Player: A Secret Baby Sports Romance (66 page)

T
his situation is fucked
. Actually, I think Logan, Bryce, and Hudson would call it
FUBAR
- fucked up beyond all recognition.

I've graduated from flirting with a criminal, to hiding from mercenaries, to running from the cops now. If I had any sense left in me at all, I’d stop all this. I'm supposed to be lying low, and keeping a low profile and waiting for further instructions as to what to do for
my job
.

And again, “running from the cops” is
hardly
a low profile move.

At the same time, my heart is racing a mile a minute, and the fact that people with guns are chasing us is honestly only half responsible for that; at best. Because the other part of it is that my hand is firmly in Javier Toro's and as we run headlong down the beach, I can't help but let every part of me soar.

We run for what seems like hours but must be more like minutes, though at our pace we've got to be at least two miles down the beach from where we were. We come up on a rocky area of the beach, and as we dash around the rocks and boulders, Javier brings our mad-dash to a halt.

We stop, panting with our hands on our knees as we suck in breaths of air. I'm swallowing my pounding heartbeat, trying to catch my breath when I hear laughing. I frown and look up to see Javier chuckling with a grin plastered across his face.

“Are you
laughing
?”

He howls out another laugh, his whole face actually lighting up as he throws his head back and hoots at the night sky. Sweat drips down his face and his chest but he's laughing even as he struggles for a full breath.

“You're insane.”

“I've been told.” He grins at me and shakes his head; “Where the hell did you get bullets for that gun?”

“The third Blackriver guy that was standing guard around the corner.” I try and shrug it off as if sneaking up on mercenaries and knocking them out to steal their ammunition clips is in
any way
something I’ve ever done before. Javier snorts, his laughs telling me he doesn’t buy my attempt at being a badass at all.

“Well, nice job, Rambo.”

I shake my head and start to turn but he stops me with a hand on my arm; “C’mon, princess, don’t you feel fucking
alive
right now?”

I take another gasp of air and shake my head as I turn to look out at the dark of the ocean; “I feel like we’re making this situation worse.”

He snorts; “But don’t you feel it? This is life; raw and crazy and happening all around you.” His voice is closer than it was before, and I turn suddenly to find him standing much closer to me, and my breath catches; “Don’t you feel alive?”

More than I can possibly feel comfortable even admitting to myself,
especially with him so close to me. I can smell his scent, and I can feel the heat of him, and I'm starting to lose myself in the reflection of the moon in his eyes.

I take a small step back, biting my lip with eyes locked on his. This is dangerous; I'm flirting with real, tangible danger in the form of a criminal.

My criminal.

He holds my gaze a second longer before he turns and brings a bottle to his lips that I never even realized was in his other hand. He bites the cork in his teeth and yanks it out with a pop before spitting it out and raising the bottle high in his hand; “A toast!”

I frown; “Is that alcohol?”

“Absolutely”

I'm laughing then. In spite of myself - in spite of knowing I should be furious or terrified, or scared - I'm laughing.

And it feels fantastic.

“Did you
steal that
from the bar?” I choke out, wiping tears from my eyes as the giggle-fit shakes me to my core.

Javier grins at me as he takes a swig from the bottle, makes a face, and then passes it my way; “Have a drink, princess; we're celebrating a win tonight.”

My giggling slows as I take the bottle. Drinking with
him
? Yeah, that's a bad idea.

That's a horrible idea, actually..

Javier turns and starts dragging and pushing bits of driftwood together into a little hut shape. He takes a lighter out of his pocket and begins to hold it to some of the smaller pieces in the middle while I watch him. I’m painfully aware that I’m standing on a secluded moonlit beach with a stupidly attractive Latin man panting with his shirt open like some kind of bull fighter, and he wants me to drink with him. Oh and he's building a fire.

Yeah, no; no freaking way. Trusting him is one thing; trusting myself is another altogether.

The fire begins to catch as he adds smaller bits of wood to fledgeling flame, before the whole pile starts to burn. He stands and turns, and then he rolls his eyes and looks pointedly at the bottle still in my hand.

“
Fine
,” I say dramatically, before bringing the opening to my lip and tilting the amber liquid into my mouth.

I swallow the swig and cough as Javier chuckles; “
There
we go.”

He takes the bottle from my hand and moves back to the now crackling fire, where he tosses another chunk of driftwood onto it before settling down against one of the large boulders in the sand. I don’t think anymore, I just move to sit next to him, lying back against the rock and looking out past the fire over the ocean.

There’s a war of ideals raging in my head, but I'm trying to drown it out and just enjoy the moment. Because one side of me is still raging that this is wrong; that Javier is the
bad guy
, and as the
good guy
here, it's my job to be his enemy.

Drinking tequila around a campfire on the beach really doesn't fit on that list of good-guy versus bad-guy activities. Except I heard what they said back at the alleyway, and I saw what he did, and part of me knows that
that’s
not quite how the “bad guy” is supposed to act, either.

So is he really bad?

“What now?” He says with a smirk.

I laugh; “Oh, I'm in charge now?”

“Oh, sure,” He grins; “Only because I’m letting you be in charge though.”

I roll my eyes and punch his shoulder; “Oh
please,
I'm in charge.”

“If you say so, spy-girl.”

We're laughing, and he moves closer towards me; very close. I can feel my pulse jump at the nearness of him.

And there's that war inside of me again; the one side crossing her arms and saying no, and the other side just screaming
yes.

Javier turns to me, and I can feel my breath catch at the glint in his eyes, the throb of my pulse, and at the heat between my legs. I take a deep breath and I bring the bottle to my lips again, taking a swig with my eyes never leaving his; “Why did you come down to the pool that day?”

I have no idea where the question suddenly comes from, but suddenly I'm dying to know how it is that circumstance brought me across Javier Toro's path in the way it did.

“I saved you.”

I smirk; “
Well
, I think we both saved each other, but why’d you come down in the first place? It wasn't to 'save me'.”

Javier laughs and looks away, shaking his head before he turns back to me with that sparkle back in his eyes; “I already told you; I saw a hot blonde with a hot body in a sexy fucking bikini, and I wanted to come down and make a move.”

I want to hold back the grin that threatens to spill over my face, but it's no use. I look away as my face burns, hoping he doesn't see how girlishly goofy it is that I'm blushing at a comment like that.

Of course, the thing is,
I
don't want to see the goofy look either, because it's one I should
not
be having about the man sitting next to me. But there's my pulse, beating faster anyways, and there's my breath, catching in my throat. I know the booze is going to my head here, but I also just don't care. This is more than that anyways.

This is me letting go.

“So how do you feel about brunettes,” I say slyly.

What are you doing!?
The voice inside screams at me;
Stop playing with fucking fire!

But I know I can't stop at this point.

I know I
won't
.

Javier's gaze narrows at me and the corners of his perfect lips turn up; “Rapidly climbing the charts, princess.”

Fuck
. I needed him to say something crass in that moment. I needed him to
put out
the fire and the heat that's threatening to engulf me entirely. What I
don't need
is perfect, charming lines like that, because that's
certainly
not helping.

“Still think I'm the bad guy here?”

And for the first time in my life, I don't think, I just do.

I lean forward, and I kiss him.

His lips press hotly and hungrily against my own, and I moan into them as he kisses me deeply. His mouth tastes like tequila and the promise of breaking every rule I have. I’m falling; tumbling right over the precipice I've been tiptoeing the edge of for days now. His hand grabs my chin hard, steadying my fall but holding me to his lips so tightly as our tongues and our breaths exchange with the other.

Suddenly he's pulling back though. He's pushing me away, his eyes wild as he stares into my own as a shadow crosses his face; “Stop it.”

I swallow heavily, trying to push down the lump of my heart in my throat as I gape at him; “
What?
”

Javier shakes his head and starts to stand, muttering and looking off down the dark beach.

“
Wha-”

“You don't want me, princess.”

A flash of heat spreads across my face and my chest, threatening to tear me apart as the sudden mortifying feelings of shame and rejection wash over me.

“You
think
you do,” He turns and his eyes bore right into mine; “But you really don-”

“
Fuck you
,” I spit at him, feeling horrible and utterly embarrassed and flustered as I shake his hand off my arm and turn to run from him, from the fire, from whatever this almost was.

What the
hell
was I thinking?

N
o
.

Nope, no fucking way is she getting away from me and this conversation that easily; not after all that. My hand jerks out and grabs her wrist, hard, before she can even make it two steps. I yank her back towards me.

“Oh,
what,
” She snaps sharply at me, rage stinging her face.

Hell hath no fury...

Stopping the kiss was bad, but fuck, she doesn't know what she's doing. She doesn't know
me
, because if she did, she'd have taken off running down that beach days ago.

“I'm trying to save you.”

She barks out a sneering laugh; “I don’t need saving; not from
you
.”

“Get close to me and you will,” I growl.

Get close to me and I'll destroy you, even if I don't want to and even if I do everything on Earth to try and stop it.
It'll still happen, because that's just me and the fucked up reverse Midas touch that follows me. Good things wither and die around me, and something as bright and as pure as her doesn't stand a fucking chance.

“I'm a big girl.”

“I'm a bad man.”

My hand slides up her arm, and before I can stop myself, I’m snaking it around her waist, exploring the curve of her hip as I pull her closer. I want to push her away - I know I
should
push her away - but I can’t even begin to conceive of doing that right now. Not when she feels so fucking good under my touch.

“My job is to catch bad men and lock them up,” She whispers quietly, her eyes still flashing heat and fire as she matches my own hot gaze with her own.

“That a fact, princess?” I move closer, pulling her against me; “You think you can catch me? Think you can put me anywhere I don’t want to go?” I growl, my jaw tightening.

“I always get what I go after.”

“Not me.”

She's so close, and my pulse is roaring like a lion ready to pounce in for the kill. I'm such bad news for her, but if she says one more fucking word, I’m going to take her right here and right now. I'm going to claim her, make her mine, and have her screaming my name as she comes like it's the last name on Earth.

“I’m a bad, bad man, princess,” I say with fire and danger on my breath.

“Oh yeah?” She swallows and looks at me defiantly; “
Prove it
.” She whispers.

Don't say I didn't warn you
.

I yank her body against mine as my mouth crashes against hers, and I feel her absolutely melt into me.

She tastes like heaven and moves against me like original sin as her hands snake into my hair, pulling me into her. I push us backwards, pressing her against the side of the flat-top rock near the fire, pressing myself against every sweet delicious curve of her body.

Her hands slip down to my shirt, hastily, like she's desperate for it. She yanks at it, tearing it over my head as I let her go just enough to get the thing off my head before I'm crushing myself against her again. I'm pressing her hard against the rock at the small of her back before I slip my hand down to her ass. I grab her tightly, my strong hands gripping and kneading the supple flesh there as I lift her up and into my arms. Her legs wrap around my waist as I push her up and back onto the flat top of the rock.

My cock is rock hard in my pants and straining for release. But I know what I need first; I know what I've been craving and dying for since the second I saw her in that bikini down by the pool.

I push her back down onto the rock, and she's gasping as I break our kiss. But my hands are yanking the button and the zipper of her cutoffs down, and she whimpers as I grab them and tear them down and off her perfect legs right along with her panties.

She blushes and moves to curl her legs beneath herself, but I grab her thighs tightly in my hands as my eyes drag up her body to her eyes.

“Show me,” I growl, and I see her face flush with desire as she slowly nods, biting her lip so coyly as she lets me pull her legs apart.

I want to take my time, and I want to worship her there like she deserves. But a starving man is a man with hunger that needs to be satiated, and I attack her with my mouth and my tongue like I'll die without her perfect, sweet pussy.

She's like honey and gold on my tongue, and she cries out as I drag my tongue through her lips, slipping it up to circle and tease at her clit. I push my tongue deep into her opening as my hands grab her ass, pulling her to my mouth as she moans loudly and slowly begins to go to pieces.

I'm so fucking hard that I shove my shorts down and wrap my hand around my thickness, stroking myself as I taste her. It's like heaven, tasting this angel of a creature as I slide my fist up and down the length of my cock and moan into her pussy. I could come just like this; just from licking her honey and stroking my cock.

“Hey-”
She moans, biting her lip as she looks down to see what I’m doing; “That's mine.”

And then before I know what she's doing, she’s spinning around and hanging her head off the edge of the rock towards me. She ducks her head down between my legs and as I stare bug-eyed like some kind of idiot, she wraps those perfect bee-sting lips around my cock and sucks me into her mouth.

Holy fuck.

I growl as I dive back in, yanking her tank top up and spilling her breasts. I’m teasing her nipples with one hand while I push her thighs apart with the other and bring my mouth back to her slit. Her hands are on my ass, pulling me towards her, pulling me in and out of her lips and making me fuck that mouth like I’ve been dying do. Her fingers are on my balls, coaxing, teasing me, and I can feel her trembling beneath me as I hungrily suck and lick at her pussy. She’s whimpering around my thickness, and when I suck her clit between my lips, she erupts like a volcano beneath me. The vibrations of her moans are more than I can take, and I groan as I explode into her needy mouth as she swallows every drop.

She still shuddering as I stagger back from her, but then I'm turning her around and bringing her back up as I move against her, kissing her neck and feeling her clutch at me. She's moaning as my mouth finds her collarbone and the sweet spot where her delicate neck meets her shoulders, and I'm still hard.

I'm still hard, and I still want so much more from this angel.

I turn and grab my shorts from the ground, rummaging through the pockets until I come out with a foil packet.

Chelsea starts to giggle; her cheeks flushed red and her eyes sparkling as she brings a hand to her mouth; “Did you
buy
condoms?”

I grin and just wink at her.

“You arrogant prick.”

“You uptight little tease.”

But her fingers are eager as she helps me roll the thing down over my cock, and she's clutching at my hips and pulling me close as I slide the head between her lips.

“Fuck me,” she groans into my ear; “Fuck me hard.”

I sink into her in one perfect stroke, and I could die in that moment. She’s impossibly tight, and she’s writhes like liquid gold around me as I bury myself inside of her.

We move together fast and hungrily, undulating as one like the crashing of the waves against the sand behind us. And every fear and uncertainty and doubt and battle and knock-down I've ever fucking had just washes out to sea when her lips seal on mine.

Her legs around my hips and her arms around my neck bring me closer and closer, urging me on and urging me to fill her entirely. Her head throws back as my lips and my teeth find her neck, and we explode together like a bomb, there on the beach under the island moon.