In the End Zone: A Sports Romance (4 page)

Chapter Seven

The cool night air enveloped
Morgan as she walked side by side with running back Brent Larson. The city was
abuzz with Brent's victory, and every bar or pub that they walked by seemed to
permeate excited, joyous energy onto the street. For as well-known as Brent was
to Caimans fans, it was strange that the pair was able to walk undisturbed.

At first, Morgan and Brent
walked in silence. Morgan struggled to think of something to say. She did not
want to relive the game, honestly. That was work, and certainly Brent had other
things that he wanted to talk about. Should she talk about herself? Ask him
about himself?

Brent broke the silence first.
"What did you think of the game?"

Morgan smiled. "It was fun.
My dad loved it."

"Oh, that was your
dad?" Brent looked over with a raised eyebrow and he said in a joking
tone, "I thought you had brought a date!"

Morgan laughed and elbowed Brent
in the side. "No way! He is a huge Caimans fan and has been all his life.
But he has never been to a game. It was a nice way to surprise him."

"That's nice. I'm just glad
he wasn't your date."

Morgan smiled and watched with a
bit of pleasure as the little hint of jealousy in Brent faded away. Could it be
that he played faster and ran harder, thinking that he had some competition?

"So, what's your dad
like?" Brent asked.

The pair walked on and Morgan
told Brent all about her favorite person in the world: her dad. They walked
down the city streets, then turned to walk around the moonlit park in the
middle of town. The place was quieter than the city had been, with only a few
other couples wandering around.

The first hour passed quickly,
and Morgan soon found herself sitting on the edge of a pond, watching the twinkling
stars on the still pond's reflection. Brent sat next to her, his shoulder
leaned up against hers.

"College was fun for
me," he said, talking about his time at State, "I played football and
classes were a breeze. I majored in business, like all of my teammates. I guess
I thought that business was a good fall back in case football didn't work out.
What about you?”

Morgan leaned against him.
"I didn't think I would do marketing," she said, "I always
wanted to paint professionally."

"Really? Painting?"

Morgan grinned. “Yeah, I love
abstract stuff.” She watched Larson’s face as he marveled at her. “You didn’t
peg that, did you?”

“No…” Larson said slowly. His
eyes shined at her. “So, why not paint?”

Morgan shrugged. “I needed a job.
And I could be creative in marketing, so I went for that instead."

"I would love to see some
of your paintings sometime," Brent said. Morgan's eyes met him and she
found him looking sincere.

Morgan smiled sweetly.
"Maybe."

A moment of silence fell between
them comfortably. "So," Brent said, putting his arm around Morgan's
waist, "Did you date a lot in college?"

Morgan leaned against Brent's
arm. "I dated one guy," she said softly. Her heart hurt to think
about it. "We were pretty serious. We talked about getting married and
everything. But, he cheated on me and I broke things off."

"That's horrible!"
Brent said, "Did you love him?"

Morgan's lips pressed together,
making a firm line. "I thought I did at the time, but now I am not so
sure,” she answered honestly.

Brent leaned back. "I don't
think I have been in love either," he said quietly, just loud enough for
Morgan to hear, "I dated a lot, but nothing serious."

Morgan was afraid to ask more.
Would she scare him off? She bucked up her courage and thought,
Well, there’s no need to beat around the
bush
. "Do you think that you eventually want something serious?"

Brent was quiet, thinking.
Morgan's heart flip-flopped in her chest, and she wondered if she had
frightened him off. "Yeah," Larson said finally, "I think I
would like to settle down eventually. I'd love to feel real love." He
looked over at Morgan and grinned. "How about you? Willing to take the
gamble again."

Morgan considered the idea, and
it made her want to jump up and leave. She was risking so much just going out
with Brent Larson, and now he wanted to know if she would try to love again?

Could she even try and love
again? Morgan remembered the hurt when she found her ex-boyfriend wrapped up in
his lover's arms. The pain was unreal, and she had told herself then that no
man would ever do that to her again.

When Morgan didn't respond,
Brent leaned over and ran his fingers down the side of her face. Morgan found
his touch to be softer than she had imagined. Who knew that such hard,
roughened hands could be so gentle?

"Please don't let me scare
you," Brent said softly, leaning forward to press his forehead to Morgan.

Morgan looked over at Brent and
she saw the stars twinkling in his eyes. "I'm not scared." Her heart
fluttered away and she was not sure if her words were true or not.

Brent grinned and gently
chuckled. "I don't know what it is about you, girl, but you have got me
hooked. You make me say and do things that I would never do."

A question whirled around in
Morgan's mind. It nagged at her gently until she finally asked, "And what
about you? Do you even want to pursue something serious, or am I just another
plaything?"

The grin on Brent's face faded
quickly and his tanned brow furrowed. "I'm not a college kid any longer,
Morgan," he said, looking offended, "I don't want to screw around
anymore."

"Since when?"

"Well... since you, I
guess."

Morgan stared at Brent and she
found herself unable to breathe. "Me?" she said her voice barely
above a whisper.

Brent looked away, his gorgeous
blue eyes looking out onto the stillness of the pond. "I saw you when you
and Dryer came in to watch one of our practices. I think it was your first
day."

Morgan nodded, remembering that day
and how she felt drawn to Brent when their eyes met. Her heart fluttered wildly
as she wondered if they had both felt the connection at the same time.

"I couldn't take my eyes
off of you," Brent said, continuing on. Morgan wondered how he did not
hear her thundering heart because it seemed to deafen her. "It was all I
could do to keep playing and not run over to talk to you. And when I played, I
played better and ran faster than I ever did before. All because I wanted you
to notice me.

"And later, when I saw you
wandering around the locker room, I don't know what came over me. I think I
wanted to make a lasting impression." Brent grew quiet, but a grin played
on his lips.

Morgan's thoughts wandered to
Brent's nakedness. If she closed her eyes, she could still see every inch of
him glistening in the white lights of the locker room. Morgan had a picture in
her mind of Larson standing there in all of his glory, grinning down at her
knowingly.

"All I wanted to do was to
get you to notice me," Brent said.

"Well, it worked,"
Morgan said with a laugh.

Morgan's eyes met Brent's, and
that one look was all it took to both calm her and excite her at the same time.
Neither one of them spoke, but slowly, their mouths moved closer to one
another.

When Morgan's lips pressed
against Brent's, the whole world around them froze. The stars stopped twinkling
just to look down and watch as the lovers touched. Lips and tongues moved
together in time, tumbling over one another gently. Their kisses were soft and
sweet, then they turned ravenous. Brent was kissing Morgan as though she was
life-giving air and he was hungry for it. His hands were tangled in her hair,
then slipping down her back, lighting a trail of fire down her spine that
consumed her.

Morgan's hands pressed against Brent's
body, feeling his hardened muscles ripple under his skin. She found him hard
and her body began aching for him. There was something primal deep within her
that stirred. It was awoken, and it hungered for no one but Brent. Morgan knew
that she could not fight it, and she gripped Brent's shirt, pulling him closer
than before.

The lovers' mouths parted and
Morgan gasped for air. She found it cool and soothing, but nothing could stem
the ache deep within her. Her eyes flitted up to Brent's, and she found him
staring down at her through a thick curtain of dark lashes.

"Are we doing this?"
she panted.

"I am in if you are."

Morgan looked down and away,
thinking hard. "I can't lose this job," she said, "This job is
my dream job. I don't do anything to destroy that."

Brent smiled down at Morgan, and
he spoke as he brushed a tendril of hair from her eyes. "I can keep a
secret if you can."

Chapter Eight

The secret of their illicit love affair was a heavy one to carry
for Morgan. She wanted nothing more than to shout from the rooftops that she
was dating Brent Larson, but the fear of losing her position in the Advertising
and Marketing department made her keep silent.

To Brent's credit, he was keeping just as quiet, but he seemed
to always find a way to leave little hints that he was thinking of Morgan. She
often found little love notes on the windshield of her car after work, always
signed "B9L3". Brent made a secret social media account and he would
message her often.

Morgan's heart would skip a beat when the alerts would pop up on
her laptop, and she always stopped to talk to him:

93ToBe: I will be at the bar on 25th tonight at 9pm.

MorganMac
: Oh really?

93ToBe: Alone and waiting.

93ToBe: I'm craving a big mac ;-)

But when Morgan and Brent would see each other out in the office
building, they were kind and polite to each other. Brent would nod his head
gently at her in greeting, while Morgan would chirp, "Good morning!"
Any other greeting would be too obvious, and no greeting at all would look
strange.

Brent slowly began finding ways to get himself up to the seventh
floor. He would often pop there with the excuse of, "I just thought of a
great addition to my interview!" or "Coach Boss wanted me to speak to
Dryer about getting that blonde intern to do more interviews."

Morgan's heart skipped a beat every time she saw him. And more
importantly, Dryer, nor anyone else, never suspected a thing.

About three weeks into their secret love affair, Dryer called
Morgan into his office. "Come in and sit down," he said, shutting the
one door on the seventh floor behind her.

Morgan lowered herself into the office chair. "Is
everything alright, sir?"

"
Ahh
, don't be so worried,
McMinn!" Dryer said with a wave of his hand as he sat across from her,
"I come bearing good news."

"Oh?" But Dryer’s words did little to quell her
nerves.

"Your little interviews are getting rave reviews on social
media. The one on Sam Smythe even got featured on ESPN the other night."

Morgan’s heart jumped and she shrieked with happiness. "Are
you serious?"

Dryer nodded and smiled. "You are doing a bang up job
around here McMinn. You should be proud."

Morgan could not stop grinning.
I've got to call dad tonight and see if he saw it,
Morgan thought
to herself.

"Anyway, I was thinking that we could make those social
media spots a regular thing, only instead of showcasing the players, we could
provide highlights from the games each week." The wheels were already
turning in Dryer’s head and Morgan could almost see them moving.

"Sir, that is a fantastic idea," Morgan said. She sat
forward, eagerly wanting to help. "I would love to be a part of
those!"

Dryer put his fingers to his chin. "I've ran the idea by
Boss and he has agreed to it. Now, we have missed a few games this season, of
course, but I don't see why we can't just start up with the next game,
right?"

"Well," Morgan said as the gears in her brain began
turning, "We may be able to cover the game from two nights ago. We can use
old footage and I can interview some players over the top of it. Maybe even get
some commentary from the announcers."

Dryer leaned back in his chair and swiveled slightly. "Get
me a prototype and have it on my desk in the morning. We will go from
there."

"Yes, sir!" Morgan jumped from her chair. "I'll
head downstairs now."

Morgan went for the door, but Dryer called her back. "They
will all be at practice now. May as well wait until they are done."

"Oh..." Morgan had gotten excited at the idea of
running into Brent again, but Dryer seemed to pop her glee like a balloon.
Almost instantly, another idea occurred to her. "Well, do you want to go
watch the practice?"

Morgan knew that Dryer would never give up the chance to see the
team practice. He grinned. "I thought that you were not that 'in' to
football, McMinn?"

"I think it's growing on me," Morgan smiled back

***

The Caiman's practice was a long, hard one in the cool
underground practice field. Morgan and Dryer watched the last 30 minutes of it,
and in all that time, Brent Larson never looked up from the field once. Dryer
and Morgan both cheered on the boys, but Morgan's eyes never left Brent's form
clad in his number 93 practice jersey.

Morgan had never really appreciated Larson's devastatingly
handsome body until then when it was on full display for her. Brent was rocking
the tight little football pants in gold and them way they clung to his body
made the fire within her grow hot. Of course, he was wearing pads, but that did
not stop Morgan from thinking about his naked, hairless chest, dripping with
sweat. Morgan knew that his skin was so hot that steam must be made off of it.

He was a bright, golden god out there on the field, running
faster than Hermes must have as he darted through the sky.

At the end of the practice, Brent pulled off his helmet and
shook out his brown, shaggy hair. Morgan could see the little droplets of sweat
fall from him as he did so, and they made her mouth water.

Brent looked up in the stands and saw Morgan and Dryer sitting
there, watching. His face lit up and on reflex, his hand shot up to wave to her.

Morgan's face went rosy red as he did so. Brent caught himself,
and quickly threw his hand through his sopping wet hair, trying to cover for
his mistake. But Dryer had caught it, and when Morgan looked over to her boss,
he was staring. The questions hung in the air between them, but they went
unasked.

The young woman just shrugged. "He's always been nice to
me, ever since we did that interview."

Dryer nodded, but he did not look totally convinced. However,
Morgan's boss was quickly distracted by Coach Boss, who had climbed up on the
stands to greet the pair.

"Coach!" Dryer said, sticking out his hand in
greeting.

"
Ahh
, Dryer. Nice to see
you." Coach Boss said, shaking hands with the marketing manager. He looked
over to Morgan and smiled gently. "And it's good to see you, Ms. McMinn. I
thoroughly enjoyed the piece that you did on me."

Morgan's face grew darker crimson. "I'm glad," she
replied, having trouble finding the right words.

Coach Boss turned his attention back to Dryer. "So, did you
get her to come on board?"

"Sure did. She's going to do a segment on the last game as
practice, then we roll them out starting with the next game."

Boss looked over at Morgan. "Sounds great. Me and the team
are at your disposal, as long as it doesn't interfere with the games."

"Of course," Morgan said, "I wouldn't dare
interfere with you all while you are out there."

Coach Boss smiled. "Well, if you want to talk to anyone
about the last game, I say you talk to Larson." Morgan's heart seemed to
stop at the sound of her lover's name, but neither Dryer nor Coach Boss
noticed. "He's my star. he kicked ass and took names in that game. Plus,
he's a charmer. He will get you the right quotes."

An excuse to talk to Brent? Sign me
up!
Morgan thought happily.

***

She waited until the other players had all filed out for the day
before heading into the locker room. Morgan wanted to catch Brent alone, and he
seemed to know what was up. When Morgan walked in, she found him sitting on a
bench, wearing shorts, his t-shirt folded up beside him. The sight of his
naked, clean, tanned chest made her gasp, and at the sound, he looked up at her
and smiled.

"Coach said that you wanted to talk to me," he said
with a grin.

Morgan looked around. "Are we alone?" she mouthed
wordlessly.

Brent nodded, and when he did, she ran to him and sank down on
the bench beside him, wrapping her arms around his naked shoulders. "I
missed you so bad!" she breathed.

"Oh, Morgan, I've thought about you all day," Brent
said, pressing his face into the nook between her neck and shoulder. His kisses
began raining down on her like heavy raindrops. "God, I have missed this
body."

Brent's words made Morgan's body come alive with pleasure. She
hesitated to admit it, but there was a primal wanting within her that only
Brent seemed to satisfy. Her body swelled with arousal at his touches. her
breasts ached for him, pressing hard against her bra as if they were begging
for freedom. Between her thighs, her deepest place throbbed, wetting itself
with slippery juices in anticipation.

Hands and lips took hold of every part of Morgan's body, and
more than ever, she was desperate to let Brent take her. They had come close
before. Their sweet, sensual kisses that had been shared by the pond at
midnight had turned carnal. Morgan was filled with wanting, and she knew that
Brent wanted her just as bad.

"You know," Brent said as his hands pulled dangerously
at Morgan's clothes, "We are completely alone in here. Everyone else has
left for the day."

Morgan moaned in reply. She had yet to fall into bed with Brent,
even though she dreamed of it every hour of every day. It was the last thing
that she thought about before bed and the first thing she thought of every
morning. Fucking Brent consumed her. She knew that his need for her consumed
him, too. Every time his eyes landed on her body, she could tell that his
hunger was growing.

Their mouths met again and Morgan could feel Brent's strong
hands, roughened from years of playing football, moving all over her body. He
was an expert at her form, knowing exactly where to touch to bring her to the
brink.

As Brent's mouth feasted on the flesh of Morgan's neck, his
hands were moving to her breasts. The mounds of flesh ached behind their cloth
barriers. They were desperate for touches, and try as she might hide it,
Morgan's chest heaved as he drew closer. His hands were up her shirt, feeling
their way across her toned stomach. He reached into her bra and grabbed at her
breasts. Morgan moaned as his rough, ragged flesh ran across her hard nipples.

"God, I cannot wait to get those tits in my mouth,"
Brent breathed into Morgan's ear as his hands mauled her.

Morgan only moaned in return, her eyes rolling back in her head
and her lashes fluttering. She wanted him so bad. Maybe she should just let him
take her...

Brent's head bent down as he raised up her shirt. His hands
pulled her breasts from behind their lace fabric prisons, exposing her to the
musky heat of the locker room. Morgan watched as Brent's eyes went to her
nipples, large and hard and crimson from desire, and he looked pleased.

He spoke no words. Instead, he bent his head down and began
licking away at her hard, aroused flesh. Morgan threw back her head and groaned
as Brent's thick, warm, wet tongue flittered across her. She felt her body
seized up at the feeling, and if his arms had not been around her, holding her
upright. If he had not been holding her up, Morgan was sure that she would have
fallen over. Her body was limp, and she was trembling in his grasp from the
pleasures that his mouth inflicted on her. Between her legs, she throbbed and
ached for him, and every move reminded her that she was dripping wet and
waiting for him.

A loud bang behind the couple made them both stop cold. Brent
looked up with narrowed eyes while Morgan rushed to fix her top back. She felt
the color drain from her face as soft footsteps grew louder. Someone was
coming.

"Oh god!" Morgan whispered as she untangled herself
from Brent. She hurried to stand in front of him and she grabbed for her
notebook.

Brent's angry glare did not move from the locker room door, but
Morgan paid him no mind. She was more concerned with smoothing down her tangled
hair, and when the door opened, she gasped and turned to the door.

An older woman with heavily wrinkled skin walked in, pushing a
mop bucket and holding onto a mop handle. "Oh, goodness!" she said
when she saw Brent and Morgan, both staring at her. "I'm so sorry. I was
told that everyone had left for the day."

Morgan's eyes shot over to Brent. "If you want to give me
that quote tomorrow, Mr. Larson, I understand."

Brent looked furious, but Morgan was shocked to see that he was
glaring at her now instead of the janitor. The janitor paid the pair no mind as
she went about her business of mopping the floors in the shower stalls.
"That's fine, Ms. McMinn," Brent said through gritted teeth,
"But I would rather go ahead and get this over with."

Morgan could feel panic rising up in her. The janitor was
shooting her funny looks, and Morgan was so afraid that she would be caught
with Brent and fired from her job. She could barely contain her trembling as
she looked at Brent. "I will see you later, Mr. Larson."