UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT (Gods of the Gridiron Book 1)

by Shanna Swenson

  “Let’s make this quick, huh?” Travis said, taking Sky’s arm as they walked into the small grocery store. “We just need the basics: toilet paper, soap, and condoms.”

  Skyla laughed in both humor and sarcasm before scoffing. “What, so you have something to jerk off into? Because that’s the only action you’re getting tonight.”

  “That’s what you think.” He winked. “I haven’t begun to unleash the full extent of my charms on you yet. You’ll be swooning, my little southern belle.”

  “Ok, beast.” She rolled her eyes, as she grabbed a cart and began wheeling it towards the freezer section. “I can’t do another bag of chips. I’m thinking something hot for dinner.”

  “Yes, hot and spicy with red hair. Sounds like a feast to me.”

  Travis pushed his luck and grabbed a handful of ass as Sky stopped in front of the tater tots. He heard her gasp, and she spun around to stick her finger in his face. He was two seconds from pulling it into his mouth and sucking on it seductively when she pulled it back.

  “Dammit, Redmond, I swear to God.” Her cheeks flamed and he was satisfied to no end. “You pull that shit again and I’m gonna have you on the floor begging for mercy.”

  “Oh baby, please? By all means, punish me for my wicked ways.”

  He knew he was flirting with a fine line but could care less. That kiss he’d given her on the curb had made his mind and heart soar. The flavor of that little fireball fueled the lust building inside him that he yearned to quench. He wasn’t sure if it was because she’d told him she loved him or if he was half-crazed from their brush with death the day prior or what. All he wanted was to make her his, and he intended to pull out all the stops in order to do so.

  “You could try to be a bit more inconspicuous. We are hiding out, you know?”

  He looked around, realizing they might be drawing attention but saw this little place didn’t have many visitors, which he was grateful for. He smiled obediently and set about looking for food. He grabbed up a couple boxes of Stouffer’s mac and cheese and some chicken pot pies.

  “Travis? What—?”

  “It’s cheap and convenient.”

  “It’s disgusting. I was gonna cook something.”

  “You can cook?”

  “I’m southern, of course I can cook.” She gave him a withered look.

  “Then by all means, baby cakes.” He bobbed his brows. “Win the way to Ares’s heart.”

  Sky rolled her eyes. She did that a lot lately. He shrugged and moved over to a shelf with boxes of pumpkin-spice donuts. He grabbed one and threw it into the cart too. He was in need of a hard workout and a proper meal, but death put things into perspective; he’d be damned if he wasn’t at least having one more donut before that grim bastard came for him.

  “Wow, you eat like shit.”

  “Not on a regular basis,” he retorted and touched his chest. “Obviously.”

  “Ob-viously.”

  He smirked at her constant annoyance with him. He knew deep down it was because she wanted him. It had to be.

  “So, what’s your specialty, Chef Larson?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of the fresh meats.

  “What are you in the mood for?”

  “You really want me to answer that question?” The look he gave her was downright feral as his eyes slid from the top of her copper-gold locks, down to her heels. He didn’t fail to notice her gaping mouth as he separated the distance between them. “I thought I’d shown you already, Fireball. But I’ll be glad to show you again.” His hand cupped her cheek and his breath fell over her face.

  “Can I help you?” The butcher walked up then, a middle-aged fat man with a cleaver and a big smile.

  “N-no, we uh, we’re just—” Sky stuttered, quivering as Travis’s finger lingered at her earlobe.

  “She was checking out my meat,” Travis quipped with a wink at Skyla and got a blush from the butcher.

  Sky’s jaw dropped in shock. Travis had a hard time holding his laugh in as she pulled away and swatted his hand. She thanked the butcher and he ambled off. Sky rounded on Travis again, her cheeks as red as her hair. “Travis! You are disgusting!”

  “Am I?” he chuckled.

  “I cannot believe you just said that.”

  “I was messing—”

  “Again! We’re in hiding. What if he’d have recognized you?”

  Travis sighed heavily. “Fine. I’ll behave. Just until we get back to the cabin.”

  “No, you’re gonna behave even then.”

  “We’ll see about that, Fireball.” Travis grabbed up a pack of prepared meatballs, seasoned, formed, and ready to cook. “How about some spaghetti and meatballs? Can’t go wrong with a classic like that.”

  Sky shrugged. “Sure. I have a great recipe for sauce.”

  “Perfect.”

  They set about grabbing the remaining items needed, enough food for another several meals, including vegetables, eggs and cheese, toilet paper, soap, and even some wine before heading to check out.

  “This looks pretty good,” the cashier stated when she glanced at the wine. “Might need another bottle, though, if this blizzard comes through.”

  “B-Blizzard? What blizzard?” Sky asked.

  “Oh, it’s all over the news. They’re calling it a doozy. Might have the roads messed up for a week.”

  Travis’s mouth tightened as he looked to a frowning Skyla. He didn’t say a word, just moved back to the wine section and grabbed another couple bottles before coming back to the register.

  “That’ll be $132.35.” The lady said and looked to Sky, who began rifling through her purse only for Travis to intercede.

  “I got this one, baby doll.” He pulled two hundred-dollar bills from his wallet.

  Sky realized her folly too late, groaning as she pushed her credit card back into its slot.

  Once they took the cart out to the car, she apologized. “I’m sorry. That would have given us away. Dammit. I—”

  “It’s ok. No harm, no foul.”

  She just nodded and they unloaded the cart with the bags before Travis pushed it into the carousel.

  “Blizzard, huh?”

  “Yeah, what the hell? I have to be stuck in a cabin with you for a week? Kill me. Now, I know why you got wine.”

  “I got the wine for you, Fireball. I’m gonna need it to get you good and loose.”

  “Oh, God. I’m gonna need some duct tape too.”

  “Sounds like fun.” Travis laughed even as she shoved at him.

  “Keep it up, and I’ll lock myself in the bedroom.”

  “I’ll just break the door down.”

  “So, you plan to take me no matter what?” Her blue eyes narrowed.

  “Only if you’re willin’, baby.” He winked again.

  God, he loved getting a rile out of her.

  “Do you honestly believe that women swoon for your crap? Because you’re not funny.”

  “I have an irresistible charm, soon you’ll be overcome. It’s just a matter of time.” He threw his arm over the back of her headrest as she shook her head and cranked the car.

  “Charm, huh? Is that what they call an ego as big as yours?”

  “Once you see what I got in my pants, you’ll understand my big ego.”

  She laughed again and he couldn’t fight the smile on his face. “You’d do well to keep it in your pants; I might be tempted to cut it off.”

  “Ok, Bobbitt, but don’t cut it off before you sample the goods. You’d only be punishing yourself as well as dozens of other women who have yet to partake.”

  They came to a red light just as Skyla’s hands came up to cup her face. “Please, just stop. Seriously. It’s off-putting.”

  “Sure it is.”

  “I hate your cockiness.”

  “No, you don’t. It’s part of my allure.”

  “You weren’t like this in high school.”

  “I thought you hated high school. Make up your damn mind, woman. You’re all over
the place.”

  “Can we just play the silent game for now?”

  “No, I want to get to know you more.”

  “What could you possibly want to know about me?”

  Travis frowned as if she were being dense. “Everything.”

  That gave her pause as she looked over at him to see if he were being serious. “Why would you want to know now, when you didn’t back then?”

  “Jeez, Sky, would you please stop comparing me to the teenage version of myself that I barely remember? I know that seems like yesterday for you, but some of us have moved on and grown up over the last ten years.”

  His words seemed to rile her up even more. “Oh, I’m sure you barely remember. You were too busy living the life of a god even then. Well, some of us have had to live with scars you wouldn’t even understand.”

  “Here we go again,” Travis huffed. “Have you seen a therapist for this shit, Skyla? Seriously?”

  “Fuck you, Travis, you have no idea. I have, actually. Thank you very much, asshole.”

  Travis softened his tone. “So why are you stuck on high school, unable to move on past the horrible things that happened to you? Please tell me if you were mistreated. Who hurt you and how badly?”

  He paused at the anger suddenly pinking Skyla’s cheeks. “I’m not telling you anything else. You love tormenting me now as much as you did then.”

  “Whoa, hold up! What the fuck are you talking about? I didn’t torment you at all.” He scowled.

  “You faked being nice to me. It was all a show. I know your games, Travis. She told me.”

  “Hold up! Who told you what?”

  “Brittany.”

  “Brittany?” Travis racked his brain to try and remember Brittany ever being cruel to Skyla. Sure, Britt had her snobby moments like any teenage girl, but what were these scars Sky was talking about and why was she so hung up on the past?

  “She told me you were pretending to be nice to me. That I was an ugly, fat slob that you wouldn’t give the time of day to. I remember all of it. Just because you’ve chosen to forget, doesn’t mean I get to.”

  Travis’s heart and mind reeled. He’d never pretended to be nice. He’d never pretended at all, in fact. And he’d never told Brittany anything in regards to Skyla. Ever. He would never call Skyla names like that. But he realized Sky was believing something Brittany had told her and nothing he said right now was going to change that.

  She ignored him as they rode. He was quiet, just trying to figure out a way to get through to her, make her understand that he wasn’t the bad guy in all this. Brittany was. And he couldn’t understand why. What did Brittany have to gain by being so nasty to Skyla? And how bad had it really been? What lengths had she gone to to torment Sky?

  Travis had a nagging feeling he wasn’t going to like the answer to that question.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Cow. Do you eat all the ice cream, that’s why you got globs of it hanging off your skin?” Brittany sneered and pinched Skyla’s side hard, getting a wail out of her.

  “Stop, please?” Skyla begged.

  “Stop,” Brittany mocked, laughing back at her other two girlfriends.

  “You know what I want you to stop doing?” she asked and shoved Skyla back against the bathroom wall. “Stop looking at my boyfriend like you do. He’ll never want something like you. He wants me. He likes my body. Not your fat ass. He wouldn’t give you the time of day.”

  “I—I don’t—”

  “Shut up, you pathetic slob. That’s what he thinks you are, you know that? He told me.” She jeered even as Sky’s heart burst into a thousand pieces. “Yeah, he thinks you’re ugly, and he just pretends to be nice to you, so stop talking to him and looking at him. He’s mine. You stick to your books, that’s what you know. Let me do what I know.” Brittany winked. “Travis Redmond.”

  With a laugh, she gave a final shove and smacked Skyla’s cheek, leaving her a mess of tears and snot as Sky fell to the floor of the bathroom. She trembled in anguish and dejection. Travis thought she was fat and ugly? Her heart felt like it had been literally shattered, tiny shards cleaving to her ribcage, piercing through her flesh. Her stomach twisted and her eyes burned. The boy she loved thought she was disgusting. But why was she surprised? She didn’t look like Brittany, as Brittany had said. Brittany was blonde and beautiful, perfect skin, lean and fit. Skyla was freckled, pale, unattractive, overweight…the list went on and on.

  When the bell rang, she popped up, she had to get to class. She ran to a stall and grabbed a wad of toilet paper, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. She took a final glance at her puffy eyes and red cheeks before running out and heading three doors down to Biology.

  She barely made it before the bell rang again and avoided Travis’s seeking eyes, for she couldn’t bear it if he saw her like she was. Brittany’s words echoed through her brain and her entire soul felt torn in two. She barely listened to the teacher’s lecture as she tried hard not to yearn for a new life, a new body, a new start. She’d hated herself so long she didn’t even know where to start anew. She let the pain of the incident come close to destroying her before deciding that she wasn’t going to let Brittany get the best of her. She was going to change herself, make herself better in every sense of the word, make herself a woman worthy of Travis Redmond. And she was going to start today.

  Sky shivered as she recalled that awful day. The day she had let the bullying take its final toll on her mind and soul. Even as she’d punished herself later that night, she’d made her mind up to stop being the victim, stop allowing herself to be affected by the words of someone like Brittany Balboa.

  “Sky?” Travis asked as his hand settled on her shoulder. She shivered again and recoiled from his touch; it both burned and excited her senses. “Hey.” He called and moved her hands from her eyes. His beautiful face came into view. “I never said those things. You have to know that I didn’t. Brittany told you that to make you feel bad.”

  “She succeeded,” Sky replied, feeling dejected once again as her head fell and she lowered her eyes.

  “Brittany Balboa was a bitch. And now she’s twice the size you ever were with three evil kids.”

  That thought didn’t make Sky feel better. It didn’t matter. For Brittany had every justification to say the words she had back when they were in high school. The girl had been utterly perfect.

  “Skyla, I’m sorry…but I never thought that about you. You need to know that. I liked you. You were kind and smart, and I loved your smile. The one you never give me now because I’m being punished for something someone else did to you.”

  “She was your girlfriend. And I was just the pathetic girl pining my life away for you, the one who’d never get to have you. She loved rubbing that shit in my face.”

  “Again, I didn’t do that.”

  “No, miraculously you were oblivious. She would ridicule me every day in the bathroom. When I started losing weight, she found something else to rag on me about. It was never-ending.”

  “I swear, Sky, I had no idea.”

  “It’s easy to turn a blind eye when there were so many other important things in your life going on. More important than me.”

  “Ok, go ahead, punish me. If that makes you feel better. I’ll be your whipping boy for my ex-bitch’s mistakes. Let’s hear it.”

  “No.” Sky shook her head, turning her face to look out the window of the parked car. She noticed the gray skies and how cold it appeared as the wind blew past the trees. “You’re right. I need to move on. It was ten years ago. None of us are the same people we were. It’s just—”

  “What would you say to her, right now, if you could?” Travis asked, his face more serious than she’d ever seen it.

  “No, Trav—”

  “Seriously, out with it. It’ll make you feel better.”

  Sky thought for long moments, drawing memories of being bullied for months on end by Travis’s beautiful but cruel high-school girlfriend. It didn’t matter now
, she knew. But the pain of Brittany’s words and what Sky did to herself afterward couldn’t be overcome so easily. Time healed all wounds, but scars had also been left, scars from both the words and Sky’s cutting.

  “Ok, fine… B—Brittany. I’m not…ugly. I’m not fat, not anymore. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. To prove myself to you. To prove myself to…well, to myself. To prove myself worthy of any man. Especially Travis Redmond, who wouldn’t have wanted me back when I was fat. Your words have hurt me, scarred me, taken so much from me. But they also pushed me to work hard, to be better, so thank you.”

  Travis frowned. “Thank you?”

  “Yeah…”

  “No.” Travis huffed. “Say, fuck you, Brittany. You fucking bitch.”

  “No. I forgive her.”

  “Fuck that. This went on for months you said. She was a damn bully. I knew she was mean, but this is something else. You deserve an apology.”

  “An apology I’ll likely never get, but that’s ok.”

  “No, Sky, it isn’t. I freaking hate bullies. You had enough to deal with. You were a teenage girl who’d lost her mom and that was how you were treated? Naw, she’s a bitch, just say it.”

  “It was a defense mechanism.”

  “For what?”

  “She was insecure about something.”

  Travis’s brow went up. “You’re right. We all have them, don’t we? Me, thanks to my dad. I threw myself into football because it was my escape from his drunken beatings.”

  Skyla was stunned by his revelation. She never would’ve suspected Tyler Redmond of abuse. Travis hadn’t made it known and why would he? No one else was knowledgeable of this dark secret of his, she was certain. It made his accomplishments seem all the more inspiring.

  He continued, “Brittany’s parents were loaded. She had it all. She had to take out her insecurities on someone, I guess.”

  “And that someone just happened to be me,” Sky finished and took his hand in hers, giving him an understanding smile, seeing beyond that beautiful exterior to the strong soul within. “Brittany might’ve had her own skeletons lurking in her closets. We’ll never know.” Skyla shrugged lightly.