Not Before Game Night (Bad Boy Bachelors of Orange County Book 4)

by Khardine Gray

  It was fine though. There was always next time, and now I knew one thing I didn’t know earlier, or even yesterday.

  Vanessa wanted me too.

  Chapter 7

  Vanessa

  Calm, calm, calm down and breathe.

  I checked my face in the rearview mirror of my car. It was still red.

  Why in the hell did I have to look like someone blew red dirt all over my face when I blushed? Even when I put bronzer on my skin, it did nothing. It was a dead giveaway of guilt.

  And what did I have to feel guilt over today?

  The promise I’d made to myself only this morning that I would be the strong woman I’d grown into and say no to Cole.

  It was supposed to be that simple. Tell him no.

  But what did I do? When literally backed into a corner, I was the one who undid my bra so he could suck my breasts, and I was the one who allowed the man to finger me. I didn’t even know what he was doing until he did it, pushing his finger right into my virgin passage, making me experience pleasure I’d only ever heard and read about.

  If sex was anything like that, no wonder my sisters had gone crazy on it.

  When I left Cole, I’d called Mia. I needed someone to talk to who would understand. I called her, but her phone went straight to voicemail. No way was I calling Abby, and since Taylor never answered the phone anyway, there was no point bothering to take the minute it would to call her and either go straight to her voicemail too, or get a dead tone.

  My car took me to Gage.

  My trusty car that probably had more common sense than me right now took me to the person who would give me the advice I needed. He would never tell me what I wanted to hear, or what my body wanted to hear. He would give me truth straight up and call me out on the madness that had possessed me to go for the billionaire playboy football player.

  Mia, on the other hand, would have wanted to hear all the saucy parts, never mind the logic, or that I must have lost my damn mind.

  I went straight to Gage’s office. His door was ajar, and he was in there with his secretary. The new one who was always doing her best to get his attention. Just like every other woman in this office.

  Fruitless on a man like him who didn’t believe in office romance. Pretty as his secretary was, he wouldn’t be the guy to indulge in her just because he could.

  Listen to me…

  What the hell did I know? Maybe he had. Maybe I was just in some La La Land and everyone wasn’t what they seemed to be.

  Cole sure wasn’t.

  In my head, his actions of the past were enough evidence to suggest he didn’t want me. He’d never wanted me, so why would anyone else?

  It was a sad thought but that was it. That was the fear instilled in my mind. A fearful thought I’d wanted to be rid of.

  Cole didn’t want me back in high school and the assumption followed that he was being the same ass he’d been back then.

  Except…it seemed like he wasn’t.

  This whole week had proved me wrong.

  The man I saw today looked like he wanted me, but… I could have been wrong. It was all so confusing.

  Gage saw me waiting by the door and smiled.

  “Vanessa, come in,” he beckoned me to come inside.

  His secretary gave me the usual phony smile, but her eyes spoke of her annoyance of me interrupting her conversation with Gage.

  She left us and closed the door behind her.

  “You okay?” Gage asked, and I did the silly girly thing I used to do from way back when.

  I walked over to him and rested my head on his chest.

  The minute I did that, he got his answer.

  At sixteen, when Cole had turned me away, I went to Gage. I’d found him at a party and did just this, except I burst into tears and cried for at least an hour.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked in a soothing voice.

  I sighed. “I don’t feel right.”

  He moved back, put and arm around me, and ushered me to sit over by the little sofa area we sometimes ate lunch in.

  “What happened?”

  Ever since that time with Cole and Gage’s parents’ divorce, I hated talking to him about Cole. It was the occurrence of that, that made me stop. That was why I’d never told him what made me cry for an hour after Cole rejected me.

  Maybe it was time to push it aside because I’d reached a point in my life where this thing had come back for me, and I wanted something… someone who was so wrong for me in every way. And not because of our teenaged encounter.

  I just wished the way he touched me didn’t feel the way it had. Like I wanted it, and I wanted him. I’d wanted him to take me right there against the wall of the changing room, just like the rebel he was.

  “Have… you ever gone after something that may be bad for you?” I breathed.

  He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. A lock of his blond hair fell forward and hung over his eyes, and it was strange I got that high school vibe again.

  Gage looked like he did back in high school, Cole still plagued my mind, and I was acting like a child.

  “What did he do now?” Gage asked.

  My breath hitched. “What?”

  “Cole? You’re talking about him. Aren’t you?” He looked at me with raised brows.

  “How did you know?”

  “Vanessa, you’re kind of like my little sister. We’re cousins, sure, but did you notice how while the others run wild, we’re usually the last ones standing, holding on to logic?”

  My shoulders slumped. “Yes, but maybe that’s a bad thing.”

  “Well, the point is, I know you, and I know when there’s something up with you because of him. I endured it all through high school and then again three months ago when he came back on the scene.”

  “I’m sorry. I know you hate him.”

  “I hate his ass more than I can actually say, but… in fairness, it’s not like he lied. The past wasn’t a lie. Not one ounce of it. Nothing he said about my dad was a lie. Was all true. Was just embarrassing. Cole was a complete jerk back then and doesn’t look to me like he’s changed.”

  “Really?” It was good for me to hear this. It was.

  I needed to get back on the straight and narrow, and focus. Look at the amazing opportunity my mother had given me. Now was not the time to lose my head over this guy. Again.

  “Vanessa, I call it like I see it. But that’s just me. What actually happened? Minus the tears, your face looks a little like it did ten years ago, just before he left for college. That was him too, wasn’t it?” He knew.

  I nodded. “It was him, but I did something stupid, and I did it again today.”

  “Well, I know you didn’t sleep with him, ‘cos that …” His words trailed off, and realization along with confusion seemed to hit him when I hung my head down. “Maybe I should let you do the talking.”

  I lifted my head, dragged in a ragged breath and got ready to talk. It was what I came here for, so shying away from the problem wasn’t going to help. “I didn’t sleep with him ten years ago, but I… nearly did today.” It was amazing how I could speak to him with such ease.

  He tilted his head to the side. “You like him, don’t you?”

  I blinked several times and then nodded. “I don’t want to.”

  “Well, Vanessa, I can’t tell you otherwise because truthfully, I’d love to see you with someone better, someone with more integrity and civilized… If you look at your phone now and do a Google search on his name, there’s going to be some kind of scandal. You see the scandals first and all the women associated with him before you see anything to do with football. That says a lot since he’s supposed to be this big football star. That should be the part you see first. I don’t want to hurt you, and I guess it’s my crude way of bringing the truth to the table and why no one ever asks my opinion, but that is it. That’s what I think, and what you came here to hear.” He held out his palms an raised his shoulders. “But that’s just my opi
nion. You have a choice. I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Guys like him just… well… they’re looking for fun, Vanessa. That’s the reality of it. Fun. Can’t expect more from a guy like Cole than fun. I think you can do better than that, unless fun is what you want.”

  I looked at him and thought about it.

  He was right. He was absolutely right, and what I should choose was the nice guy.

  That would have been me doing better.

  His words stayed in my mind.

  Amplified by the Google search I did on Cole the minute I got home.

  Gage, as usual, was right.

  Before I could even finish typing out his name, Cole’s name came up, and it was tied to all manner of women.

  Jesus… a person could have written a book on it.

  There was one story after another from different newspapers and magazines.

  There was stuff about his trade to The Centaurs, but that was old news. Only two weeks ago, there was a story about him in connection to Victoria’s Secret angel Arianna Vasquez. There were pictures and everything of them at a party in Malibu. Him kissing her, him with his hand on her ass in her short leather dress, and him leaving with her after the party. That was two weeks ago, and only God knew who he’d been with after that.

  It was late by the time I finished reading, but I picked up Madam Phoebe’s book deciding to focus on the gentle guy. I read for an hour and picked up on my reading the following day at the office while I waited for Mom. She wanted to speak to me first thing.

  I put the book away when she came in, pushing it in my handbag and shoving the bag under my table. Out of the way.

  She smiled wider when she took a seat in front of me.

  “Morning, sweet girl,” she bubbled.

  “Hey, Mom.”

  “I won’t stay long. I just wanted to check on you and find out if you had any dates for me for the articles. No biggie if you don’t. I just want an idea so we can plan some other stuff.” She nodded.

  If I’d been my usual self, I would have been the one contacting her to let her know I had everything ready to go. However, all I had since the meeting the other day was a bunch of ideas scribbled down in my notebook.

  So, this was me winging it, so I didn’t look bad. “Yes. I have dates,” I told her.

  “Oh, brilliant.”

  “So, the first article can go up by Monday. I figured it would be better before the season starts.” I could whip that up in no time because I didn’t have to interview anyone about that. “And, um, the Cole Buchanan one should be done by when you wanted it. Friday, sixth of September. The magazine as planned, and I’m excited.”

  “Wonderful. Vanessa, my dear, I’m so glad you’re excited. I hope you don’t feel pressured in any way. I just wanted you to have something too, like the others. Taylor has PR, Mia fundraising, Abby the whole digital world. You just seemed to help everyone out. This is yours. Your thing. I know how much you love to write, so write away.” She chuckled.

  “Thanks, Mom, I am grateful, and I love the idea.”

  “Good. I want this to be a success. It’s the next thing we do, and there’s potential to do so much more with the ideas I have. I want this ideally to be a monthly publication, Vanessa. Are you up for that? I mean, you wouldn’t have to write every month. We could hire people.”

  “I think it’s a great idea, and I’m up for it. We don’t need to hire anyone. I can do it. After this first issue, I could come up with ideas on what we could cover. So, please, don’t worry about me,” I assured her. She looked proud of me.

  It was the kind of pride that made me take courage and home in on the professional I was.

  I called Cole’s PA and scheduled the meeting for tonight.

  His place.

  His place like he said, and tonight, there wouldn’t be any temptation.

  I just wanted my article, and that would be all.

  He could look at me like he wanted me all he wanted.

  Business was business.

  Chapter 8

  Vanessa

  I got to his place at seven thirty.

  I was actually surprised by what I saw and how tasteful his house was. I’d expected a penthouse apartment or something comparable to the Playboy Mansion.

  When he answered the door, I even expected him to be dressed in a silk robe like Hugh Hefner. It was because of all the articles I’d filled my head with.

  Everything had been circling around my head and came to a standstill when he opened the door and looked like a regular guy.

  His hair was slightly damp, like he’d just washed it, or maybe he’d been working out. It curled up at the ends by the start of his sharp shoulder blades, brushing over the cotton of his long-sleeved T-shirt.

  “Hi,” I said first because he was just looking at me, probably didn’t like that I’d spoken to his PA when I could have spoken to him.

  “Hey.”

  “Can I come in?”

  He stepped aside so I could go in.

  When I did, the aroma of freshly made bread tickled my nose.

  “We’re down here. In the sitting room.” He pointed toward the corridor. It was a long dimly lit pathway. Ahead was what appeared to be a room that had floor-to-ceiling windows.

  He walked on ahead of me, and I followed in silence, engulfed by the tension between us.

  As we entered the room, I saw that I was right.

  All except one wall was made of glass, and the surrounding shadows of the trees outside gave the place an interesting vibe.

  It complemented the beige leather furniture and the oak wood flooring. The whole place was very tasteful.

  Then, in the center of the room, was a coffee table with a bread platter with little pots of butter, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil.

  “You have a nice home,” I stated with a smile.

  “You look like you expected to come and find a sex dungeon.” He smirked, but the smile faded, and he gave me that sharp assessing look he used to sport back in high school.

  “I was not,” I defended, trying not to look too guilty since that might not be that far off what I’d expected.

  “Sit…” He motioned to the sofa. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on biting you tonight,” he added in a matter-of-fact tone.

  I glared and lowered myself to sit.

  Was there any point to me saying there would be no biting planned on any night? Not tonight or otherwise.

  He pulled up one of the wooden chairs, swiveled it around, and sat on it backward. When his gaze dropped to my breasts and he took his sweet time climbing up to meet my eyes, I knew he was thinking about yesterday. I was too. How could I not?

  He was the first man to touch me like that.

  It wasn’t something I was likely to forget, whether I wanted to or not. And since I wasn’t the kind of woman to brush something major like yesterday under the rug, I felt I should say something. I may have just been yesterday afternoon’s fling to him, but it was a big deal for me. So I was going to talk about it and end this madness now, once and for all.

  “Look, Cole,” I began, and he chuckled. “What’s funny?”

  “Look, Cole?” His lip twitched in that sexy way I loved because it drew attention to the sharp chisel of his jaw. “You know, if you wanted a better letdown way of starting a conversation, you shouldn’t use the word ‘look,’ and not in that obvious way.”

  I opened my mouth to talk and stopped myself. Whatever I was going to say had to be direct and to the point.

  After all I’d read, I would have been stupid to get involved with this playboy more than I had yesterday.

  What I wanted was to fall for a nice guy who I could trust. Someone who would feel like I was special because I was still a virgin. Not someone who wouldn’t care one way or the other. I was pretty certain this devil here in front of me had deflowered many women, and I didn’t want to be a number.

  “We come from two different worlds and two different ways of thinking. I’m not into fun,
or whatever. So, yesterday was just a… mere oversight.”

  My poor voice started to sound a little shaky there toward the end, but I held my own. The thing was, he still had that cool edge about him. Completely unfazed. I got that he was a man who never allowed anything to bother him, but I didn’t know whether to be annoyed that he looked so unrattled, or happy that he seemed to no longer care to give me a hard time.

  “Okay,” was all he said, adding to my inner fury. “Got your questions for me?”

  Yes, I had my questions, and now a little bubble of disappointment settled in the pit of my stomach in an unexpected way.

  I pulled my notebook from my purse and flicked it open to the list of questions I’d created a few days ago.

  “What are you looking forward to most about the upcoming season?” I asked, deciding just to launch in. The quicker I got my questions out, the sooner this would be over. Then I could go into the weekend forgetting this whirlwind week.

  “Nothing,” he answered, completely flat.

  I assessed the expressionless look on his face and the flatness in his eyes. I wasn’t sure if he was just saying that to be spiteful, or if that really was the answer.

  “Don’t you like the idea of playing on the same team your father played for? Following in his footsteps, so to speak? You’ve kind of done everything he did. He was a Patriot too, and a Centaur.”

  “I don’t want to do everything he did,” he informed me. “I may have followed in his footsteps career wise, but that’s all. He was a great football player. A legend, and yes, I’m proud, but I make my own path.”

  “So… why wouldn’t you look forward to the new season?”

  “I am looking forward to it, just nothing specifically. They’ve had some great wins, but if I, for instance, come onto the team thinking I’ve joined a team that’s guaranteed to win the Super Bowl, that would be wrong. I have no expectations. I plan to take each game as it comes and see what happens.”

  Okay… I understood what he meant, but I wasn’t so sure that was completely truthful. I scribbled down what he said and made a note to make it sound a little better.