RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) Read online

  What kind of hotshot lothario would I be if I didn’t make a game of it? Where would the fun lie in that?

  She’s been quiet for a while, staring out at the big blue expanse of sea beyond us, nothing but the sound of the birds in the sky above and the put-put-put of the diesel motor to fill the gaps in conversation.

  From time to time I look over to her idling away peacefully, the softness of her beautiful face better defined than I remember it, even more attractive.

  I’m not lying when I say I spent four years at LSU frozen by a fear of failure, which led to me missing out on some of the things that I only realized I actually wanted, when it was already too late to get them. From the outside I was a king, which was amazing from the inside too, after all, a king is a fucking king, no matter how you look at it, but I feel so disconnected with the person I used to be, and this five years in the wilderness has given me a lot of time to think that what I did back then - all those parties, all that fucking - was more about doing what other people expected of me that what I truly wanted myself.

  And Lucy was the one that got away. Alright, she was the one that never knew she was the one, that was never in the net in the first place, but it’s still the same. I don’t remember half of the girl’s names I was with a college, but I do pretty much remember every game that Lucy came to, where she sat, what she wore, how fucking incredible her smile was, when she chose to give it.

  That’s the kind of shit that you can’t admit in college, whichever jerk jock you are, and especially not as the king of the football team. I was meant to fuck cheerleaders and throw balls, and I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, which is why I got so good at it but I wish I’d done more.

  I cut the motor, let the boat drift a little, and drop the anchor when the water stills. Lucy has the look in her eyes that tells me she’s spent the parts of the journey she hasn’t been looking over the side of the boat, staring at my ass.

  “This it?”

  “Welcome to paradise.”

  There is a large rock of nothing to one side, too shallow at the edges to get too close to, and nothing much else beyond that.

  “How did we end up here?”

  “Now come on, you haven’t been sleeping have you?”

  “Nine years ago, you moved from Pittsburgh to Louisiana on a football scholarship to study at LSU.”

  “You’ve got your work face on.”

  “I thought you were bringing me to your office.”

  “You need to learn to relax a little bit more.”

  “I’m here to write a story.”

  “There won’t be one if you don’t let yourself experience one.”

  “I’m not the subject, I keep reminding you.”

  “Not yet you’re not.”

  “I told you, I’m not into games.”

  “I’m going to be smiling when you admit you were wrong.”

  “I’m not going to sleep with you.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that.”

  Now is definitely the right time to take my vest top off. I’m not conceited, certainly not in the way Lucy and the rest of the country accuse me of being, and I’m much more aware than everyone gives me credit for. I take my top off to see how Lucy reacts, because this is a game and it makes me smile watching her try not to look at something she clearly wants to.

  “You’re not hot in that?”

  “No.”

  “Sun can be strong here, you’d look good with a tan.”

  “I wouldn’t want to give you the wrong idea.”

  “You’d have slept with me six years ago.”

  Lucy rolls her eyes. “I’m glad I was sensible enough not to make that mistake.”

  Take her to the edge and then cool off. Show her what she’s missing out on, offer it to her point blank, call her bluff and then take it away again until she begs me to give it back. That’s how this is going to work, because it’ll make her want it more.

  What’s better than resisting temptation because you’re being defiant, thinking you’ve lost the opportunity to get it because of your inability to admit your desire and then allowing yourself to get it?

  Her eyes are going to go so wide when I slide my dick inside her. I can feel it twitching just looking at her. And this isn’t just getting something I feel like I missed out on, or maybe it is, and I won’t know until the moment it happens, but right now, it kind of feels more important than that. I’ve learned to trust my instincts a lot over my life, it’s how I got to where I am now, and right now, instincts are screaming at me with a voice that’s cutting through me like raw electricity.

  I do it because it’s the moment, and it’s fun, and I want to see the look on her face. I loop my thumbs into my board shorts and go to pull them down.

  “You don’t mind, do you? It’s just that I like to get naked out here.”

  Lucy’s hand is up into the air quicker than a traffic cop, and I pause for a moment, bent over towards her slightly, my shorts already half way down my ass and out of her line of sight until she realizes I’m joking.

  “Let’s just keep this clean shall we?”

  I straighten back up. “Alright. I hope you brought your bikini, though.”

  “I didn’t realize that was essential office wear.”

  “It is out here.”

  I dump myself into one of the seats across from her.

  “Are you always this excited?”

  “I don’t get guests all that often.”

  “I can see how much you like the solitude.”

  “Come on, this place is beautiful. Doesn’t it remind you of Louisiana?”

  “I had a shit time at college, I’d prefer not to think about it.”

  “Everyone has a shit time at college.”

  “Everyone except the prom king and the captain of the football team.”

  “I had to study too.”

  “I can see how valuable that became for you in later life.”

  “You know, we haven’t seen each other for over five years, but it feels like it could have only been yesterday seeing you up in the stands watching the game, that goofy mountain dew hat crammed onto your head, you used to hide your face with, your ears sticking out.”

  She tucks her hair behind her ears, conscious I’ve just mentioned them.

  “That’s pretty good peripheral vision.”

  “You kind of need it as a quarterback.”

  “What else do you need?”

  “You want to do this so formally?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “I always thought you were more creative than that.”

  “I told you I’m not going to make stuff up.”

  “Then put in something people won’t know.”

  Lucy shifts a little, crosses and uncrosses her legs, and then gives me the look that tells me I’ve given her something to bite on, a hint of the smell of something new.

  “Alex Vann Haden, notorious womanizer, famous for his assets, much smaller in real life than initially thought.”

  “You see, it’s all a game. To them, I’m The Rhino. The bad boy that threatens staff members, wakes up in jail cells, fucks famous politicians daughters-.” Lucy’s frowning at me and she obviously didn’t know, or doesn’t know, or wasn’t sure, whatever, she clearly doesn’t approve. “-That time really was a mistake. I’m not really like that.”

  “What are you like?”

  “I’m multidimensional. Layered. Complex.”

  “You sound like an onion. Alex Vann Haden, originally thought to be a world class athlete, recently discovered to be nothing but an onion.”

  “Now you’re mocking me.”

  “Sensitive too.”

  “It would help if you didn’t come at this with bias.”

  “Then you should have asked someone along that you didn’t have history with.”

  “Have I upset you?”

  “You didn’t return my Valentine’s cards.”

  “If it makes you
feel any better, I’ve never sent a Valentine’s card in my life.”

  “Actually, you did me a favor.”

  “How’s that?”

  “You would have only gone on and broken my heart.”

  “That means you did care about me.”

  Lucy shrugs. “We all make mistakes.”

  “Maybe we can learn from them.”

  Lucy shakes her head. “That is definitely something you’re not going to be able to convince me of in a week.”

  “Then I guess you’ll just have to stay around for longer.”

  I leave Lucy with a smile, too quick for her to respond, disappear down into the kitchen and bring back up a bottle of champagne, strawberries, full fat cream, and icing sugar. Lucy pulls the champagne out of the ice bucket to look at the label momentarily before allowing it to slide back inside amongst the freezing water.

  “Are you trying to impress me?”

  “Lucy Parker, there is no way I can answer that question without finding myself in a hole. If I told you yes, I’d be accused of foul play and acting unnaturally, when I’ve asked you here to record my natural life, and if I said no, this is what I always do, you’d be disappointed because I’m not treating you specially enough.”

  “You’ve thought about that way too much for it to be natural, but then again, do you always keep champagne and strawberries in your fridge for special occasions?”

  “I don’t bring just anyone here, you know.”

  “No, of course, here to this very specific piece of water in the middle of nowhere.”

  “See, I knew you were enjoying yourself.”

  I open the bottle and pour the champagne while Lucy places strawberries into a bowl, cream poured generously over the top.

  “The champagne is a nice touch, but the company could be improved I suppose.”

  “There you go, goading me again, when I’ve already told you how sensitive I am.”

  “I’m sure you’ll recover.”

  “Name one person you’d prefer to be here with.”

  That’s put her on the spot.

  “Go on, one person”, I say again.

  “I’m at work, that’s an unfair question.”

  “You chose to come.”

  “My boss forced me.”

  “You chose to stay.”

  “Who can refuse a boat trip to the middle of nowhere?”

  “You just can’t admit you like me.”

  “I’d like you more if you were less arrogant.”

  “Admit it.”

  She gives me that oh-so-not-very-subtle look away and then a coquettish look back up. This girl is pure theater, she’s learned that over the last five years. Not the college virgin anymore, far from it. This girl knows what she wants and she’s convincing herself she knows how to get it. A sip of champagne while the question hangs, a seductive wrapping of her damp lips around that strawberry she will know exactly what is doing to me.

  “Alright.”

  “Alright, what?”

  “I’m enjoying myself.”

  “With me?”

  “You form part of that equation, yes.”

  I can’t help but smile. “I knew you’d like me.”

  “I didn’t say I liked you, I said I was enjoying myself.”

  “It’s the same thing.”

  “You think everyone likes you, you have a warped sense of perspective. It comes from the necessity to protect yourself from criticism.”

  “I love it when you talk dirty.”

  “You’d get turned on by a shop mannequin if you gave it the right dress.”

  “Now now, don’t do yourself a disservice.”

  “I’ll make sure I’m careful of that.”

  “And I didn’t ever think you liked me, not the first time around at least.”

  “Don’t convince yourself that viewpoint has changed if it hasn’t.”

  “No, of course, making the same mistake twice would be awful.”

  “Unforgivable.”

  “Unthinkable.”

  “Undeniable.”

  This is sexual tension central station and even though she’s not admitting in, Lucy’s a high-speed train coming at me with her horns blaring and her lights flashing all over the place. I’m so horny I can barely hide it. My dick is twitching against the fabric of my board shorts like mad, and I’m swelling so rapidly I’m either going to have to pour water on my lap or something much more enjoyable instead, like those lips or those hands or what I know will be growing rapidly hot and tingly like mad inside her sexy little-

  “Underwear.”

  There is definitely movement towards each other, that’s undeniable. I could repeat that moment in my head a thousand times and come to the same conclusion. And when I say that moment, I mean that moment. The kiss. The culmination of a couple of days flirting. The close proximity of two individuals, with history, no longer able to deny it any more. The fuck it, I’m going in moment, the nothing else matters moment. The Alex Vann Haden and Lucy Parker five years in the waiting ninety-nine yard hail mary at the end of the Superbowl, except I never throw hail mary passes because I’m that certain to make sure I get it done before there’s even a chance of it being over I don’t need to moment.

  The ice in my crotch feels super cold, and I’m up on my feet, softened instantly, watching that moment float away on the afternoon’s wind, waving at me as it goes, flicking me the bird.

  Lucy looks embarrassed, either because of what’s happened - both the attempt to kiss me and the accidental knocking over of the ice bucket - or maybe because I’ve just caught her ogling my crotch.

  “Fuck, sorry, fuck”, Lucy’s saying, the words punctuated by laughter. “That was super unlucky.”

  And then the moment is so far past us there’s nothing else for it but to move on and wait for it to eventually come back around again.

  Lucy

  If that jerk thinks he can play me like that, he’s got another thing coming. He’s so transparent I can see the sun shining through him, and it’s not going to work.

  If Alex Vann Haden is serious, which I’m almost a hundred percent certain he’s not, he’s going to have to work a lot harder than that to prove it.

  I’m not going to let him win this little bet unless I know it doesn’t bother him if he loses it, and I’m not going to give it up just like that. I might have done at college, if this happened way back then, but I’m definitely not going to do it now. He can pour me as much champagne as he likes, take me to as many private islands in the middle of nowhere, but until he proves to me he’s not just another alpha male looking to get laid, he and I are going nowhere.

  The water has made his board shorts see-through enough I can see the outline of his cock, and as much as I try not to look at it, I can’t help my eyes wandering back there every so often.

  Nowhere, I repeat back to myself. I’m better than that. I’m strong enough to resist him and have a large enough sense of self-worth not to bring myself down to his level. No matter how easy it would be. Not matter how much I have always kicked myself for being the shy girl who was always out of his league.

  That’s why none of this makes sense. That’s why I’m still convinced he’s trying to trick me, or punk me, or whatever, everything but being sincere about what he actually wants. And I don’t buy that bullshit for one minute. Maybe now he’s seen me he wants to fuck me but back then, at college, when he had every opportunity to tell me the same? It’s a little difficult to swallow.

  I look from Alex’s crotch, across the perfectly tight muscles of his abdomen and then up to his beautiful blue eyes. They are narrowed against the sun and it gives his face a quizzical, slightly surprised look.

  I suppose he expected me to throw myself at him then, and now that his plans have changed he’s been thrown off course. Invite a girl here, take her out on the boat, ply her with champagne and watch her lift her legs onto his shoulders I’m sure is his normal modus operandi.

  Well, this girl is a
little different. Number one, I’m here for work and I have a job to do. Number two, I don’t just sleep with any super hot football player, and number three, even if I am going to sleep with him, even if I want to so much I feel like my ovaries are going to explode every time he looks at me, I’m not going to it just for a bit of fun.

  I might if this wasn’t Alex Vann Haden, but because it is, and because he’s so arrogant with it, I really don’t want to give him the satisfaction of feeling like he’s conquered me and I’ve had to give in to his charms.

  Even if it were true, that would be enough to swell his head so much the island might sink. No. Even if resisting is torture. Even if he proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he actually seriously likes me, that he’s not just dicking around and wants to pleasure me and make me feel good, he’s going to have to grovel to make it happen.

  He’s going to have to prove that it’s not just for his benefit, but for mine too, and before all of that, he’s going to have to open up and prove he’s not just one dimensional.

  All I’m getting at the moment is one track mind and very little else. Alright, there isn’t much time I don’t think about what I’d like to be doing to him, or have him do to me, but that’s different. At least my desire is genuine.

  “You’re going to be hard work.”

  “It was an accident.”

  The look he gives me suggests he doesn’t believe me for a minute.

  “Is there more ice?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Maybe we should take a swim instead.”

  “Or ask some questions.”

  “I thought we already were.”

  “I’m still a little fuzzy on the answers.”

  I sip my champagne and hold his gaze. Even with the late summer sun, those board shorts don’t stay wet for long.