Bedding the Bad Boy (Bad Boys of Football Book 1) (9 page)

All the fight in me left. I allowed myself to sink into the tub and let the water soothe my weary bones. All I could do was think I needed to up my cardio routine because if sex with Beck was enough to make me a raging, breathless lunatic, then I needed to find a better routine.

“There’s a smile,” Beck said, stepping into the tub.

“What are you doing?” I asked, surprised by his attempt to join me.

He squeezed in behind me, wrapping his legs around mine. “We are taking a warm bath. And, so you know, we are in here because the master bath doesn’t have a bathtub. It’s just a shower and, as much as I’d like to have shower sex with you, I figured a bath would be a lot sexier and easier on your joints.”

I was confused as to whether he was poking fun at me or trying to be nice.

“Relax; this is a good thing, I promise,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist, pulling me to him, allowing me to lean back on his strong, muscular chest.

The way he held me so tenderly made me relax instantly. I closed my eyes as I leaned back on him. He didn’t seem bothered by it. He moved his arms to smooth a vanilla scented soap over my arms and legs, lathering it up on me.

“Stay still,” he said as he continued to tend to me.

There was something so seductive about having this big, burly athlete taking care of me, moving his hands over me with slow, tender movements.

“I’m going to give you a baby. Right here, right now,” Beck whispered into my hair. “Are you ready?”

I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at him. “Yes, I’m ready.”

“Hey
,
everyone! Look who could join us today!”Cole lived for sarcasm. You’d think after years of working together, he’d know how things worked with athletes. Late nights, loose women, and most of us arriving late for practice, except in my case today, there wasn’t a loose woman involved – this time.

“What happened? Did the missus turn you down again last night?” I teased him.

He grumbled as usual and let me pass without saying another word.

Good. I didn’t want to hear anything about it. I had a lot on my mind – mainly, Isla. She was doing something to my head and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It’s like she had some sort of power or weird control over me. As much as I tried to think about other women, I couldn’t. What had she done to me? No way could I be whipped already! No fucking way! I was Beck Alexander. Women didn’t own me. I owned them.

“What’s shaking?” Jared patted me on the back as I walked into the locker room. “What did you do last night? Bang a room full of hot bitches?”

I scoffed. “Jealous?”

Jared laughed and changed the subject. “So, what’s going on with you and the public relations gal? You really want to get married? I’ve been there, you know. Marriage ain’t what you think it is. Pretty soon, she’ll want to know your every move. She’ll want you to be someone else. Marriage changes people. Ask around.”

I didn’t want to have this discussion, especially with one of my teammates. This one, in particular, had the worst reputation with women. He could get them like the rest of us, but from what I’d heard, he had like a love/hate relationship with them and women would complain. I didn’t even want to get into what was going on between him and Hannah. The less I knew, the better.

“I’m trying to get from point A to point B. All the rest will figure itself out,” I said, anxious to change the subject.

He put his hands up. “Alright; I got you. But, if something goes south with Chocolate Sunshine, remember, I warned you. And, I might want to hit that when you’re done with her, if you know what I mean.”

The last thing I expected to happen this morning was, I’d be throwing my teammate up against the lockers and threatening his life.

“Man, cool down. I was fucking with you. We’re boys, remember?” He tried to calm me down, but the way he said it, pissed me off more.

“What the hell is going on in here,” Coach Lawson yelled from his office. “Cut that shit out. We don’t need it in here. We have enough problems.”

We managed to get through practice without trying to kill each other, but he had definitely gotten under my skin. That’s proof Isla was fucking with my head. It had never happened before. I had an unwritten rule -- never let a woman get the best of me.

“Hi,” Isla stepped out of her office as I walked by.

“Hello, beautiful,” I said, making the receptionist blush. “How’s my favorite girl?” The receptionist blushed deeper, her eyelashes fluttering like a strong gust of wind hit her in the face.

Isla smiled, looking even more gorgeous than she had when we’d woke up in each other’s arms. “Are you done for the day?” Isla asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, I think so. I have to go see my attorneys now.”

She gulped. “Okay, so what’s going to happen?”

I knew what she was really asking. She was hoping I wouldn’t let them talk me into going to see Cassandra again.

“We’re talking. Did you want to tag along? Remember, I never even made it there last time,” I reminded her.

It didn’t take her long to agree to accompany me. I was glad. I wanted to spend some time with her so we could talk about things.

I waited for her to close up her office and we went off to the other side of town to meet my attorneys. As I drove, I listened to her tell me about how much money we’d managed to collect for the children’s charity event we held the other day. “So, I didn’t know you were so good with kids,” she said.

I laughed. “Was that a question?”

“The way you were with those kids; it was so sweet. I guess I didn’t know… think…” she started.

“You thought I’d behave like a prick with kids? Wow! I’m hurt!” I clutched my chest, feigning shock. “I like kids. Why would I want to get you pregnant if I didn’t like kids?”

She shrugged, eyeing the bracelet I had on my wrist. “I was surprised. Weren’t you an only child?”

I nodded. “Yes; that’s why I like kids. It was me, my mom, and my grandmother. I always wanted a brother or a sister. There’s something great about kids. It’s like they are free. They don’t care about how much money you make or what kind of car you drive. For them, they like what you do. They like how you treat them and that’s it. They appreciate things and they forgive.”

Isla’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. “Wow! Do you have a lot that needs to be forgiven? What have you done? Wait; don’t tell me. I’m afraid to find out.”

I ignored her remark. She was kidding. At least, I hoped she was. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Well, not to any kids anyway. I’m saying, in my world, someone always wants something. They think about what you can do for them or what you can give them. In fact, a kid gave me this bracelet. She made it for me. Kids like me for me, you know what I mean?”

She answered, “I know what you mean. You don’t have to be rich to have people wanting to get something from you all the time. Maybe you don’t know this, but women don’t exactly have it easy. Every time we give a little, someone wants us to give more. In
my
world, if you’re a woman – a successful, black woman – people see you as a meal ticket or someone who has forgotten what it’s like to live the black experience.”

I’d never thought about that before. “Wow, deep. I guess you do know what I mean. Maybe that’s why I like you so much; you get me or we get each other.”

Her eyes lit up. “So, you’re admitting you actually have feelings for me?”

She had me. “Yeah, can you act like you didn’t hear me?”

It was Isla’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, no chance. You said it. My mind is like a steal trap. You better ask around, boy! You said, you liked me. Damn, you better like me. I mean, I am your fiancée and we are trying to have a baby, right?” Her laughter swelled.

“What’s so funny?” I didn’t get the joke.

“I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. I worked hard my whole life not to be a statistic and then I meet some sexy football player with a bad attitude and all of a sudden I’m engaged and going to have his baby? What does that say about me?”

I pulled the car over. She was hot when she was confused. I put the car in park, pulled her to me and kissed her like I meant it. Soon, her skirt was hiked up over her hips and my hands were down the front of her panties, feeling her warm, wet place I couldn’t resist even if I tried.

“We’re going to do this now? Here?” Isla asked.

I kissed the top of her head. “We’re going to do this exact thing every chance we get.”

By the time we arrived at my attorney’s offices, all the stress we felt had dissipated and we were properly cemented in the afterglow. I waited in the atrium while my sexy black queen went into the ladies’ room to reapply her makeup or whatever it was women did after they’d had sex.

As was usually the case, emails, text messages and phone calls were coming at me at rapid fire. No one ever took a day off in my world. Someone always wanted something. Always. Day after day, I had people begging me to give them a piece of me. While I scrolled through the messages, deleting most of them, I didn’t notice the fervor building around me. Sometimes, I completely forgot about my celebrity status. Sometimes, I wished it would all go away.

“Beck, how’s the court case going?” A reporter shouted from the entry doors.

Once again, spending time with Isla made me do things differently. On any other occasion, I would have been flanked by my security team, my assistant, and all the other people who followed me around wherever I went. But today – again – I was traveling without my entourage.
Damn!

“No comment,” I said, as I tried to scurry out of sight.

“Beck, can you tell us what your relationship with the D.A.’s daughter is? Were you dating? And, how does your fiancée feel about the fact you were out with two women?” The reporter was persistent, but that didn’t mean I had to respond.

I started for the elevator, completely forgetting Isla was in the restroom. Then she stepped out, only to be met with reporters, dying to hear her side of things.

“Miss Johnson, how’s your relationship with Beck going?”

“Is there strife in your relationship?”

“How’s his court case going?”

Instinctively, I rushed to her aide, but she had things covered. She assumed an all business stance and began answering questions. I took a position next to her, admiring how strong she was. None of the questions thrown at her seemed to bother her. I didn’t want to think about what the questions were doing to her on the inside. I’m sure she had plenty to deal with. In fact, I knew she had more questions than I’d ever have time to answer in my lifetime.

In the most even voice she could muster, Isla spoke directly to the press. “We will not be disclosing any information pertaining to Mr. Alexander’s case or any information in regard to his personal life. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re late for a meeting. Thank you, folks. Enjoy your day.” She turned and nodded for me to follow her to the elevators. The building security finally decided to earn their pay and stood up to provide us an escort.

When we stepped into the elevator, Isla was tight-lipped. I waited patiently, trying to gauge her mood after that debacle. The elevator came to a stop and I stepped forward to hold the doors open, but Isla tugged my arm and pulled me back into the elevator.

“I have a meeting,” I said, confused by her reaction.

“Kiss me,” she said, moving closer to me.

A low growl formed in my throat. “Yes, ma’am.” I planted a kiss on her luscious lips. She pushed her tongue into my mouth. That was all it took to get me out of my head and get my hands on her ass. I pulled her to me, lifting her so her feet dangled in the air.

She moaned.

Still holding onto her, I reached back with the other arm and pushed the stop button on the elevator control panel. “Screw the meeting. They can wait; I can’t.”

The way she kissed me was different from any of the other times she’d kissed me. This kiss was more forceful. More filled with desire. I didn’t know what had prompted the change, but I definitely wasn’t going to complain about it. Her beautiful, luscious lips on mine felt so good. I let her kiss me and press her sexy body up against mine with no questions asked.

Just as quickly as she’d kissed me and pressed her curvy body on mine, she stopped.

My voice breathy, I said, “Come back here.”

She shook her head. “No, not now.”

I was confused.
Who was this woman?

“Sorry, but I don’t understand,” I said, still out of breath and fighting the urge to lift her skirt up over her hips and take her right there. “You can’t stop.”

Isla smiled coyly. “Why can’t I?”

Oh, she wanted to play this game. I got it.

“Come here,” I said, leaning down to whisper in her ear.

She backed away, hitting the elevator buttons again to get the elevator back in motion. “That’s not going to work.”

What? It always worked. Who was she kidding?

She kept a sly smirk on her face as the elevator resumed its ascent. I stood dumbfounded by what had happened, wondering if I’d created a monster in the course of the last few weeks. She wore the same smug grin I’d given to more women than I could count over the years. She acted like she had gotten over on me. Soon, she’d find out how competitive I was. Her libido was about to be attacked. I couldn’t wait to let the official games begin.

As the doors opened, she adjusted her skirt and blouse before stepping off, leaving me a few steps behind. “Follow me,” she said over her shoulder, a hint of laughter in her voice.

“Yes, ma’am. Game on,” I muttered under my breath.

My attorneys weren’t thrilled by my late arrival and felt the need to remind me of the seriousness of my dilemma, but I wasn’t the least bit interested in how valuable they thought their time was. My mind was on how much pleasure I was going to derive from taunting and teasing my lovely fiancée right in front of the attorneys.

“We’ve received some interesting news,” Paul announced, motioning for us to take a seat on the opposite side of a large conference table.

I pulled a chair out for Isla and blew in her ear as she squeezed into the seat. Before her fine ass hit the seat, I made a point of placing my hand on it.

She didn’t react the way I thought she would have. Instead, she smiled and addressed the attorneys. “What did you find out? I hope it’s good news.”

Damn! It didn’t work.

The attorneys addressed me. “How long has your assistant, Hannah, been in your employ? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention her name before.”

I swallowed hard. What was he talking about? I didn’t realize I had to inform my attorney’s about who I employed. “I don’t know. A while, I guess. Why?” I asked.