by Marni Mann
Nothing I could say would crack his concentration, so I knew he really was ready, and it was time for me to leave.
“Demolish them,” I repeated.
With his jaw clenched, his eyes still so fucking fierce, I walked out and went upstairs to the VIP lounge where my partners were hanging out.
“How’s he doing?” Max asked as I joined them at their table.
I responded, “Whom are you asking about? Vince or Shawn?”
The three of them laughed.
“Well, whom did you just meet with?” Scarlett asked. “Or did you visit both?”
“I started with Shawn,” I said. “It felt wrong to go from one right to the other, so I’ll visit with Vince in a little bit.”
“Two clients on opposing teams, both playing in the Super Bowl. Now, isn’t that some shit?” Brett said.
This wasn’t the first time that had happened. The same scenario had occurred one year during the NBA championship and also the World Series.
In cases like this, I had to stay neutral, especially at the game. The last fucking thing I needed was a cameraman to catch me rooting for one team over another and pissing off one of my clients.
But, deep down, I always had a favorite.
And, since Vince already had a ring, I really wanted to see Shawn take this win.
“I assume Shawn’s family is here?” Max asked.
I nodded, resting my elbows on the high-top table. “There’s so many of them, they rented a box.”
“Do you plan on going to see them?”
I checked my watch. The players didn’t have to hit the field for another forty-five minutes. That gave me plenty of time to go talk to Shawn’s family and then head to Vince’s locker room.
“Yeah, and I’m thinking I should go now,” I said.
“I’ll go with you,” Brett responded. “I’d like to congratulate them.”
“I think we all would,” Scarlett said.
Max nodded.
I stepped back from the table. “Follow me.”
I led them through the lounge and out a back hallway where we took the elevator to the suite level of the stadium. After showing our passes to the security officers, we walked halfway around the building until we reached their suite.
I knocked on the door, and I extended my hand when Shawn’s father’s was the one to open it. “Mr. Cole.”
“Jack, welcome. Come on in.”
I waited for him to release me before I pointed behind me. “I brought my business partners. They’d like to meet you and your family.”
“The more, the merrier.”
I introduced him to Scarlett, Max, and Brett, and then we made our way inside the suite. I was surprised as hell to see how many people were in here. Yesterday morning, Shawn had told me there would be at least twenty, but I was sure there had to be over thirty. A good percentage was family members I’d met over the years at Shawn’s games.
But the one face I looked for and couldn’t find was Samantha’s.
I hadn’t seen her since the morning after the NFL draft when I kissed her forehead and left for my flight. If she’d attended any of Shawn’s games, they weren’t the ones I had been at.
I’d thought about her several times after I returned to LA and cut things off between us. But I never asked Shawn about her, he never brought her up, and I never searched for her online.
My client’s sister was off-fucking-limits.
Ending things between us was the best thing for the both of us.
“Jack, have you spoken to our boy?” Shawn’s father asked.
The room quieted, and I felt lots of eyes on me.
“I just saw him a few minutes ago,” I said. “He’s feeling prepared, and he’s ready to go.”
“How’s his hamstring?” one of his sisters asked.
“Fully healed,” I answered, feeling confident in my answer after an extensive conversion with the team doctor this morning. “Don’t be concerned. He’s healthy.”
“And the rest of the team? Are they ready?” his mother asked.
“I watched their walk-through yesterday,” I said. “The team looked strong and focused. They’re ready—all of them.”
“I hope we’ll be seeing you at the after-party,” another one of his sisters said.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” I responded, feeling like it was a good time to make our exit. I stepped toward Shawn’s father and shook his hand again. “I’ll see you after the game.”
“Hopefully, it’s down on the field,” he said.
I smiled, giving a quick hug to Shawn’s mother, and moved to the door. I knew the guys and Scarlett were right behind me, so I twisted the handle and went out into the hallway.
That was when I saw her approaching the suite.
When my stare traveled up that perfect fucking body and eventually stopped on her gorgeous face.
When my mouth opened, remembering the way hers had tasted.
When not a single goddamn word came out of me because I was far too busy taking her in.
4
Samantha
As I hung up with my client, I walked out of the back stairwell and made my way down the hallway. I’d escaped there for some privacy since it was far too loud in the suite to hear anything she was saying. With the phone still in my hand, I quickly checked my email, making sure nothing had come in that needed my immediate attention.
Knowing I was just a few suites away from the one we rented, I slipped my cell into my back pocket and looked up.
My feet stopped moving.
There was no way I could take another step.
Not with Jack Hunt standing in front of me, his eyes so locked with mine that I couldn’t breathe.
He had come into my life eight years ago, uprooted every emotion I’d ever had, violently shaken them, and then stomped on them like they were bugs scurrying around his feet.
“Samantha.”
It was a little louder than a whisper.
But it was enough to make my heart clench.
Because I’d thought about him every day since he left me in New York.
Because I’d cared about him.
Because he had owned my body for far too long.
“Jack,” I gasped. “Hi.”
Oh God, he was handsome. Even more so than he had been all those years ago.
He was older—we both were—but he’d aged so perfectly. He had crinkles around his eyes and deeper ones beside his lips. I remembered running my fingers through the scruff on his cheeks, which was now a full beard, and how it had roughed up my lips. His smile was sharp, piercing, and it still had the ability to make me wet. But what stood out the most were his eyes. They were a deep blue, the color of the sky right before it turned to dusk, a color I still saw every day.
“I was hoping you’d be here.”
Hoping I’d be here?
Part of me wanted to laugh.
Part of me wanted to slap him.
And part of me wanted to wrap my fingers around the lapels of his suit jacket and scream, Why?
But I didn’t say a word as he was joined by three other people—a woman and two men. One of the guys I knew was Brett Young, James Ryne’s fiancé.
I should introduce myself to him. He was my client after all.
But I couldn’t imagine opening my mouth. I certainly couldn’t imagine trying to make any sense of the thoughts in my head.
“I’ll meet you at the suite,” Jack said to the others as he stayed standing by the door, blocking it so that I’d have to move past him to enter.
As the three of them went by, I felt their gaze.
I didn’t look in their direction. I didn’t say anything. I just focused on Jack, on that sexy face that had visited so many of my dreams, and I tried to keep it together.
“Samantha, you look amazing. How’ve you been?”
There were so many things I wanted to voice, and none would answer his question.
The safest thing to say was, “I’m good
.”
The grin on his lips was small, but it was growing.
I hated it.
And I loved it.
And I hated that I loved it.
“I’ve never seen you at any of his games.”
He’d noticed.
That was interesting.
I wasn’t nineteen anymore. I’d grown a backbone.
“After the last text you sent me, I’m surprised you’ve been looking for me.”
I didn’t glance away from the blue of his eyes.
It was holding me.
It was keeping me captive.
It was making me feel, and that was the last thing I needed right now.
He peered off to the side, rubbing his hand over his long whiskers. “I wish things had been different; you know that.” He took a breath. “Will you be at the after-party?”
I wrapped my arms around my waist and thought of every reason I shouldn’t be there. I thought of the excuses I could come up with. But every one of them would hurt Shawn. I’d missed so much, so much because of Jack. Whether Shawn won or lost, I had to be there.
“Yes.”
He took several steps closer, and when he was less than a foot away, I watched his hand lift from his side and land on my shoulder. “Then, I’ll see you later.”
The things those fingers could do.
The way they could make me moan.
I had craved them so much.
I still did.
I didn’t say a word as he moved another pace. I just continued to watch him until he got past me, and then I forced myself forward, clasping the doorknob and shoving myself inside the suite.
“Everything all right with work?” my mom asked once I closed the door and pressed my back against it.
I hadn’t seen her standing there.
I hadn’t taken a breath.
But, with him gone, now that I could breathe in a space that he wasn’t in, I sucked in enough air to fill my lungs and looked at my mom.
“Honey?”
Several seconds passed before I said, “Sorry. What did you ask?”
She put her hand on my cheek, as though she was checking my temperature. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”
Jack was someone my brother spoke about on occasion, someone I knew was a huge part of his life, someone he saw often.
But, to me, he was a ghost.
And it certainly felt like I had just seen one.
“I—”
“Auntie Sam,” my three-year-old niece said, cutting me off, as she ran up to us, saving me from answering my mom’s question. She hugged her tiny arms around my thigh. There were smudges of frosting on her cheeks that would soon be on my jeans if I didn’t get a napkin and wipe it off. “Come up front with me.” She tugged like she could move me. “We want you to sit with us.”
I grabbed a napkin from a nearby table, and even though she fought me on it, I was able to rub it across her cheeks. “You’re all clean. Now, we can go sit.”
She gave me the biggest smile as I carried her to the front of the suite. “Uncle Shawn’s gonna win the football.”
I laughed. “Uncle Shawn’s definitely going to win the football tonight.”
But that meant the party would be happening soon after the game. The one Jack would be at.
And, just like what had happened outside in the hallway, my entire world would be rocked.
This time, I’d be expecting it.
This time, I’d have a few glasses of wine in me.
And maybe, this time, I’d be able to respond without my entire body wanting to scream.
5
Jack
“To the best team in the NFL,” Shawn toasted as he stood on a chair in the middle of the bar, holding a glass of beer in his hand.
“Hear, hear!” over three hundred partiers shouted back.
“To the best goddamn teammates I could ever have,” he continued.
“Hear, hear.”
“To the most loyal fans, the most supportive families, and one hell of a coaching staff,” he added.
“Hear, hear.”
“And to us”—he looked at all his teammates—“we kicked ass this season, we overcame every obstacle that was thrown our way, and we fought hard to be Super Bowl champions. Now, it’s time to fucking party.”
“Hear, fucking, hear.”
He jumped off the chair, and I clinked glasses with him.
“My email is already blowing up with contracts,” I told him. “So, you and your boys go celebrate. I’ll give you tomorrow off to recover. But, come Tuesday morning, I’m flying to Nashville, and we’ve got some business to discuss.”
“You’re going to get me endorsed?”
I laughed, matching the expression on his face. “You’re already endorsed. What I’m going to do is make you even richer than you already are.”
He pounded his fist on my shoulder and said, “The best thing I ever did was sign with you. Eight seasons, and it’s been one hell of a ride.”
I held my glass up to my lips. “The ride is just starting, my man. You’ve got plenty more Super Bowls in you.”
“You’ve got that right.”
My fingers slapped and gripped his, and we went in for a man hug. “Go have fun. I’ll see you later.”
He released my hand, and I turned toward my partners, who were standing right behind us.
“What a fucking awesome night for The Agency.”
“How much are we looking at?” Brett asked.
I quickly calculated the amounts sitting in my email, knowing which contracts Shawn would accept and which ones wouldn’t be enough, and then I added up my percentage. “Our take will be close to five million. That’s just from today. Tomorrow will bring in another impressive round, I’m sure.”
“Damn,” Max said. “You killed this month’s numbers.”
I smiled, looking at the amber liquor in my glass. “I didn’t kill them. I fucking slaughtered them.”
“He’s showing us up,” Brett said to Max.
“Do I smell a competition brewing?” Scarlett asked. “Because nothing makes me happier.”
As our CFO, Scarlett was all about our numbers, and the three of us were so competitive that it fueled us if one did better than the other. Her suggestion only goaded us.
“Whoever has the highest month wins thirty grand from each agent. That’s sixty total. Deal?” I said.
Brett stuck out his hand. “It’s on, brother.”
We clasped fingers, and then I did the same with Max.
Once we all agreed on the bet, a waiter stopped by and delivered another round of drinks.
As I was lifting the glass off the table, Max said, “I meant to ask you this when we were in our suite, but I got distracted by the game and forgot. Who was that girl outside the Coles’ box?”
I held the scotch underneath my nose and briefly inhaled it, feeling the way it slightly burned my skin. “That was Samantha, Shawn’s youngest sister.”
He shook his head. “She’s hot as hell.”
Samantha Cole wasn’t fucking hot.
She was gorgeous.
She was breathtaking.
She was perfect in every goddamn way.
And, if she weren’t Shawn’s sister, she’d be standing next to me at this table instead of on the other side of the bar, sipping a glass of wine while she spoke to Shelby, the oldest of the four girls.
I’d seen Samantha the second I arrived at the after-party. The sight of her reminded my cock of how fucking good her pussy had felt and how badly I had wanted her that night.
My need to be inside her hadn’t changed.
If anything, it intensified, especially with how beautiful she looked and how well she knew how to fuck.
All I wanted right now was to move in behind her, spread her arms over the bar top, and pound her pussy from behind.
But the girl had barely glanced at me, our eyes only connecting once, and she hadn’t done it since.
“It�
�s about time she showed up,” Brett said.
Brett was the only one in the group who knew about our past. I’d never told any of the others, even after I ended things with her. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them. I trusted Max and Scarlett with my life. There was just nothing to discuss; it was over before anything started.
But, man, she hadn’t been easy to ignore.
Not when she called a few times, when she texted even more.
Once I’d sent her the message that severed things permanently, she replied, and then I never heard from her again.
“Showed up?” Scarlett said. “What does Brett mean by that?”
I leaned into the table, stealing a glance at Samantha before I looked at Scarlett. “I’ve never seen her at any of Shawn’s games. That’s what Brett means.”
Scarlett nodded toward the right side of the room. “Isn’t that her?”
I let out a painful sigh. “Yes.”
When it came to business, I always got what I wanted. I was cutthroat, and I attacked like a goddamn lion. In my personal life, I wasn’t as vicious. Women were gentle; they couldn’t handle that kind of ruthlessness. Plus, I didn’t have the time to hunt. I just went after what was available, and then I moved on.
With Samantha, I’d gone after her. I fucked her. And then I was forced to say good-bye. Halting things between us had fucking sucked.
And it sucked even harder, seeing how beautiful she was now, maybe even more so than when I’d first met her.
Samantha had an exoticness to her with bright olive skin and the biggest brown eyes. Her jeans were so tight, I could see the muscles in her thighs, the slight dip of her hips, and the roundness of her tight ass. I knew how fucking delicious every one of those spots tasted. But it was her face I couldn’t get enough of. Those plump lips that she loved to lick and those cheeks that had reddened when my beard scratched them.
I felt Scarlett’s eyes on me, so I turned away from Samantha and gazed around at the different crowds. I saw plenty of other agents I recognized, some even from The Agency, those who worked underneath us, representing other Titans players.
I didn’t want to look at any of those fuckers.
They didn’t have the body I was after or the mouth I wanted to kiss or the pussy I wanted to bury my tongue inside of.