Romance: Luther's Property

by Laurie Burrows

  “I saw the last movie she was in,” Glen said, looking up and away from Austin's piercing eyes as if he were searching for an answer on the ceiling. “What was it called…you know the one I'm talking about.”

  Austin couldn't remember the name of the film either. There was nothing memorable about it, absolutely nothing, except for how amateurish the whole thing seemed. He couldn't remember the name, nobody could, but he had no problem remembering how enthusiastic Tanya had been when she came home with the reel. She wasn't onscreen along, barely had two lines of dialogue, but the director had made sure that she would be half-naked for the duration of the cameo.

  Austin was past the point where he would bother to get angry or annoyed about that kind of stuff. He’d always known that she had a touch of sluttiness in her. He knew that from the moment he laid eyes on her. He could see it in the way she moved her hips, could hear it in her sultry southern voice. He couldn't help himself. He'd always been attracted to those types of women. The wrong types. That's what his mother had always told him. He loved his mother but never spent much time listening to her dating advice.

  He'd always been attracted to women who vibrated with a wild, unbridled feminine energy, the type of woman who would scream, kick, hurl objects and insults, and then fuck your brains out. It was common knowledge: crazy women had the best pussy. And that's why they could get away with unpredictable, erratic behavior. They were the kind of women that men would try to break away from, only to be dragged back between their magical thighs by the undeniable power of the pussy. They were the worst and the best. They were the bane of his existence. They were also the only type of women that seem capable of holding his attention.

  “I don’t remember what it was called either,” Austin said. “But don't worry about it. By this time, she's probably forgotten the name too.”

  “Austin, you’re becoming a little too cynical,” Glen said. “That’s not good for your image I'm afraid. The fans want you to smile and succeed. No sweat on the brow. Cool as ice. That's what they want. The fans and the sponsors.”

  That word sponsors always got a rise out of Austin. He didn't need the fucking money. Not one dime of it. He hated all that image stuff. He was sick of having to worry about his image. He just wanted to be free.

  He could feel the desire for a road trip welling up inside. Maybe he needed to get out on the open road. He was sick of having to walk around on eggshells, like the next wild stunt he pulled would bring his whole career crashing down, even though that was certainly a possibility. He couldn’t continue getting into trouble and relying on other people to drag him to safety. He'd already done that one time too many.

  “You guys are going to be a power couple,” Glen said. “I'm sure of that.”

  Austin was relieved when the meeting with his agent was finally over. Everyone in his life seemed to be saying the same thing. There was only so much that he was going to be able to tolerate.

  He spent the rest of the day at the practice facility, attending team meetings and watching a ton of film for the next game.

  He hadn’t heard from Tanya all day. He’d sent her several texts and hadn’t yet received a response. Not a word. It shouldn't have bothered him, at least that's what he tried to tell himself. But it wasn't true. All throughout the film session, he’d been checking his phone, expecting to hear from her at any moment. He was her freaking fiancé. Maybe he was getting a bit of his own medicine. Over the years, he hadn’t been the nicest in his dealings with women, ignoring them, getting on with his hectic, hedonistic life, pretending as if they didn't exist, until of course he needed something, wanted something from them again. When Austin got home that night, his two pit bulls greeted him enthusiastically, barking, wagging their tails frantically, and jumping up on him.

  He smiled and petted them. He didn't know what he would do if those dogs weren’t in his life. Their love, their enthusiasm, their dedication, their commitment was unconditional. They would never betray him. That was foreign to their nature. They were the exact opposite of the women that he constantly found himself entangled with.

  Austin pumped his fists in the air. He still had his strength, his mojo, his fighting, warrior spirit.

  Actually, he'd already started doing that, investing in real estate in the Southwest. This was another source of tension between him and Tanya. He would have preferred that she limit her modeling and acting and focus on growing his business. But she didn't have the discipline to sit down and work all day.

  After struggling in his first few years in the league, most people had given up on the notion that he would ever be successful. So many people had ridden his coattails for so long, kept their hands out and their mouths open, always willing to receive something.

  Austin didn't know where his career was going. He had no idea. Just a couple of years ago everything had seemed so clear to him. He was going to be a top draft pick. Number one overall. He was going to be the star of that night at Radio Music Hall in the heart of Manhattan. His 6 foot five, muscular frame, and perfectly tailored suit, caught all the eyes.

  There was an energy, a charisma that just seemed to emanate from him. He was the type of guy that made women swoon and made men red in the face with jealousy and envy.

  That's who he was. The big man on campus. He'd always been that. It was his daddy, Big Daddy Daniels, oil tycoon, billionaire, mogul, who had given him that confidence and swagger. And unfortunately, for Johnny, his daddy had also passed on a few vices as well. Drinking and women. And on some occasions he would mix and mingle with some harder stuff.

  In college, he’d been able to cover it up. He’d been able to get by on talent alone. He wouldn’t think twice about staying out all night the day before a big game. And there was no bigger game than the one against Alabama. He was up till four in the morning, woke up a few hours before the game with two naked women laying in his bed, their legs and arms intertwined with his. The room reeked of cigarettes, and sweaty, stinky, hot breath sex. There was an ashtray full of butts. The floor was covered with bottles of vodka, whiskey, beer, wine. And they were all empty. Every single one of them. That's how he'd always wanted to do it. Do it in style, his way. Once he’d shaken off the hangover and few bad throws in the first half, he went on to throw three touchdowns and lead his team on a last-minute 95-yard touchdown drive.

  That was the day that cemented his legacy. He would never be forgotten in Texas. Never. It was also the day that he locked up the Heisman Trophy.

  But now he couldn't help feeling that he’d squandered so much. He’d wasted his time and his talent, two things that he would never get back. He’d become a joke, a laughingstock, the biggest bust in the history of the NFL. Ryan leaf. JaMarcus Russell. He made those guys look like overachievers.

  He couldn’t stand sitting on his couch, nervously flipping through the channels, afraid that he may end up hearing more scathing, mocking criticism.

  He didn’t know what he was going to do next with his life. He was without a team and the season was two weeks away from starting. Nobody had even invited him to camp.

  This was supposed to be his comeback season. He was going to put his past behind him. He’d gone to rehab, gotten his life together. He felt great.

  Austin grunted as he pumped the 200 pounds of iron 1,2,3,4 times. He put it back on the rack. He felt pumped up and let out a loud roar. The guys in the gym clapped their hands, hooted, and howled.

  “Not bad for a quarterback,” a big burly said. “Not bad at all.”

  Austin was used to being the center of attention. Whether in the weight room, on the field, at the club, or at the bar. He was always the center of attention. Wherever he went people seemed to surround him. His energy seemed to infect everybody. But that same energy also attracted a fair amount of enemies, people who hated him without even knowing anything about him, beyond what they’d read on Twitter, heard on the radio, or seen on TV.

  Maybe they’d seen a few crazy party pics on his Instagram account
and now they thought that they were entitled to judge him. He couldn't stand that. For a long time, he'd taken all the criticism personally. He’d challenged journalists and teammates whenever a disparaging word was said about him. There had always been plenty of guys who wanted to knock him out, put the cocky blonde hunk flat on his ass.

  But no one had ever dared put a hand on him. Was it fear or respect that kept them from cold-cocking him? At the end of the day, it really didn’t matter. Every teammate he’d ever had knew that if they did lash out at him, they’d be cut from the team within the hour. That's the type of power that he'd wielded all his career. But that appeared to be over.

  He was still so young. Only 24. But those college days, running around stadiums in Texas and Oklahoma and Alabama and Florida and Georgia, all that was over. The pageantry, the wild celebrations and after parties. Over.

  Austin was definitely a longhorn. He had a longhorn. He also had a pair of big balls. Monkey balls. The kind that got him through tough situations, the kind of balls that helped him stay in the pocket on a third and seven, two crazed looking 300 pound line defensive lineman, bearing down on his ass, breathing down your neck, and just before they could get their claws on him, he would juke left, then right, dip and dodge and slip out of the noose. Then he’d scramble, looking for a receiver. Then he'd spot a teammate wide open, all the way on the other side of the field. It was a dangerous throw, the kind of throw that his coaches were always telling him not to make. But Austin had never been one to listen to wise counsel, whether on the field or off it. That’s who he'd always been. So of course, he made the risky throw. That’s how he’d always lived his life.

  While the ball sailed through the air, the entire stadium held its breath. There was a loud gasp when the ball landed in the receiver’s hands. And then one section of the stadium went wild, jumping up and down, clapping their hands, and screaming, piercing the Heavens with their cries.

  Touchdown!

  Austin screamed and pumped his fists in the air. All of his teammates mobbed him, slapped him on the ass, slammed their helmets into his and grunted.

  After that dramatic third-down touchdown, everything seemed to come together for Austin and his Longhorn teammates. He made one great play after another and before any of the so-called experts could wrap their heads around what was happening, a 15 point underdog had won the National Championship. David slayed Goliath.

  From that day forward, Austin was a legend.

  He couldn't help smiling every time he watched the replay of that game that had changed his life forever. He’d finally cemented himself as the best player in the country. Maybe one of the best college football quarterbacks of all time.

  Austin turned up the volume. The announcers were praising him, laying it on real thick. He loved that. He could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

  Austin hopped off the couch, clapping wildly, hooting and howling in the darkened room. The viewing room.

  “Hell yeah!” His deep masculine voice resounded off the walls. It was the booming voice of a leader. An alpha. He could feel his mojo coming back, the blood coursing through his veins.

  He looked to his left and raised his arm in the air, preparing to give a high-five.

  That’s what he and his father used to do. But this time, he stood there with his arm frozen in the air. What a horrendous feeling. He wouldn’t have wished it on anyone.

  The images of his father, Big Daddy Daniels, came flooding back to him. Big Daddy was always trying to tell him which women to look out for and which ones to trust. He never had a problem finding something attractive about a woman. He had a very eclectic palate, which he ended up passing on to his son who also had a very open mind when it came to the women that he pursued.

  After his father’s death, Austin had really lost his way. He’d always been a bit reckless, a wild child, bad boy. He’d always been the type of guy who didn't give a damn about whether or not he pushed the envelope. The envelope be damned! Rules weren’t for him, especially the kind that tried to attach some sort of morality to the way a man conducted himself in his private life, in particular when it came to the ladies. Male journalists seemed to take a particular pleasure in exposing the juicy details of his sex life.

  Whenever he went out, even if just for a coffee at Starbucks, it seemed like there was an army of paparazzi tailing him, some hanging close to his bumper or pulling up alongside him, making it clear that they were following him, even taunting him, trying to get a response, something impulsive and irrational, something that would grab the headlines.

  After he led Texas to victory in the national championship game, he was America's darling. The tough, rugged bad boy who'd managed to win in the end. There’d been so many people rooting against him, hoping that he would fall flat on his arrogant face.

  But there were many more people who wanted him to succeed and stick it to all the uptight people in the media, those people that didn’t know how to let their hair down and have fun, those, weak skinny, beta males who seethed with jealousy when they saw the 6 foot five, green eyed quarterback, who could make all the throws, especially the deep ones. Nobody went deeper than Austin.

  Chapter 2

  Nicole couldn’t believe that he’d screwed this us up. It was supposed to be their anniversary night. They’d been planning on going out to her favorite Chinese restaurant for weeks. She’d been calling and texting Jeffrey for the past forty-five minutes but he still hadn’t responded. She was starting to get worried that maybe something had happened to him. But that was just too horrific for her to spend a lot of time thinking about. The thought that something could have happened to him on their third anniversary was too much for her to handle. It was the kind of horrible thing that you would hear on the news. It was the kind of horrible thing that happened to other people. The kind of thing that you thought you were immune to.

  But as she paced around their apartment in her new black dress and heels, her mind began to go in even darker directions. Pangs of jealousy began to well up in her body. For a moment her head became dizzy and she needed to lean up against the wall to keep from falling over. Several months ago she’d seen Jeffrey’s phone lying on the couch. It was weird to see his phone just sitting there like that. She’d only ever seen it in his hand. He never left it out. And it wasn’t something that she paid that much attention to. They were always together unless we were working.

  She would have preferred to spend these moments of freedom traveling the country or maybe even the world. But when She had brought the idea up to Jeffrey but he quickly shot it down. There was too much work to be done at the firm. He couldn’t afford to take a week off for some meaningless vacation. There would be plenty of time for travelling once they had really established themselves in their careers.

  It had really hurt her when he said that line about a meaningless vacation. What could possibly be meaningless about it, if they were spending time together? And that’s when she started to question the point of being in a relationship if they couldn’t even spend time together. And especially on the night that he knew was really important to her.

  Sure, it wasn’t our their third wedding anniversary. They’d been dating for three years but they still were not engaged. And they’d been living in the same apartment for the last year. But marriage was one of the subjects that Jeffrey refused to talk about. Every time she tried to bring it up, he would frown and wave his hands in front of his face.

  A few months ago she happened to see Jeffrey’s phone sitting on the couch. She didn’t think much of it at first. But then it started beeping, non-stop. Someone was clearly sending him lots of texts. She thought that maybe it was a family member or something. His mother had recently spent a couple weeks in the hospital. And the first thought she had was that something might have happened to her. So when she went to pick up the phone she was not snooping on him. But what she saw were definitely not texts from anyone in his family.

  There were texts from a Jessic
a, a Mandy, and a Chloe. Her heart sank when she saw those names. She had to find out who those girls were and why they were talking to him. The first few messages sent waves of jealousy flooding through her body. There were some very suggestive texts sent back and forth, but before she had time to scroll through all of the messages and really get a feel for the nature of the relationship, she heard the front door opening.

  For a moment her body froze. Her mind went blank. She had no idea what to do. She considered running. She considered throwing the phone across the room. But all she did was stand there while the door opened and Jeffrey burst back into the apartment. She dropped the phone on the couch in the exact place where she had picked it up.

  Jeffrey rushed into the apartment without saying anything to her and nearly knocked her out of the way as he went straight for his phone. He didn’t even look at the screen. He stuffed it straight in his pocket and turned to head out again. She thought that was really weird. He never acted like that. So she decided to call after him.

  “Hey Jeffrey, is everything all right?”

  He turned around slowly and glared at her. Then he sighed and lowered his eyes. She walked towards him and put her arms around him and once again asked him if everything was all right. He sighed again before raising his eyes to meet hers. She grew really worried that something was wrong. Maybe those texts, at least some of them, did have to do with his mother.

  “It’s Mom,” he said burying his head in her shoulder. “She has to go back to the hospital for more tests. The bills just keep adding up.”