Page 32 of Linebacker
“Why do you keep doing this to yourself, Mars?” I sigh, concern in my voice. “It’s clear that playing football is what you live for, but you continue to risk it all with your reckless behaviour.”
“Is that why you’re here, to give me a lecture? Because if that’s the case, you’re wasting your time.”
“I’m here trying to save your self-destructive arse, you… you…” I puff out an exasperated gasp. “Those three dancers you were with last night, slipped you some sleeping pills, got you so far out of your head then manipulated you into compromising positions and took photos. At one point they even whipped out your dick, so they could get the money shot that would keep them in hooker heels for the rest of their lives.”
“Shit!” he puffs out loudly through gritted teeth.
“Yes, Mars. Shit,” I snap back at him. “However, if Lucy and I hadn’t decided to follow you, then fuck knows what might have happened.”
“You followed me. What the hell, Hope?”
“What do you expect me to do?” I fling my arms up before letting them drop back to my side. “You won’t talk to me; you blatantly refuse to engage in anything unless Coach Scully is around. I’m here to do a job Mars, and I take my work seriously. So, if stalking you is the only way I get some kind of insight as to why you are constantly trying to commit social suicide, that’s what I’ll do.”
Not a word is spoken as a full-on staring match between us goes to hyper mode. Both of us are as stubborn as each other, so when he’s the one who finally breaks the silence, I’m shocked.
“Do they still have the pictures?”
“I’m confident that I erased them all from the phone and backup,” I reply. “We paid off the cabbie, and the hotel night staff that let us through the back way too, so they shouldn’t say anything.”
“What about the girls? Could they be a problem?”
“They no longer have any evidence, and I’d doubt that anyone would believe them without it.” Here’s hoping anyway after all the effort we’ve gone to. “But who knows? Only time will tell if we got away with it, but I’m hopeful that nothing is going to hit the media.”
“I thought the way I was dressed would keep me under the radar.” Tiny beads of sweat pop up on his forehead as his breathing quickens. He’s dropped a major bollock and he knows it. “I even insisted on a private booth so I wouldn’t risk being recognised in the club.”
“So, you do remember some of last night?” I question.
“Like I said, bits and pieces. When I got sat in the booth, I ordered a single malt, and was about halfway down it when the three strippers came in. I’d requested two, but hell, if it was buy two get one free, I wasn’t going to turn it down.” He rubs his forehead with the palm of his right hand. “The last thing I can remember clearly is the girls dancing around me. One of them handed me my drink, telling me to drink up so they could get me another. After that, everything becomes hazy. They were dancing, sticking their tits and arse in my face then… Damn, was Lucy there?”
“She was with me,” Bastard. He can remember Lucy, but has no recollection of me?
“Jesus, everything’s so mixed up. I can vaguely remember seeing your face, but then… that’s crazy.”
“What’s crazy?” I lean forward, desperately wanting to know what he remembers about me.
“It was like your head, but not on your body.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you saw me as one of those whore bags?” I seethe. “You’re delusional.”
“Hey, don’t take it personally,” he laughs as if it’s just one big joke to him. “I was drugged, and everything must have been getting mashed up in my brain. Although with you being a short arse, you could probably do with a pair of hooker heels.”
“You’re a dickhead, Vance Marshall,” I jeer back at him, grabbing my jeans from the bottom of the bed where I’d left them last night. “I should have left those photos exactly where they were and let them sell them to the highest bidder.” I throw myself up onto my feet, so I can leave, but as I turn to walk towards the door, I don’t get far as Mars’ hand catches my wrist.
“There’s just one other thing that I sure as hell can’t get my head around,” he states, holding me in place so I can’t escape. “Why, when all I’ve been is a total arsehole to you since the moment you got here, when you could have easily hung me out to dry, you went out of your way to help me? Why, Hope, why would you do that?”
Up to this point, I’d given him my back, not wanting to face him due to the tears that had been building and were now threatening to overflow. But I can’t keep it inside me any longer. The one unresolved issue that has been festering along with the memory we both share, needs to be exposed and excised once and for all.
“I’m here because I’ll be fucked if I’m going to let you throw away all that you’ve achieved, all that you’ve worked so hard for. Everything that you dreamed of, what I wanted for you so hard, that I was willing to forfeit my chance with you when I walked out that door, seven years ago.”
“Hope,” he growls from deep in his throat, as he pulls me towards him. When he falls back onto the bed, he takes me with him, flipping us both, so I’m the one laid on my back. “You should never have walked away from me,” he murmurs, looking deep into my eyes. “I was willing to give up everything for you, everything, so we could be together.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” I choke out, tears sliding from my eyes, down my temple and into my hair. “But don’t you get it? I couldn’t let you do that because I was broken, I had nothing, and I wasn’t about to drag you into my fucked-up life. I couldn’t be the one responsible for fucking up yours too. I couldn’t live with that.”
“Jesus, Hope,” he hisses as his hand palms the back of my head and brings his lips down to mine. In an instant, I’m right back in that hotel room when he kissed me for the first time and declared how much he cared. Back then, it was sweet and gentle. Now it’s hot and hard. His mouth takes control, his tongue pushing through my parted lips and making all kinds of dirty advances on mine. “Fuck,” his voice is throaty with arousal, which is also clear when his hand on my back moves down to my butt and pulls me tighter to him. He’s so fucking hard. “I’ve wanted to do this since you turned up in the locker room that first day, but I was still so fucking mad at you for leaving me, that I couldn’t let my defenses down.” I want to ask him so many questions, I want to tell him so many things but when he kisses me again, I’m lost for words.
Mars hovers barely an inch above me, using his elbow and strong thighs as leverage. The hand that had been squeezing my bum cheek had now moved around to the front and is caressing the skin along my hip, stomach and thigh. When his fingers slip under the waistband of my knickers, I take in a quick, sharp breath and hold it, only to push it out when he cups my pussy. “Mars, I…” my hand wraps around his wrist, and I waver between telling him to stop, or demanding more. When a finger slides through my lips, hitting my clit, all thoughts of putting a halt to this are gone. “God, oh my god, yes.” I find myself spewing out like a porn star when he slides a finger inside me. “Mars, we shouldn’t…”
“Like hell we shouldn’t,” Mars, growls at my halfhearted attempt to put a halt to this, “I’ve waited seven years to get my hands on your sweet pussy, and I sure as fuck ain’t stopping until I’ve had my fill.”
