Hearts in Overtime: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (20 page)

Her smile was warm and genuine, but at the same time it was frozen, and I could tell she was trying to figure out who I was.

“Hi, Kelly. It’s Susan Harper. Suz,” I clarified, putting the poor woman out of her misery.

“Suz Harper!” she exclaimed, getting up and coming around to give me a hug. “Sorry I blanked for a moment. Pregnancy brain, you know?” She broke away with a giggle and patted her very pregnant stomach. “Anyway, it’s great to see you! You look so pretty. I love that dress!”

“Thanks.” I smiled. “And you, you look wonderful. That pregnancy glow, huh?”

“Pregnancy glow, my aunt fanny.” She laughed. “I’m sweating bullets in this dress. But it’ll all be worth it when the little one pops out. And I speak from experience; I’ve been through this twice already. Do you have any kids?”

“Nope. Not yet.”

“Well, don’t worry. You still have plenty of time for that.”

She flashed me a kind smile, but it was full of pity, and I had to resist the urge to sigh.

“Anyway, let’s get you set up with your nametag. I’m sure you’re eager to see all your old friends!”

I was dying to ask Kelly if Ben had arrived yet, or even if he was expected to show up, but I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want her to think I was some kind of gold-digger. It was no secret that Ben was raking in billions from the various tech companies that he’d either launched or acquired. No doubt he was worth more than every single other member of our graduating class combined. Talk about intimidating.

And talk about ridiculous—the very thought that I could be the one to win over such a catch was absolutely ludicrous. And I wasn’t about to try. Sure, I hoped to see him, but only as a friend. Or at least, that’s what I told myself as I made my way into the banquet hall.

He wasn’t there. I grabbed a glass of merlot and spent a half an hour or so meandering around the room, getting caught up in conversation from time to time with kids I knew from Model UN or from the French club or even from the debate club.

Ben Forsythe was the talk of the party, which was kind of a relief, to be honest. I didn’t feel like such a loser for having thought of him nonstop ever since the invitation to the reunion came in the mail because it seemed like a lot of other people had too.

“Can you believe he’s still single?” asked Melissa Lake, a fellow Francophile. “How is that even possible? There must be something seriously wrong with him.”

Ouch. On behalf of all the single people in the world, I was offended.

I was standing there, chatting with Melissa and Sharon Richmond, who I also knew from the French club. They were both married now, and Sharon sported the cutest little baby bump.

“He could just be a player,” Sharon said with a shrug. “Now that he’s loaded, I’m sure he could snap his fingers and practically any woman in the world would come running. Why would he want to settle down when he’s living the life most men can only dream of?”

Yeah, I was
definitely
not entertaining any silly romantic ideas about Ben in my mind. No way, Jose.

About twenty minutes or so later, there was a commotion by the door, which was only a few feet away, and I looked over to see what was going on. A small crowd had gathered around a tall, dark haired man, and everyone seemed to be chattering at once.
It was hard to hear over Britney Spears’s “Toxic” coming from the overhead speakers, but I was able to catch a few snippets of what they were saying.

“I read somewhere that you bought a condo in Manhattan. Don’t suppose you’d let me and the wife crash there if we came for a visit, would you? Haha.”

“Everyone just loves my maple candy, and people are always saying I should go into business for myself, but the problem is I don’t have the start-up capital…”

“I’ve been studying venture capitalism for years, and I’m primed to take the plunge. I would be an invaluable asset for your team, and I would be happy to relocate.”

Vultures! Poor Ben hadn’t been in the room for two minutes before our former classmates started jumping all over him. I had a good mind to go over there and pull him out of the throng to save him, but as it turned out, he could more than handle things on his own.

“People, you need to back off,” he said firmly, but with a smile to temper the harshness of his words. “I came here to catch up with my old friends, not to recruit new employees or hear about investment opportunities
or
to recruit houseguests, for god’s sake. Get it?”

They got it. After a slew of apologies, the crowd around him started to disperse, with only a couple of stragglers lingering to show him pictures of her new baby (in one case) and to ask him his thoughts on the future of hydroponics (in the other case).

I couldn’t take my eyes off of Ben. On the one hand, it was like looking at a totally different person. He seemed so confident and self-assured. But that voice, that laugh, that smile brought me back ten years to the friendly genius boy I kinda sorta knew. I was so happy to see that he hadn’t transformed into some self-entitled jackass.

When he looked over and caught me gazing at him, his lips curved up into a smile that I happily returned. I was positive he didn’t recognize me. Hardly anyone at the reunion had (fifty extra pounds is enough to alter your appearance rather drastically) so I wasn’t stressing. As far as Ben knew, I was just a random, friendly woman exchanged a random, friendly smile with.

But then he excused himself from the two former classmates by the door, and walked over toward me.

“Suz,” he said, reaching for my hand. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Ben,” I said, taken aback. “I can’t believe you recognize me.”

He held my hand tenderly between both of his big, manly hands, and I started to swoon.

“Well, of course I recognize you. I’ve never forgotten that beautiful smile of yours.”

Wow. We just stood there for a moment, gazing at each other as the past floated up to the surface. I did everything I could to ignore the fact that he was now a billionaire with a banging body, and just think of him as the sweet boy who offered me his heart so many years ago. It wasn’t as hard as you might imagine.

“I’ve thought about that night at Kelly’s party so many times in the past ten years,” I found myself murmuring.

“So have I,” he said. “I was devastated when I came home for Christmas that first year in college and heard that your parents had moved.”

“Dude!” Jack Lassiter came up and clapped Ben on the back. “I’m stoked that you’re here. I really want to talk to you about this business idea my brother and I are working on. We’re thinking—”

“Are you kidding me with this?” Ben said. “Can’t you see that Suz and I are having a moment?”

“Oh, sorry, man,” Jack said. When he turned to me, his eyes visibly widened. “Suz? Suz Harper?”

“Yes,” I said through a clenched jaw.

I guess the news of how I’d packed on the pounds hadn’t yet reached his ears. My face burned with embarrassment.

“Well, it’s great to see you, Suz. You too, Ben. I’ll catch up with you guys in a bit.”

I wanted so badly to rewind that scene with Jack and reclaim the feelings I’d been experiencing before he interrupted us, but I couldn’t. That look of shock on his face when he registered my identity was like a kick in the gut. A kick in the flabby gut, to be specific.

“So,” he said, apparently unaware of my inner anguish. “Civil rights attorney, huh?”

The look I gave him was one of mock horror. “I guess you Googled me, huh?”

“Yes, I’m afraid I am guilty of Googling you, counselor.” He grinned. “But seriously, Suz, it seems like the perfect career choice for you. You were incredible on the debate team, not to mention sharp as a whip, but you also had such a warm, compassionate side to you.

“So you’re saying I would have gotten my head handed to me on a platter if I’d chosen corporate law or something?” I asked, biting back a smile.

“Not at all. I know you would have excelled in whatever path you chose. But your kind-hearted nature is probably better utilized in civil rights matters as opposed to corporate ones.”

My heart soared and I glowed under the warmth of his compliments. I couldn’t believe this was really happening. I felt so comfortable talking to him—it was as if the ten years that had passed between Kelly’s house party and the reunion had never even happened.

And it hadn’t escaped my mind that if he’d Googled me, he must have seen the professional pic on my firm’s website if not a few candid shots of me with triumphant clients. So in all likelihood, he already knew about the extra weight I put on before he saw me at the reunion. This was a great relief, and I found myself relaxing more.

“It’s so good to see you, Ben,” I murmured.

He reached over to clasp my hand and give it a squeeze. I felt a surge of warmth shooting straight up my arm where it split into two. Half of it headed straight for my heart, and the other half crash-landed right in my pussy. I knew from my online stalking, of course, that Ben had blossomed into a devastatingly handsome man, but even so, I wasn’t prepared for how brutally sexy he would be.

His hand was warm and strong, his eyes attentive, his lips expressive and his confidence utterly, utterly alluring. I think it was the confidence that tipped me over the edge. No matter how many times I came across a picture of Ben on the internet, and no matter how cool and sophisticated he looked, in my mind, he was still the shy, awkward guy I knew back in high school. But now that I was here with him, and he was telling opportunistic classmates to mind their own business and bravely taking my hand and seeming like he was at ease as we made conversation, I was seeing a whole new side of Ben Forsythe, and I was totally and completely smitten.

“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked. “Maybe go walk around or something? It’s a beautiful night.”

“I would love to,” I said.

“Great.”

For a moment there, I thought he was going to pull me in for a kiss, but he just gave me a cheeky smile and led the way back out of the banquet hall.

* * * *

The reunion was being held at a hotel in the business district, so when we went outside, the area was all but deserted. It was great. We had the streets to ourselves.

He still hadn’t let go of my hand, so we strolled hand-in-hand through the rows of buildings that stretched up high into the sky.

“So,” I said, turning to Ben with a smile. “You’ve conquered the world of business, huh?”

He laughed. “I guess you might say that. Sometimes I can’t quite believe it’s all real. But it all happened very organically, you know? I started the first company out of my bedroom in my cramped little Cambridge apartment, and a year later, I had an office in Silicon Valley with over a hundred employees. I bought out another company who was doing exciting things with bio fuels, and then I started another company… Things definitely grew exponentially. And at a speed that’d make your head spin.”

“Sounds thrilling,” I said. “You must have some tales to tell.”

“I’ve got one or two.” He smiled. “Yeah, it’s been a roller coaster ride, which is great at times, but it doesn’t leave much time for the personal side of things.”

“I know how that is.”

Even though my chosen area wasn’t anything like the cutthroat world of corporate law, it was still extremely demanding, and there were times that I practically lived at the office. My love life was nonexistent and it had been that way for a couple of years.

“And when it comes to relationships, my track record is pretty pathetic,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong; I’ve met some nice girls over the past few years. I’ve had some good times, and some of them have stuck around for a while. But at the risk of sounding trite and cliché, none of them ended up working out, and that was because my heart already belonged to someone else.”

I stopped in my tracks and looked deeply into Ben’s brown eyes. Oh, they were so beautiful. I’d had no idea they were so expressive all those years ago when they were hidden behind thick lenses.

“It’s yours, Suz,” he murmured. “It’s always been yours.”

My heart pounded like a mallet on a steel drum as I stared at Ben in disbelief. 

“Ben,” I whispered. “I always thought of you as the one who got away.”

Reaching up to stroke my cheek and gently place a lock of hair behind my ear, he said, “Well, I’m here now.”

We simultaneously leaned into each other, and when our lips met, an electric spark ignited to warm up my entire body. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pressed me against him, and his hard, muscular body was as comforting as my favorite fuzzy blanket.

I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, but I couldn’t stop my fingers from massaging his muscular shoulders and stroking his angular jaw line.

When I felt his cock harden against me, my pussy went into overdrive. It thrummed with anticipation—slick, wet and more than ready for him. Every nerve ending in my body was pinging, and I was hungry for his body. I felt like I’d been possessed by some primitive creature as I wondered what would happen if I ripped off Ben’s clothes and started riding him then and there on the cold pavement in front of a deserted hi rise building.