by Sosie Frost
“You do now,” he said. “I want you back.”
“You want me?” I kicked a box out of my path. “To do what?”
“To be my agent. I fired Maddy.”
Oh, this poor bastard had hit his head one too many times on the field. “You’re delusional. I’m not an agent. I don’t know anything about football or how to best represent a player like you.”
Cole expected my resistance. “I think you could learn for a million dollars.”
I quieted. He smirked.
“Count them zeroes, beautiful. If you’re my agent, you get the commission. With that kind of money, you and Rose could buy the whole damn apartment complex.”
And a lot more.
Private school. Good clothes, better food, a great nanny. Rose would never want for anything.
I didn’t answer him. Cole didn’t like my silence. He ran a hand through his hair, loose and wild like how he wore it on the field.
“I haven’t told anyone else why I’m refusing the trade,” he said. “I don’t think they’d understand, and I doubt even more that they’d care. You’re the only one who seems to give a fuck. Who better to represent me than the only person I trust with the truth?”
Oh, damn him.
Cole stared at me. His eyes deepened, a royal and rich blue that shouldn’t have charmed me more than the prospect of a million dollars. This wasn’t a man who trusted anyone with anything. Not his life. Not his job. Not even his reputation on the field, as terrible as it was.
I hated myself for considering his offer.
I hated myself more for realizing there wasn’t a force in the world that would keep me from taking the job.
Pride and principles meant nothing when my child needed food, clothing, and shelter.
“Fine,” I said. “I have a state certification, but that doesn’t mean I’m a practiced agent. I’ll do the best I can, but—”
“That’s all I’m asking. I’ll do my job, and I’ll make yours easy.”
“I doubt that.”
Rose buzzed from inside her box. She pointed at him and squealed. Bossy little thing. She expected him to get on the floor and play with her.
Imagining him sitting beside her, laughing and smiling, was a mistake. I had no idea I’d like the thought so much.
Cole heaved a breath as he glanced over my apartment. “I have one condition to your employment.”
Of course he did. “I’m not going out to eat with you.”
“We won’t have to go out.”
My eyebrow rose.
“The offer comes with room and board. You have to say with me.”
My mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”
“You need a place to stay, and I need someone to represent me. You want the job; you move into the mansion.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
Cole smirked. “What’s wrong, beautiful? A few days ago I couldn’t keep you out of my house.”
“Very funny. The answer’s no.”
“I don’t like the word no.”
Cole stepped closer. I couldn’t break through the boxes for an effective retreat. I shifted as best I could, trying to put any distance between us before I was trapped in his woodsy, masculine scent or stared too intently at his lips.
“You need a place to live, and I have plenty of room,” he said.
“That’s not the point. I have a baby.”
“And where better to take care of her than in the lap of luxury?”
“A home is more than walls and columns, Cole.”
“So I’ve heard. You wanted to spend more time with her…” He gestured to my babbling baby. “I can give that to you. Represent me, earn easy money, and have a beautiful place for your daughter to live.”
He made it sound so perfect and dangerous. Like it wouldn’t be the worst idea of our lives.
He asked me to live with him. He offered his home for my child and his career for my own fortune, but what did he expect in return? I had enough to box up in my apartment without worrying about what he packed between his legs.
It was too risky, and I’d already surrendered to him. First a kiss, then the intimate moments in the hot tub. I once trusted myself to make the right decisions after learning from my worst mistakes, but nothing made sense when I stared into Cole’s fable blue eyes.
I couldn’t let it get complicated, but I had no idea how to untangle us from this mess.
“It’s my fault you got fired,” Cole whispered. “I want to make it up to you.”
I wished he wasn’t so close, that I wasn’t already on the tips of my toes to face him. I twisted my fingers in his shirt, but I couldn’t push him away. The heat flared from my core, and I eased the ache of my lips with a gentle lick.
That only made it worse.
It only invited him closer.
“I can’t move in with you,” I whispered. “I have to think about Rose.”
“I figured you’d bring her.”
His top lip nudged mine. It was enough to sear through me, dazzling me in goosebumps.
“She’s…walking now. She gets into everything. I have to be somewhere baby-proofed.”
“So?” He wasn’t listening. “Baby-proof it.”
His kiss shook me from the inside out, beating at me and demanding I surrender to the prowl of his mouth and the fierce grip of his arms.
I pulled away to breathe a trembled gasp. “I can’t baby-proof a mansion.”
“Hire a company. I don’t care. Just agree.”
His hands wove into my hair, pinning me in place. He seized me with a harsh strike of a kiss—a bite of pure, vicious lust. His tongue whipped mine once. Twice. Enough to make my knees tremble and thighs clench.
This was wrong.
I freed myself, breathing deep and ignoring every good shiver that wound its way into my core.
“Cole, no. It won’t work. We can’t live together. We can’t work together. We can’t do…this.”
Not the answer he wanted. His jaw popped, and I recognized the look of pure ferocity that shadowed his features.
He didn’t hear me…or he didn’t care. “Either you come willingly, pack your bags, and settle in my house…or I’ll toss you over my shoulder and haul you there myself.”
“You’ll do no such thing.”
“I’ll have a company do the baby-proofing before the end of the week. You can move in this weekend while I’m at the game in Florida.”
“Cole, you’re not listening.”
“There’s only five little words I want to hear coming out of your mouth. Repeat after me, beautiful.” Cole grinned, a beastly expression of arrogance and lust. “I’ll see you at home.”
10
Cole
Sweat stung my eyes. My legs and back ached. My body pumped on pure adrenaline.
It was fourth and goal with three seconds remaining. We held the lead, but only by four points.
The Gainsville Cougars’ offense lined up to take their final snap. They needed a touchdown for the win.
I’d never let it happen.
I lived for this moment. The tension. The roar of the crowd cheering on their home team. I always played better with my back to a wall—or, in this case, the goal line.
I got into position, my vision dead-set on the quarterback sitting under his center.
His eyes passed over me. Twice. Checking for a blitz. It was coming. He barked a hard cadence to draw me offside, but it took more than a cheap trick to burn me. But the seconds on the play clock ticked down, and no audible would save him.
I’d deliver his complete and utter destruction.
The ball snapped.
I anticipated the count correctly and bounded to my feet, plowing through the line before the offense was ready. I battled an offensive guard, too slow, too tired to beat me. He held me, but I twisted under his arms and broke free.
The quarterback saw me, but it was too late. He reared back to throw but didn’t have an opening. He panicked and spu
n, but he wasn’t scrambling anywhere.
I dove before he found a lane, wrapping him in my arms and slamming him into the grass. The ball popped out. One of my teammates recovered the fumble and fell onto the field.
The whistles blew. The play was dead, and the game over.
Or it should have ended.
I didn’t get a chance to celebrate. The quarterback shoved his fat hands against my facemask and jerked, nearly ripping my head off.
I heard nothing over the roar of blood in my ears. I blinked, but the white-hot fury blinded me to everything but pure self-preservation. I blocked his hands before he broke my neck. Unfortunately, my forearm clocked his helmet.
The crowd cheered.
Shit.
A yellow flag dropped at my side.
Jesus Christ. The referees thought brushing his helmet was a penalty? If they wanted a reason to throw the flag, I’d give them a bloody one.
My teammates hauled me off the bastard before I roared and tore him limb from limb. The asshole grinned at me as the referees lined up to make the call.
“Unnecessary roughness on the defense, number ninety-two—”
I shouted, but my team forced me to the sidelines. Bullshit penalty. I was the one who got hit. I was trying to defend myself!
“Locker room!” Coach Scott whipped his headset off. “Get off the field before you get ejected!”
Not like it mattered. The penalty occurred after time expired. Because of me, the offense was given one more snap. I didn’t watch the play.
The stadium erupted in frantic cheers as the Cougars scored their winning touchdown.
I headed to the locker room, swearing as a fan chucked his beer at my head from the stands.
And the coaching staff told me to calm down.
What the hell was I supposed to do? Count heartbeats? Repeat a relaxing word? I had a pint of cheap beer dripping over my face and a shit call blamed on me that led to our defeat.
Nothing could ease this rage.
Tim Morgan was the first in the locker room. He sneered at me, pitching his helmet and pads into the laundry cart.
“You had one job,” he said. “Do we have to fit you for a fucking muzzle?”
He didn’t want to fuck with me. “Stay out of my face, Tim.”
“I can throw the damn touchdowns all day, but I need some control over this shitty ass defense to get a win for this team!”
Our tight-end, Javon, stepped between us. He pointed me to the showers.
“Tim, shut the fuck up. Cole, get in the water,” he said. “Game’s done. Can’t do anything about it now. Let it go.”
Easier said than done. We only had an hour to shower and conduct interviews. I refused each one and was the first man on the bus heading back to the airport.
I wore my headphones and cranked pure static—just mindless white noise. It usually silenced everyone and everything and let me exist without that constant emotional bombardment.
Not today.
Every bump in the road, every profanity, every moment of sullen silence from the team was a frustration that suffocated me in blinding anger. I listened to the radio instead, hoping for something that would distract me.
Instead, Ainsley Ruport sang on Sports Nation Radio like the puffed, little canary he was. The turn of events tonight thrilled him, as if a blown call was all the evidence he needed to urge the league for my expulsion.
“Hawthorne consistently displays terrible judgment. This isn’t his first unnecessary roughness call, and it won’t be his last.” Ainsley’s chortled voice disgusted me, thick with the saliva of a man too fat and excited to bother swallowing. “The league had better deal with his behavior soon, and the Monarchs need to find a solid replacement. Too many games are decided by Hawthorne’s temper—”
I didn’t realize how hard I gripped my phone. The case splintered from the screen and the sound cut out. Broken.
Fuck me.
It took two hours to get to the airport and on the plane, and another two and a half hours in flight before we made it home. It should have been enough time to ease my spiking blood pressure. Instead, I ached more than ever.
I wished for a shot of whiskey, something to eat, and some sleep. Not that it’d be restful. My body hurt too much from the game, and I couldn’t focus on anything but the few mistakes I made on the field. It’d be a rough night.
Especially since this time…I wasn’t returning to an empty mansion.
Inviting Piper to stay with me was a fucking stupid idea, but it was my fault she got fired. I didn’t do apologies—I took action. I promised her I’d fix it, and I did. New job. New home. The movers sent most of her shit over, but she waited for the baby-proofing before moving in. I left her to deal with it. She texted me Saturday night and said it was done.
And she included a winky-face emoji.
I had no fucking clue what that meant, but I probably should have slept in the car, especially after the rotten fucking game poisoned my mind.
I headed into the house. Made it five steps before I collided with a thigh-high gate. It gave before I did and crashed to the ground, but I was tangled in the wood frame and plastic mesh. I stumbled, striking the floor and accidentally jamming the gate into every sore spot on my body.
“What the fuck?”
I tossed the reinforced plastic fence away from me, swearing again as it pinched my finger just above the nail. Nothing like a jarring slam onto hardwood to wake a motherfucker up.
I had collided with a baby gate. That made sense. But how the hell was I supposed to put it back?
I set it against the stairwell. The damn thing was spring loaded or something—too loose to fit into the stairs when I squeezed it, too big to fit into place. I considered ignoring it, but the last thing I wanted was the kid to use it as a toboggan into the garage.
“How the hell…”
I flipped on the light. Was it upside down? Jesus Christ, I was too exhausted to figure it out.
Fuck it.
I slammed the gate into the hallway, gouging a deep scratch into my drywall. The crash echoed through the house, and the plastic groaned, but it locked in place. Nothing would remove it from the goddamned hallway. I ignored the four-inch gap over the floor. The gate was about to pop, and I wasn’t fiddling with it anymore. Unless Piper’s baby was part octopus, she wasn’t squeezing through the hole.
I tripped over a second gate by the entry to the kitchen. Christ, were we keeping Rose in or a goddamned velociraptor out?
This gate stayed upright. I dropped my duffle bag by the kitchen island and headed for the fridge. I needed a stronger drink than what I kept up here, but my legs ached too much from the game and Piper’s Alcatraz set-up to get to the bar in the basement.
I tugged on the fridge’s door.
Nothing. The door stuck.
I yanked again.
The door didn’t move but the entire fucking refrigerator shimmied, teetered, and nearly rocked over on me. I shouted and braced myself, catching the fridge before it tipped. I slammed it back in place as my heart wrenched out of my chest.
What in the ever-loving fuck was happening here?
Some goddamned voodoo locked the door to my fridge, and it Indiana Jones boulder style rolled when I tried to open it.
A lock was tethered to the frame. Was that supposed to keep a kid out? Sure, it prevented little baby Rose from opening the door and getting into the roast for dinner, but who the fuck were they protecting when they turned the appliance into some Acme-grade Wile E. Coyote deadfall trap?
Great. The baby was safe, but the linebacker was nearly a pancake. The house wasn’t baby-proofed. It was booby-trapped.
That devious, conniving woman.
I knew Piper accepted the invitation a little too easily. She was salty enough about getting fired. This was her revenge. Spontaneous snares set around the house to inconvenience me. Gates in the hallway. Locks on the fridge. I’d probably find a bear traps in my bed.
Fine
. I didn’t need a beer. I aimed for the cabinet housing my cups instead.
I tugged on the door.
Nothing.
“You’ve got to be shitting me.”
How in the ever-loving fuck did she manage to seal every one of my cabinets? I went down the line of cabinets, tugging on the tops, the bottoms, even the little ones over the stove.
Was she a mother or a magician? What sort of curse did she cast while I was gone?
“Need some help?”
I turned, fuming. Piper grinned, all cozy in a pink pajama set with a mug of cocoa snuggled in her hands.
“Hiya, roomie,” she said.
I growled and pointed to my kitchen. “What did you do?”
“The baby-proofing is all in place. Want me to show you how it works?”
“No. I want you to take it off my fucking things!”
“You said to baby-proof the mansion. I couldn’t have Rosie running around such a big house without any precautions.”
She claimed one of the island’s stools and set her baby monitor on the counter. Was it like a two-way radio? Couldn’t risk swearing. I bit down on my tongue. Better to bite it off than to subliminally corrupt the kid.
“I can help…if you ask nicely.” Piper enjoyed this too much. “I know cabinets can be tricky.”
“You…you locked everything up.”
“Can’t be too careful.”
“Am I being punished?”
“The bill is on the sink.”
“Do I even want to look?”
“The company said it was a delight to work here.” Piper smiled. “Said he could put his son through college on it.”
Fantastic. Was this what happened to all good guys when they tried to help?
Screw it, I was sticking to villainy from now on. It’d save me a couple grand and cause a lot less stress.
I had no way to get a damn drink of water, but I wasn’t playing into Piper’s hands. Screw the glasses and cups. I angled the sprayer on the sink and flipped on the water.
Close enough.
Piper wove some sort of plastic device in front of the cabinet door. It opened, and she showed me the locking contraption drilled into my beautiful, custom made cherry cabinets.
“It’s a mag-lock.” She winked. “Gotta have the magnetic key to open it.”
