RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) (5 page)

Lucy almost can’t resist laughing at her own joke.

“
You look cute when you're angry, I remember that.”

“
You’re thinking about someone else.”

“
Not right now.”

Those hands go up in the air again, so quickly she almost knocks over her wine. “First line, Alex Vann Haden, notorious womanizer, still hasn’t changed his ways. This reporter had to fight him off only hours after their first meeting.”

“
You said you’d be honest.”

“
Alright. Alex Vann Haden, notorious womanizer, still hasn’t changed his ways. This reporter had to fight him off only hours after their first meeting, escape to the helipad and pilot herself back to safety.”

“
You see, I never knew you could be so funny.”

Lucy shakes her head. I can’t tell whether she sees the funny side of this or not.

“
You look the same”, I say.

“
How do you even remember what I looked like before?”

“
You know, I wasn’t the guy you thought I was. I wasn’t as confident then as I am now.”

“
Confidence is not the same as arrogance.”

“
You should use that.”

“
I probably will.”

This time, Lucy makes a point of pouring her own wine.

“
How much do I win?”

“
You need to make a stake first.”

“
Everything I own.”

“
Then it’s a good job I’m the kind of person that can look after you.”

“
Just so you know, I’m not the kind of person to write a bad article just to get your money.”

“
No, I’m going to win yours fair and square.”

“
Four years and you didn’t even look at me. Four years. Not once, not one look. You know I sent you Valentine’s cards every year we were there, God knows why. I guess I was just as stupid as you were back then, certainly more naive. I had a crush on you like you wouldn’t believe.”

Boom, and the cards hit the tablet. She’s going to regret telling me that.

“
I guess we all make mistakes.”

“
What was her name, that girl you took to the prom?”

“
Rachel.”

“
Rachel Banks, that’s it. Daddy was a lawyer but Rachel was as white trash and slutty as they made them. I wonder what happened to her.”

“
She works in the porn industry as a go-to girl.”

“
Why doesn’t that surprise me?”

“
You really sent me Valentine’s cards?”

“
You really noticed me?”

Lucy pauses to sip at her wine, looking at me over the top of the glass as if challenging me to look away first.

“
Don’t put that in the article, it might change your opinion of me.”

“
My opinion won’t change until you make me believe you mean it.”

“
It’s true you know.”

“
Bullshit.”

“
Ok.”

“
Me and you, back then? The nerdy bookworm and the best quarterback in college football, no-one would have allowed that to happen.”

“
It would have made a good article.”

“
It wouldn’t have done anything for your bad boy reputation.”

“
It might have made me a better person.”

“
So now you’re admitting you’re a jerk?”

“
I didn’t say that.”

“
I’m going to have a lot of fun with this article.”

“
I hope you're going to have a lot of fun while you’re here.”

“
A week is not a substitute for four years. Not even the mighty Alex Vann Haden can manage that.”

“
We’ll see.”

“
Yeah, right.”

“
Arrogance is not the same as confidence.”

“
Don’t misquote me.”

“
I’m not, I’m correcting you instead.”

“
Some people might call that manipulation.”

“
Isn’t that your bread and butter?”

Lucy avoids the question. Instead, she reaches for the wine bottle which she is disappointed to see is now empty.

“
I can get another.”

“
Maybe it’s time to go to bed.”

“
We haven’t eaten dessert yet.”

“
Save it for tomorrow. I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”

“
Alright.”

Lucy smiles. Already I can see she’s changing her opinion of me. I knew it wouldn’t take long.

“
I can’t believe you knew I liked you and didn’t do anything about it.”

“
I didn’t know you liked me at all, I just knew I liked you. I thought you had no interest in me whatsoever. In fact, I thought you had no interest in anything but your writing.”

“
The football-mad wannabe sports journalist eye candy for the quarterback hunk? Now I know you’re definitely an asshole.”

“
Like I said, people make mistakes.”

“
Most people learn from them too.”

There is a lull in the conversation that feels like sexual tension city. Lucy is a little drunk from the wine and I’ve got a bit of a buzz on too. When we both speak again, we do so together momentarily, embarrassingly overlapping one another.

“
What time does work begin on the island?”

“
Whatever time you get up.”

“
Good, because if there’s one thing you’ll learn about me this week, it’s that I like a long lie-in.”

There is space for a cheeky comment, especially because of the way she’s looking at me, challenging me to give it, but I refrain. Did I bring Lucy here to see if we could fuck? Maybe. Did I bring her here because she’s part of a turning point in my life, part of a decision I regret? Maybe. Does she turn me on? Yes. There’s no denying that.

Bringing her here is not completely immoral either. I want her to know me and I want her to write about the real me and show it to the world. What they knew, the reputation I have, that’s not the person I want to be anymore. A leopard can change its spots, and a Rhino's horn can be only for one person if that person is the only person he’s ever wanted to be with. Sounds daft when I say it to myself, which means I know for a fact it’d sound insincere if I said it to the world. Guys like me don’t fall in love, and they don’t let girls get away either.

A kiss feels too close, a handshake too informal, a hug completely inappropriate. It’s obvious Lucy feels the same way because she too stands awkwardly for a moment looking like she’s wondering how to get away. In the end, she says goodnight and leaves me alone in the vast open space of my patio, deciding to find her own way back to her room.

Maybe not tomorrow, but before this week is out, no matter how long she likes her lie-ins, I’m confident she’ll be sharing them with me. So confident I’m going to bet my career on it.

Lucy

Fuck me and my stupid huge big fucking mouth and fuck this beautiful gorgeous super comfortable bed that’s almost too big for words.

What am I doing? What is he doing? Why did I even think I could come here, stay for a week and not get tied up emotionally in Alex Vann Haden once again? It’s been over five years since I saw him last, plenty of time to move on and less than a few hours in his company and all those memories and feelings and things come flooding back like someone’s opened the Hoover dam and I’m standing right underneath the wall of water.

Thank god he’s still just as arrogant, although that didn’t exactly stop me crushing on him the first time around as though the fate of the world itself hung on my very emotional state. Four fucking valentine’s cards! What the hell is wrong with me? I should have gotten the picture after the very first one went ignored, and to think I spent so long on each one as well. I have wasted so much time already on Alex Vann stupid extra surname Haden that when this week is over, if I even manage to get that far, I’m going to make sure I never see him again. I want that beautiful chiselled face out of my life forever.

I don’t care if he’s retiring, or that this is just a vanity piece to get him back into the limelight, he shouldn’t have brought me here in the first place and I shouldn’t have come. And then to have the audacity to lie to me about our time in college, I mean, what an absolute jerk. Why would he even do that unless he forgot to laugh at me enough back then and suddenly remembered he ought to do something to rectify it?

That
I wasn’t confident enough to ask you out
bullshit, the
I thought you never noticed me angle
, I mean, come on, who is he kidding?

Alex Vann Haden could have had any girl he wanted at college, and he did. His exploits were legendary. No-one else in the history of LSU, or any other college across the country, probably, slept with as many girls. He knew more about the insides of rooms in that place than the architects who designed it, and had access to more keys than any single one of the janitors.

AVH was codeword for drop your panties, and as soon as girls saw him coming, it was enough to get them wet and horny. He had an entourage, and every single one of them he’d have in a queue lining up to polish his rhino’s horn. Of course, back then he wasn’t called The Rhino, he was just called Alex, and everyone knew which Alex it was without even needing to define it.

Well, two can play at this game. If he wants to flirt with me now, or pretend to, or carry on in the ridiculously conceited way he is, I’m just going to give as good as I get. When Alex comes at me I’ll bat him away until I’m absolutely convinced he’s serious. If there’s one thing I know about this man, beyond the fact that he’s got an excellent choice in bedding materials, it’s that he’s convinced he’s better than everyone else.

Whatever ulterior motive he’s got for bringing me here, I’m not going to let it get in the way of the story I’m going to write.

I think I already have the headline now.
The Rhino, after a long fought battle with humanity, is sadly now extinct
. It’s sad really, with that body, and those beautiful eyes, it’s disappointing to think it’s all kind of wasted on someone so undeniably up themselves.

I’ll tell him that in the morning, right after I’ve had my ten hours that is. I’ll tell him exactly what I think of his attempts at humor tonight. The big reveal that he was actually always in love with me all the way through college but too scared to admit it. I bet he doesn’t even remember what classes I took. He could have made an attempt to think of something more convincing to get people to like him, you know, like he’s secretly gay or has a terrible mental illness or something like that. I figure that’s what this is all about. He’s sick of hiding in the shadows and needs someone like me from his past to tell the world he wasn’t arrogant at all, just misunderstood, that he’s really nothing like all those other journalists make out, he never had more than a normal amount to drink, all those fights he got in were someone else’s fault, and he finished college a virgin.

I’ve got more chance of winning the lottery. More chance of actually sleeping with Alex Vann Haden for real than being able to convince everyone of a lie like that.

Sleep is pulling me under, and I’ve still got Alex on my mind. The Alex of college - brash, arrogant, immature and the Alex of now - grown up, muscular, undeniably sexy. I want to believe he’s matured, and more than anything, I want to believe that he really did notice me, Lucy Parker, the girl who could look invisible in an open space, but it’s just too much of a stretch, even for this creative and wine inspired mind.

Four.

Lucy

For a moment I have no idea where I am. I stretch, kick my bare legs out from under the duvet and roll into the warmth of the sheets below me. I’m used to waking up alone, so that’s not uncommon, what’s missing is the buzz of the alarm on my cell phone, the crash of inner city traffic, the acrid smell of the paint shop below my apartment wafting in on the morning breeze, and the general feeling of anxiety I always seem to start the day with.

As I let reality seep into me, my eyes adjusting to the natural light, sweeping in from the window in front of me, I begin to come to. Not my apartment, or even my city, Alex’s rock. His private residence, his utopia, his permanent get-away-from-it-all.

With the morning light comes the memory of the conversation of the night before and I kick myself with the confession I allowed him to have from me so easily. Too much wine gives me a greater sense of impregnability, and as I work my way over what was said, I come to the awful conclusion that from my side, it was far too much.