Page 23 of Not Before Game Night
My lips were still burning from the fire that consumed me.
Burning, scorched right from the inside out.
He was the rebel, and I didn’t need Madam Phoebe to tell me that the rebel was what appealed to me.
I already knew.
I’d always known.
Chapter 6
Cole
* * *
Ten past two,and she still wasn’t here.
I balled my fists and pressed my hands to my sides.
That damn kiss wasn’t supposed to leave me in some state of wild flux. It was meant for her to be like this. Not me.
It was meant to taunt her because that was the effect of me. Me, the infamous Coleridge Buchanan.
Women fell at my feet, and I’d never lacked or wanted for one on my arm. They were always there. Asleep and awake, I’d always had a woman in one way or another.
So, why was I so hung up on little Vanessa Cartwright?
Why was I standing outside by the bleachers looking for her?Waiting.
It served me right. My curiosity over her had always been the thing to get me.It had taunted me like pure temptation and last night I’d made it worst with that kiss.
We had a three-hour break today. Coach arranged our training days in intervals. Earlier this week, it was full-on, crazy-as-fuck training. We had a ten-hour day with three one-hour breaks that started at eight in the morning. Then he decreased that to six-hour days with more of a break in between so we could get the rest we needed. It would be like that right up until Monday. Then we’d set off for Chicago early Tuesday morning.
The point was, I was supposed to be focused on all of that. Not a woman, and not the one who’d managed to mystify and bamboozle me with one kiss.
“Hey,” Denver called out.
I looked over to him as he emerged from the training room. His hair was still wet, and he still had a shiner from where Casey accidently hit him with the ball. Unlike me, who was still dressed in my football gear, he’d changed and looked decent. Not like the disheveled mess I was with mud all over me.
“Hey,” I answered, but continued to stare out to the parking lot. Where the hell was she?
“Who you looking for?” Denver asked with a smirk.
“A friend.” Best to say that.
“Is this a lady friend?”
I glowered at him. “A friend,” I answered more pointedly so he would know not to press me.
He laughed. “Okay, testy, testy. So, how’s the conquest coming on? You know you have to bed the Cartwright Princess in a handful of days, right? Or you can just hand over that two hundred g’s to me now.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, literally almost forgetting what he was talking about. The bet, the stupid bet. As if I’d needed that damn bet to pique my interest in theCartwright Princess.
Denver was looking at me like he’d already won, and after my recent encounter with Vanessa, I was starting to see why he would think that.
She was a mission and a half. Any other woman would have been looking for an excuse to talk to me. She did her best to avoid me. Any other woman would have been grateful for the chance to spend time with me and make up some shit for the article while we got busy in bed, but no, she was insistent on meeting properly. And now it was going on two fifteen.
“Don’t worry about me, man. Like I said, I’ll send you a picture. She won’t be able to resist me.” Even though she was doing a pretty good job.
