Caitlin's Hero

by Donna Gallagher

  A Total-E-Bound Publication

  www.total-e-bound.com

  Caitlin’s Hero

  ISBN # 978-1-78184-136-5

  ©Copyright Donna Gallagher 2012

  Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright October 2012

  Edited by Amy Parker

  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2012 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

  Warning:

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Total-e-burning and a sexometer of 1.

  This story contains 103 pages, additionally there is also a free excerpt at the end of the book containing 8 pages.

  League of Love

  CAITLIN’S HERO

  Donna Gallagher

  Book one in the League of Love series

  Falling for him is easy. Dealing with his high-profile life—a life deemed public property by his fans and the press, plus an ex-wife out for blood—now, that’s the hard part.

  Twenty-year-old Caitlin Walters was living a normal life. She attended university, socialised a little and had a good relationship with her mother and stepfather. But when her parents are tragically killed in a car accident, Caitlin’s life is forced to change. The once carefree girl becomes sole guardian of her stepbrother. Giving up her university course to support and raise eleven-year-old Riley, Caitlin struggles to deal with her new responsibilities.

  Her job, singing at a local Italian restaurant, brings Caitlin some peace. On stage, she leaves her life and its troubles behind. Feeling comfortable and sensuous, she is like a siren calling out to lost souls. It’s on one of these nights that Caitlin begins a romance with Australian Rugby League captain, Brodie James. Brodie, not content with his so-called perfect life and struggling with commitment issues following a disastrous marriage, falls hard for Caitlin.

  The relationship does not run smoothly for the self-sacrificing Caitlin, as she learns how to deal with Brodie’s nasty, jealous ex-wife, a muck-raking reporter and intrusive but well-meaning rugby fans. Along the way she makes new friends, and awakens the untapped sensual desires of the woman inside.

  Dedication

  To my editor, Amy. The universe was smiling on me the day my manuscript landed on your desk. Thank you for believing in my voice. Your encouragement, support and frequent *hugs* have made my dream become a reality.

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Daihatsu: Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd

  Paralympics: International Paralympic Committee

  Range Rover Vogue: Land Rover

  Titanic (1997): Paramount Pictures/20th Century Fox

  Botox: Allergan, Inc.

  Socceroos: Football Federation Australia

  World Cup: International Federation of Association Football

  Moondance: Van Morrison/Warner Bros. Records

  Coke: The Coca-Cola Company

  iPhone: Apple, Inc.

  Powerade: The Coca-Cola Company

  Nintendo DS: Nintendo Company, Ltd

  Air New Zealand: Air New Zealand Limited

  Chapter One

  Caitlin normally swam laps at the same time as Riley had his squad training. If she had to be up early to drive him to the pool, she figured she might as well do something productive with her time instead of sitting around waiting. Caitlin never put on weight. She knew she was lucky in that regard, because some girls were always trying one new fad diet after another, but she did like to feel fit and healthy. Caitlin had a hearty appetite and was almost embarrassed by the amount of food she needed to keep her body fuelled.

  She was neither short nor tall and her long legs, average hips and small waist were all in proportion. The problem with swimming—although she loved being in the water—was that wearing a swimsuit made it easier for people to notice her D-cup breasts.

  Firm and round, they appeared to stick out rudely and she thought they looked out of place on her body. Caitlin and her breasts had not got along since puberty, when they’d seemed to grow to an enormous size almost overnight. Her enjoyment of participating in sports had taken a beating at the cruel taunts from other teens. At one point, Caitlin had actually considered breast reduction surgery.

  That, of course, would not be possible—at least for the foreseeable future. Not after all that had happened recently.

  Caitlin fingered the bracelet on her wrist lovingly, and pushed those sad memories from her mind. She always revelled in the solitude of swimming laps once she got started. It calmed her to listen to herself breathe in and out while her arms and legs sliced through the water, stroke after stroke. Just being around water soothed Caitlin.

  The other bonus of early morning swimming was that there was no need to worry about the harsh Australian sun burning her very pale skin. Giving herself one last pep talk about the water being warm once she got wet, she headed out to the swim deck, trying, as usual, to push her mop of hair under her pink swimming cap.

  As Caitlin did some stretches in preparation, she noticed the players from the local rugby league team on the other side of the fifty-metre pool. Most of the players were walking up and back in a lane, laughing and pushing each other in mock fights. All except for him.

  Caitlin had observed the giant of a man before. In fact, on many occasions she had actually sought him out with her eyes. Why wouldn’t you? she thought to herself. He was gorgeous—such a perfect specimen. Caitlin had watched him stretching his large body, which rippled with the mass of well-defined muscle that made up his impressive physique. Caitlin had also watched him standing, sitting, walking, running and swimming, all in such a skimpy pair of swimmers that not much was left to the imagination, and Caitlin had found she had a good imagination when it came to him.

  On more than one occasion she had dreamt of him, waking to find her body sweaty, the ache in her core unbearable and moisture coating her panties. Caitlin had begun touching herself to try to ease that unfamiliar longing—quietly, discreetly, her strokes reluctant at first. The thought of masturbation had been disturbing, somehow wrong.

  But not wrong enough to stop. On those occasions, she would inch her fingers towards that throbbing, hot place. She’d slide her hand down the front of her panties, past the layers of curls that covered her folds.

  It was always the same. She’d visualise his broad shoulders and washboard abs and her breath would start to come in little puffs and pants, her nipples pulling tight. Caitlin always felt them forming hard button shapes even before she’d let her free hand touch them. She would touch and rub her sensitive nipples as she imagined his face—that sexy, yet sombre-looking face.

  There was something about him that drove her to this point. Nothing and no-one else had ever caused Caitlin to
caress her own body in such a way. This uncontrollable need was new, coinciding with her awareness of his existence. She’d slip her finger in between her folds. They were always slick and warm, and she’d begin to move that finger in a circular motion. Tiny sparks of something indescribable would start to form beneath her finger, her body striving towards some place, some ending to fulfil her ache. As she focused on the memory of his deep voice, which she had overheard when he’d spoken to his teammates, she’d imagine him talking to her, touching her. She’d pretend it was his fingers plucking at her nipples and his hand creating so much havoc within her body.

  Finally, knowing she was nearing that peak that caused her so much bliss, Caitlin would find her clitoris, the place that held the release of that pleasure spike, and she’d rub furiously at it. Push and circle, hard and fast, assaulting her own body until finally the gratification came, a wave of pleasure and relief washing over her slick, wet body, leaving her breathless, boneless, sated.

  Caitlin both loved and hated to remember those times she lost control. She’d heard that masturbation was a normal human need, but it didn’t make her feel any less uncomfortable with her own actions.

  Seeing him in such a state of near nakedness didn’t help. Shaking off her silly, girly fantasies, her stomach fluttering in response to her wilful thoughts, Caitlin stepped onto the block and did a graceful racing dive into the water. For the first few laps she tried to find her rhythm, reprimanding herself for her body’s response to the man by chanting a mantra over and over in her head. “I don’t have time for men, I don’t have time for dating, I don’t have time for men, I don’t have time for dating…”

  Previous forays into the dating scene hadn’t filled her with much confidence. These so-called dates were nothing but a bunch of octopus-limbed disappointments who seemed to think buying her a drink, or dinner, gave them the right to grope her at will. Just the thought had Caitlin angrily pounding her arms into the water.

  * * * *

  Brodie James was tired. Not sleepy, but that bone-deep, weary kind of tiredness that made you feel as if you were dragging yourself through life. He was feeling all of his thirty years at the early morning recovery session.

  Yesterday’s game had been a hard-fought grind, ending disappointingly in a loss for Brodie’s Sydney Jets. Brodie’s battle-fatigued body reminded him painfully of every tackle and knock it had taken. It wasn’t just the game, though. Brodie could not pinpoint what it was that was making him feel so old and jaded. He was living the dream. This was the life he had worked so hard for. He was playing rugby league at the top level.

  Brodie had lived and breathed rugby league from the time he could hold a footy. He was good—some even said the best. Brodie didn’t go much for that sort of talk, though. He was successful, sure. His thirteen years at the top level were testimony enough. He had captained his club, state and country, and earned a good living doing what he loved. What more could he want?

  Maybe that was exactly the issue. What more did he, Broderick Patrick James, want from life?

  Just thinking about it gave Brodie chills, and that wasn’t because he was waist deep in a swimming pool. These recovery sessions were just a part of the routine that was Brodie’s life. He had to contend not only with his aching muscles, but with the antics of his younger teammates as well. Full of the exuberance of youth, these pups were good at riding him about his age. They respected him, though, despite their good-humoured cheek, and they were keen to learn all they could from him.

  As his teammates laughed and horsed around, Brodie’s attention was drawn elsewhere. She was here again. Brodie had seen her swimming laps at the pool many times. Something about the way she walked, or stood, or swam caught his attention. Maybe it was how her elegant arms seemed to effortlessly slice through the water.

  He had watched, fascinated by the way that, no matter how hard she tried, she never completely managed to corral that red mass of curls under her swim cap. There were tendrils always haphazardly poking out. He wanted to tuck them away for her just so he could feel their texture. He wondered what her hair would feel like up against his chest—a bad move on his part. His body had an immediate reaction to the sexy thought, forming an ill-timed lump in the front of his tiny swimming briefs.

  Brodie was shocked at this physical response. He had been with his fair share of women. Not lately, though. Lately he just hadn’t really bothered. He could never tell, these days, if the many offers were made due to his high profile.

  That thought reminded him of the big mistake—his now failed marriage. At first, Lila had seemed to be every man’s dream. She’d said all the right things about wanting a family and the normal trimmings. It wasn’t long, though, before Brodie had realised that what Lila said and what she actually meant were two entirely different things. Lila had wanted everything she could get. The memory of her was enough to remove that tight feeling in his trunks.

  Sighing, Brodie took one last look in the direction of his redhead’s swimming form as her arm lifted and curled back towards the water’s surface. A glimpse of shiny metal caught his eye as it flew from her wrist to plop right into the water next to her. It looked to Brodie like a gold bracelet. She went on swimming, unaware of what had just happened. Without another thought, he ducked under the lane rope and swam towards the spot, diving to the depths of the pool in search of the lost piece of jewellery.

  Chapter Two

  I’m not getting into a rhythm today.

  Caitlin scowled to herself. Her mind just wouldn’t stop. She didn’t know how to slow down the relentless wave of disaster that seemed to have swallowed her life since the tragic loss of her mother and stepfather in a car accident twelve months ago. Life had taken an abrupt change of direction that day, as the welfare of her ten-year-old half-brother was thrust into her care.

  The memory was still so clear in her mind. She had rushed home after university to sit with Riley, so her parents could go out and celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary. The police crash investigation had concluded that her stepfather’s car had been speeding when he had lost control, crashing into a telegraph pole and killing them both instantly. The end result had been that she and Riley were alone.

  The next few months had been full of problems and tough decisions. With no life insurance and not much in the way of savings to help them, Caitlin and Riley had been forced to sell their family home. After paying out all legal and funeral costs, there was enough money left over for them to buy a small, one-bedroom flat in an old, majestic house in Ashfield, an inner western suburb of Sydney. The once opulent home had been converted into four apartments—two ground-floor garden flats and two upstairs flats, complete with French doors leading onto their own verandas.

  Caitlin and Riley had settled into their new home as best they could. Riley slept in the bedroom, sharing closet space with his sister. Caitlin slept on a foldout sofa bed in the living room, which she made up every night and packed away again in the morning. The kitchen was large, with space for a small dining table and four chairs. The bathroom housed a beautiful clawfoot bath, pedestal sink and toilet, and there had been plenty of room to add a washing machine and dryer as well. The best feature of the new home was the large windows. Starting from nearly the ceiling line, they fell to a few feet from the floor. They were finished with deep stone ledges, perfect for sitting on to read, or just to gaze out onto the gardens.

  Caitlin had shelved plans to finish her Bachelor of Music Performance since she’d had to find a way to support her diminished family. She was lucky to have befriended June, the pensioner living in the other ground-floor apartment. The old woman, also alone, had filled the role of adopted granny in Riley’s life. June was happy to spend time with Riley when Caitlin was working and, in return, Caitlin drove June to the shops and to appointments. Caitlin was thankful she had been able to purchase her compact green Daihatsu to run everyone around.

  Finally coming to the realisation that she wasn’t enjoying her swim, Caitli
n abruptly stopped mid-lap. Thinking maybe a hot shower and cup of tea would work better this morning, she started to climb the rungs of the ladder to exit the pool. As she reached up to grab the handrail, she noticed her bare wrist with horror.

  Her heart stopped. The bracelet that had once belonged to her mother—given to her by Caitlin’s biological father, a man Caitlin had never met—was missing.

  “What else can go wrong in my life?” she whimpered to herself. “I’ve lost my mum and now my bracelet.”

  Brodie found the bracelet on the first dive. It sparkled up from the bottom of the pool as if waiting for him. Grabbing the little gold links in his hand, he pushed back up to the surface. He made his way to the side and, in one smooth movement, lifted himself from the water and sat on the pool’s edge, where he watched the bracelet’s owner continue swimming, unaware of her loss.

  Some of his teammates had stopped to watch Brodie. JT shouted out to him, a question he didn’t quite catch. Brodie just waved at them in such a way to suggest that all was okay as he waited for his chance to return the bracelet to its beautiful owner. Brodie watched as the girl abruptly stopped swimming and headed over to the ladder, as if she was about to exit the pool. He jumped up and started towards her.

  As she climbed the rungs of the ladder he saw her hesitate and look at her arm. Brodie could tell she was becoming agitated. Her eyes took on a wild look and her face, already a beautiful, pale, porcelain skintone, appeared to go even paler. Not liking to see her in such distress, Brodie almost ran the remaining distance between them. When he finally reached her, she had turned her back to him—ready to dive in, he guessed, to begin a search. Brodie reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

  “Excuse me, miss. I believe you lost this while you were swimming.”

  Brodie held up the bracelet in his free hand at about her eye level. As if in slow motion, she turned towards him. She looked at his hand as he offered up the gold trophy, then her eyes met his. Brodie felt as though he had been hit in the chest with an impact harder than any rugby league opponent had ever delivered. His breath was knocked from his lungs as he gazed into the biggest, deepest emerald-green eyes he had ever seen. It was as if they burned deep into his soul.