PLAYERS: The Complete Series (Springville Rockets (Sports Romance Books 1-3)

by Daphne Loveling

  “Well,” he smirks. “I was sort of hoping you might want to stick around a while. Spend the day with me.”

  My stomach flips. “Spend the day with you?” I stammer. “Doing what?”

  He gives me a look that just about melts his T-shirt clean off my body. “Well, I do have a few ideas,” he drawls. “But first, I though maybe we’d start with breakfast.”

  It turns out he’s bought some eggs and bacon, too, and even some milk in case I need some in my coffee. I’m so strangely touched by all of this that I don’t have the heart to protest, but I tell myself that after breakfast, I’ll ask him to take me home.

  Except that after breakfast, somehow I end up braced on the kitchen counter with my legs around his waist as he rocks me to another shuddering orgasm.

  “Come on,” he whispers in my ear as I cling to him afterward. “Let’s go take a shower.”

  Upstairs, he leads me into his bathroom and turns on the dual heads in an enormous shower. He soaps me, sliding slick hands over my already sensitive skin. His impressive cock hardens again as he does, and I can’t stop myself from reaching down to palm him, admiring the heft and weight of him.

  “Jesus, look what you do to me, Rinn,” he groans. “I can’t get enough of you.”

  I love that he can’t. I love that he wants me. Sliding my eyes to his, I bite my lip and lower myself slowly until my mouth is level with his cock. I fist my hand around it, my fingers not even reaching all the way around, and guide the head toward my lips. I take a long, slow lick and swirl my tongue around his shaft, and I’m rewarded with a sharp gasp.

  “Fuck,” he hisses. “Holy fuck, that feels good.”

  I raise my eyes and lock eyes with him as he stares down at me. “You are the sexiest fucking woman I have ever seen in my life,” he growls, his voice thick, strained with effort. “I don’t know how you’re doing this, but I’m not gonna last long if you keep it up.”

  It’s music to my ears. More than anything right now, I want to make Jake Ryland lose control. I moan low in my throat, watching as the vibrations reach his cock and make him half-close his eyes in pleasure. I take him deep into my mouth, as deep as I can, and begin to worship his shaft with my tongue. His groans grow louder, more urgent, and then he freezes, before thrusting one final time and letting go as a loud roar rips from deep inside him. His seed fills my mouth, and I take it, gladly, loving what I can do to him, how I can give him this.

  When he finally quiets, Jake takes me by the arms and pulls me up, crushing me to him.

  “Rinn,” he murmurs, his mouth finding mine. I kiss him back, passionately, wondering for a fleeting moment if I’m starting to lose myself, if I’m falling down a hole that I’m going to have to fight like hell to get out of.

  The shower over, I’m wrapped in a fluffy white towel, using a second one to dry off my hair.

  “How do you feel about taking a boat ride today?” Jake asks me as he turns on an electric razor and starts to swipe it across his chin and cheeks. “Looks like a great day for it.”

  I don’t know what to do. I know I should go home. Hell, I never should have stayed the night in the first place. But the thing is, I want to stay. Every minute I spend with Jake is eating away at any remaining resolve I possess, and the excuses and arguments I try to think of die in my throat.

  Jake seems to sense my hesitation. “Come on, Rinn,” he says, putting down the razor and pulling me to him. “It’s a beautiful day, it’s a weekend, there’s nothing stopping us from just enjoying it together. Let’s just live a little. Not think about it more than that.”

  I know whatever is happening between us is nothing serious. Jake isn’t making any secret of it. He’s just asking me to live in the moment. The trouble is, I’m not exactly a “live in the moment” type of person. But to spend the day with him, I’m willing to try. Even though I’m starting to think my heart is going to pay a heavy price for it.

  16

  Jake

  I take Rinn out on the lake that afternoon in my powerboat. She’s wearing the simple white girly T-shirt and clingy shorts I bought her, and a pair of flip flops I remembered to pick up at the last minute. The T-shirt’s just a little too small, which suits me just fine, as it outlines her breasts perfectly and makes it hard for me to concentrate on driving the boat.

  What I don’t tell Rinn is that I had a swimsuit picked out, too — a hot little red bikini — but I put it back at the last minute. I have a plan in mind for later, and as much as I would have liked to see her rocking the suit, I’m hoping for something even better.

  We cruise around the lake slowly, taking our time and stopping frequently to just drift and watch the other boats on the water. When we get hungry, I pull up and dock at a pizzeria on the other side of the lake and we grab a large pepperoni and some beers, then take it back out onto the water to eat.

  By evening, we’re exhausted and happy, and I take us back to my place. I don’t offer to take Rinn home, and she doesn’t ask. Instead, I undress her as the sun sets and pull her into the pool with me naked. We skinny dip, and I congratulate myself for not buying the bikini. Then I press her against one of the jets of water and push inside her from behind, fucking her slowly until she tenses and explodes around my cock with a sharp cry. Then I let go and fill her, whispering her name against her ear and trying not to tell her I think I might be falling for her.

  I lie awake that night, listening to her soft, even breathing as she sleeps curled up in the crook of my arm. I’ve spent every second of the last thirty-six hours with Rinn, and I’m hoping to convince her to stay here with me through the rest of the weekend. I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much time with a woman before. In fact, I’m sure of it. I can’t believe I’m not crawling out of my own skin to get some time to myself. But I’m not. Far from it, in fact: I’m already trying not to think about how much I’m going to miss her when I have to take her home.

  I fall asleep for a while, then wake up and stare at the ceiling for a while, then fall asleep again. When I wake up the next time, it’s early in the morning. The first light of the day is just beginning to emerge through the blinds that I forgot to close last night, and it gives me an idea.

  “Rinn,” I whisper, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face.

  “Mmmfff,” she says.

  “Rinn, baby, wake up.”

  She opens one eye. “What is it?” she mumbles.

  I climb out of bed and grab a pair of sweats from a drawer for me and a T-shirt for her. “Come on. I want to show you something,” I say. “We can take the blanket and some pillows.”

  I watch in amusement as she stumbles out from the covers and pulls on the shirt I toss at her. I gather up the blanket and one pillow, and hand her the other. She follows me down the stairs and outside, where I set us up on one of the couches.

  “Remember how I told you the sunrises here were fantastic?” I ask her. “Well, you’re about to see one.”

  We prop up the pillows and I take her in my arms, pulling the blanket over us. Then we lie there, watching in silence, as a palette of oranges, reds, and purples washes over the horizon. It’s a perfect sunrise, one of the best I’ve seen here, and I almost want to shout with happiness that Rinn is here to watch it with me.

  “My God, it’s so beautiful,” she whispers. “It’s been forever since I’ve see a sunrise, let alone one this perfect.”

  “I know,” I smile. “It’s almost enough to make someone a morning person.”

  “No kidding.”

  A few moments pass. “Thank you, Jake,” she murmurs.

  “For what?”

  “For this,” she shrugs. “For the weekend. For helping me try not to be so upset about Jacob.”

  I lean over and kiss the top of her head. “The pleasure was all mine.”

  “Well,” she says slyly, “Not all yours. If you’ll remember.”

  I laugh. “I seem to think you’re right. Not to mention, the weekend’s not over yet.”


  I reach for her, and we forget about the sunrise for a while.

  That night, Rinn finally convinces me to take her home, and only because she doesn’t have any work clothes with her for the next day. When I get back to my place, it feels weird and lonely without her there. I think about having some of the guys from the team over for a few beers, but my heart’s not really in it. Instead, I just waste time and play video games until it’s time for bed. I hop in the shower and think about Rinn as I stroke myself to completion, amazed I still want her so badly after fucking her so many times I’ve already lost count. Then I dry off and get into bed, grabbing my phone to text her a single word:

  Goodnight

  The next morning, I don’t give myself any time to sit around and mope about the fact that Rinn’s not here. I get up as soon as I’m awake, throw on a T-shirt and some gym shorts, and head over to the team’s weight room for a workout. We’re at the tail end of Phase One of the off season, which means right now we’re working on strength and conditioning, and some of the guys who were nursing injuries at the end of the season are doing physical rehab. Next week we’ll be starting Phase Two, which means the start of on the field workouts.

  When I get to the gym, I’m the only one there, but after forty-five minutes or so some of the other guys start to show up. Chad and Zach walk in first, followed by Reed, our Tight End, then Westy and Davis.

  “Hey, dude,” Chad calls when he sees me. “You were MIA this weekend. You forget about the party at my place?”

  I didn’t forget, and normally, I would have been all in for one of Chad’s blowouts. But compared to the chance to spend the evening with Rinn, it wasn’t even a contest.

  “Yeah, sorry about that, man. Something came up at the last minute.”

  Beside him, Zach laughs. “Someone came up, you mean. Why didn’t you just bring her to the party, dude? Or didn’t you want to share?”

  In spite of myself, I get a little irritated. It’s not that I’m embarrassed that I was with Rinn, but I don’t really want to talk about it. For one thing, it seems like a bad idea to tell them that I spent the weekend fucking the chick who’s supposed to be helping me whitewash my reputation. For another, the idea of engaging in the typical locker room banter about Rinn kind of puts a bad taste in my mouth. She deserves better than to have my teammates pepper me with questions about how good a lay she is, or whether she gives good head.

  “Naw, it was nothing like that,” I say easily, making sure to hide the edge in my voice. “Just couldn’t get away. I’m sure it was epic, as usual.”

  That’s all it takes to get Zach and Chad going, and pretty soon they’re slapping each other on the backs and howling with laughter about how our teammate Rory got so drunk he tried to jump off Chad’s balcony into his swimming pool below.

  “That dumb fucker could have broken his leg or worse,” I snarl. As the quarterback, I’m supposed to be the team’s leader, and sure, I’ve done some stupid shit in my life, but this is goddamn ridiculous. I can’t believe that I’m the guy Knute Amundson is pissed off at for damaging the team’s reputation.

  After getting in a good, hard strength workout, I’m still thinking about Rinn, but I know she’s at work so I can’t see her. On impulse, I take out my phone and have some flowers sent to her office, which is something I’m pretty sure I’ve never done in my life. I don’t risk putting my name on the card, but I know she’ll figure out who they’re from.

  Then, because I don’t have anything else to do, I decide to go pay Caitlynn another visit.

  The first time I went to Southshore to see Caitlynn, Rinn had arranged everything and they were expecting me. Today, though, my visit’s unannounced. I retrace the way from the parking garage up to the pediatric oncology unit, but I can’t remember her room number, so I stop at the main desk to ask for her.

  “Can you tell me which room is Caitlynn Jacobson’s?” I ask a pretty young blond nurse sitting at the station.

  Her eyes widen. “Are you…?”

  I flash her a grin. “Yeah. But don’t blow my cover, okay?”

  She blushes. “Ohmygosh!” she says, her words running together. “I’m so sorry to ask this, but can I have you autograph something for my boyfriend?” She reaches down and pulls out a pad of paper with the logo for some drug or other on it, and I grab a pen from the countertop and sign it. “Ohmygosh, thanks so much! He is going to die!”

  “Don’t mention it,” I say easily.

  The nurse, whose name tag says Betsy, points me down the hall towards Caitlynn’s room and I thank her and wander over. The door is cracked open, so I tap on it with a knuckle and push it the rest of the way.

  “Hey,” I say to Caitlynn when she looks up. “Can I come in?”

  Since she’s not expecting me, Caitlynn’s not wearing the wig she had on the first time I met her. She’s sitting on the bed in a hospital gown, looking at a tablet. When she looks up at me, her lack of hair exposes her features much more than they were before, and I notice immediately how bright green her eyes are, and that I hadn’t noticed before her eyebrows are gone, too, with the rest of her hair.

  When she realizes it’s me, she sits up straight, and breaks into the widest smile I think I’ve ever seen on a kid. “What are you doing here?” she asks in wonder.

  “I was in the neighborhood,” I lie. “Thought I’d come say hi.”

  Neither one of Caitlynn’s parents is in the room with her. She tells me that her mom is down in the cafeteria and her dad’s at work.

  “What’s your dad do?” I ask her.

  Caitlynn’s face screws up in thought. “Something in, like insurance? I don’t really know.”

  “Yeah, dad jobs can be like that.”

  “Yours won’t be, though,” she replies immediately. “When you have kids, I mean.”

  I laugh. “I’m not even married.”

  “You don’t have to be married to have kids,” she says, rolling her eyes like she can’t believe I don’t know that. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

  Huh.

  “That’s a good question,” I admit.

  “You don’t even know whether you have a girlfriend?” she asks in disbelief. I guess even little girls who are into sports are still fascinated by this stuff.

  “Well…” I begin. I can’t believe I’m actually going to talk about relationship stuff with a ten year-old. “I like this girl, and I’m pretty sure she likes me. But I don’t know if we’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  “Why don’t you just ask her?” she replies.

  “Very sensible. But it’s not quite as easy as that.”

  “Why not?”

  I’m starting to regret this already. “We, uh, work together. And it’s kind of an unwritten rule in the adult world that it’s a bad idea to date people you work with.”

  “Why?”

  Jeez, is “why” how kids this age start every sentence?

  “Because, if you break up later, it could be awkward.” I’m totally making this part up. I’ve never dated anyone I worked with. In fact, I’ve kind of never dated anyone, period, unless you count fucking someone more than once.

  “Well,” she continues stubbornly, “Why doesn’t one of you just get another job?”

  Thankfully, I’m saved from the interrogation when Caitlynn’s mom Margo walks in. She does a double take when she sees me.

  “Hi,” I say, rising from the chair next to Caitlynn’s bed. “Remember me? I’m Jake.”

  For a minute, I realize she might think it’s weird that I’m all alone with her little girl, but luckily, she doesn’t seem to mind. “Yes, of course I remember you! How nice of you to come see Caitlynn again! But,” she frowns, “We weren’t expecting you. Did someone get crossed wires?”

  “No, no,” I reassure her. “I just stopped by on the spur of the moment.”

  I glance over at Caitlynn. She’s starting to look tired, but she’s beaming at her mom like it’s Christmas. “Isn’t that cool, Mom?”

&nb
sp; Margo smiles down at her, and then at me. “Yes, it is very cool.”

  “Well, look,” I say, “I better get going.” Caitlynn starts to protest, but I stop her. “I’ll come back again soon, okay? You get some rest. And brush up on your football stats,” I tease. “I’m going to test you next time.”

  Margo walks me out. “I hope it’s okay if I stop by sometimes just to check in on Caitlynn,” I say. “Unless you’d rather I didn’t.”

  “Oh, gosh, of course it’s okay!” Margo nods vigorously. “I think she gets bored just with me and her father all the time. She used to have her school friends stop by sometimes, but she’s been sick so long that — well, a lot of them have just kind of drifted away.” Some muscles tense in her face, and I realize she’s trying to hold back tears.

  “Tell Caitlynn I’ll be back soon, then,” I promise her. “And tell Jeff hi for me.”

  We say our goodbyes and I wander towards the elevators, already trying to figure out when I can come back and pay Caitlynn a visit. I wonder whether she’s allowed to leave the hospital, and whether she’s allowed to have people bring her treats. I wish I’d thought to ask her what her favorite foods are. It feels weird to be so focused on trying to do something nice for someone I barely know. Most of the time, especially during the season, I’m pretty much only thinking about myself, and the team.

  I decide to go for a joyride in the Camaro, so I take her out and open her up on the highway. I roll down all the windows and blast the stereo, and think about Caitlynn, about Rinn, and about how easy it is to just go through life without appreciating what you have right in front of you. Then I laugh to myself when I realize that, as simplistic as Caitlynn’s view is about relationships, she kind of has a point. If you want to be with someone, it’s silly to let yourself get caught up in excuses — to keep trying to think of becauses to answer the whys.

  Maybe you just need to stop and let yourself answer a question with a question: