Hothead (Irresistible Book 4)

by Stella Rhys

  “She’s tough as nails, Iain. I promise you she can handle whatever the L.A crowd has to say to her,” I said.

  “You better hope so, Drew. After that story in the tabloids about her family, the last thing you need is for one more drama to explode in her face and chase her away.”

  “Have a little faith in her, Iain,” I said, a grin on my lips as the car pulled up to the stadium. “I promise you she isn’t going anywhere.”

  EVIE

  After my final meeting on Wednesday, I caught an afternoon flight into Los Angeles. And pretty shortly after touching down, I realized that Drew hadn’t been exaggerating in his warnings to me about L.A.

  “Hey! Fuck the Empires!” some guy in the airport yelled at me with a big grin, inspiring someone else to pipe up.

  “Fuck Drew Maddox!”

  Jesus.

  I was pretty sure I was getting recognized more here than I was at home. Thankfully, there was a lot less walking to do in L.A than in New York, which meant that for the rest of the day, I was pretty much hidden in the safety of a car. I was even able to enjoy a little bit of shopping and a solo lunch in relative peace and quiet.

  No one called out at me, but I did have a pretty bad case of the giggles because Drew would not stop checking in on me.

  DREW: Hey. What are you up to?

  ME: Pretty much the same as when you checked in on me twenty minutes ago silly

  DREW: Hey a lot can change in 20 minutes. We lost the World Series last year in a matter of 20 minutes

  ME: Fair enough. Though I should say no one has said anything to me since leaving the airport

  DREW: Paparazzi?

  ME: Not that I can see

  DREW: Good

  ME: Shouldn’t you be stretching or bagging flies right now or something? Why do you have your phone on you?

  DREW: Shagging flies. And I just wanted to check in to make sure you’re okay

  I smirked to myself, trying to suppress my amusement since I was attracting eyes around the restaurant for laughing to myself so much. But I couldn’t help it. Drew Maddox being protective was as adorable as it was sexy to me, and I honestly couldn’t believe he was taking time out of his pre-game routine to check in on me so much. I kept imagining him in uniform, jogging back and forth between the field and the clubhouse to sneak texts to me.

  ME: Drew as cute as you are to worry about me I’m going to tell you to get back to doing your pre-game thing. Still not sure how baseball works but I do know I need you to win tonight, especially if the crowd is going to be as bad as you say.

  DREW: I will win tonight. And they’re probably going to be even worse than I said.

  And as it turned out, he was right on both counts.

  Because as soon as I got to the stadium the heckling started up again, and were it not for the company of the other WAGs, particularly Angie Diaz, I’d be a little intimidated – mostly because the majority of the yelling was directed solely to me.

  It was mostly a lot of “fuck Drew Maddox” with some “stupid gold-digger” and “whore” comments peppered in, but by the time we sat, the hecklers got more creative.

  “What’s a nice girl like you doing with a psychopath, huh?”

  “Is he holding you against your will, sweetheart?”

  “Hey, blink twice if you need us to call the cops!”

  “Ignore them, girl.” Angie squeezed my hand while wearing a big grin and waving down the field to her husband, Alex – or as Drew called him, Diaz.

  “I am. Not even looking behind me,” I reassured her.

  “Good. The boys always worry when we come to L.A games because the fans get rowdy,” she said between her brilliant, smiling teeth as she blew Diaz a kiss. “And they were even more worried today, but I told them we’re big girls, and we don’t scare easy.”

  “Yes. Totally,” I nodded vehemently, but then I frowned. “Wait. Why were they particularly worried today?”

  Angie turned to me with a funny smile.

  “Well… because you’re here today, sweetie,” she said as if it were obvious. “Drew can ignore the hecklers easy, but with you here? The fans know he’s got a weakness now, and if they can’t get under his skin, they’re gonna try to get under yours – which is why we’re just gonna let that shit roll off our backs, right? Because we don’t want to give our boys anything to worry about.”

  “Oh yeah. Totally,” I agreed readily, though I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of worry.

  And guilt.

  For God’s sake, I had come here to serve as Drew’s emotional support, not his Kryptonite.

  “It’s okay, honey,” Angie said, patting my hand when she read the look of concern in my eyes. “As long as you stay strong for him, he’ll be fine. All Drew needs is to know you’re okay, and he’ll be okay, too. That’s just how love goes.”

  “Of course,” I said, blushing like an idiot over the L word.

  Still, I did manage to heed the rest of Angie’s advice by staying calm and giving the crowd nothing to work off of for the next two-and-a-half hours – even as the abuse started to move away from Drew and more toward my family. Clearly, these people were Googling me between innings because the taunting was starting to get insanely specific.

  “Evie! That beer you’re drinking could pay your mom’s mortgage this month!”

  “Hey, Belfield girl, are you really his fiancée? Or are you his drug dealer?”

  “Hey, sweetie, I’ll buy you a pack of cigs if you suck my dick.”

  “Fuckin’ trailer traaaash!”

  I could see it getting to even Angie.

  “Jesus, these fuckin’ pendejos, are they serious?” she muttered to herself, in the midst of turning around in her seat before I stopped her.

  “Angie. It’s okay,” I said, forcing a laugh. “It doesn’t bother me. I’ve already started getting used to it.”

  “Well, good,” she huffed, taking a second to calm down. Once she did, she eyed me with a smirk. “See, you look like the nice girl next door, but I should’ve figured you were a tough cookie. No way you lock down Drew Maddox without being a bad bitch.”

  I laughed.

  “Oh yeah. He can be difficult,” I admitted, feeling every bit like a real girlfriend as Angie and I commiserated over the bullheaded tendencies of our men. “But he’s worth the fight,” I said eventually.

  And I meant it, especially as I remembered our last morning in bed together. I had the real Drew Maddox wrapped around me. His real embrace, his raw emotions, his real kiss. It had taken awhile, but I finally had all of Drew.

  It felt incredible.

  “Looks like he’s finally met his match,” Angie said as she looked at me.

  I grinned. “Maybe.”

  And for the rest of the game, we successfully ignored the yelling and shouting – especially since the seventh inning saw the Empires scoring four runs to up the lead to 8-1, which meant Drew was pulled in the next inning.

  “He killed it, honey. They just want to send in some relief pitching to let him rest,” Angie explained to me as Drew got a dozen pats on the back from his teammates before hopping off the mound.

  I had to laugh at the instant downpour of boos that rained down on him as he jogged from the mount to the dugout because he was completely unfazed and grinning, and my God he looked good.

  That uniform fit tighter on his lower body than any of the jeans he wore on a regular basis and Lord, that ass was calling to me. I was pretty sure watching Drew jog across the field was what men felt like when they watched the women running on the beach in Baywatch. Even as I looked around, I could see some female fans in L.A gear biting their lips at each other and shrugging as if to say, yeah, gotta admit, he’s hot.

  I was pretty sure it didn’t get better but just as Drew passed my section along the first base line, he looked directly at me. Locking eyes on me, he pointed, grinned and blew a kiss.

  As he disappeared into the dugout, I promptly melted into my seat.

  “O
migod!”

  “Evieee!”

  The WAGs were squealing, pinching me and losing their minds so hard that I could barely hear the hecklers booing even harder around me than usual. All I could do was laugh my ass off because I couldn’t believe this was my life. I had survived the L.A hecklers, my man had gotten the win and we were bound to celebrate tonight with a room service feast at the hotel before passing out together in bed.

  “See?” Angie murmured to me after we’d all come down from our giggles. “Isn’t it fun being Drew Maddox’s fiancée?”

  I said nothing, simply nodding because I wasn’t sure what it felt like to be Drew’s fiancée. But I did have an idea of what it felt like to be his girlfriend.

  And that, I had to admit, felt better than I could’ve ever imagined.

  31

  “She died hating you.”

  That was the drunken jeer we heard as we approached the taco stand we’d stopped at on the way to the hotel. Drew needed some “hold me over” food and it didn’t seem like the worst idea considering there was no one else waiting at the taco stand.

  Of course, we failed to factor in the sports bar a few doors down – and the fact that it was full of L.A fans watching post-game coverage of Drew’s win tonight.

  “Hey, sweetie, get away from him while you can!” yelled some guy hanging outside with the bouncer. “Make a run for it! Now!”

  I ignored the shouts, my neck tense till I looked up at Drew. His eyes were somewhat covered by his baseball cap but his jaw was relaxed and he looked utterly unfazed. The only giveaway that he’d heard was the fact that he held my tighter to his side.

  “You good?” I whispered up at him.

  “As long as you are,” he whispered back, looking down at me with a crooked grin touching his lip.

  After he ordered and paid up with the cashier, he sat me at the colorful metal stool in the window, while he leaned against the counter. It made us sitting ducks for the heckling, but the way Drew smiled at my number twenty Maddox jersey and denim skirt had me easily ignoring the occasional jeers from a few doors down.

  “Think you might have to come with me on all my road trips now,” he said.

  “Oh yeah? Why is that?”

  “You made it easy tonight. The game just went by fast. I didn’t feel the usual shit as much,” he confessed.

  “What do you mean the usual shit?”

  The cotton pulled tight on Drew’s T-shirt as he shrugged his big shoulders.

  “I don’t know. I just didn’t feel the stress as much. The shit they said to me – I wasn’t just pretending not to care this time. I really didn’t,” Drew said, his brows pulling tight as if he was realizing all this as he said it.

  “And you think that has to do with me?” I laughed gently. He didn’t return my amusement.

  “Yes,” he said, looking me in the eye. He stood closer now, stroking the back of my calves as he gazed down at me. “Helped just knowing I had you to come home to tonight. Kind of made it feel like everything the fans were saying didn’t mean shit. Pattie, Tim – the fans use them against me because they think that’s as personal as it gets with me. That that’s what I care about most.”

  “But… it’s not?” I asked slowly, feeling a dorky smile curl my lips. Drew laughed as he watched me.

  “No. It’s not,” he said.

  “What is it then?”

  “I think you know the answer to that,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss me softly on the lips.

  I didn’t even care that he didn’t say it out loud. You’re what I care about most. It would’ve been nice to hear but I knew how hard it was for Drew to say even as much as he’d just did. So as I kissed him back, I told myself to give him time.

  Eventually, he’d come around.

  “Aww, look at these fuckin’ lovebirds.”

  I heard the jeer and immediately pulled away from Drew’s kiss, but he caught my jaw with his hand, pressing his lips to mine for another hot second before letting me go. Then he eyed the heckler standing in line to order.

  “Don’t let them get to you,” Drew murmured just as our orders arrived.

  “I won’t,” I said calmly, though I could feel the tension rising as more bar patrons trickled over to the taco stand, all of them hawking us like a damned zoo exhibit.

  Fuckin’ Drew and his hunger emergencies, I groaned inwardly as the hecklers got closer.

  There were two in particular who worried me. They were in their fifties with ruddy faces and beer bellies. They looked like actual pigs to me, especially as they talked loudly about being about to see up my “slutty little skirt.”

  “Don’t,” I whispered under my breath to Drew. “Don’t give them a reaction.”

  He had his back facing them and his eyes staring straight ahead into the kitchen, but I could see as he chewed on his food that his jaw was tightening. I could tell from the way he stopped blinking that he was focused on these assholes without looking at them, and his sudden concentration scared me. He seemed suddenly locked in the way he was when he was on the mound, and it made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up at attention.

  “Save yourself, sweetie,” the one with the ponytail said, waving at me in the corner of my vision. “You don’t wanna end up like that poor Lillard bastard.”

  “Team Lillard!” someone shouted from a few doors down as Ponytail’s friend laughed.

  “Yeah, you get this guy fired up enough and who knows what he’ll do. I’m sure he’s hit a woman before.”

  “Plenty, in fact.”

  Disgusting assholes. My jaw clenched as I folded my paper plate and tossed my unfinished food in the trash.

  “Let’s go, Drew,” I murmured, exhaling in relief when he simply nodded.

  “Oh, no, sweetie, you leaving?” Ponytail asked me as I got off my chair, though his bleary, mischievous eyes were on Drew as he said it. “You sure you wanna go with him? We won’t mind taking you in for the night.”

  “No, we’d love it. In fact, I’ll let you sleep in my bed if you take that Maddox jersey off.”

  “Watch it, motherfucker,” Drew barked, making my pulse jump.

  “Drew.” My heart slammed as I pulled him closer to me, feeling eyes in all directions pinned on me as I looked frantically for where our car had parked. Dammit, where the hell did it go?

  “Alright, bye, guys. Nice talkin’ to ya,” Ponytail chuckled as we successfully passed him without saying a word. Thank God, I exhaled just as I spotted the car. But then I heard him whisper to his friend about whether or not he was recording.

  And before I knew it, I was gasping from the sensation of ice-cold liquid splashed all over my back.

  “Drew!” I screamed, pulling him back even before I fully processed that someone had thrown a beer at me. “Stop. Stop, Drew! Stop!”

  I said it so many times so many ways that I barely recognized my own voice anymore. All I knew was that my heels were digging into grass, and I was exerting every muscle in my body to get in front of an unhinged Drew. He looked like a raging bull. His jaw was so tight the veins in his neck were protruding, and my heart pounded because it felt like I was hugging the mouth of a cocked and loaded gun

  “Drew, stop. Look at me. Look at me!” I pleaded as the drunks around us hooted and hollered, egging him on with talk of how good I looked all wet. “Look at me.” I grasped his face and tilted it down, repeating for him to look at me until he finally did, his green eyes wild on me. “They want this reaction from you. They’re recording you now. They’ve got no stakes but you do, so breathe. Calm down.” My calf muscles strained as I dug my heels to push him backward, unblinking as I kept his glinting green eyes locked on mine. “This is what the world expects of you, so prove them wrong. Show them the Drew I know. Show them that nothing comes before a championship. Do it for me, baby, please,” I begged breathlessly, grasping handfuls of his collar. But my grip loosened as I listened to his jagged breaths slow down, and I was convinced I had him pacified.

&n
bsp; But then another holler rang out.

  “Stay with him long enough, and you’ll meet Pattie Lillard real soon!”

  “Drew!” I threw my weight against his rock-hard chest, but then I realized he wasn’t moving.

  He hadn’t charged. He hadn’t reacted. Standing there, he simply looked down at me, his shirt stretched tight around his heaving chest. There was still fury in his tight shoulders, and fiery wrath in his eyes, but as primed as he looked to knock someone the fuck out, he didn’t.

  Yes. Perfect. Breathe, baby, I willed him to hear as I stared up at him, in awe of the fact that I had wrangled such a beast. But I knew my job wasn’t done till he was safely in the car, so with two hands flat on his chest, I whispered in his ear.

  “I know you’re pissed, Drew, but if you turn around and start walking now, I promise to blow your fucking mind once we get back to the hotel. You can choose my pussy or my mouth, but either way, I’ll make you come harder than you ever have in your life. Okay?”

  When I pulled away, his wolfish stare was still hard on me. But he let it linger another second before pulling me tight and cupping the back of my neck as he crushed a furious kiss to my lips.

  Then with a gaping crowd behind us, we got back into the car.

  32

  My blood was still on fire by the time we were back at the hotel, but my hot focus was no longer on the drunken hecklers.

  It was a hundred percent on Evie.

  She walked ahead of me, teasing me with every step in those heels, every sway of those hips. The way she sauntered across the marble floor caught the eye of every man in the lobby. From guests to staff, she had them all staring in the way she knew I both loved and hated.

  This woman. She knew me well enough to know just how to rein me in. Another thing I both loved and hated. Little cocktease, I ground my teeth as I watched her, my pulse rising with the need to just lift that skirt and spank her ass till she couldn’t take anymore.