by Avery Flynn
The public address system crackled to life.
“This is going out to Angie Diaz.” Colt’s voice came through the speakers. “I’m not one for public declarations, but before you get off this ship, know that I’ll do whatever it takes to make up for being a total ass. So please, stop in the name of love.”
At that moment, Darius and Mystie lifted their heads. Mystie winked, but Darius was Motown smooth. The fans standing in line ahead and behind her counted to five out loud and dropped their suitcases.
What the hell? She blinked in confusion and looked at the serious faces staring back at her. It was like being transported to another planet where the alien race was all super intense.
Just when she thought it couldn’t get any more bizarre, Mystie and Darius broke into the beginning of The Supremes’ Stop! In the Name of Love.
Angie’s suitcase slipped through her grasp and hit the floor in front of her with a solid thunk. Then, on the chorus, the crowd of Thunder fans around her followed Darius’s and Mystie’s lead by hollering out the chorus, complete with a choreographed spin move and synchronized hand motions. Someone stood in the corner with their cellphone held up high, catching the whole singing flashmob as if it was the grand finale of a Bollywood movie.
Her lungs squeezed shut as she searched the crowd. Colt had to be here.
As they started the second verse, Darius and Mystie strolled out of the elevator, revealing Colt, who stood there with his own microphone. His face was beet red, no doubt from embarrassment, but he still brought the microphone up and started to sing.
“I promise I’ll be good to you.” He sang the altered lyrics in an off-key solo as he closed the distance between them. “I promise I’ll be sweet to you.”
Everyone started to sing the chorus and going through their dance routine, but Angie couldn’t hear them—the only voice making hit through was that of the man she swore to herself she’d never hear again. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to smack him or kiss him. Despite her best efforts, her bottom lip shook and tears gathered in her eyes.
Regret burned in his blue eyes, turning them as bright as a summer sky, and he tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “I’m hoping you’ll forgive me for being such an asshole on the boat and think of this as a new start.”
The hope growing inside her hurt her chest almost as much as a heartbreak. “A start for what?”
“Us.”
She searched his face for signs this was just a cruel joke, but all she found was the Colt who’d made her laugh, brought her to unbelievable highs and challenged her tightly controlled world. “You are completely deranged.” She half-laughed, half-sniffled back her tears.
“According to Darius, that’s a direct side effect of being a natural-born asshole whose falling in love and doesn’t know what in the hell to do about it.”
Her heart slammed against her rib cage. “Love?” She barely managed to get the single word out.
“You think I would voluntarily do this,” he gestured toward the Thunder fans watching them with rapt attention, “if it wasn’t?”
“But—”
He brushed a kiss across her lips, stopping her protests. “It’s a lot and it’s happening real fast, I know. I don’t expect you to say you feel the same way too, but I’ve always known what I wanted and fought like hell to make it happen as fast as possible. It’s that stubbornness that helped me make my dream a reality when ninety-eight percent of players never get this far.”
He inhaled a ragged breath and shoved a hand through his short hair, watching her as though she’d disappear if he even so much as blinked. “And football was enough until I fell for a tiny little slip of a woman with an attitude bigger than the Thunder Dome. Being with you is the first thing I’ve ever wanted more in my life than to put on a pair of pads and tear it up on the football field. I’m ready to do whatever it takes—including, obviously, making a public spectacle of myself—to get you to give me another chance. It’s fourth and twenty here, I know that. But I’ve never given up even when the game clock was ticking down. I hope you won’t give up on us either.”
He took her hand and kissed the center of her palm, then placed it over his heart. “Angie, honey, say something.”
Fighting through the emotion squeezing her throat closed, she managed to get one word out. “Never.”
The hopeful expression on his face cracked like broken glass and his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Never?”
Angie stepped onto her suitcase, bringing herself eye to eye with him, and took his face between her hands. “I’ll never give up on us. I love you.”
She pressed her lips to his to seal the promise, feeling the all-too-familiar zing that nearly set her hair on fire. Kissing Colt was like coming home after a long trip away. Familiar and new at the same time, with enough promise of forever to make her never want to stop.
He wound an arm around her waist and pulled her to him, deepening the kiss and making plenty of promises of his own. He was hers. She was his. And together, they were something more. By the time he pulled away, she was lightheaded with lust and hope and anticipation of what was going to happen next.
The fans cheered around them and there were plenty of catcalls.
Colt turned another five shades of red at being the center of the crowd’s attention, but he didn’t let her go. “You get me to do the craziest things.”
“How did you even make this happen?” She looked around in awe. There had to be a hundred people who’d been in on the whole thing.
“I have Darius and Mystie to thank. They sent out a Thunder Dome Crew SOS and well,” he shrugged, “you see how it all turned out.”
He grabbed her suitcase with his good hand and led her to the elevator as everyone shouted their approval. The doors opened and they dashed inside, waving to Darius, Mystie and the fans as the doors closed. Finally alone, she turned and looked up at him. He was fabulous. A big public display like that couldn’t have been easy for a guy who hated groups of more the five people, but he’d done it—for her. If she hadn’t already fallen for Colt, she would have in that moment.
She trailed her fingers up the inseam of his jeans and raised herself up to her tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “So what do you do for an encore?”
Turning to face her, his delicious mouth only millimeters from hers, he flashed his best wicked grin. “How about we go back to my condo and I give you a private show—a command performance.”
Her hand rested on the growing bulge behind his zipper and she gave him a squeeze. “Big words.”
“You think I can’t?” He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, making her skin sizzle, then followed the path of her jaw to her ear. “That sounds like a dare to me.”
“A hot dare.” And one she didn’t mind accepting today, tomorrow and forever.
Epilogue
Seven months later…
Angie couldn’t stop looking at her left ring finger with a mix of awe and surprise as she walked hand-in-hand with Colt up the brick sidewalk leading to her mom’s yellow adobe house with the bright blue door. They stopped just shy of the front porch and he pulled her close for a quick kiss.
“So how are you going to tell her?” he asked, toying with a long strand of her hair.
“I’m not.” She shook her head. “She’s my mom. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t know already.”
Angie had thought they were going out to celebrate him signing a long-term deal with the Thunder that had been in the works since a news crew had gotten ahold of the video showing Colt, the retired players and a cruise ship full of fans singing Stop! In the Name of Love with a choreographed dance finale. Local and national media had eaten it up and made Colt a household name, even outside of the Thunder fandom. That, along with Colt’s stellar season, gave Manny just the negotiating edge he needed for a fat contract that would take Colt into retirement from the game years from now and an option for a front-office job after that.
In addition, Dylan had stopped in
her office and let her know that because of all the hard work she’d put in over the past seven months, they were again considering her for a promotion—this time a new position as a liaison between the players and the front office.
The news was huge for both of them, but when she’d found a three-carat diamond ring in her champagne glass, the day got even better.
“True.” He snuck in another kiss, brushing his lips across hers with enough promise to make her wish they’d postponed this ritual weekly dinner at her parents’ house for more practice honeymooning. “We are talking about your mom.”
Laughing, she pulled him up the steps to her parents’ door and rang the doorbell. “Are we betting on how long it takes her to notice?”
“Five minutes,” he said. “Tops.”
“If even—”
The front door swung open. Her mom stood on the other side, a glass of wine in one hand and a spatula in the other. “About time you got here, I—” Her scream was loud enough to set off car alarms. “Oh my God, when? How? Tell me everything.” She dropped the spatula and grabbed Angie by the left wrist, hauling her inside. “Juan! Juan!” She yelled up the steps leading to the house’s second floor. “Did you know about this?” She turned to Colt and narrowed her eyes. “Does he know about this? Because if he did and didn’t tell me, he is going to live to regret it. Juan!”
Eyes wide with a mix of fear and probably second thoughts about getting involved with her crazy family, Colt held up his hands in surrender. The man faced down three-hundred-pound men for a living, but her mom made him back up a step, not an unusual reaction, Angie admitted to herself.
“No, Mr. Diaz didn’t know,” Colt said.
“Finally, I prayed for this and prayed for this, Angie, but,” Maria gave him the full-on evil eye “are you sure about this one?”
Squirming out of her mom’s grasp, she crossed to Colt’s side. In the past seven months, she’d realized he left the shower curtain open, usually had the TV turned up loud enough people in Texas had to hear it, and didn’t understand the purpose of a hamper. He also was the best man she’d ever met in her life and she loved him like no other.
She tucked her hand into his and gave him a reassuring squeeze. “I’ve never been so sure of anyone in my life.”
Maria gave her future son-in-law a hard up and down before she threw her arms around them both as best she could, considering how big Colt was, and squeezed tight. “So when?”
“This summer, before training camp,” Angie said.
A July wedding followed by a honeymoon cruise, this time without the Thunder Dome Crew cheering them on.
“Oh, there’s so much to do.” Maria hurried over to her tablet and brought up the Internet. “I have to cancel all of your dating site profiles. This is going to take forever.”
“Does that mean she approves?” Colt whispered in her ear.
She turned and lifted her face so their lips nearly touched. “Are you still breathing?”
His gaze dropped to her mouth, hunger turning his blue eyes dark, and he nodded.
Desire made her stomach dip. This was going to be the longest two-hour family dinner in history. “Then you’re going to be just fine.”
“Close one.” He gave an exaggerated sigh. “I love you, Angie Diaz-soon-to-be-Butler.”
She rose to her tiptoes and kissed him with everything she had. “I love you too, Colt Butler, on and off the field.”
A Note From Avery
Hey you!
I really hope you enjoyed Colt and Angie. If you have a second to leave a review of Hot Dare that would be awesome—you know every time a reader leaves a review the Thunder score a touchdown. :) Please stay in touch ([email protected]), I love hearing from readers! Want to get all the latest book news? Subscribe to my newsletter, Love Goggles, for sneak peeks, information about book releases, monthly prizes and more!
And don’t forget to check out my other books for more sexy stories featuring alpha heroes who are as good with a quip as they are their *ahem* equipment and strong heroines who know how to stand on their own two feet and knock the back guys off theirs. Also, check out at the amazing excerpts of Dare Me by Kelly Jamieson and Daring the Player by Robin Covington after my bio!
xoxo,
Avery
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Books By Avery Flynn
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This Year’s Black (Killer Style 2)
Sweet Salvation Brewery Series
Enemies on Tap (Sweet Salvation Brewery 1)
Hollywood on Tap (Sweet Salvation Brewery 2)
Novellas
Betting the Billionaire
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About Avery Flynn
Avery Flynn has three slightly-wild children, loves a hockey-addicted husband and is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip.
She fell in love with romance while reading Johanna Lindsey’s Mallory books. It wasn’t long before Avery had read through all the romance offerings at her local library. Needing a romance fix, she turned to Harlequin’s four books a month home delivery service to ease the withdrawal symptoms. That worked for a short time, but it wasn’t long before the local book stores’ staffs knew her by name.
Avery was a reader before she was a writer and hopes to always be both. She loves to write about smartass alpha heroes who are as good with a quip as they are with their *ahem* other God-given talents. Her heroines are feisty, fierce and fantastic. Brainy and brave, these ladies know how to stand on their own two feet and knock the bad guys off theirs.
Subscribe to her newsletter: Love Goggles and join her street team, The Flynnbots, and receive special sneak peeks, prizes and early access to her latest releases!
Also, if you figure out how to send Oreos through the Internet, she’ll be your best friend for life. Contact her at [email protected]. She’d love to hear from you!
Dare Me
by
Kelly Jamieson
“Micki, I need to talk to you.”
Hearing those words from your boss at five o’clock just as you were about to leave the office was never a good thing.
Micki’s hand paused as she stroked over a carpet sample on her desk. “Of course, Lisa.” She smiled at Lisa Stern, owner of Lisa Stern Designs, standing in the door of Micki’s small office. “Do you want me to come to your office?”
“No, we can talk here. It’s about the Constantinides project.” Lisa stepped farther into the room.
Ack. Micki nodded. She’d been working on a new design for the Constantinides’ Park Avenue penthouse they’d recently purchased, a big-dollar project Lisa had assigned her. Things were going well…she thought. Micki kept a smile in place and resisted the urge to bite her lip. “I have a meeting with Mrs. Constantinides tomorrow morning.”
Lisa smiled. “She called to tell me how pleased she is with the work you’re doing.”
“Really?” Micki straightened and clasped her hands together, relief filtering through her. “Oh, that’s great.”
“Yes.” Lisa green eyes warmed. “Which of course makes me happy. She says you really get what she’s looking for and aren’t try
ing to push things on her she doesn’t want. Apparently she had a bad experience once with a designer.”
“I’d never do that.”
“I know. And she says you’re really going above and beyond to source the exact furnishings and accessories she wants. I just wanted to give you that feedback and tell you how much I appreciate all the extra time you’re putting into this.”
“Thank you. I’m enjoying it.” Micki patted the sample on her desk. “I’m thinking this carpet for their den. It’s pure wool.”
Lisa nodded approvingly. “It’s lovely. I concur. Okay, I’m done for today. Have a good evening.”
“See you tomorrow.”
Lisa disappeared down the hall to her office. Micki’s boss was a hard worker who’d built her design business into a highly successful and sought-after service in New York City. She’d put in a lot of long hours over the years, but since she and her husband Tom had been together she’d been balancing work and private life more. Micki respected her for that. She herself had put in a lot of hours, when project deadlines loomed and demanding clients changed their minds ten times about what color they wanted their living room walls or decided they had to have Waterford dog bowls that matched their decor. But since meeting Garrett, she too liked going home at a decent hour to spend time with her man.
Garrett worked long hours too, of course. As CEO of Caulfield Communications, his days were super busy and he often worked late into the evenings, although not as much as he used to.
Mrs. Constantinides had called her boss to tell her she was doing a good job! Micki pumped a fist into the air and then couldn’t resist dancing a couple of jubilant circles, arms in the hair, hips swinging.
“Celebrating something?”
Micki jumped and turned to see her co-worker Isabelle Dare standing in the door, grinning.