by Liz Matis
I was one step away from my dream of a Super Bowl Championship, but it wouldn’t be the same without Alexa to share it with me. Somehow I had to convince her that I needed her more than Ian’s Security did. Convince her that I needed her more than my own life.
Chapter 15
Alexa
I smiled at Dean as he came out of the players exit, but his expression was anything but happy.
“I’m driving.”
“Okayyyyy.” I tossed him the keys and got in on the passenger side, dumbfounded at his attitude. After weeks of me driving him around, I was sure he couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel again. That didn’t explain the tightness in his jaw or the short, clipped way he’d spoken to me.
Why was he acting like I had offended him—no, like I’d hurt him?
Knowing he could easily catch a ride home, I had thoughts of deserting him at the stadium. I was afraid of the awkward conversation once he realized that it was the adrenaline talking. When he realized he didn’t love me. I feared we were about to have that conversation.
I’d liked to say that I was brave, but the truth was I’d rather face a physical confrontation than an emotional one. While Dean had been celebrating on the field, answering football questions in the locker room, and then giving the police his official statement, I’d been privy to the initial questioning of the crazy cheerleader, Brandi Dobbs. And something nagged in the back of my mind.
She’d confessed to trying to hurt Dean and even leaving me the flowers as a warning to back off, but she’d denied writing the threatening letters. Of course, this could be a way of avoiding a premeditated murder count making it easier for her to claim insanity.
But if she was telling the truth then Dean was still in danger.
And that’s why I didn’t run.
I knew I was over-thinking it, worse, making an excuse to stay close to Dean. More than halfway into the ride, I couldn’t take the quiet, so I engaged in conversation with something safe. “You had a great game.”
Silence.
“Okay, what’s up?”
He put on the blinker and made a turn. “We’ll talk about it when we get home.”
Home. Funny, how I’d come to think of his apartment that way. We’d never spoken about what would happen after my assignment ended. Going back to my little apartment would be lonely, though I’d never thought of myself as being so. I had my work. I had Joffrey. I had my family. It had always been enough. Until I fell in love with Dean.
But right now he seemed down right mad at me. Why? Crap. He must have found out. “Is this about the other letters.”
“Damn right it is,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
I knew my silence on the matter would come back to bite me. “Our collective bosses decided against informing you.”
“And you went right along because you knew I’d have you removed from my detail.”
“Exactly. I was your best bet to stay alive.”
“Any one of Ian’s goons could have done what you did today.”
“Oh yeah? Oslo would have been there a second too late. And that’s all it takes. And like, you’re welcome.” I folded my arms across my chest in a huff.
I noticed a smile lifting at the corner of his mouth. Dean parked the car, cut the engine, and turned toward me.
“Can’t you do something else?”
“Like what?”
“Like… like run the anti-bullying program you want me to start. You would do more good there than as a bodyguard.”
“But—”
“You know that I’m right. Now who’s being stubborn?”
“What I am is not qualified. I’m not accepting a job simply because I’m Dean Walker’s girlfriend.”
“You weren’t qualified to be a bodyguard once.”
He wasn’t going to let this go, but just because I loved him didn’t mean I was going to let him control my life. And I wasn’t about to tell him about the promotion Ian had offered me. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Obviously. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to fight about it.” Dean got out of the car and slammed the door.
Stunned, I didn’t move. What did that mean? Dean opened my door and offered me his hand. Now I was really confused. I slid out of the seat and up against his body.
He cupped my chin, leaned down, and breathed a thank you over my lips. Then he kissed me gently. “Alexa, don’t be mad at me for wanting to keep you safe.”
He took my hand as we walked from the garage to his building. I tried to clear my head, reminding myself of my nagging suspicion that danger still stalked Dean. With the threat eliminated, Ian’s men were no longer watching the apartment.
Out of habit, I checked all the rooms before joining Dean in the kitchen.
“Need a beer?” Dean asked.
“Hell yeah,” I said as he handed me one.
Dean opted for a meal that was heating up in the microwave.
“Guess you’re feeling better?”
“Yeah, the IV really helped. But this is just soup. Mrs. McKenna made it specially for me.” He pointed to a Get Well Soon card on the counter.
“McKenna? As in your backup quarterback?”
“Yeah, his mom owns Paleo Planet.”
“The place that makes all your meals? And also delivers to the Kings’ front office?” I picked up the card.
“Um, yeah. Why?” The buzzer of the microwave dinged.
My blood chilled as I read Mrs. McKenna’s words.
Congrats on the big win. I made a very, very special meal just for you.
The words very, very confirmed my suspicions. What an idiot I was! Dean brought the spoon to his lips and blew. Before he could take a sip, I smacked the spoon down and away. Liquid splattered on the cabinet and the floor.
“Alexa! What the fuck?”
All the times Dean complained about his stomach and I never thought of foul play. Poison. Arsenic, if I had to guess. Perhaps I wasn’t qualified to be a lead investigator either. How could I have missed it?
“Look.” I held up the inside of the card. “Does something look familiar?”
Dean studied it. Then read it out loud. “Congrats on the big win. I made a…” His eyes went wide with shock as realization dawned on him. Dean went to chuck the container in the sink.
“No! It has to be sent for testing. And you’ll want a complete blood workup.”
Dean shook his head in disbelief as he placed the food on the counter. “Why would she try to poison me?”
I started to pace the galley kitchen. “So her son wouldn’t be the backup anymore.” I turned to Dean. “Do you think he could be involved?”
“I don’t know what to think.”
Dean looked like a man in shock, but I continued in a matter-of-fact tone. “She must have planted the letters so the police would concentrate on a jilted lover if the autopsy revealed the poison.”
“Autopsy? Fuck. Alexa?”
I stopped pacing and looked up.
“You saved me a second time today.”
“It’s my job.”
“Fuck your job.”
“I’d rather fuck you.”
A smiled lifted at the corner of his mouth. “You want to fuck me, but you don’t love me?”
“I do love you. Why, I don’t know. Two women in the span of three hours tried to kill you.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“What?”
“I need to be watched twenty-four seven. And I can’t think of anything more effective than a wife keeping tabs on me.”
If there wasn’t mischief in his wide smile, I would’ve kicked him the way I taught Tammy—and not in the shins. “A wife? If that’s a proposal, then it’s a piss-poor one.”
“Give me a break. I almost got killed today. Twice.”
“My answer is a negative.” Even if he’d been on bended knee or both knees, begging me, I wasn’t ready to say yes. “I love you, Dean, but we both need time to decompress fr
om this. To know for certain that what we have is real.”
My heart knew the truth of my love for Dean, but I wasn’t so certain of his feelings. Not that I thought he was lying, but from the way we met and the way I was forced upon him and his life, I needed to know that Dean’s heart belonged to me. And that his proposal wasn’t the result of some misplaced sense of gratitude for saving his life.
“I’ll take that as a maybe.” He lips descended on mine. Urgent. Passionate. Making me want to change my answer from a no to a yes.
“What now?” he asked.
“I’ll call Ian and let him take care of the details with the police.”
“Great. While you do that, I’ll order us a pizza.”
My finger hovered over Ian’s number. “Yeah, I told you that health-food shit would kill you.”
“See what I mean? I need a wife.”
“And what do I get out of the deal?”
“Since you don’t want a man to protect that hot body of yours, then I’ll be the man to safeguard your heart.”
Yet today he’d proved he would protect me from physical harm, shielding my body with his. We’d saved each other.
Epilogue
Alexa
The Kings had done a spectacular job of decorating the training facility for the Super Bowl ring ceremony. In the darkened cavern of the open space, spotlights shone from the ceiling of the dome. A movie screen played a continuous loop of season highlights. A huge dance floor in the center was ready for dancing after dinner. Tables decorated in the team colors of blue and gold lined all four sides of the room. The lit up centerpieces looked like a miniature version of the Times Square Ball on New Year’s Eve. Tonight was a sporting event all unto its own.
In the four months since the Super Bowl win, I had officially moved in with Dean. After one last gig guarding a set of twin toddlers as a nanny, I’d accepted Ian’s offer as a lead investigator. With the better hours, I’d be able to spend more time with Dean, including working alongside him on his anti-bullying program.
Dean looked devilish in his made-to-order black suit and gold tie. As yummy as he looked clothed, I couldn’t wait to get home and use that tie as a blindfold. Or to bind his wrists. The slinky gold wrap dress Joffrey selected for me was designed to come off with just a pull at the side-bow. Dean had already tugged at twice before we left our apartment. Ours.
Dean had given me free rein to redecorate, not that I was much of an interior designer, but now it was a home instead of a bachelor pad.
An announcement was made to go to our seats. Some of Dean’s offensive line shared our table along with their wives. A black box sat in front of each of the players’ plates, but there was also one with my name etched in gold. “What’s this?”
Dean ran a hand lovingly along the box in front of him. “Support staff get rings too. You worked for Billings. It’s not the same one as the players get. Less obscenely gaudy, from what I understand.”
“But I didn’t help the team win.”
He looked at me. “Of course you helped. How far do you think they would’ve gotten without me?”
Before I could say anything in response, Dean kissed me. With one touch of lips, he could not only shut me up but make me forget what I was about to say.
From the podium, Billings said, “Are you ready to see your Super Bowl Championship ring?” A resounding cheer went up from the crowd. “On three. One, two, three. Do it!”
This was Dean’s moment, and I wanted to share it with him. His eyes lit up as he opened the case. He slid the ring on his finger, fisted his hand and kissed his prize. It was obscenely gaudy. A jeweled emblem of a raised gold crown sat in the center of the diamond-encrusted ring. Tiny white diamond footballs topped the five points of the crown.
“Wow! That is spectacular,” I said.
Dean nodded and gestured to the box I had pushed aside. “Aren’t you going to open yours?”
I flipped open the case. I either had the wrong box or someone was playing a joke on me. Set off against the deep blue velvet cushion, a ring with a canary-yellow heart-shaped diamond the size of my knuckle stared back at me. The color reminded me of the flecks of gold in Dean’s eyes. A halo of tiny white diamonds surrounded the center stone. It had to be a beautiful mistake.
“This is not a Super Bowl ring,” I said, looking up at Dean, who instead of admiring his ring was smiling and looking at me expectantly.
“I switched it out. I have it in my pocket.” Dean fell to a bended knee. “Hopefully this is better than my last ‘piss-poor proposal,’ as you called it. Will you marry me, Alexa? Let me forever watch over you the way you’ve watched over me.”
He slipped the engagement ring on my finger, but I only had eyes for him, reveling in the way he looked at me. With hope. With love. So much that it overwhelmed me and I felt tears well in my eyes.
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
A cheer sounded as we kissed. My heart did a little cheer of its own as Dean’s mouth claimed mine.
The rest of the night Dean and his teammates showed off their championship rings, mugging for the cameras while I flashed my engagement ring and my scaled-down version of the Kings’ bling. One ring for each hand. One for each side of me. The bodyguard and the quarterback’s fiancée.
Guarding the Quarterback
The End
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About the Author
Liz Matis is a mild mannered accountant by day and romance author by night. Married 30 years she believes in happily-ever-after!
Fun Fact: Liz read her first romance at the age of fifteen and soon after wrote her first romances starring her friends and their latest crushes!
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Coming Soon
Playing for Gelato – Champions of the Heart – Book 2
Also by Liz Matis
Fantasy Football Romance Series Box Set
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From bestselling author, Liz Matis, comes the box set of the popular Fantasy Football Romance series! Includes the award-winning and #1 bestseller in Sports Fiction, Playing For Keeps, along with Going For It – also a #1 bestseller in Sports Fiction, Huddle Up, and The Quarterback Sneak, which also reached #1. The series has over 600 four and five stars reviews on Goodreads!
Or start the series with Playing For Keeps
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Journalist Samantha Jameson always wanted to be one of the boys, but Ryan Terell won’t let her join the club. Fresh from the battlegrounds of Iraq, reporting on a bunch of overgrown boys playing pro football is just the change of scenery she needs. If trying to be taken seriously in the world of sports writing wasn’t hard enough, Ryan, her college crush, is only making it harder. As a tight-end for the team she’s covering, he is strictly off limits.
Ryan Terell is a playmaker on and off the field, but when Samantha uncovers his moves, he throws out the playbook. Just as he claims his sweetest victory, Samantha’s investigation into a steroid scandal involving his te
am forces him to call a time-out to their off the record trysts. But then a life threatening injury on the field will force them both to decide just how far they’ll go to win the game.
Winner of the NECRWA First Kiss Contest.
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