Bryce teased and licked, his mouth magically delicious. A finger and then two. His tongue licking upward. Pressure. Sucking. I came and shook and wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with the man. I opened my eyes to the stars and dreamed of all the things I’d imaged over the past ten years. I’d been made owner, and finally had the man of my dreams back in my life.
I sat up and slipped down into the pool. Bryce had swam to the other side and watched me. “You do that to me and then walk away?”
“Swam away,” he corrected. “You really are the most amazing woman in the world. I’m a lucky man.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Yes, you are.”
Bryce reached beneath the water and moved my legs around his waist. He entered me and as he did, our lips came together.
Moving around the pool, we made love. Slow and intentional, mouths only occasionally breaking for air. Slowly, we moved toward the stairs, Bryce’s lips moving to my ear.
“Keep your eyes closed, Mads,” he whispered. “Don’t get out of the pool.”
“What?”
“No sudden movements. And stay in the pool. Don’t look, but there’s someone in the bushes by the bathhouse.”
I did as Bryce said. He let go, and I waded toward the edge opposite the bathhouse. Bryce walked in the direction of the patio, the bathhouse shielding his location. He moved quickly, dashing behind the bathhouse, emerging on the other side with a man in his grasp. The man looked scared to death.
“Who the fuck are you?!” Bryce asked and shoved the man toward the pool.
The man stumbled and almost went in headfirst. He had a camera hanging around his neck. I knew immediately what he was.
Bryce smacked the man in the back of the head. “Turn around.”
I moved from the water and slipped into a robe. I grabbed one for Bryce and tossed it to him.
“Okay, asshole, you better talk.” I pointed at Bryce, who shook the man. “Or I’m going to order him to drown you.” Bryce moved the man to the edge of the pool.
The man, no more than twenty-five, looked up at Bryce. Bryce lifted him and hung him over the water, his face stuck in a permanent silent scream.
“Okay!” he said, and Bryce moved him away from the water.
“Who sent you?” Bryce asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I got a call from a woman. She asked if I wanted to make five-grand. I said hell yeah. Said all I had to do was get a few pictures.”
Bryce removed the camera from around the man’s neck. “You know who we are?” Bryce asked. The man nodded. Bryce turned the camera and removed the memory card. He looked to consider throwing the camera into the water but decided not to.
“You have her number? The woman who called you?” I asked. I had a couple of guesses.
The man nodded and dug his phone out of his pocket. He showed Bryce the number. Bryce looked from the man to me and then back at the man. “I hear one word, see one headline about what you saw tonight, and the entire Hurricane football team will be at your doorstep.” Bryce handed the man the camera. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
We watched the man snake his way back through the trees and watched him climb the privacy fence, falling over when he reached the top.
“Well?” I said.
“Clarissa,” Bryce replied.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Bryce
I watched Madison sleep, her hands between her face and the pillow. She’d taken most of the covers through the night, as she had when we were in college, and cocooned herself. I moved a hair back away from her face, and she moved but didn’t wake. A modest amount of drool hung from her lip. I wiped it away with my finger.
Last night had been amazing, except for the part where I dragged the man out of the bushes. I was going to have to fix that. He would tell Clarissa what he had seen, but then that would only be a rumor, which was why she needed the pictures. I slipped from the bed and grabbed a pair of shorts.
Madison liked her toast with a light layer of grape jelly and her eggs scrambled with a sprinkle of cheese. I made a pot of coffee and placed food and coffee on a tray. As I walked through the house, immaculate, everything white and clean, I stopped in the hallway and looked at the pictures on the wall.
One picture showed Madison and her father on the steps leading up to Machu Pichu. She looked to be about fifteen. Another picture showed her and Julie on a cruise ship, an island in the background. Madison loved to travel. The next picture, a large waterfall raining down, looked like Iceland. Madison stood with her father. The man had raised a model citizen and would be proud of where she had landed.
The last picture caused me to stop and almost drop the tray. Pictured, Madison and me on the field just after I led the team to the college national title. It was also the moment we had yet to talk about, the 500-pound gorilla in our new relationship. I kept waiting, but she kept ignoring. The picture had been taken moments after I had asked her to marry me. She said yes, of course. It had been a spur of the moment, the excitement of winning the title pushing the words out of my mouth.
I started up the steps knowing I had to deal with Clarissa, not knowing if it had been her idea or, maybe, Gus’. Yeah, he was a family friend, but he loved running the Hurricanes. No way would he walk away without a fight.
Madison sat up in bed and scooted back to the headboard. “Wow, breakfast in bed? I feel special.”
“Just the way you like it,” I said.
“Like last night?”
I laughed and placed the tray over her legs. “You’re going to be late for work,” I said.
“And you’re late for training camp.”
“Quarterbacks aren’t due until noon,” I said and went into the bathroom to start the shower.
“You expect me to eat while you walk around naked? It’s too early in the day for me to accept such a challenge.”
“Your food’s going to get cold,” I said.
Madison moved the tray. “Come closer.”
“The shower’s going,” I said.
“Closer,” Madison said.
I moved close enough to the bed that my knees touched. Madison swung her legs around and sat in front of me.
“The shower’s running,” she said, smiled, and put me in her mouth.
I glanced at the shower and then at the tray of food. I thought about the marriage proposal and the fact we needed to discuss it. I even thought about Clarissa and Gus and what I needed to do to fix that situation. And then I thought about my cock in Madison’s mouth.
I ran my fingers through her hair as her head bobbed. She grabbed my balls, sending me to my toes. She moaned and quickened her movements. I wanted to pull away and crawl between her legs. I wanted to fuck her hard and make her scream. Then she did that thing she had learned, and I came, her hands on my ass pulling me against her. When she finished, I laid her back on the bed, first eating her, and then fucking her, hard, the pleasurable screams music to my ears. When Madison came, we collapsed next to each other.
“I don’t know how we cannot do this,” she said. “It’s fucking addictive.”
I kissed her neck and slipped my hand between her legs, feeling her wet lips. My cock hardened again.
“You ready again?” she asked.
I rolled to my back. “Always.”
“Gus is going to fine you for being late,” Madison said.
“We gotta figure it out, Mads. I can’t stop doing this. Fucking, screwing, making love, whatever you want to call it. We’re amazing together.” I rolled to my side and placed my hand on her stomach. “When I get to the training facility, I will talk to Clarissa. See why she’s doing it. I’ll put a stop to it. If she gives me any shit…”
“I’ll fire her,” Madison said.
“I agree, but I think she’ll listen.”
Madison sat up and patted my leg and grabbed my cock. “You need to put that away, or I’ll never make it to work.” I tried to grab her hips, but she moved from m
y reach.
***
I managed to shower after Madison rather than joining her, otherwise, we’d never have made it out of the house. Asking me to keep my hands off her was like asking me not to play football. I wasn’t stopping either one.
Before hitting the training facility, I made my way up to the executive offices in the stadium, searching for Clarissa. I knew what she was trying to do. I even understood it. But I couldn’t let her get Madison fired.
I entered Gus’ suite, but Clarissa wasn’t at her desk. Hearing something moving in Gus’ office, I continued forward. “Clarissa,” I said.
Clarissa spun around in Gus’ chair. “Bryce?”
“Thought you were supposed to be with Gus,” I said.
“I had business to take care of,” she said. “So I stayed.”
“That’s why I’m here.” I sat on the couch close to the window, looking down over Hurricane Field. “That your guy at Madison’s last night?”
“Why were you at Madison’s?” she asked. “Thought seeing her was forbidden.”
“Forbidden? You sound like a parent. And you didn’t answer my question.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Bryce.” She approached and then sat at the end of the couch.
“Don’t fuck this up for me, Clarissa. I’ve saved your ass too many times for you to mess this up.” She moved closer ,and I knew where things were about to go. I moved from the couch and headed from the room. “I mean it. Don’t fuck this up for me.”
I closed the door and left the suite, running into RJ when the elevator opened. “RJ,” I said.
“Hey, the number two quarterback,” he said. He’d keep poking the bear until the bear ripped his head off.
“You keep the shit up and you’ll never catch a pass in a game,” I said.
RJ faked a laugh. “And yet I’ll still get paid.” He nodded toward Gus’ suite. “Clarissa in?”
“Yeah, she’s waiting for you.” I pushed the elevator button and when the doors opened, I stepped on. “RJ?” He turned. “Don’t fuck with me.” The door closed, and the elevator descended.
***
Madison
I waited for Bryce to leave the stadium before heading to my office. May had told me not to sit around and wait on the trouble to find me. She was right. I needed to get ahead of the game people were playing. They thought I would sit around and just let people run all over me. Wasn’t happening. My father had explained the word tenacity. He told me it was what a person needed to be successful. I needed to find my tenacity.
Before going to my office, I made a left and headed toward Gus’ suite. At the door, I heard the moans, the whispers, and the furniture moving.
RJ said Clarissa’s name, and Clarissa groaned RJ’s. I pushed the door open enough to allow my phone’s camera to video the action. I watched through the phone while RJ fucked Clarissa across the desk. She’d been nailed by more than just RJ. They stopped for a moment and then moved atop Gus’ desk. He would be proud of his little assistant.
I stopped recording when they stopped moving, heading quietly down to my office, pleased with myself. May had been right. Attack before being attacked. The only way to survive in the business world.
I locked my office door and watched the video of RJ and Clarissa. I then saved the video to the cloud and took out a notebook. As far as I knew, I only had to be wary of a handful of people.” RJ, Clarissa, and the trustees. I wrote Gus’ name but then marked it out. He would follow my father’s wishes. I then wrote Bryce’s name and stared at it before marking it out as well. He’d been truthful about the pictures.
Hearing May enter the suite, I yelled for her to join me.
“RJ was leaving Clarissa’s office,” she said. “He hadn’t finished dressing.”
“Trust me; I have what I need on them. If Clarissa wants to play hardball, then I’m ready to dance.” May gave me a sideways glance when I snickered. The next on my list made me giddy. The trustees had gone out of their way to make sure a woman didn’t run the team. Yes, they promoted me. But the reason was still a mystery. I didn’t believe for one minute they did it because they believed it was the right thing to do.
“You want the trustees, don’t you?” May asked and grinned evilly. “We should start with Tony Martin, the head asshole.” May covered her mouth with her notebook.
I wrote head asshole next to Martin’s name and showed May. “Let it be said, let it be written,” I said. “What do we know about him?
“Well,” May said. “He’s been married four times, his current wife, rumor has it, is banging some rich CEO up in New York City.”
“And?”
May nodded. “I’ve heard he may be seeing one of the cheerleaders on the side. He keeps it hidden pretty well, so those are only rumors.”
I cringed a bit, hearing he was hiding his relationship with another employee. I wasn’t a hypocrite. But I was going to protect my job. Though I might have to wait and fire my cannon after he did. “What about Oswald Boyer?”
May shrugged and straightened her skirt. “He and Albert Finch both follow Martin’s lead. They will go with whatever Martin suggests.”
“But just in case,” I said. “If we ever need to sway their votes, how do we do it?”
“Easy,” May said. “Both have wives who are CEOs in their own companies. They get wind their husbands are denying a woman a job because she’s a woman, they’ll cut their dicks off.” May laughed, and she seemed to enjoy trying to fix the dishonesty that had been hiding in the organization. She then wrote something on a sheet of paper and handed it to me.
“Lee Williamson,” I said, reading the name she’d written.
May pointed at the paper. “One of your father’s business friends. Your father asked him to keep an eye on the trustees and Gus. Your father said to give you his name as soon as you run into issues. Now’s the time.”
“Thanks,” May.
May stood and patted my hand. “I’ve got some paperwork to finish up before I leave. Let me know if you need anything else.”
When May left, I made the call. Mr. Williamson was more than happy to meet for an early dinner. I looked at the picture of my father sitting on the desk. He was watching out for me, even in death.
I also made a second call, inviting Julie to meet me at our favorite relaxation place after I finished dinner with Mr. Williamson. We had a lot to talk about. I needed Bryce’s advice.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Madison
I sent Bryce a text, letting him know I had a business dinner but didn’t offer any other information. He asked, of course, but I told him to quit being jealous, that it really was only business.
I pulled up to valet parking and turned my car over to a young woman who couldn’t have been more than eighteen. Because the community had always been important to the Hurricanes, I asked where she was from and then asked about college. When she told me college was not in her future, I asked her why. After her explanation, I gave her a business card and told her to have May schedule a meeting. The Hurricanes would help her follow her dreams.
Lee Williamson met me in the lobby, and after introductions, we proceeded to the restaurant where we were immediately seated.
“They promoted you fast,” he said.
“I think it surprised everyone,” I said. “I haven’t figured out why just yet.”
He ordered our meals and a bottle of wine. “I know why,” he said.
I placed my water on the table and crossed my arms. “Okay.”
“Before your father died, he told me he overheard a conversation between Gus and Tony Martin, the trustee,” Williamson said. I nodded for him to continue, intrigued. “Gus’ idea was for the Hurricanes to promote you almost immediately. The sooner they got you in, the sooner they could get you out. Gus seemed to think you would fail right away. First thing, he didn’t think you could handle the business dealings. It’s a shitty world out there.”
“I’m perfectly capable,”
I interrupted.
“I’m sure you are,” he said. “But he’s counting on you screwing up with Bryce Willheight. He told Martin all he needed was proof. Maybe a picture or two. They share the pictures with the local tabloids, and you’re out.”
A wave of heat washed across my face. I thought about Bryce’s pictures and then about the man Clarissa had sent. “So, they boot me out and have at least another twenty-five years until my little brother can take over.”
“Correct. Gus and the trustees stay in charge.”
The waitress returned with both wine and food.
“My father knew this would happen,” I said.
Williamson nodded. “He did, but there was nothing he could do about it. Someone had to run the team. He didn’t want an outsider, so he had to choose a corrupt insider. He put the trustees in place to try to balance out Gus. Yes, they are on each other’s sides right now, but that will change. Your job is to make sure they disagree.”
That was it with talk of the Hurricanes. The remaining hour consisted of eating and small talk. Before we went our separate ways, he assured me he had my back and that I should call him any time I needed help.
On the drive home, self-doubt began to creep in. Yes, my father believed I could run the team, but Gus and the trustees were setting me up for failure. I did have an option to sell the Hurricanes and then just be done with the whole problem. William would have more money than he would know what to do with. And then I could have Bryce without worrying about who was watching or taking pictures. We could have a semi-normal life. No more running and no more hiding. Giving up Bryce for the team had been a mistake in the first place.
But I couldn’t lose the team or Bryce, and I couldn’t walk away from either.
Julie’s car sat in the parking lot at Daydream Day and Night Spa. She was waiting for me in the lobby, a bottle of wine in hand.
We stepped to the counter and reserved the private room with a hot tub and two massage tables. Julie requested two male masseuses, neither of the names she mentioned I understood.
Inheritance Goals: A Sports Romance Page 11
