by Liz Matis
Chapter 10
Jake knew he was going to catch shit about going MIA, but when Samantha said Hannah needed to see him he wasn’t about to ignore the invitation. What possessed her to drive all the way up here? He made it clear this wasn’t a vacation. Instead of training camp it should be called boot camp. The practice from hell left him sweaty and dirty. Nothing he could do about it, Hannah would have to take him as he was. The click, clack of his cleats sounded against the linoleum floor. Not exactly what he’d call a clandestine meeting. He reached the door and peered through the glass side panel to see Hannah pacing back and forth in the team meeting room. His eyes were naturally drawn to the flounce of her yellow skirt each time she turned. Those sleek legs enticed him as much as what laid beneath the skirt. He took a deep breath before opening the door to prepare for the onslaught of sexual urges he was already having trouble controlling.
It’d been a long week without those lips on his, without burying himself deep inside her. She turned as he entered, those big blue eyes brightened to a hue that an artist would be hard pressed to capture and the smile so huge and genuine it nearly knocked him to his knees.
“Oh Jake!” Hannah rushed him and jumped into his arms.
He hugged her close and said into her neck. “What are you doing here?”
“You don’t miss me?”
Was she crazy? “Every damn moment.”
“Well, me, too.” She smashed his lips with a kiss.
He fumbled to shut the door as she grabbed at the strings of his pants. “Whoa, is this a booty call?” He couldn’t keep the amazement out of his voice.
“No, I had Samantha drive me 3 hours to say hello.” Hannah pulled him over to the desk in the corner as she continued to work on the strings.
Jake backed her up against the desk kissing her like he hadn’t seen her in forever instead of a few days. The scent of flowers surrounded him clashing with his stink. “I’m sweaty.”
“It’s kind of hot.” She pulled out his cock and her hand ran down its full length. “Make me sweat too.”
His cock twitched in her hand. From there it got hot and heavy. Clothes pulled aside for access while allowing for a quick retreat if they were caught. “Ah, Hannah, I don’t I have much time for foreplay.”
“I’m beyond foreplay.”
“Condom?”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that. Do you have one?”
“It’s training camp, beautiful, not a college dorm party.”
For a moment only the sound of their heavy breaths filled the space. “Well, we should be okay.”
He didn’t question it. With Hannah’s aversion to gaining weight and her career at a peak he knew the last thing she wanted was a pregnancy. Down the line that might be an issue, but right now? It didn’t matter. All that matter was being inside her. Day after day of drills left him exhausted. But night after night he thought of her until he fell asleep and then she came to him in his dreams. And now she was here.
Hannah bent over the desk but he maneuvered her into a sitting position of the desk. “I want to see you.” For her it might be a booty call, but for him it meant she needed him as much as he needed her. Pulling aside her panties he pushed inside her. Usually he had more finesse but Hannah wasn’t here for tenderness so he gave her what she wanted and pounded into her.
“Yes, Jake, yes.”
Her pleas turned him on. Everything about her did. He could do this for hours, just pleasing her, but time was of the essence. Anyone could walk down the hall and hear them. Hell, as Hannah’s moans grew louder he wouldn’t be surprised to learn the whole team down at the field heard them. “Come for me Hannah. Now.”
She shuddered around him causing his own climax. As he came to his senses he realized how rough he’d been with her. Jake gently stoked her cheek. “You, okay? I didn’t hurt you?”
“Did it sound like you hurt me?”
“I don’t know. It could go either way.”
Hannah blushed. “Dirty sex with you doesn’t feel dirty. It makes me feel, I don’t know, cleansed?” She pulled away and started re-adjusting her clothes.
Jake wondered if sex was all that kept them together. He shook his head to clear his mind. He was thinking like a woman. A most disturbing thought. He laced up his pants. “I’m going to be a sack of shit the rest of practice.”
“Not even Superman has your stamina.” Hannah smoothed her hair back.
He liked it better messed up, especially if he was the cause of it. “I can’t figure out whether you’re my Lois Lane or my Kryptonite.”
“Neither. I’m Wonder Woman, your equal.”
“I definitely met my match in you.” Liking the comparison he smiled. “I guess we have our Halloween costumes picked out.”
“That’s a couple of months away.”
He didn’t like how she averted her gaze. Did she think they wouldn’t be together by then? “True, I don’t know the game schedule off the top of my head.” He played it off cool, like it didn’t matter one way or the other. She was like a skittish doe watching and waiting with wide eyes to bolt at the slightest threat.
“Exactly, or where I’ll be shooting a campaign.”
“So will this hold you over until I get back?”
“No, but I bought heavy duty batteries for my vibrator.”
Jake’s cock hardened at the thought of watching the act. “Call me and I’ll talk you through it.” Why was he torturing himself?
There was that blush again. Even after what they just did he could still make her cheeks turn pink. It clutched at his heart. Despite her panic at the talk of the future, even if it only involved something as trivial as Halloween costumes, he reminded himself that she drove over three hours to jump him. His game plan was solid. Patience. And sex.
Jogging back to practice he tried to think of a good excuse for leaving the field but his mind was so filled with Hannah to care about the consequences. He hadn’t gotten two feet onto the grass when the coach screamed. “Miller!”
Jake sprinted to the sideline. “What’s up?”
“I hope it was worth 25 grand of that shiny new salary of yours.”
Jake blinked as the coach’s spit caught him in the eye as he continued to yell as if he were still across the field instead of right in front of him. Worth every damn penny to know Hannah missed him, hell it was damn priceless. But he couldn’t say that to the coach who would up the fine to 50k. “Sorry, coach.”
“Oh, your ass will be real sorry. After practice. Dead man runs along with your buddy Terell.”
Still worth it as far as he was concerned, but what the hell did Terell do to piss off the coach?
After the fifth lap, Jake was vomiting over the bench and questioning his intelligence. He couldn’t blame the summer heat, or the exhaustion from practice, and no, not even sex for the retched way he felt at this moment. He should’ve been able to stop his orgasm, but how could he resist losing himself inside her. Truthfully, he didn’t know if it was possible to withhold anything from Hannah, but Heaven held a price.
Ryan jogged over to him. “Don’t think that’s going to get you off the hook.”
“Shut up, Terell.”
The coach bellowed across the field. “That’s it for today, pussies.”
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” said Ryan. He sat down on the bench and handed Jake a towel.
“Thanks.” Jake cleaned off and tossed the towel in the garbage. Looking up into the stands he hoped Hannah hadn’t witnessed a weak moment. Relieved to find her attention elsewhere he still complained to Ryan, “I think she’s signed more autographs today than the whole team combined.”
“Oh, boo-hoo, the trials and tribulations of dating a supermodel.”
“Hey, you’re the one who got married.”
“And you might as well be,” fired back Ryan.
Despite the denial on his lips, Jake chewed on that for a moment and found that he would be lying if he did so instead he said, “Piss off
.”
Ryan laughed and grabbed his shoulder. “Hey, it happens to the best of us.”
Jake shrugged it off. He looked back to Hannah now hoping to catch her attention. Did she get the same third degree from Samantha? If so, what sort of response did she give? “Oh crap,” said Jake.
“What?”
“It’s that piece of shit reporter.” Even the wiliest of veteran players had gotten caught in the crosshairs of Ender’s mean spirited column. The guy called himself a journalist but he was just a hack with an agenda to bring down the mightiest of players. No one was safe.
Ryan got up. “I wouldn’t worry. It’s not like Hannah is a stranger to the paparazzi.”
“He’s a slime. See you back at the rooms.” Jake headed for the stands.
Ryan followed. “Oh no. Someone has to make sure you don’t kill him.”
As Hannah signed the last autograph a man who’d been hanging back approached her. Instinctually she knew he wasn’t a fan. She caught Samantha’s glance and she mouthed, “Be careful.”
Dressed in khakis and a black polo shirt, she guessed he was in his forties. The slicked back hair made his nose appear large, like one of those caricatured sketches.
“Hannah, you here to tuck Miller into bed?”
She schooled her facial features to look naive. A trick she learned from modeling. “Who’s asking?”
“The name’s Ender. I’m with Sports Daily.”
Hannah shook her head. “Don’t know it. I’m a Cosmo girl.”
The man smiled as if he were about to score a scoop. “Some say Miller’s MVP award was a fluke and he’s not worth the twenty million he’s getting next year.”
“Oh, I’ll leave you experts to speculate on that.” Oh how she wanted to defend Jake but in this case Hannah wisely chose to play dumb. This guy was a snake and from the look on Samantha’s face she wanted to skin him alive. She wasn’t the only one, but though Hannah knew zip about football, she knew how to play the media game.
“So it doesn’t bother you if the media rakes him over the coals or if the fans boo him.”
“Honey, I’m not with him for his skills on the football field.” Hannah threw him off with her sweetest of smiles, but it was Jake’s laughter that knocked her for a loop. She turned to see him standing two feet away ready to pounce if need be. Apparently he thought he had to protect her from the big bad reporter.
“And what skills would those be?” probed Ender.
“Why his cooking skills, of course,” she said with such innocence she almost believed it. Hannah shook her head and left the reporter with a ‘deer in the headlights’ look on his face. She took Jake’s arm and led him back down onto the field before any trouble started.
Chapter 11
Jake hummed as he packed his bag. He couldn’t be happier about training camp ending. In three hours he’d be home ravishing Hannah for the following twenty-four hours until she had to leave for a week on an overseas assignment. Navigating his upcoming season with her erratic schedule would be a balancing act, but they’d make it work.
Ryan entered the room and held out his iPad. “Here, you might want to see this.”
Jake took the sleek tablet from Ryan, the screen opened to the headline, ‘Hannah Hahn Plays Jake Miller’.
Jake loosened his grip on the machine before he broke it in two. He didn’t care about Ender’s thoughts on Jake being led by his balls or that he wasn’t worth a payday of twenty million a year. Stuff like that rolled off of him like dirt and sweat in the shower.
What Ender’s interview with Hannah’s mother revealed was another story. A photo of the woman accompanied the article. She may have been a beauty once but too much make-up and plastic surgery left her looking like a mannequin.
“Samantha got a call from someone she knows at Sports Daily and he alerted her to Ender’s vendetta. It’s such crap and inflammatory that his paper wouldn’t print it. So he sold it to them.”
Jake nodded, noting the logo of one of the national gossip magazines. Ender had a lot nerve claiming Hannah was a fame seeker. The notoriety and money he got for this story put him in the same league. According to the mother, Hannah dated Jake only because he was the Super Bowl MVP and would do anything to be in the papers. Anything.
“My daughter couldn’t possibly be serious over a half-breed like him.”
Blooded rushed to the vein in his temple. As he read on each word pounded inside his head. The report alluded to rumors of Hannah posing nude before getting her big break.
Ryan paced the room. “The team will revoke his press credentials for this.”
And they would. It was one thing for reporter to write a scathing column about a player’s conduct on or off the field, quite another to print gossip and conjecture about a loved one.
Ryan added, “It’s not true. None of it. But we didn’t want you to be blindsided.”
“Thanks Bro.” Jake handed back the iPad with a nonchalance that covered up the doubt pricking inside his mind. Was she like every other female who would do anything for fame? No, he she wasn’t with him for the publicity. Pissing off her mother seemed a more likely reason and it wouldn’t be the first time Jake was used in such a way, but that happened in his teens.
“You okay?”
“Sure. Like you said—the trials and tribulations of dating a supermodel.” Not since he’d been an adult had a female had the upper hand on him. Except for Hannah who held all the cards. When he got home he’d make sure they were laid out on the table.
His cell rang with Hannah’s ring tone. He wouldn’t jump to conclusions, if anything she was in it for the hot sex. That he DID know. But the nude pictures? “Hi, beautiful.”
“Jake, did you see it?”
The sound of her tears only made him want to risk a dozen speeding tickets so he could be there to comfort her. “Don’t worry, baby,” his voice soothed. “I’ll be home by five. We’ll talk then. Okay?”
“I’m so sorry you’re getting dragged into my family drama.”
“We’ll figure it out.” The call ended and Jake had a long three-hour ride home to do just that.
Hannah greeted him at the door with a solemn hug. “I missed you.”
Jake kissed her forehead. “I missed you, too” Walking into the living room, Jake dropped his bag to the floor. “Look Hannah, forget the article. It’s apparent that we’ll be the tabloids favorite targets for a while. We’ll have to do our best not to feed into it.” He paused, wishing it were that simple but there was one thing that needed to be settled. “I have to ask. At some point is there going to be pictures of you all over the Internet? Nude pictures?”
Hannah sat down on the couch. “There is a possibility yes, but if someone were to click on those images they would be arrested for child pornography.”
“What?” His mind reeled.
“I understand if you want to leave me,” she said, her voice weak with despair.
Rage burned in his blood. “The only place I’m going is to jail after I murder the perverted bastard who did that to you. Where the hell was your mother?”
“My mother?” Hannah’s laughed chilled him to the bone. “She makes those moms of that toddler pageant show look like candidates for Mothers of the Year. I was home schooled but all I knew were manicures and spray tans from the time I was two. I wasn’t raised—I was groomed like a fucking show pony!”
“Hannah, no—”
“She ordered me to do it and when I refused she took what little I had on, off. I was fifteen.”
Jake tried to process this. How can someone who is supposed to love you treat you like you were nothing? How did someone recover from something like that? You don’t. The physicals scars his father inflicted were nothing compared to the emotional ones he still carried.
“You know how twisted I am? I thought doing Playboy would exercise the demons because this time I would be in control. And then you said no and it made me feel dirty all over again which is why I broke it off and neve
r returned your calls.”
Stunned by the realization, Jake knelt at her feet and said, “I didn’t know. I would never make you feel bad about yourself.”
“I know. You’ve been nothing but good to me.”
His hand cupped her cheek. “I was falling for you and the thought of other men seeing you naked drove me insane,” he confessed.
“You were falling for me? What about now?”
Her eyes wide with innocence tugged at his protective instincts. “I’m still in the midst of the fall and I’ve been reaching to grab onto to something, anything, to make sense of it all.”
“Maybe if we held onto each other?” Both her hands came to rest upon his shoulders.
Her blossoming trust in him caused his heart to thud like booms of thunder. “I think that’s a great idea.” That stunning smile sent him reeling. Lightning struck deep within in his chest, his fall complete. But he couldn’t tell her now, didn’t want the purity of what he was feeling to be linked to the sad admission of her past. She’d probably think he said it out of pity. No, he’d hold onto the words for now, until she was ready to hear them, until she was ready to say them back.
Chapter 12
Hannah lounged in her agent’s corner office. She was about to sign a lucrative contract that would make her the spokeswoman for a new cosmetics line. Like the world needed another one. She glanced at her watch. What was she doing here? She didn’t need another gig or the money that came with it.
Between Jake’s football games and her modeling assignments that had been taking her to the four corners of the world they’d been the proverbial ships passing in the night. Perhaps that was a good thing and why their three-month anniversary approached. For Hannah it was a milestone she had never reached.
Jake’s bye week was coming up and she left her schedule free so they could enjoy it together, but with her stomach still roiling with the effects of a horrendous flu bug she caught while in Nepal she didn’t hold out much hope.
