible to get it fixed.”

  Now I’m sure of his idiocy. If he was trying to hide the fact that he’d had a hit-and-run, why had he contacted our insurance company?

  “Sorry about this.” Something hard hits my temple. Instead of seeing stars, I sink into darkness.

  I wake to the sound of ringing, but it’s not my ears. The doorbell. I have no idea how long I’ve been out. Only the aches from lying on my side on the hard floor tell me it’s been a while.

  Sideways, I watch as feet find the door. Fletcher barges in, sending my door to crash into the wall on the inside. There is a scuffle, but he groans as his knees buckle. His hand reaches for his recently rehabilitated knee, and I have to guess that Calvin landed a blow there.

  Calvin brandishes a gun and levels it at Fletcher’s head. “Where’s the money?”

  “Out on the porch.”

  Calvin fires and I scream as Fletcher falls face first to the floor, but he isn’t out of the game quite yet. His leg lifts, and Calvin goes sprawling out the door. Then I hear it.

  “Freeze!”

  Fletcher

  Leaving Cassie and getting on a plane to prove my worth and that Cassie’s rehab worked is harder than I thought. Leo waits for me at the curb in his shiny black Escalade when I exit the airport. He’s all white teeth and grins, but when I climb into the car and shut him down, he doesn’t get it.

  “Fletch, you should be happy to be back and out of the sticks. Come on, man.”

  “Cut the bullshit, Leo. You know damn well I’m pissed about this. You fucked me over, man. The coach did, too.”

  “Fletch, baby, they have to know you’re roster-worthy.”

  Gritting my teeth, I say, “If I hear you say, ‘Fletch, baby,’ one more time, you’re fired.”

  “But, Fletch B—”

  “I’m not even joking, Leo. This is not a fucking picnic. Do you know the rehab I’ve been through? I’d like to see you even come close to doing what I’ve done. Now shut the fuck up and drive.”

  His yammer opens and closes a few times, but he decides his best option is to say nothing and puts the SUV in gear. It’s a good thing, too. The last thing I want to hear is his grating voice. When he pulls up in front of my house, he puts his car in park.

  “Don’t bother getting out. We have nothing to say to each other.” I grab my bag out of the back and head inside. I’m done with his ass, and I’m looking for a new agent.

  In the morning, I’m on the field bright and early. I want to get this over with. The day I’m scheduled to throw and give my demonstration isn’t until tomorrow, but fuck that. They want me here. I’m here. Let’s do this.

  Coach comes up to me, along with the quarterback trainer, the offensive coordinator, the general manager, and the president of the team.

  “Fletcher. Looking good,” Coach says.

  “Feeling great,” I say with exaggerated exuberance. “I’m ready for my demo.�
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  “You’re scheduled for tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, but I’m here. You all are here. Let’s get the show on the road, why don’t we?”

  They all share glances. Then Coach asks, “What about Leo?”

  “What about him?”

  “He’s not here.”

  “Fuck him.” I don’t add he won’t be hanging around me much longer anyway.

  The offensive coordinator says, “I’m cool. You guys? Coach?”

  “Yeah. Warm your arm up, Wilde.”

  I nod and do some exercises and then toss the ball a few times, maybe fifteen minutes worth, until one of them comes and gets me.

  “Ready?” Coach asks.

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  We go out onto the field, and they ask me to demo several different kinds of passes, of which bullets and Hail Marys seem to be the two they want to focus on. Probably because those are the ones that require the most strength and accuracy. My precision is dead-on. After I don’t know how many, because I lose count, they tell me it’s enough.

  I walk to the sidelines, and the offensive coordinator comments that he’s never seen me throw so well. “I don’t know what you did, Wilde, but keep it up. You looked great out there.”

  The president and Coach are low talking, so I don’t do anything except walk to my bag and fumble about, waiting for one of them to tell me something. Finally, Coach tells me to come back the next day because they want to talk about next year.

  “Am I good for now?” I ask.

  “Yeah. Nice work.”

  “What time you want me here?”

  “Nine.”

  “See ya then.”

  That night, I go make some contacts about getting a new agent. I need someone who has my back and not just his. After a few calls, I strike gold. Or at least it feels that way. We have a long discussion about our respective needs, and I send him over my current contract with Leo. It’s nothing that I can’t get out of without a thirty-day notice. I made sure of that when I signed with him.

  I take care of some things at the house that need attending, along with talking to Cassie, but the next morning I’m up early and at the field again. I don’t let Cassie know a thing about what happened. I want to surprise her with the news when I get it.