The Player and the Bet: An Enemies-to-Lovers College Sports Romance

by Liv Reid

  The sound of his voice breaks my heart. He’s sincerely hurting, and I want to take that pain away from him. I squeeze him tighter before pulling back. There’ll be plenty of time for this later. Right now we have to get out of here before they change their minds.

  He wraps his arm tightly around my shoulders, and the heavy weight of it feels comforting. I put my arm around his waist, and we walk together towards the exit.

  48

  Mace

  She did it. I can’t believe she fucking did it. She saved me, and now we are walking out of this place together, arm in arm. She crawled down into the depths and pulled me out of hell, even after everything I put her through.

  “Don’t ever call on the Organization again,” Delilah says to me as I walk by.

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’m fucking done with the Org, forever,” I growl back. “I wouldn’t call on them again even if I was dying and they were the only ones who could save me.”

  She rolls her eyes and smirks. “Football players are always so dramatic.”

  I open my mouth to say something else but feel a tug at my waist. Sadie wants me to be quiet and for us to just go, so I do something I’ve never done before; I shut my mouth.

  I turn away from Delilah, and we keep walking. We walk passed Sadie’s mom. Even though she was the one who finally called this whole thing off, she was still the one who started it, and I can’t help but sneer as we walk by. I had no respect for her when she was dating my dad, and I have no respect for her now—and I can tell Sadie doesn’t either.

  “Sadie,” her mom starts.

  “Don’t,” Sadie says sternly and keeps walking. “I can’t talk to you right now.”

  “You have to call me later. We need to plan Christmas.”

  Sadie groans from under my arm, but she’s a person of her word so she says, “Fine. I will.”

  We continue walking out of the room and into a dark hall, leaving that whole mess of a situation behind us. We walk through the building together, never letting go of each other. And as we walk, I suddenly realize I’m never letting go of her for the rest of my life. The realization isn’t scary or overwhelming like I thought it would be; it’s just a fact.

  I’ve always been someone who puts himself and his career first. All I ever cared about was football, and all the girls I’ve been with were just passing flings. I never seriously thought about being with any of them for even a couple of months—let alone an entire lifetime. But with Sadie, it just feels right. She’s the most important thing in my life now.

  We walk out of the dark building and into the muted sunlight. It’s snowing gently, and the soft flakes quickly settle on our hair and shoulders. It’s so quiet I can practically hear my own heart beating in the stillness.

  I pull her close and kiss the top of her head. Her smell overwhelms me and I just want to bury my face in her neck and breathe deep. She turns to look up at me, and her green eyes practically stop my heart from beating. I see in them the same love I feel for her. She looks so familiar, but yet so new, all at the same time.

  “Sadie,” I start but almost choke on her name.

  I was so close to losing her. I was so close to never being able to touch her like this, hold her, talk to her, ever again. I betrayed her and I can never take that back. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to truly forgive me.

  She moves in front and reaches up to cup my face. Her small hand barely covers any of my jaw, but it’s one of the most comforting feelings in the world and I lean into it, closing my eyes for just a brief second.

  I can’t resist her for even a second longer, and I lean down and kiss her soft lips.

  It’s so strange to me to think we’ve known one another for years and yet only just found each other. We’ve come so far, and it’s crazy to realize she was here all along.

  As our kiss deepens, she slips her hands around the back of my neck, and I pull her tight against my body. She feels like heaven, all soft curves and warm flesh.

  We’re standing in front of the abandoned warehouse where I almost just had my legs broken. Our enemies are back there, probably about to come out at any second, and yet my cock grows painfully hard. She does this to me every time with her sexy little body. I think she could turn me on even if I was drowning—and I’d choose touching her over breathing any day.

  I can tell she feels how turned on I am because her breath catches in her throat and then speeds up. That’s my girl. I know that if I’m getting worked up, she’s never far behind.

  I want to fuck her so badly it’s almost overwhelming. I want to bury myself in her tight little pussy and forget about all the horrible shit that happened today. Forget about all the stress, forget about almost losing her forever, and just be with her.

  I pull back from the kiss and stare down at her. I brush her cheek with my thumb. So beautiful.

  “I love you, Sadie.”

  The words just pour out of my mouth before I’m even aware of what I’m saying. Her eyes widen slightly in surprise. I don’t think I meant to say it, but I’m not sorry about it. It’s the truth, and she deserves to know.

  “I l—” she starts, but I interrupt her with a fierce kiss.

  After everything I put her through, I don’t deserve to hear those words from her. Not right now, anyway. But I’m going to spend the rest of my life earning those words.

  We get lost in the kiss—like we always do. Our bodies meld together and sway with the passion between us. I could spend eternity kissing her, but I know we should probably get out of here.

  Regretfully, I pull back. The look on her face is so sexy, with her kiss-swollen lips, bright red cheeks, and glassy eyes, it takes all my self-control not to pull her back to me and kiss her again.

  I step away instead and grab her hand. I squeeze it, and she squeezes back.

  “I owe you my legs, and I intend to pay you back for the rest of my life,” I say.

  She stares up at me in disbelief, like she can’t believe what she’s hearing. She doesn’t realize how serious I am about “the rest of our lives”, and that’s okay. I’m going to prove to her just how serious I am, but there’s no rush. We have time—a lifetime, actually.

  “Come on,” I add. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “Fine with me.”

  We walk down the steps and through the snow, hand in hand. It feels so right. Us against the world.

  I don’t know what the ramifications of my falling out with the Org are going to be. I don’t know what’s going to happen to my career, but I got my girl and that’s all that matters. She’s my world now, and even if I can’t play football ever again, that’s a small price to pay for the girl of my dreams.

  Epilogue

  Mace

  Since I’m no longer under the protection of the Org, I actually have to start trying in school now—and it fucking sucks. I can’t keep screwing around and getting away with it anymore.

  I don’t exactly know what happened with the Org, but I’m pretty sure they called the school and told them they were under no obligation to keep me anymore. I know this much because Coach Hill pulled me aside and pretty much told me so, without actually saying it. I could tell he was loving this new shift in power.

  For the entire time I’d been on the team, I was untouchable and he knew it. He had tried to pull that little stunt with getting Sadie to be my minder, but it had all been a bluff. He had no leverage, and we both knew it, but now he does, and he’s using it as much as he can. He runs me ragged during every practice and actually had me sit on the bench during one of our games. But he saw how badly they needed me and immediately put me back in.

  The school ultimately decided to keep me enrolled, even though my marks were so bad they should have expelled me. The dean told me if I don’t improve they will kick me out—no matter how good I am at football. Luckily, I have Sadie, who’s a little taskmaster.

  The girl is obsessed with school, and she’s good at it too. Who knew being such a nerd coul
d come in handy? She keeps me on top of my schoolwork and also keeps me out of trouble, but unlike before, now she does it because she wants to not because she has to—well, I guess she does kind of have to now since she’s my girlfriend.

  They decided to keep me on the football team despite the very big risk of pissing off the Org. I’m one of the best quarterbacks in the country, so keeping me is worth it. And believe me, I’m happy about that.

  I’m here at Winterford based on my own merit now, nothing else, and it feels fucking fantastic. Even though it’s way more work, I feel free for the first time since I signed that stupid agreement in that office building in Manhattan. That deal with the Org was like an axe hanging over my head, and I couldn’t be happier it’s gone.

  Sadie gets on my case about school work and makes sure I actually attend class. She keeps me focused—when she isn’t distracting me with her sexy body and snarky comments. And don’t tell her this, but I kind of like it when she bosses me around—because then as payback I get to be the boss in the bedroom.

  “I love you, Mrs. Law,” I mumble into her dark hair.

  She laughs.

  “Why do you always call me that?”

  “Because that’s what you’ll be soon enough, and I want you to get used to it. We can’t have you being like ‘huh?’ when people start calling you that.”

  “You’re crazy, quarterback,” she laughs.

  “Crazy about you.”

  She opens her mouth to say another sarcastic comment, but before she can, I shut her up with a kiss.

  We’re picnicking in the same gazebo where we had our first real date. It’s late April, so it’s still chilly in the mountains, but not too bad. And I like when it’s a bit cold anyway because it means she snuggles closer for warmth. There’s nothing I like better in the world than having her curvy body pressed up tight against me.

  We have a blanket wrapped around us, and she’s sitting between my legs with her side pressed against my chest. We were looking out at the mountains rising above the campus before I kissed her. I turned off the lights so we could see the stars twinkling in the night sky.

  “I love you too,” she says breathlessly when we finally break apart.

  Hearing those words from her makes my heart melt every time and my balls ache. She’s so sexy and cute it hurts sometimes. I love everything about her. Everything. I’ve even grown to love her rocker style. I guess I always kind of liked it but just didn’t want to admit it to myself because it was so different from what I was used to. She looks like such a bad girl, but beneath the leather jacket and the band T-shirts, she’s a good girl at heart. She’s only a bad girl for me, and I love it.

  I fixed all that shit I pulled to try to get her to leave school. I was even able to get the school to clear her record with a generous “donation” from my father. But I still feel guilty about all that. She’s forgiven me, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself. Seeing the look of pain in her eyes and hearing her tell me she hated me was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my entire life, and I’ll do anything to make sure she never feels like that again.

  I still have to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t get into any more fights. She’s a firecracker and doesn’t take shit from anyone—which is one of the things I love most about her. She’s an enigma, my girl. But she hasn’t had any problems with the cheerleaders since I told Isabel to get them to back off. Now if they give her any trouble, they’ll have to deal with me—and trust me, they don’t want that.

  I pull her closer, and she looks back over her shoulder with that naughty, mischievous look in her eyes. It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. She can feel how hard I am just from kissing her.

  I grin back and grind my cock against her ass. In the moonlight, I can see her lips part in a small gasp. It doesn’t take much to get her going because she wants it just as badly as I do.

  I slide my hands over her luscious thighs and trace the inseam of her jeans. My hand then pretty much immediately goes straight to her pussy, as if drawn there by a magnet. I can’t help it. She’s just so fucking hot.

  She gasps loudly.

  “Shhh,” I whisper in her ear, then bite down on it gently.

  I watch as she slips her lower lip between her teeth to stop herself from making too much noise. I grin wickedly. Now all I want to do is make her scream my name so the whole world knows she’s mine.

  I start rubbing her through her jeans. She grabs onto my arm and digs her nails into my skin through my sweater—but she doesn’t stop me. I can basically read her mind. She thinks this is too public, but I don’t give a shit. And she won’t actually stop me because she loves this just as much as I do. My naughty, nerdy rocker vixen. Such an enigma.

  She leans into me even more. Her back is taut, and she can’t help but throw her head back to rest on my shoulder. I lick kisses into the warm skin of her neck, and a thrill of pleasure runs through me when I feel her shiver.

  This position reminds me of last Christmas, which we had to spend with her mom as one of the stipulations for getting her mom to drop the favor I owed the Org. Sadie told me I didn’t have to go. She knew how I felt about her mom. Her mother is the reason my dad is a shell of his former self.

  My mom died from heart disease when I was a baby so I never knew her, but when I was growing up my dad dated countless models and debutants, so he was never wanting when it came to female companionship. But for some reason, when Linda left him for another guy, it completely gutted him.

  I still insisted on going with Sadie to her mom’s because I knew Sadie felt the same way about her as I did, and I couldn’t let her face that situation alone.

  We went together, hand in hand, and it had been just as awful as I was expecting it to be. Her mother was passive aggressive towards Sadie, and, at the same time, was putting on a show in front of her boyfriend, Warren. She was pretending to be someone she wasn’t, and I could tell how much it bothered Sadie. I remember squeezing her hand hard under the table whenever her mom said something rude or untrue.

  Not surprisingly, her mother was very excited about Sadie and me dating—me being super wealthy and all. I found the whole thing kind of funny, in a ridiculous sort of way, but I could tell Sadie wasn’t pleased.

  After we’d made it through an insufferable dinner, we retired to the parlor for brandy and presents. We’d brought a pie and a bottle of wine, but we hadn’t brought any gifts, and I could see the look of annoyance on Sadie’s mother’s face. I knew exactly what she was thinking. Sadie had scored a rich boyfriend, so she should be showering her mother in expensive gifts—even though she hadn’t bought anything for Sadie or me.

  We spent the rest of the evening enduring rude, subtle comments about how we lacked manners, since it’s customary to bring gifts on Christmas. At one point, I could tell Warren had had enough because he switched on the TV to drown out Sadie’s mother’s nagging with a Christmas special. She got pissed off and stormed out of the room. A few minutes later, Warren made up an excuse and left, saying he had to take a call in his office.

  It was just Sadie and me alone with the special playing on TV and a fire roaring next to the Christmas tree. The whole situation was awkward as hell, and I could tell Sadie was uncomfortable. I grabbed a blanket and threw it over us, then pulled her close to me.

  “This is our first Christmas together,” I whispered in her ear.

  She laughed regretfully.

  “What a great way to spend it, huh?”

  She looked over her shoulder at me apologetically, but I shook my head.

  “As long as I’m with you, then it’s perfect,” I said, and the sadness slowly left her eyes.

  I knew she wanted to be with her father for Christmas. She didn’t like the thought of leaving him alone for the holidays, but we’d been at his place that morning and she was going back there after we were done. He wouldn’t be alone for too long.

  And I was heading to my dad’s place after. I d
idn’t like the idea of my dad being alone either, but luckily—kind of—he had a new twenty-year-old girlfriend. I didn’t like her much. What twenty-year-old wants to be with a man in his fifties unless it’s for money? She was probably using him. But that’s not really any of my business. If he wanted to date someone his son’s age, that’s his prerogative.

  I was just glad he finally had someone. Neither Sadie nor I have any siblings, so we don’t have anyone to pick up the slack when it comes to our parents. But luckily, now we have each other.

  I wanted to distract her so she wouldn’t think about how awful her mom was being, or how lonely her dad was, so I pulled her close and started kissing along her neck. She grabbed my biceps as if to stop me, but we both knew she didn’t actually want me to stop. I felt her up under the blanket in her mom’s boyfriend’s place, kissing and sucking on her neck, until her mother came back into the room and Sadie sprung away from me like she’d been electrocuted.

  But right now, in this gazebo, no one is going to interrupt us. I grab the waistbands of her yoga pants and panties and yank them down her hips. She gasps and bucks at the unexpected movement, unwittingly helping me to slide them over her ass and down her thighs.

  I’m so glad she’s wearing these stretchy leggings instead of her normal jeans because it makes getting her out of her pants a hell of a lot easier—that, and also because they make her spectacular curvy ass look fucking incredible. I think she knows how much I like them, and that’s why she wears them for me.

  I quickly undo my fly and my cock pops eagerly out of my jeans. Sadie feels it against the bare skin of her ass, and she unconsciously leans back into it. I can’t help the huge smirk that crosses my lips. Even as she whispers, “We can’t do this here! What if someone sees?” she shifts to invite me in. I’m not going to turn down an invitation like that, so I grab her hips and pull her up so she’s practically sitting on my thighs.

  She tucks her legs underneath her so she’s straddling me with her back to me, but we’re still completely covered by the blanket so if anyone walks by they can’t see what we are doing—though it’s very fucking obvious to anyone with half a brain.