The Lie : a bad boy sports romance

by Karla Sorensen

  For all she knew, I still built houses.

  As I read through a few things, it was easy to smile at the glimpses I saw of her as Faith in the messages sent back and forth. Splices of our interaction in the parking lot ran through my mind in the middle of all that. The silky feel of her hair. The skin on her neck. The way her pupils dilated at my nearness. I loved that she was the same girl who came to me with all the normal day-to-day bullshit that weighed on her.

  TurboGirl: Don’t you ever worry about disappointing people, though? If you tell them you may not be good at this thing everyone expects you to be good at?

  NicktheBrickLayer: Hell no.

  TurboGirl: LOL. It’s seriously that easy for you?

  NicktheBrickLayer: Yes and no. I’m a hard worker, so if I don’t feel like I’m good enough at something, I’ll be the first one to show up in the morning and the last one to leave at the end of the day if it means I get better.

  NicktheBrickLayer: But I don’t do that because of what people might think of me. It’s a slippery slope if you do, Turbo. And if I’d let them tell me how to live my life, I wouldn’t be where I am.

  NicktheBrickLayer: If you don’t think this job is a good fit for you, don’t do it. But if it’s just fear holding you back, then work your ass off to be better at it.

  TurboGirl: Just like that, eh?

  NicktheBrickLayer: You didn’t tell me you were Canadian.

  TurboGirl: I’m not, but that’s beside the point. Eh has a LOT of wonderful uses in everyday vernacular.

  NicktheBrickLayer: Turbo, we get one life. That’s it.

  TurboGirl: I knowwwww. I know. I think I’m so used to my life playing out in expected ways, that when something trips me up, I don’t know how to get over it quickly. Come on, you remember how I was after I broke up with assface.

  NicktheBrickLayer: Ahh, yes, the control freak tendencies.

  TurboGirl: Hush. I’m not a control freak … I just, there’s so much craziness in certain aspects of my life that I like knowing the OTHER parts will play out in ways I can… I don’t know if I’m saying this right…

  NicktheBrickLayer: Ways you can control?

  TurboGirl: *middle finger emoji*

  NicktheBrickLayer: I don’t know you well enough yet, but thank you for the offer.

  Having her in the same room, where I could watch the way she moved, talked, and laughed, was intoxicating enough, but adding in all the layers of her personality that I knew to be true … I could get drunk off it. Telling Faith that I was Nick would have to come eventually, that much was clear. But as I looked around us, that time wasn’t now.

  Dominic Walker was something she absolutely felt like she couldn’t control, even if she did a damn good job of managing me when I was at my worst. And it was that, her ability to climb right under my skin as Faith, that had me wanting to see if she’d let go of some of that restraint.

  To my right, I saw the rookie approach tentatively. This time, he came without a bottle of tequila in hand.

  “Walker,” he said in greeting.

  I nodded. “How’s it feel to be on the field when you’re sober?”

  He grimaced, scratching the side of his face. “Better. That was … stupid.”

  “Probably right.” I tossed the football, and he caught it. “You get in a lot of trouble?”

  “A bit.” He tossed it back. “Just got into my head, you know? The whole picture of what we’re doing here. This is the shit you dream of when you’re a kid.” With wide eyes, he glanced around the facility, at the people gathered around us, and shook his head. “Look at who’s in here, man. These are legends. Their names will never be forgotten, even decades after they’re done playing the game. And I don’t think they were dumb enough to get trashed on the fifty-yard line.”

  “Probably right about that too,” I said dryly.

  The rookie went still as a statue.

  “Oh shit,” he whispered. “Lydia Pierson is walking over here.” His eyes got big, his voice edged in panic. “What do I do?”

  With a wry grin, I studied Faith’s younger sister as she left a conversation with a couple of people near us and strolled purposely in our direction. Where Faith had dark hair and dark eyes, Lydia was all blond hair, blue eyes, and curves that would make a man weep. The only similarity I could see, as she came closer, was in the shape of their lips and the arch of their eyebrows over big eyes.

  “Just … talk to her,” I told him quietly.

  But unfortunately for the rookie, as she got closer, Lydia pinned those big blue eyes in my direction. I crossed my arms because something about the speculative look on her face had me feeling like I was a bug on display. Pinned in place so she could pick me apart.

  The only reason I didn’t hate it was that in my mind, it meant her big sister must’ve been talking about me.

  “Gentlemen,” she said, bright red lips curling in greeting. “I’m Lydia.”

  She held out her hand to the rookie, who took it so eagerly that it had me rolling my eyes. “J-John Cartwright,” he said.

  “John Cartwright,” she repeated. “Rookie out of Florida, right? You’re a receiver.”

  His face split into a massive smile. “Yeah, that’s me.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Impressive senior year you had. I was surprised you didn’t go higher in the draft, but I guess that’s for Washington’s gain.”

  That rookie could hardly form words. It was pathetic.

  I sighed. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

  But before I could walk away, she held her hand out to me. “And you are?”

  “Don’t have my bio memorized?” I laid a hand on my chest. “I’m devastated.”

  “Are you?”

  “No.” I shook her hand. “Dominic Walker. My senior year wasn’t as impressive as his, which is why no one drafted me.”

  Lydia hummed. “Well, that settles something I needed to know.”

  Something about the gleam in her eye had me on edge, but I couldn’t pinpoint why.

  “John,” she said in a low voice, “can you do me a huge favor?” With a light touch to his arm, she leaned in and said something into his ear, too low for me to understand. But his eyes flipped to Faith’s direction just as she found a seat on one of the sidelines. My brow furrowed, and I tried to hear what Lydia said to the rookie.

  He grinned when she pulled away. “I’m on it,” he said, all confidence now. The stammer was gone, and he gave her a quick nod before jogging away, right toward Faith.

  I glanced at Lydia, feeling a touch of very masculine desperation at what had just unfolded. “What’d you ask him to do?”

  Lydia didn’t look in my direction, watching carefully as the rookie approached her sister. Faith looked up at Cartwright in surprise but gave him a sunny smile when he crouched in front of her. I didn’t want her to give him a sunny smile.

  “I told him to ask my sister out on a date.”

  “What?” I barked.

  She gave me a droll look. “My, my, quite the overreaction, considering the story I heard about your first meeting.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck, watching helplessly as the rookie said something that made Faith laugh.

  When did he become so fucking funny?

  “Maybe I was a little…” I paused, considering my words carefully. “Quick to judge her.”

  “You think?”

  Tearing my gaze away from the car wreck unfolding in front of me was hard, but I managed a quick glance at Lydia’s tone. “Why’d you tell him to ask her out?”

  “Faith needs to get laid.”

  It actually took a second for the statement to register because she answered so quickly, so evenly. I rubbed my chest. It felt tight and heavy. Was this how it felt to have a heart attack?

  “And you just … send some random asshole football player over to, what? Ask her for a quick screw in the bathroom?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Obviously not. Faith is not the screw-in-the-bathroom type. S
he also doesn’t date football players. But my sister is so focused on doing things for others that she completely ignores her own needs.” She tilted her head, giving me some meaningful eye contact. “If you catch my drift.”

  “Yeah, I catch your drift,” I snapped.

  But my snapping did nothing except make Lydia grin widely. This was the kind of shit that had my temperature gauge skyrocketing. There was no slow shift in my mood, no gradual color change as I heated up inside. The idea that that stupid, tequila-toting rookie was making her laugh and asking her out and trying to get her to break some anti-football player rule had my skin on fire. And as I tried to decide how to maneuver the rookie as far away from Faith as fucking possible, she tucked her hair behind her ear and gave him a sweet smile that had me moving before I’d made a conscious decision to.

  When I got closer, I heard the rookie say something stupid about his college stats in a stupid voice that made me want to punch him in the stupid face.

  “Hey, rookie,” I barked. “You’re needed elsewhere.”

  He stood and held out a hand to help Faith out of the chair she’d been in. The grateful smile she gave him had my eye twitching.

  I could count on one hand the times in my life I’d felt jealous of anyone. Actually, I could count on one finger the times in my life I’d felt jealousy.

  Right now. Because of her and this idiot.

  “Am I?” he asked.

  Where’d this guy come from? He was giving me a slightly challenging look that had me crossing my arms over my chest and facing him head-on.

  “Yeah.”

  He gave me a considering glance and then winked—winked!—at Faith. It was like he wanted to get punched in the nuts. “I was just about to ask Faith if she wanted to join me for dinner tomorrow, so I think whatever it is can wait.”

  “She can’t,” I said.

  Now it was Faith’s turn to cross her arms over her chest and give a challenging look. “Can’t she?” she asked.

  I might’ve had a self-destructive streak a mile wide, but the caveman approach wasn’t going to get me far. This was not a woman who wanted me to barrel through any of her reservations. So I took a deep breath and managed a softer tone.

  “Did you forget, sunshine?”

  At the nickname, her cheeks went a little pink, a lot attractive. “Forget what?”

  “You promised to go out with me tomorrow night,” I said gently. My tone might’ve been gentle, but I held her gaze steadily to let her see exactly how serious I was.

  “Did I?” Her answer was quiet.

  So often, I made decisions based on a churning in my gut and didn’t stop to consider the ramifications. But this wasn’t a churning or a slow build to a reaction. This was exactly where I was supposed to be, talking to the girl who did something to me even before I knew who she really was.

  To her gently spoken question, I nodded, taking a step closer, until the rookie had no choice but to back away from her. I lifted my hand and went to tuck a piece of her dark hair behind her ear, but I stopped just before touching her.

  Too many eyes.

  Too many important eyes.

  But by her shaky inhale, she knew what I was about to do. She knew, and she didn’t back away.

  The air between us trembled from that almost touch, and in an instant, I had the bone-deep certainty that when we kissed, she’d rock me to my core. Faith Pierson was a game changer, and nothing about it bothered me.

  The rookie whistled under his breath. “Sorry, man, didn’t realize.”

  My eyes never wavered from Faith’s. “Now you do. Go away,” I told him.

  As he did, she exhaled a quiet laugh. “You are…” Her voice trailed off incredulously.

  “Taking you out tomorrow night.”

  “Incredibly cocky,” she replied. “And I don’t date football players.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “Why not?”

  That stopped her short. Faith’s mouth popped open.

  “Someone break your heart, sunshine?”

  I knew who had. I’d heard all about him when we first started talking. And I wanted to see if she’d admit it to me.

  She blinked rapidly a few times. “I just don’t.”

  I licked my bottom lip, and her eyes locked onto that tiny spot. “Come on, there’s got to be a better reason than that.”

  Faith inhaled, snapping her gaze away from my mouth. “I’m pretty sure I don’t owe you any explanations, hotshot.”

  A part of me wanted to gently tease her about those control-freak tendencies again. Say something that Nick would’ve said to her.

  “What if I promise not to talk about football?”

  Her lips curled slightly, then she rolled them together to stop the smile from spreading.

  Risking one step closer, I moved in so that her shoulder just barely brushed my bicep. “One chance. See if that rule needs to be broken.”

  Faith exhaled a shocked laugh, but again, she didn’t pull away. “Why should I?”

  With a quick glance to make sure no one was watching us, I ducked my head down so I could speak into her ear. “Because I think you’re just as curious as I am about what this is between us.” My voice, low and hushed, ruffled the hair on the side of her head. And when I finished speaking, I caught the way she shivered. “Come on, sunshine,” I urged. “Won’t you explore it with me?”

  Faith pulled back, and her eyes studied my face. She gently licked her lips, and I fought the urge to do the same, to see how they tasted.

  I’d never felt this sort of desperation with a woman before. It was reckless to spend too much time with her without telling her the truth. But I had to know if she’d take this step with me as Dominic, had to know if we could connect in more than one place, as different versions of the same people.

  “One date,” she said quietly. “And it better be good.”

  Because my body blocked us from view, I trailed a finger along the inside of her wrist, the curve of her palm, and her fingers curled helplessly.

  “It will be,” I promised.

  Faith Pierson didn’t know it, but I was exactly the right man for her, and I was about to prove it.

  Faith

  Twenty-four hours later, my fingers curled up again when I dragged my own finger on the same spot that Dominic had so gently touched. Who knew that the wrist was a hidden erogenous zone? Not me.

  When I looked down at my fingers, I couldn’t help but replay the words he’d said, the way he’d looked at me, and most importantly, the reactions that both of those things had set off in my head.

  Big firework-type reactions.

  Like only achieved through battery-operated assistance reactions.

  Reactions that I couldn’t stop thinking about as I lay in my bed the night before. Alone. In the dark.

  My attempt at sleep had been choppy at best, tossing and turning, kicking at the sheets when they were too hot for my body. More than once, I’d clutched my phone, trying to get the lady balls to text him and cancel the date.

  The date. Honestly. Lydia had simply given me a smug-ass smile when we left the mini camp.

  “Why are you pissed?” she’d asked. “He did exactly what I meant for him to do. That’s why I sent the rookie over there first.”

  “I know, Lydia,” I hissed when Dad gave us a strange look. “The rookie told me what you told him.”

  She grinned. “Why not be honest? All he needed to know was that I’d owe him big if he made Dominic jealous.”

  “Gawd, your forthright tendencies are going to get you into trouble someday, little sister.”

  Lydia booped the end of my nose. “I think the words you’re looking for are thank you. Because now you have a date with a man who is just…” She shivered. “Exactly what you need. You never should’ve made that no dating the players rule anyway.”

  “Please, you know exactly the kinds of guys I was trying to avoid. We’ve known way too many of them.”

  She gave me a sisterly lo
ok. “You’ve known one too many. And we’ve known ten times more that are like Dad. You can’t keep people labeled in neat little categories, Faith. It leaves no room for happy surprises.”

  At my desk, replaying her words, after replaying my reactions, from replaying his talent at throwing me off-balance, I knew there was nothing else to do except buckle up and be as ready as possible for this one single date I was allowing him.

  I muttered a curse word and picked up my phone, hitting the button to call Tori. She picked up on the first ring.

  “Well, look at who it is. It’s a miracle. To what do I owe the pleasure, Miss Pierson?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I saw you this morning at the apartment.”

  “That hardly counted. I was half-asleep because your overthinking kept me up all night. I could hear it through the walls every time you tossed and turned.”

  Blinking, I sat back in my chair. “Really?”

  “Those walls are thin, no matter how astronomical our rent is.” She sighed. “What’s up, buttercup?”

  “Since you’re off today, can you do me a huge, huge favor and bring me some clothes?”

  “You looked cute when you left this morning,” she protested. “What’s wrong with wearing what you’ve got on?”

  As I blew out a hard breath, I pushed back from my desk and stood to study myself in the mirror hanging on the wall next to the door of my office. The reflection that stared back at me looked … fine. If I was going grocery shopping.

  “I look just like I do every other day of the week.”

  “You’re wearing the pink shirt and the jeans that make your ass look incredible, right?”

  Turning slightly, I looked at the aforementioned body part and shrugged. “I guess.”

  Tori laughed. “I swear, you are chronically incapable of recognizing your own hotness.”

  “Lydia got those genes in our family. Lucky for her that Allie is the most gorgeous woman in the entire world.”

  “Stop that now,” she instructed. “I’ve seen pictures of your mother, and she was beautiful. You’ve got the best kind of beautiful, Faith, because it doesn’t make you unapproachable. You’re like … one of those flowers that’s so sweet and pretty that people stop to smell it and take pictures, then bam, you realize too late that the flower is a dangerous man-eating plant because it lulled you into a false sense of security. And now it killed you, and it’s too late.”