Game On (A Bad Boy Sports Romance) (12 page)

              He shrugged. “We’ll know when we get there, I suppose.”

              Kieran turned on the radio and rolled the windows down as we made our way back to the road, driving along for perhaps another half-hour or more. His hand reached across the console to take mine, the two of us riding along in silence as the classic rock station played. Finally, we rolled to a stop in front of a tiny, kitschy little motel far out in the desert with pink stucco walls and a garden of various cacti out front. Kieran and I exchanged questioning glances.

              Then we both nodded. No one would think to look for us here, that was for sure. And way out in the desert, Kieran was less likely to get recognized. So we went in and paid for a room, which was decorated with stereotypical Western and Southwestern odds and ends, the bedspread patterned with the same lone star bull skull motif you see everywhere in the desert. Kieran and I laughed at how ridiculous it was, hiding out in the desert in this little tourist trap off the beaten path.

              Then, before either of us could utter another word, we fell into each other’s arms in a passionate kiss. He scooped me up and carried me to the silly little bed, both of us tearing off our clothes on the way. With the setting sun turning the horizon bright pink and orange through the window opposite of us, Kieran’s lips worked their way down the length of my body to stop between my legs. His hands pried my thighs apart and he dove in, his tongue lapping hungrily at my cunt. I arched my back and moaned blissfully, reaching down to tangle my fingers in his tousled blond hair.

              “Oh, Kieran,” I breathed, shutting my eyes tightly as he licked and sucked my clit until I was spasming with ecstasy. He rolled his tongue over my clit one final time and I came with a shriek, clutching the sides of the bed as though I might float away. Then, as he went to straddle me, I suddenly decided I was going to be brave and try something new. I lurched forward and rolled him onto his back to climb on top. He looked stunned but pleased as I gently, nervously lowered myself onto his rock-hard length, feeling him spear me to my core. I moved my hips slowly at first as I sought a consistent rhythm. Kieran’s lips fell open and he reached up to caress my breasts, his eyes clouded with desire. I bounced up and down, swiveling my hips to grind into him hard, picking up the pace until we were both groaning in pleasure. He lifted his own hips to meet my every rise and fall, our bodies moving in syncope like we were made for each other. Like this was fate.

              Finally, the both of us seized up and cried out as a shared orgasm shuddered through us. Trembling, I fell to his chest, our mouths finding each other in a desperate kiss. He stroked my hair and held me close all night as the silent desert fell into frigid darkness and came alive.

              I watched Danielle sleeping beside me for a while before I started to think about getting up. There was something serene about her in a way that made me want to just stay there beside her all morning. A big part of me wanted me to try to tease her into staying out here with me all day. Buy another night, blow off work and all the worries back home, and just sleep in.

              Her chest rose and fell in a slow, rhythmic pace. Despite everything going on in the waking world, her face was peaceful. Every now and then, she’d shift in her sleep and smile a little, and before long, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek. Her emerald eyes cracked open, and she smiled at me sleepily as I grinned, peppering her with more kisses along the cheek and neck until she laughed and recoiled.

              A few minutes later, we were pulling on our clothes reluctantly, both of us stealing glances at each other’s naked bodies when we thought we weren’t looking. A few times, we caught each other and turned away quickly. One of those times that she caught me, I didn’t look away, and she blushed furiously, to my delight. I stepped across the room to her while she was putting her bra on and slipped my hands around her waist, feeling her hips before letting my hands trail up her smooth stomach to her ribs.

              She turned her head a little as if daring me to keep going, refraining from pulling her bra up further, and my hand drifted up to cup her breast in my hand. She let out a breath, and I leaned in to kiss her neck as my cock hardened against her ass.

              “You sure we need to go to work today?” I whispered in a husk into her ear, and the sharp breath she responded with told me it was a tempting offer. She pressed her ass back against me, licking her lips and turning her neck to expose it to me.

              “I think I could get used to feeling your hands on me all day,” she whispered back. Her tone was clumsy, like she was unused to saying things like that, testing the waters, and it only excited me more. My fingers brushed against her nipple, and I felt it stiffening at my touch. Her body desired me as much as mine wanted hers. There was so much more I wanted to explore with her, and I used my free hand to guide one of hers to my thigh, telling her silently that I wanted her to be able to do the same. Her hand twitched, just on the precipice of giving in.

              But she turned around, giving me a chiding glance that penetrated her smile. “But we both have jobs to do before that can happen,” she teased, and as if trying to goad me further, she pressed her hips against mine, wrapping her arms around my neck and kissing me on the lips.

              “You really gonna play me like this in the morning?” I said in a low tone, and she grinned as she pressed her forehead against mine.

              “That’s what you get for dragging me out into the desert to do something irresponsible like this,” she said back. Then she hesitated, chewing her lip a little. “But...we should do something like this again. Really soon.”

              I couldn’t help but laugh at her hesitation, and she slapped me on the chest with a pouting lip, to which I hugged her and lifted her off her feet before we allowed ourselves to finish getting dressed and checking out of the place.

              My jeep was covered in dust from the day before, and Danielle marvelled at it as we walked up.

              “I still can’t believe that really happened yesterday,” she mused, walking around the vehicle with wide eyes. “And I can’t believe we survived. You’re something else when it comes to off-terrain driving.”

              “Hey, growing up in the desert like me,” I said with a laugh, “you’ve gotta do something for fun, and racing through rocks and dirt has never been a bad choice, if you ask me.”

              She rolled her eyes, but she gave a yelp as I swept her off her feet at the passenger’s side and set her inside the car. Blushing, she pulled her seatbelt on as I hopped into the driver’s seat. “Well, I do have work today, so let’s try to avoid tearing through dust devils, alright?”

              “I’ll try, princess,” I said, and her scoff was cut off by my peeling out of the parking lot.

***

              After dropping off Danielle at her house, she stood up on her tiptoes to kiss me goodbye before I drove off. It took some assurance to get me to leave her alone for the day, but she told me she was just getting into her car and driving to work, so after a few minutes’ persuasion, I finally relented to letting her off the hook.

              My heart was soaring on the way home. Danielle was an incredible woman, there was no other way to put it. I’d known she was something special when she pulled off that first article about me, but everything since then seemed to be one revelation after the next about what an incredible woman she was.

              She was smart, she was funny, and she was so fucking hot that I wanted to spend all day between those long legs of hers, making her feel every bit as good and relaxed as she made me feel. The strangest part was that she seemed to feel the same way about me. It was such a relieving feeling, not being wanted for my money, and Danielle didn’t even seem to perceive that I had any.

              She was just so...down to earth. I felt like I could tell her anything about myself and feel good about it, and I wanted to keep asking her questions about her life until we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

              Fuck, I was falling for her. Hard. A smile tugged at my lips. Somehow, that didn’t seem so bad, either.

              As I pulled up at my place and started heading inside, my phone buzzed in my pocket, and I looked at the flashing screen. Instantly, I felt my good mood shatter like a glass window. It was an unknown number. Any other time, that might have been just a minor inconvenience, but with everything going on right now, it could mean anything. Bracing myself for whatever was about to come, I swiped the phone and held it to my ear.

              “Hello?”

              “Kieran.” The calm, even tone in Janet’s voice chilled me to the bone. You’d think I was happy to hear her in some state besides cracked out on drugs and belligerent, but that wasn’t going to be the case with Janet. Not after all this.

              “I was advised not to talk about what we’re going through without a lawyer present, Janet, you know that,” I said, keeping my tone just as even as hers was.

              “I don’t care,” she said simply. There was no hostility, no energy in what she said. She almost sounded tired. It was eerie. “I’m calling because I don’t think my message has been getting through to you.”

              “You’ve been pretty clear, actually,” I said, opening the fridge inside and rummaging around for a beer.

              “I said you would be punished for disobeying us, and you don’t seem to be taking that very seriously. So I’m going to spell this out for you clearly: you will sign the contract we wrote up for you. You will drop this lawsuit. You will not go to the press with anything. And if you keep up this rebellious streak of yours, you’re free to do that, as long as you’re comfortable accepting the consequences.”

              “We’ll talk about those ‘consequences’ in court with our lawyers around, Janet,” I said, sounding bored.

              “Oh, did you think that was the only place we can show you what we mean?” I paused a moment, processing the statement, but by the time I opened my mouth to reply, I heard the dial tone. She had disconnected.

              There was something deeply disconcerting about what Janet said, and it struck home. I took a deep drink of my beer, telling myself not to let it get to me--that was exactly what Janet had wanted, that was her whole point in calling me. Now was not the time to get shaken by threats. I wondered if I could use that threat against them in court, in fact, if they could pull the phone records, but then I remembered that the callback number was disguised. It probably couldn’t even be traced to whatever payphone she’d used.

              Pacing around a moment, I couldn’t keep my mind off Danielle. What had that threat meant? Were they planning something else? Was that creep following Danielle yesterday sent by Janet and Paul? Just how far did their connections in this city go?

              Unable to keep myself from doing so any longer, I picked up the phone and called Danielle’s number. A ring. No response. Second ring. Still nothing. Third, fourth, fifth rings, utter silence, and now my heart was starting to beat faster. At work, Danielle was always at her phone. It was part of her job anyway, right? I heard her voicemail start to play, and I set the phone down, drinking half my beer in one long swig and pacing around for about a minute, waiting for a call back before trying again.

              Nothing.

              Starting to lose my cool, I looked up her office’s number and gave it a call. Maybe her phone died after not getting charged last night. The receptionist picked up, and I didn’t even let her finish her greeting before I started talking.

              “Hey, yeah, this is Kieran Michaels, I’ve been working with Danielle. Is she in? I need to talk to her. Now.”

              “Uh- let me check, sir, just one moment.” There was a pause that made me want to strangle my phone, and my heart perked up for a moment when I heard a voice again. “I’m sorry, sir, this is a little unusual, but she isn’t in right now. She’s usually been in her office for about an hour by now, but she doesn’t seem to have come in. Would you like to leave a message?”

              The words were numbing, and realization dawned on me. Danielle must have never made it to work. “No, thank you,” I said, my words thick, and I hung up the phone without another word.

              This couldn’t be happening. I let her out of my protection for just an hour, and she was gone again, and this time, I had no idea where she was. This was bad. Very bad. Feeling like I was moving through a dream, I finished my beer off and charged out the door, hopping back into my jeep and roaring down the highway to Vegas, wind whipping behind me as I made a beeline for the only place where I knew someone might be able to help.

***

              The Fighting Chance was bustling today. People milled in and out of the glass doors, and I hardly even acknowledged Andrei’s greeting as I made my way through and looked around wildly for Jamal.

              I found him in one of the training rooms, overseeing a fight between Marc and Dante. The two fighters seemed to have some kind of beef between them, because Jamal was shouting at them every few seconds to tone it down a few notches, but from the trickle of blood running down Dante’s nose, I could see that neither man was too keen on listening to him.

              As I strode in, distraught, Jamal caught my gaze and furrowed his brow.

              “Alright, take five, you two,” he said to Marc and Dante before striding over to me. “Hey, man, what’s on your mind?”

              “Jamal,” I said, meeting his handshake and lowering my tone. Dante’s mob connections were well-known, and I didn’t want to risk anything I didn’t have to. “Can we go for a ride? We really need to talk. It’s about Danielle, and I’m going to need some backup.”

              Jamal raised his eyebrows, but he seemed to recognize the look in my eyes. I wouldn’t ask for something like this unless it were serious. “No problem, Kieran,” he said before turning to the two others. “Hey, you two--sparring’s over for now. Go get some rest, and try not to brain each other while you’re changing, alright?”

              The men grunted and cleared the room, and a moment later, Jamal and I followed, heading out to my car without another moment’s explanation. Five minutes later, we were in my jeep, pulling out onto the road and driving out of town.

              “So you’ve already met with the lawyer about all this, right?” Jamal went on as I briefed him about what all was happening.