Love of the Game - The Complete Collection (Box Set)

by Shayne McClendon

  “What’s she do?”

  “She’s a bartender and waitress at the Triple Z. There most nights, I think.” She folded the towel and set it on the stack, not moving her hands from it.

  “Diesel, that girl has had nothing but pain and trouble she didn’t ask for. Don’t toy with her. You won’t be back here and there’s a good chance she’ll never leave. Tread careful, son.”

  He nodded and kissed her cheek. “You raised me right, Mom. No worries.”

  “Yeah but the girls do love to throw themselves at you boys. Funny enough, never any of the Rhodes girls. You’d think they’d be, I don’t know, badly behaved coming from what they have.” Jenna smiled. “Must be Kenzie’s influence, it sure isn’t her mama and daddy’s doing.”

  Diesel hung out with his little brothers for a while, then showered and changed into jeans and a t-shirt, his comfortable black cowboy boots on his feet. Finger combing his longish black hair, he grabbed his keys, and handed his brothers a new Alien DVD to watch while he was gone.

  Kissing his mom, she told him his dad would be visiting in three days.

  He nodded and headed out. None of the brothers liked to discuss their dad, Donald. He’d left their mom soon after the Double J’s were born with one of the girls who worked his auction house. He sent money but his new family was his priority.

  They saw him occasionally but it was uncomfortable for all of them.

  The drive into town took fifteen minutes and all the action was at the Triple Z honky-tonk. A town as small as theirs didn’t have much to do after dark, but the highway passed through to Fargo and the bar always had business.

  He parked and several of his friends called out to him. They went in together and found a table. Immediately swamped by the local girls, Diesel found himself looking around for Kenzie.

  Not seeing her anywhere, he danced with one woman after another, many of them openly groping him and making him laugh. All the LeBlanc boys had a reputation with women, well-earned, and it was an open joke among the brothers when they were together.

  There were two blondes coming on pretty strong when he spotted Kenzie and about stumbled during Cotton-Eyed Joe.

  She had really grown into her looks.

  Her long, dark hair was crimped and had two tiny pigtails in the front, all of it hanging loose almost to her waist. Her dark brown eyes were highlighted with eyeliner and she wore lipstick but no other makeup.

  Wearing a cropped black bar t-shirt and low hung jeans with heeled boots, she was smokin’ hot. Full breasts and nice hips, real nice ass, long legs, and a flat stomach. There were four inches of bare midriff showing and a belly button ring sparkled on her naturally tanned skin.

  Her coloring was likely the only thing she appreciated inheriting from her folks. Her father was white but her mother was full blood Sioux, of the Lakota tribe.

  She was serving drinks off a tray to a table of rowdy cowboys who consistently found reasons to touch her. Kenzie was smiling but it sure as hell didn’t reach her eyes.

  Once she put down all the drinks and pitchers, she left the table and he could see her lips moving, as if she was giving herself a pep talk. She turned and locked eyes with him just as the two blondes he was dancing with worked their way down his body from the front and back simultaneously.

  She rolled her eyes, gave him a double thumbs-up, and a fake smile. He watched her off and on all night, though his dance partners kept changing.

  So many men grabbed her ass he lost count. She was getting more and more annoyed. Around midnight, a particularly drunk redneck put his hands right between her legs. She grabbed him by the wrist, twisted it behind his back, and had him face down on the table in less than three seconds.

  Bent over his back, her body was drawn tight…so was the tribal tattoo down her spine that ended between two tiny dimples leading down to her butt. She said something in Lakota, real loud and obviously not flattering, then threw his big ass back in his chair.

  Diesel wondered if he was the only one who realized she’d palmed a switchblade, closed but ready. Picking up her tray, she walked away, and discreetly slid the knife in her back pocket.

  The owner, Bob Zeller, patted her shoulder, pinched her chin, and told her to take a break. He’d owned the bar for thirty years and didn’t like the roughnecks messing with the female staff.

  Whatever he said to Kenzie finally provoked a smile and she nodded. Tossing her hair over one shoulder, she walked down a hallway to the back of the building.

  Diesel excused himself from his current partner – he couldn’t remember her name at the moment – and smiled when she pouted at him.

  “Back soon, darlin’.” Then he went after Kenzie.

  Stepping through the back door, he caught her stretching her back and legs. She was bent completely in half, her nose touching her knees. He cleared his throat and she turned her head to look at him.

  With a heavy sigh, she stood and faced him, her arms crossed over her lovely chest.

  “Just wanted to make sure you were alright, MacKenzie.”

  “I’m fine, Diesel.” She turned and put her foot on the wall, walking it up until she was almost in a standing split. Her face was in agony and she reached down to rub absently at her hip.

  “You sure you should be doing that? Looks like it hurts.”

  “It hurts worse if I don’t do it, Diesel. I have to hyper-extend it to keep the tendons from locking on me. Was there something you needed?”

  “Why do you do a job where you’re on your leg all the time, Kenzie?” He couldn’t hide his shock when she dropped her leg and whirled on him.

  “Are you fucking kidding me right now, Diesel? You have no concept of my reality and I get that. What I do not get is why you are speaking to me. You are a little too self-absorbed to be worried about one of the Rhodes kids, don’t you think?”

  She shook her head. “Go play with the groupies who will hang on your every word and leave me to cope with my life. It sucks just fine without you pointing it the fuck out.” She said something in Lakota and stormed past him. “You don’t know shit about me, LeBlanc. No one does.”

  He couldn’t help but notice she smelled like pears.

  Back inside, she plastered a smile on her face and served alcohol to drunk cowboys and half-naked women it was obvious she detested.

  When Play Something Country came over the jukebox, Bob Zeller had them turn it up and took MacKenzie out on the floor. Bob had been an award-winning dancer before he opened his bar. It was obvious he danced with Kenzie a lot.

  Their moves were fast and complicated and soon tons of people were lining up behind them to imitate the dance. When they changed from line dance to couples dancing, Diesel’s mouth dropped open when they started to salsa…to Brookes and Dunn for God’s sake.

  Diesel watched MacKenzie move and recognized the stirring in his pants. Lord, the woman could move on ice and on the dance floor. They kept dancing to Honky Tonk Badonkadonk and she finally looked like she was relaxing.

  When she smiled, he realized it was contagious. Bob dropped his black Stetson on her head and she pulled it low over her eyes and worked her body down to the floor and back up again.

  As the song ended, Bob hugged her and said something in her ear. She put his hat back on his head, and got a sad look on her face. He chucked her under the chin and headed over to the bar.

  Kenzie was leaving the dance floor as A Woman’s Love started to play and Diesel found himself catching her hand, not sure how he’d made it across the room to her.

  He gently tugged her back to the hard wood and she came reluctantly. He gathered her in his arms and danced her around the floor. She was stiff and nervous with him and he wondered why.

  “Are you and Bob Zeller together?” he asked bluntly.

  “No, Diesel. Not that it’s any of your fucking business but he’s like the dad I never had. One of the few people I trust.” She didn’t look at him. “I dance with him because he’s a good man, fun, and doesn’t
want anything from me.”

  He turned her and she finally made eye contact.

  “What do you want from me, Diesel? You have…” she glanced back at his table, “your choice of seven women willing to do whatever you want. I really don’t want to experience their bullshit when you head back to the real world so I’ll dance this one dance with you. Then you go do, whatever it is you do when you’re here, and I’ll get back to work.”

  Diesel tugged her against him and when Come a Little Closer started, he held onto her. He danced her around the dim space and lowered his cheek next to hers, his mouth at her ear. “I want to know why you’re so hostile to me, Kenzie. What is it about me that pisses you off?”

  “Just leave it alone, Diesel. Take your dance and be quiet.”

  “I’ll be here for a while, Kenzie. I’ll be in this bar every night you’re working, getting you to dance with me until you talk to me.” The song ended and she met his eyes. With her coloring and long hair, she looked wild…beautiful. “Every night, Kenzie.”

  Then he let her go.

  Chapter Two

  Diesel hadn’t been kidding.

  Every night over the next few weeks, he waited until she danced with Bob, loosened up and relaxed, and then he’d go to her and make her dance with him.

  She refused to talk but he liked holding her anyway. She fit him right.

  He’d seen her strong-arm a couple more men who got hands-on with her. One reached around from behind and groped her breast.

  So subtly hardly anyone saw, she brought her heel up and racked him in the balls, not hard enough to really injure him, but hard enough to get his attention and leave him doubled over.

  Another rushed up and grabbed her ass with both hands. Kenzie powered back in a scissor motion with her elbows and caught him on both sides, knocking the wind out in a whoosh, and likely bruising a couple of ribs.

  Two nights before he was due to head back to school, he was leaving the bar…frustrated again. She’d slipped out again, waiting until he was distracted. He was thinking he’d never been so tense for a woman in his life when he saw her truck on the side of the road with the hood up.

  He pulled up alongside and watched her go over the engine with a flashlight. Placing her palms on the front of the truck, her eyes came up slowly, and she shook her head. He watched her take a deep breath as she approached the passenger window.

  “Yes, Diesel?”

  Her expression made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

  “What happened?”

  “Looks like a broken distributor cap.” She looked at her feet with her hands on her hips. “I don’t suppose you have an extra one in your truck?” He shook his head. “Of course not.”

  “If I did, could you change it?” he asked jokingly.

  “Who the hell do you think made sure my brothers and sisters got to school every damn day? Yeah, I could change it out. Alright, well, thanks for stopping. Later.”

  Kenzie stepped back from Diesel’s vehicle, climbed into the cab of hers, closed the door, and put the hazards on. As he watched, she laid down on the seat.

  What the hell was she doing?

  He got out and knocked on her window. She yelled, “I’m fine. Go away, Diesel.”

  He opened the door and bodily pulled her from the cab. “If you think I’m leaving you stranded on the side of the road in the middle of the fucking night, you have another thing coming, MacKenzie.”

  He set her on her feet and asked her what she needed out of the cab. With gritted teeth, she reached past him and grabbed a backpack and her jacket.

  Diesel locked her doors and opened his passenger door, motioning for her to get in. She stared at him for a long moment and he could see her frustration. “Damn it, Diesel.”

  MacKenzie got in and buckled up. She tracked him in the headlights as he walked around the front of his truck. Torn, as she always was when it came to this particular man.

  When he climbed in, he smiled gently. “Where to?”

  She waited a long time to answer him, considering so many things he wouldn’t understand. When she spoke, she stared through the windshield but saw nothing beyond it. “You’re a mile from here, right?”

  He went very still. “About that, yeah.”

  “It’ll be quicker for me to get to my truck in the morning.” It was a ridiculous thing to say and she regretted her irrational need to hide. She looked at him and wondered if he could see the mix of emotions flashing inside her. He wasn’t moving, suddenly unsure. A feeling that was likely very unusual for him.

  “Diesel, I’m a big girl. Take me to your place.”

  He had the oddest expression on his face and didn’t move as he continued to stare at her, his lips slightly parted in shock. When a small crinkle formed between his dark brows, she knew he thought he was misunderstanding her.

  Kenzie had to give him credit for not jumping all over her offer in seconds.

  “Let me clarify, Diesel.” She rolled her eyes, unbuckled, and climbed across the seat to straddle his lap. His face was warm, a little bit of stubble on his jaw pricked her palms when she took his face in her hands. “You’ve been chasing me for weeks. Snap the fuck out of it.” Then she kissed him.

  Well, if his reaction was anything to go by…

  Diesel’s hands landed on her hips, smoothed over her waist, and slid up her back. The fingers of one hand slid into the hair at the back of her head so he could anchor her for his return assault on her senses. He devoured her and her hands fisted in his shirt with a low moan.

  The kiss went on forever, his body big and hard beneath her, the subtle movement of her hips brought him in contact with her clit again and again. On the verge of climax, she leaned back, almost angry as she said, “Drive, Diesel.”

  Then she climbed off his lap and dropped to the seat beside him.

  He took a deep breath, eyes wide as he checked the mirror and tore away from her truck.

  Less than five minutes later, he drove past the main house to the furthest of the two big barns. His mom let her oldest sons convert the second floors to apartments for when they visited. Close enough to be convenient, far enough away for privacy.

  Shutting off the engine, Diesel jumped out and pulled Kenzie through his door to set her on her feet. He held her hand, guiding her to the outside stairs, and climbed to the unlocked door at the top. Inside, he tossed his keys on a table and shrugged off his jacket. She did the same.

  “Can I get you something to drink, Kenzie?” She shook her head and leaned against the door. “Hungry?” She nodded slowly and saw the instant he understood it wasn’t food she wanted.

  Stepping closer, he cupped her face in both hands and kissed her. It started gentle, but deepened fast and soon they were pulling at one another’s clothes.

  When Kenzie stood in front of him in nothing but her bra and panties, he paused to appreciate the view of her body. “Your curves…just right, Kenzie.”

  She felt the same, running her gaze from his head of shaggy black hair, dark blue eyes, broad shoulders, thick chest spattered with dark hair, narrow waist, and long legs.

  In bare feet, he was about nine inches taller than her five-seven frame. Wearing nothing but Joe Boxer briefs, his erection was obvious. Reaching out, she ran her fingertip over him from root to tip, happy when he twitched at her touch.

  Diesel gathered her to him. She stared at his face as he unlatched her bra and watched as it fell to the floor. Her breasts were full, the dark mauve nipples harder than she’d ever felt before. She ached.

  “Those pretty nipples are just begging to be sucked.” He groaned as he dropped to his knees, cupped a breast in each hand, and sucked one then the other. Kenzie’s head dropped back to the door, her fingers buried in his thick hair.

  She felt his hands move to lower the band of her panties, pulling them down as his mouth continued to pay homage to her breasts. The fabric slipped down her legs and she stepped out, watching as he released a nipple to take in the s
ight of her mound with neatly trimmed brown curls.

  He sat back on his heels and raked his nails through the small triangle, staring up at her from below. Kenzie couldn’t focus; her breath panted through slightly parted lips.

  Smiling and looking quite pleased with himself, he leaned forward, spread her outer lips with one hand, and settled his mouth over her clit. Without conscious thought, she rocked her hips against his mouth as he began to suck.

  Within moments, she came, holding his head to her as she worked her folds against a tongue that was every bit as wicked as she’d imagined. His hands stroked up the back of her thighs and gripped the cheeks of her ass, to hold her still while he licked her through the first climax and chased her toward another that had her knees shaking.

  One hand trailed forward, over the line of her hip and pelvis. She knew he planned to give her another orgasm but she had other plans. Instead, she pulled his head back with her fingers fisted in his hair. His dark blue eyes were almost black, his expression drawn tight with need.

  “Now, Diesel. I want you right now.” Her voice was lower than usual, almost hoarse.

  “Hell yes,” he ground out as he stood in one smooth motion, skimming his underwear off. He stood proudly in front of her. His fist circled the thick shaft as he bent to get a condom from his jeans. When it was rolled in place, he pressed his front to hers and she gasped at the sensation of so much skin-to-skin contact.

  His mouth dropped over hers as he lifted her easily. He wrapped one of her legs around his hip and she took care of the other, locking her ankles at his low back.

  One second she felt the rounded head at the entrance of her body, the next, he powered forward hard and fast, burying himself to the hilt.

  Kenzie screamed.

  The moment Diesel entered the pussy he’d been chasing for more than a month, he registered two very different things simultaneously.

  First, that she was slick and hot around him.

  Second, she was achingly tight because she’d been a virgin.

  MacKenzie Rhodes had been a virgin.