RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) Page 22

  Retiring I think. Fuck that. I’ve only just begun.

  Epilogue.

  That summer...

  Lucy

  We take the boat out on our one year anniversary, this time with a full tank of gasoline and this time, thankfully, without a storm brewing on the horizon. I’m showing much more now, and the press know that not only are we having a baby, we are going to have twin boys.

  It’s crazy, and I can hardly wrap my head around the idea. Not only one child but two, not only one boy but a pair of them. I’m only seven months in but I feel absolutely massive even though Alex keeps telling me he thinks I look even more beautiful than I did before.

  If that’s true, I don’t know what it says about The Rhino and his perversions, but even if it’s not, it’s super nice to hear.

  I never thought I’d be a mother at all, let alone with Alex Vann Haden as the father, and I still haven’t adjusted to the reality of it. Until these little boys pop out, I’m going to continue thinking it’s a joke.

  That’s not the only thing I’m still in shock about either. The whole Superbowl win in the dying seconds followed by Alex’s completely unexpected wedding proposal still hasn’t fully sunk in.

  I’ve often asked Alex whether he would have gone through with it anyway had they lost, to which he always responds, as cocky as ever, that neither of those things were ever in doubt.

  We’ve decided to get married officially in the fall in a small celebration with close family members, with a party later on in the year here on his island, which I expect to be adequately debaucherous. Alex says those days are well behind him, but as long as I’ve had the children by then, there’s no chance I’m going to hold myself back as well.

  Nine months without a drink with two huge boys growing inside you is nothing short of a miracle for me.

  That’s part of the reason we’ve decided to push the wedding to the end of the year too. I’m not going to even attempt to get into a wedding dress if I can’t see my feet without the help of a mirror.

  We wanted to wait until after the anniversary of Dad’s death too, which I know is going to be a shitty time for me. He would have fainted had he seen what happened after that incredible game, which is being talked about as the number one sporting event of the year, better even than Alex’s winning touchdown pass, even though it’s not in itself technically a sporting event per sé.

  Not content with awarding him a record-equalling fourth Superbowl win, they also gave him MVP again, and this year, finally, he was immortalized in the hall of fame. It only took them six seasons but hey, at least that’s still quicker than most.

  He continues to be the all round superstar he promised me he always was, not only out on the field, but here, at home, with me, my family, in our everyday lives, which are anything but ordinary.

  I’ve never felt more loved, more in love, more able to understand what that actually means, and I’ve never felt happier than I do with Alex.

  It sounds fucking cliché, but this man is my world, and every day I wake up and wonder what I did that made him want to choose me.

  He has his faults like everyone else, and we have our challenges like everyone else but I’ve never doubted him or us, or what we have strived to create for one another.

  I’m about to have twins, I’m about to get married to the sexiest, most talented quarterback in the world, I’m floating on a boat in the middle of the Caribbean sea and I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.

  I’m living a dream, and somehow, through magic, design, perseverance or sheer luck, or perhaps a wicked mix of all of them, Alex Vann Haden is here to share it with me. Not only that, but he’s here to stay too.

  Gemstone eyes, rock-hard abs, and did I mention that massive, massive-.

  “Are you alright Lucy?” he asks me.

  “Babymaker”, I say without thinking.

  “Sorry?”

  I smile but don’t take my eyes off him.

  “Never better”, I say, correcting myself. “I’ve never been better.”

  Alex

  Twins. I can’t fucking believe it. I mean, hall of fame, MVP, record-equalling number of Superbowl rings, but twins, fucking twins. Quarterback and wide receiver. Two safeties. A fucking team all in one go.

  I still can’t believe it. I have to pinch myself from time to time, even though Lucy has swollen up like a balloon. I swear she’s so big she looks like she’s going to pop out a whole offensive line up.

  Life has never been as good as this. Kids on the way, wedding round the corner, mother in law placated, even Jack’s taken to me. In one year my whole life has turned around, and every time I think back to the moment I finally decided to get back in touch with Lucy - a decision I agonized over much more than anything else I have done in my life - I feel so happy I had the balls to finally go ahead and do it. None of this would have happened otherwise. That incredible first fuck almost a full year ago, the subsequent explosion of our desire in the corridor afterward and everything finally falling into place for us a full two months after I wanted it to.

  I had to wait, but waiting just made the whole thing better.

  Lucy’s finally finished that article about me, although it’s not an article at all now, it’s a fucking book. I didn’t even know she was writing it in her spare time, until she gave it to me as a birthday present.

  It’s a book about my life, to be published by Gathbrait Publications, the owners of Endzone magazine, and from a purely objective point of view, it is absolutely brilliant. I’m not the only one saying that either. It hasn’t even been released yet and critics are going crazy over advanced copies and previews. Lucy, naturally, believes almost nothing people say about her work. She thinks it’s neither good nor bad, just an honest story about her favorite football player who happens to also be her fiancé.

  She is the most remarkable woman I’ve ever met, and every day I spend with her, I love her more and more.

  Even with her complaints about being pregnant, even with her quirks and idiosyncrasies, her insecurities and concerns, even though she is specific about things I will never understand, I love her.

  I love her because of those things and not in spite of them, I love her because when we come together it feels like the world itself is shaking apart, and I love her, more than anything else, because she makes me a better person.

  I make a point of looking at the clear blue sky, and then I lick my finger and hold it up to the wind.

  “Storms coming in”, I say.

  Lucy gives me her narrow eyes. She rests her book on her belly and lifts herself up.

  “Are you trying to seduce me, Mr. Vann Haden?”

  “I’m just concerned about your safety, Mrs. Parker Vann Haden.”

  “That’s a mouthful.”

  “It’s more than a mouthful.”

  There is a pause while she contemplates it, and I begin to swell even harder.

  “Ok, but not so hard, I don’t want these boys being born out here”, she says.

  I can’t help but smile. “We’ve got gasoline this time.”

  “Soft and slow, or not at all.”

  “I can go soft and slow.”

  She raises her eyebrows.

  “Adaptable”, she says.

  “Very.”

  I take a step closer, my bathing costume already lowered.

  “Hard”, she says.

  “Always.”

  “Confident.”

  “See, I told you you’d change your opinion of me.”

  Lucy laughs. “Just shut up and fuck me before that storm comes in.”

  “That I can definitely do.”

  Clear skies above us, I tease Lucy’s bikini to the side and glow with pleasure as I watch myself slide inside her.

  “That is fucking amazing”, Lucy moans, as she leans back into her deck chair, her pussy giving way to my swollen insistence. “That, Mr. Vann Haden is fucking amazing.”

  “The Rhino”, I correct her. “Ri
ght now you can call me The Rhino.”

  THE END

  OFFSIDE

  A Bad Boy Sports Romance

  Abbey Foxx

  © 2016 Abbey Foxx

  Cover designed by Lunatic Design

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author's imagination.

  Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.

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  “When you’ve got something to prove, there’s nothing greater than a challenge.”

  - Terry Bradshaw.

  “Work hard, dream big.”

  - Anon.

  About This Book:

  I can't get that enormous prick out of my head.

  Penny -

  Jasper Stone is massive in every respect.

  He’s a beast on the field, an animal off it, and just what we need to turn our season around.

  Medal winner, star athlete, one hundred percent alpha male at the top of his game.

  The trouble is, it’s the wrong one.

  That's not the only thing either.

  He's cocky, arrogant and constantly in trouble, and that's when he manages to keep that thing in his pants.

  I can’t stand him, but unfortunately that doesn't matter right now, because apparently we don’t have a choice. If we want to survive for another year, we need Jasper Stone to help us do it.

  It's a risk, but the potential reward is absolutely huge. After all, staying up isn't something Jasper Stone seems to have any trouble with.

  Nor is being big and strong.

  Bad boy Brit, banned athlete, and bigger all over than I’ve ever seen before, if there's one thing that Jasper knows how to do, it's win.

  He'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Girls, medals, millions of dollars - there's very little that can get in his way.

  With him on our team, there's no way that we can lose, and right now Jasper Stone is a free agent.

  I just didn't realize I was too.

  Jasper -

  Banned.

  No rugby for a whole f*cking year.

  I wouldn’t be here if I had the choice, but apparently, I don't.

  The owners want me out of the way, and if I want to continue getting paid, I've got to play ball.

  Literally.

  I don't even know how to play this game, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone.

  The Tigers get me for free, Corsham get rid of their trouble maker and I keep earning money.

  Everyone wins.

  All I've got to do is keep my head down, survive for a year and get the hell out of there when I'm finally done.

  Simple, right?

  It is until I meet Penny.

  *Offside is a 75,000+ word bad boy sports romance heavy on the steam and light on the sports!*

  ***

  Prologue

  London, England.

  Headquarters of the Rugby League Disciplinary Board.

  An hour behind schedule.

  Jasper

  I guess arriving over an hour late to a disciplinary hearing isn’t an ideal way to make a good impression, but at least this time I’ve got a valid excuse. Three valid excuses actually.

  I mean, as lucky as I always seem to be in that respect anyway, it isn’t every day I get to wake up stark bollock naked, handcuffed to a bed, with three incredibly beautiful girls alongside me, so what was I meant to do? I couldn’t exactly leave without saying goodbye, you know, a few times at the very least.

  If this panel were a little less robotic and a little more human, and this environment wasn’t even more hostile than it usually is, they might understand. As it is, I know nothing I say will work in my favor anyway, so I apologize for my tardiness, take a seat alongside my manager, Dougie, and wait for them to get on with what they need to do.

  I’ve been here a dozen times before so I know the process inside out. They tell me I’m a bad boy, slap my wrists and give me a fine. After that I get back out on the field and do what I do best.

  The middle of the three men in front of us, a jobsworth called Hendrix who has always hated me, finally stops jabbing his pen against the table and leans forward, the sound of the chair creaking awkwardly under his weight echoing around the otherwise silent room.

  None of these people are ex-players, so I have no idea how they think they are qualified to comment on what goes on either on or off the field, but, whatever, I’ve been telling the world that for a while and nobody's ever done anything about it, so I suppose there’s no reason why they should start listening now.

  “You do realize the importance of this meeting, Jasper?”

  “Come on, it’s not like I haven’t been here before. Give me my fine and I can get back to training.”

  Hendrix lets out a long sigh, looks down at the table and then back up to me.

  “I think it’s a little more complicated than that.”

  I look at each of the other panel members in turn, neither of whom have the balls to look me in the eye and then back up to Hendrix. Whatever’s happening here it’s not how it usually goes down.

  “Complicated, like, how exactly?”

  “Look, shall we just get this over with?”

  Dougie’s voice is as gruff as one of the rocky outcrops in the highland mountains he comes from, and he looks like he’s had even less sleep than I have. I guess having his best player constantly in trouble can’t be easy for my manager, but he knows as well as everyone else in this room that half the shit that I get involved in is almost never really my fault.

  I get picked on in the press and I’m a target for criticism and scrutiny just because of the kind of person I am. It’s what happens when you’re the best player in the league. The best player in the world, actually. Girls want to fuck you and paparazzi want to spread it all over the news to see you fall. Actually, girls have always wanted to fuck me, so I guess that’s just me.

  “Fifty two week suspension starting today.”

  My heart skips a beat. The words hang in the silence of the room like shotgun bullets about to rip through me. CLICK CLICK goes the button on the top of Hendrix’s pen and I have to control myself not to tear it out of his hands and crush it into a million pieces.

  For a long moment I think it must be a joke, but it seems like I’m the only one who does. No-one is laughing. No-one is saying anything at all. Fuck this. How dare he try and ban me?

  Dougie hangs his head at the end of an angry sigh that sounds much more resigned to the news than I like.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me, right?”

  “I can make it a two year ban, Jasper, I have that power.”

  Hendrix leans back in his chair, the wood creaking in his wake, his work here done. That fucker is absolutely loving this.

  “What the fuck for? Dougie?”

  Dougie speaks up, but his voice lacks conviction. “You’re going to ruin the kid’s career.”

  It sounds like a statement and not a warning.

  “Douglas, you and I both know that the only person ruining Jasper Stone’s career is Jasper Stone.”

  Hendrix has his pen pointed at me like the barrel of a gun.

  “I want to appeal. I want another panel. A proper fucking panel.
”

  “Sit down, Jasper.”

  I feel Dougie’s thick hand on my arm, pulling me back into my seat. Hendrix clears his throat and then chooses his words carefully, his eyes moving from Dougie to me and back again.

  “You can appeal the decision, and it will go to another arbitration panel, and in six weeks time, when that panel has received the appeal, they will make the same decision I have, extending that ban for an additional fifty two weeks based on my initial recommendations. You’re lucky with a year. I could have buried you for what happened.”

  I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This is not at all what I expected to happen today. Not even close. Talk about going from paradise to hell in under an hour.

  “You’re fucking up my career.”

  “Thank you, Jasper, your comments have been noted. Now, if you don’t mind, we are already behind schedule today.”

  “Well behind schedule”, one of the other panel members adds.

  Now he’s showing me the door. This piece of shit pen pusher who’s never even picked up a rugby ball in his life is pointing his soft hands at the exit and showing me where to get off. I can feel the red mist about to descend.

  “We’re not finished here”, I say calmly, teeth gritted and every single muscle in my body tense.

  “Douglas, with all due respect, get your player in line before he risks a lifetime ban.”

  I’m on my feet again, knuckles pressed against the table leaning towards the panel.

  “I’m the reason people watch this sport. I’m the best player in the fucking league.”

  Hendrix smiles at me with a corporate, shit-eating grin.

  “Not anymore you’re not.”

  Dougie has hold of my arm again. “Come on. We’ll talk about how to appeal this outside.”