Hit Hard: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (Athletic Affairs)

by April Fire

  “You’re not giving me any details,” I pointed out.

  “I’m trying to keep some kind of professional demeanor,” she protested.

  “Might as well give that up now.”

  Suddenly, we were outside Dino’s. I pulled us up to a stop in the parking lot, and could already see that the guys had got the party started inside. Emily cocked an eyebrow as we got out of the car, taking in the mish-mash of voices and music and the clink of glasses.

  “You ready?” I dared her, and she lifted her chin and met my gaze.

  “For anything.”

  5

  EMILY

  When was the last time I’d had this much to drink? I could tell you one thing for sure: long enough that I had forgotten how much damn fun it was!

  When Sam had given me that big talk in the car about what a crazy night it was going to be and how my city ass wasn’t prepared for it one little bit, I was so ready to dismiss him as talking the talk in front of the new girl so she would think he was a big man. But no, it really was as intense as all that.

  I grabbed another shot from the bar, purchased for me by one of the regulars, I was told, and tossed it back in one. I screwed up my face at the sourness, shook my head, and held my hands up. The team, crowded around a small table at the other end of the room, cheered loudly for me.

  I sashayed my way back over to them, and leaned up against Sam’s chair. He looked up at me with this stupid-cute crooked grin on his face, and cocked his head at me.

  “You doing good?”

  “Great!” I exclaimed. “Anyone want to come dance with me?”

  “We don’t really dance here,” Nathan, the goalkeeper, remarked, exchanging a look with the rest of the guys around the table.

  “Then why is there music?” I countered. He opened his mouth, but before he could protest any further, I grabbed Sam’s hand and pulled him to his feet.

  “Come on. Dance with me.” I ordered, and he held his other hand up and led me towards a spot in the bar with a little more space. I could feel the eyes of the rest of the team on me, but I ignored them as a song came on that I adored and I wrapped my arms around Sam’s neck.

  “Having a good time?” he murmured, just loud enough that I could hear it. I nodded.

  “Amazing,” I replied, looking up at him and swaying back and forth. I wasn’t that drunk, but I was letting off a hell of a lot of steam. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to get my story, but you had to live among your charges to really understand them, right? Besides, this particular bit didn’t have to go in the article. I slid my hips closer to Sam, and his hands drifted further down my back, and I knew with an absolute certainty where this night was going.

  I was most surprised by the reaction the team got when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know who they were, everyone was pleased to see them, and eager to buy them a drink. Sam told me it hadn’t always been like that, that the smiles and the pats on the back and the offers for a free beer or seven hadn’t come in until they’d started their winning streak not too long ago. I could tell they were wary of it They enjoyed the attention, but they knew that it could all drop away if they didn’t keep up their end of the bargain.

  I could tell that there were eyes on us, but I didn’t give a damn. After getting dumped and struggling to right myself after moving across the country for this stupid story, I deserved to have a little fun. I felt Sam’s lips brush against my hair, and wondered how many girls in this town he’d hooked up with. Was he a stud in high school, or had that only arrived with his success? I had noticed a fair few girls eyeing him when he went up to buy drinks or talk to me, and I wasn’t sure whether they were jealous of me or pitying. Either way, I didn’t care. There was enough booze in my system to make me think this was a good idea, to push from my mind the reminder that I would have to work with this guy and his teammates for the next few months. So what if things got awkward? I was a big girl, I could take it. I was here for the story, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use my access to a team of gorgeous young men to help me get over the worst break-up I’d ever had.

  Before I knew it, the song had ended, and a few people had started to trail from the bar. Sam turned back to his teammates, a couple of whom were reaching for their wallets and sidling up to the bar to settle the tab.

  “You guys heading out?”

  “Yeah,” one of them (I forgot his name) shrugged. “See you tomorrow, though?”

  “Sure thing,” he replied, and a couple of them flashed him those smiles, you know the ones, the “you’re gonna get laid tonight” smiles. It was as if I wasn’t standing there, wasn’t capable of guessing what they were hinting towards. In all honesty, though? I was too horny to think about much beyond getting Sam back to my apartment and out of his clothes. He ran a hand down my back, as if he knew what I was thinking and was reminding me that hey, babe, don’t worry, I got you.

  I settled up my tab. Sam didn’t offer to pay, which was a relief, because I didn’t want to be one of those chicks who simpers and swoons while a guy covers her booze for her. We made our way outside, his arm tucked tight around my waist. He was lightly stroking me with his thumb, and even the slight movement was sending electric shocks across my body.

  “You want me to take you home?” he asked, and smiled and shook his head at his phrasing. “Sorry, I mean, you want me to give you a lift back to your place?”

  “Sure,” I nodded, feeling a little wobbly on my feet, and it had more to do with his presence than the booze. How was I supposed to take it from here? It had been so long since I had slept with someone new that I felt like all my mechanisms were rusty, that I’d need re-doing. We slipped into the car, and Sam reached for his keys, and in that split second, I just went for it.

  I leaned towards him, caught his face between my hands, and pressed my lips against his. His mouth was cold but soft, and I barely had time to register how it felt before he had slipped his hands beneath my ass and hauled me on to his lap. I parted my legs to straddle him, and his tongue slid into my mouth, and in that second I couldn’t have given a damn how long it had been since I had last fooled around with someone new because all of this felt so natural and right.

  “I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you,” Sam murmured in my ear as he kissed down my neck and towards my breasts. I let out a small moan, unable to articulate that I had felt the exact same way.

  He slipped his hands up my shirt and found my breasts. The touch of his cold fingers was enough to bring my nipples to full attention at once, and I closed my eyes as his talented hands went to work. I was already aching for him, aching for more, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer.

  “Have you got a condom?” I mumbled urgently, and he looked up at me and nodded.

  “I need you to fuck me, right now,” I leaned down to kiss him again, harder this time. I had never wanted someone the way I wanted him at that second. It wasn’t that I’d never been turned-on before, or wanted to fuck before, but it had never been so desperate and needy and important. I swiveled my hips a couple of times against his lap, feeling his erection growing quickly beneath me, and watched as he registered what I’d just said. Putting a hand on my hip to steady me, he leaned forward and rustled about in his glove compartment for a few seconds before pulling out a condom.

  I lifted myself off his lap the best I could, awkwardly trying to give him the space he needed to sheath himself. There wasn’t a lot of room in the car, and my head was already pressed against the ceiling. But all thought of how difficult or weird or maybe not a good idea this was got lost in the sound of our heavy breathing and the way our steamy breath mixed between us. He shuffled down his pants and rolled on the condom, and then he reached over to flip up my skirt- before he penetrated me, he leaned forward and planted a kiss on my pussy, his warm breath (even through my panties) sending a shiver down my spine. And then, he pulled the fabric aside, gripped my hips, and slowly lowered me down onto his cock.

  We both let ou
t a long, satisfied sigh as he entered me. His cock was thick and stout, spreading me as I enveloped every inch of him in my pussy. I let my head fall back, and clunked it on the top of the car as I did so. We both laughed, and then, finally, I began to move. I took my time at first, pressing my hands against his chest and using them as leverage as I moved up and down. And, soon enough, he began to meet my movement, thrusting up inside me as I came down. We soon built up a pace, and, without thinking, I slipped my hand between my legs and began to play with my clit.

  “Fuck, that’s hot,” Sam growled, his fingers sinking in to my hips as he watched my fingers get busy between my legs. I watched as the expression on his face twisted into something darker, more desirous than before, and when he looked up and made eye contact with me, it happened.

  I shuddered with pleasure, my hands curling into fists by my sides as I came. It usually took a lot of foreplay to get me anywhere close, but the situation was just right then and there, and I was able to get out of my head and just let it happen. I let out a loud moan, my pussy clenching around Sam’s cock, and a few seconds later, I felt him reach his own release inside of me. He leaned up to kiss me as he came, pulling my head down so he could push his tongue into my mouth once more. I held him inside me for a few more moments after we were both finished, savoring the feeling of him within me. Then, I climbed off and slipped back into my seat, shooting him a satisfied look.

  “Well, that was…” he began, but trailed off as he disposed of the condom and zipped up his pants.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “It really was.”

  We sat in silence for a few moments, and I wondered what happened now.

  “Is that…lift still going?” I wondered out loud, and he nodded.

  “Yeah, yeah, sure,” he replied. He’d only had a couple of drinks over the course of the night, so I wasn’t worried about him driving me. As my own booze-buzz began to wear off, I watched as he started up the car, and tried to figure out whether or not I had just made a huge mistake.

  6

  SAM

  When I woke up the next morning, my head was pounding- but not because I’d been hitting it too hard the night before. No, far from it, I’d taken it easy. But I had hooked up with Emily, and I wasn’t sure if I’d made the right decision.

  I mean, yeah, she was incredible- the image of her, riding me hard, her head tipped slightly back and her mouth hanging open a little, played on my brain and made me smile to myself involuntarily. As soon as I’d picked her up, I’d known what was going to happen. We were flirting as soon as she slipped into my car, and I wasn’t going to argue with her when she clambered on top of me in there at the end of the night. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d done something….dangerous by fucking her.

  I mean, every other woman I’d hooked up with since I left high school, it was clear it was a one-night thing. They knew, I knew, even if I had to lay it out for a few of them a little more firmly than I might have liked- it was clear. They knew who I was. I had a reputation in this town for a reason, one I was a little proud of, I had to admit. And playing for the team meant that I was never likely to be around any of my hook-ups again. I might spot them in the crowd of a game and see them give me that secret little smile, but I had never had them around for such a length of time after we were finished with each other.

  I drove to training, and wondered why I had done it. Apart from the obvious, that she was smoking hot and sexy and forward and all kinds of good in bed. Or in-car, as the case may be. I had known all of this before we fucked, known that she wouldn’t be leaving soon, known that I would have to see her and be around her and deal with her for a long time yet. and still I did it. I couldn’t blame it on the alcohol, as I hadn’t even been drinking that much. The only explanation was that I was trying to get my mind off…it. The thing. The big one. The question that I still hadn’t come up with an answer to.

  I pushed it to the back of my mind as I climbed out of my car and walked into the building; my heart flipped in my chest when I saw who was leaning up at reception.

  “Emily!” I called. I had dropped her off at her place last night, and she hadn’t made any noises about inviting me inside. Not that I could blame her. She turned and smiled when she saw me, and I couldn’t help but let my eyes drift across her body. She was wearing a tight shirt and narrow pants, and I could imagine the outline of her body beneath the fabric with ease, remember what it felt like beneath my fingers.

  “Hey, Sam,” she flushed a little, but kept her cool. “Could you tell Darla here that I am allowed in the stadium while you’re training?”

  “She is,” I smiled at Darla, who raised her brows as she looked between the two of us. “Promise.”

  “Go ahead,” Darla sighed tiredly, waving us both in, and I held the door open for Emily. We made our way down the seemingly endless corridor in silence, until she spoke at last.

  “So…last night was fun,” she remarked, glancing over at me as if checking to see how I would react.

  “It was,” I agreed with a little smirk. “Really fun.”

  “But…I don’t think it should happen again,” she suggested, stumbling over her words slightly as thought she wasn’t quite sure how to get them out. “If that’s okay with you?”

  I let out a small breath, not realizing that I’d been holding it up until that point.

  “Just because we’ll be working together, and I don’t want things to be awkward,” she blurted, reading my sigh as upset. I shook my head and held up my hand.

  “It’s fine, you’re right,” I agreed. “We shouldn’t have…nothing should have happened. I get that. Let’s just put it behind us, okay?”

  “Okay,” she agreed, and we opened the door onto the stadium. The entire team was there; it seemed as though I was a little late.

  There was a small murmur around the room as the little clusters of Crows noticed the two of us walking through the doors together; I did my best to pay them no attention. I strode down to the changing rooms, opened the door, and glanced behind me to see Emily taking her place in the stands. Thank God that had been averted.

  “So, you fuck her?” Nathan was leaning up against the lockers when I came in, taking me by surprise.

  “Yup,” I nodded.

  “Good?”

  “None of your business,” I shot back, raising my eyebrows at him warningly. “Just ‘cause you’ve not been laid in forever.”

  “You guys dating now?” He brushed off my comment easily. He’d heard a lot worse between these four walls, that was for sure.

  “Nah, just a one-night thing,” I replied with a shrug. “No big deal. We were drinking, it was fun, but that’s it.”

  “Is that what she told you?” Nathan cocked his head at me. “It never works out like that, you know.”

  “It’s mutual,” I snapped, growing tired of his questioning. “Come on, let’s get on the ice.”

  Training began, and I found my eyes drifting towards Emily a few times, watching her as she scribbled notes and made comments into her little voice recorder periodically. Her hair was tied back and she had rings around her eyes, but if she was hung-over, she certainly wasn’t showing it. I wondered why she had been so into me last night. I mean, she just got here. Most of the women I hooked up with did it for the sense of celebrity. Emily had looked exhausted from the first moment she walked through the doors here, and I wondered if there was something else that had driven her out of the city. She seemed reluctant to talk about it last night, deflecting my questions about what life was like there. Maybe it wasn’t as safe a place for her as she made out.

  Training finished up, and Johnson cornered me before I could get back to the locker room.

  “Have you thought about it yet?” he demanded, his voice low and quiet. Emily was lingering behind us, and I could see that she was trying to overhear what we were saying.

  “What?”

  “The offer, you know,” he replied impatiently. “I got a call from them today.”


  “Really? This soon?” My eyes widened. This wasn’t what I expected. I’d had no idea they were as eager as all that, and it was intimidating to think about a team of that size coming after me as aggressively as they were.

  “Yeah, this soon,” he nodded. “So, anything?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I’m still thinking about it. You said I had until the end of the month, right?”

  “Right,” he nodded. “But I can’t promise that they won’t find someone else in the meantime.”

  “I know,” I shot back, defensive, and we exchanged a hard look before Johnson backed off and made his way down to his office. I pulled my helmet off and slumped down on to the slatted wooden benches at the edge of the stadium, letting out a sigh that turned to steam as it left my mouth.

  “What was that about?”

  I looked up, and found Emily standing above me, hands on hips. Her recorder was in her hand, and it was obvious she’d heard all of our conversation. I met her gaze, and held it for a few moments before I responded.

  “Nothing,” I shot back childishly.

  “Are you moving to another team?”

  “Turn that off and I’ll tell you,” I nodded towards the microphone in her hand, and she held it out to me.

  “It’s already off,” she promised. “Here, look.”

  I inspected the small device for a second and, seeing no obvious activity, I patted the bench next to me. By the time she wrote this story, I either would have gone or I wouldn’t, so having the world find out about it wouldn’t matter. Besides, I needed someone to talk to this about, somebody outside the game.

  “I’ve been offered a position,” I began, talking slowly. It was the first time I’d spoken these words out loud to anyone since I’d first heard them a couple of days before. They’d been zooming around my head at such a speed, however, that I almost felt practiced reciting them.

  “Where?”