Page 16 of Dirty Player
I was an asshole because I doubted he had it in him, but I hoped like hell he did.
Unfortunately, I kept thinking about the way his sister’s ass had felt in my hands last week on the dance floor. The fact that she’d doused my lust with her threats and then Beaux had made it clear at practice he’d follow through with them had made me a bigger asshole than normal.
Kolby, on the other hand, was the first rookie I’d ever met who seemed to have his eyes focused on the only two things that mattered: his daughter and his career. At his party, he was in the pool with her, holding on to her stomach while she flapped and kicked, making more of a splash than getting anywhere.
But he was patient, focused on only her and the other little kids around.
It forced a weight to my chest. One I hated thinking about so much that I refused to do so—but when I saw moments like that, I couldn’t help it.
I’d lost every fucking thing I ever wanted and it was all Serena’s fault. Not that I gave a shit about the money I was still forced to send her. Spousal support, my ass. She’d walked away two years into our marriage, and six years later I was still paying for her to go do whatever the fuck she wanted.
Our phone calls were once a year, her calling me, me letting it go to voicemail. The taste of regret and disgust were heavy on my tongue every time I heard her voice wondering when her annual payment was going to be deposited.
I figured the next conversation we had would go drastically different.
An elbow bumped mine and a cold beer was placed in my hand. “Take this and drink it. You look like you want to kill someone.”
I glanced at Danny Rudolph. He was only a year younger than me and had been traded to Raleigh the same year I had been—the year after everything in my life went tits up. He hadn’t known me before, when I had my shit together, but he’d been there since my downfall.
“I don’t want to kill anyone,” I said and realized where my glare had been.
On her.
Shannon Hale. She ignited something inside me that went beyond the thought of an hour or two between the sheets before I kicked her out of my bed, like I did with most women since Serena. It had been different from the moment I saw Shannon.
Something dark and twisted, something that told me I’d be able to do whatever I wanted to her and she’d only scream for more.
Thinking she was draping herself all over Hale to get her hand into his back pocket had pissed me off more than it should have.
The way her gaze had gone a bit hazy when she’d looked at me that first time had made me jealous of the young kid.
“You go after her and you’re looking for trouble. Word is Hale’s her only family. You fuck with her and he’s going to go apeshit on your old ass.”
I had heard that. Their mom died a few years ago. They came from nothing. Word was Shannon was more of a mom to him than his own had ever been. Not to mention they had different fathers, neither of them around. Beaux didn’t hold shit back. He wasn’t ashamed of where he came from.
Plus, Rudolph was right. Guy could probably take me, too, unfortunately. I might have doubted his ability, but he still had an arm of steel, built for throwing. He could be the best in the league if he didn’t always fucking hesitate that half-second in the pocket.
It was going to get him sacked and concussed before the third game.
“I don’t want her.”
The words tasted as nasty as the swig of beer I took to wash away the lie.
I wanted her. I’d thought of a thousand ways to apologize to her for being such an asshole. They all involved her naked, her thick, dark hair spread all over my white sheets. Her jaw slack while I pleasured her, over and over again.
I caught her gaze, that same hazy, wanting look from across the pool where she stood with a half-dozen players and their wives or girlfriends.
Being the prick I was, I dropped my hand to my crotch and adjusted myself where she could see I was already growing hard.
The thought of her…the mere fucking sight of her did that to me.
I hadn’t been this hard, so constantly and so easily, since I was fifteen and Serena let me touch her tits for the first time.
Next to me, Rudolph laughed. It was loud and gathered the attention of most of the people nearby. I glared at him, but still sensed Shannon’s gaze at my back.
A little prickle of interest.
I smirked at my friend. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”
