RUNNING GAME (A SECOND CHANCE SPORTS ROMANCE) (85 page)

I
had never made
it through airport security so fast in my entire life. It was like the rules didn’t even apply to us. Me, Luke, and his entire entourage passed through without any hassle at all. We were ushered through a special line as soon as we arrived. The TSA agents seemed more interested in trying to get a picture than anything else.

The public relations lady who had been waiting at the curb led us to a restricted room right near our gate. It was the type of place I’d always suspected of existing. A quiet area, that is, where celebrities and other high-profile people were allowed to relax and wait for their flight without the stress of over-eager fans.

“Luke, this is… I haven’t experienced anything quite like this. It’s interesting to see how the other half lives,” I said.

“This,” he said, “is nothing.” A hypnotizing little smirk played at the corners of his mouth. My palms started to sweat just from the look.

“You’re going to have more fun over the next two weeks than you are ready for.”

“Than I’m ready for? I don’t know quite how to take that.”

He gazed down at me with a confidence that even he couldn’t seem to contain. A passing fan from inside the terminal saw him through the cracked door and shouted his name. His eyes never left mine.

“Bria…”

Luke’s voice trailed off as he let the smirk come to its full form.

A woman in the back corner of the room was staring at us impatiently — probably one of the superfluous hangers on who needed to validate their existence by getting some time with him.

“Excuse me, Mr. Greer,” she started.

“Just a minute,” Luke’s strong voice cut her off. I could sense her shrivel further into the corner. His attention stayed focused on me.

“I just want you to think about one thing on this trip. I want you to figure out if
this
life is what you want. If you can handle the fans… the media… the pushy fucking trip planners,” he said with a nod back toward the lady he’d just shut down. “I think we can have a great time together...”

He didn’t wait for an answer. I stood there with my mouth slightly agape as he turned and went to deal with whatever she needed.

What did he mean ‘if this is the life you want’?

It was the closest he’d ever come to mentioning any sort of commitment. I knew he was into me but in the back of my mind I always assumed it would fade. Guys like him didn’t just fall into relationships. To be fair, I couldn’t really say I’d ever met anyone like
him.
It was a stereotype, I guess, but he seemed to break the mold.

W
e were allowed
to board the plane first. Everything about this was a breath of fresh air compared to my nightmare flying in and out of Ohio.

The flight attendant brought us hot towels and took our drink orders before the rest of the passengers were even finished seating.

Occasionally, someone would recognize Luke as they walked down the aisle toward their seat.

“Go get ‘em, Luke!” or “Big fan!” seemed to be the most common greeting. One guy even stopped traffic to take a selfie with him.

Luke handled it graciously for the most part. I could see, though, that interacting with fans wasn’t his favorite thing.

“Cost of doing business,” he whispered through pursed lips.

“You’re a good sport,” I laughed. “And you’re pretty good at faking a smile.”

The flight attendant returned with our drinks shortly before takeoff. The murmur amongst the other passengers was beginning to quiet as they settled into their routines. The notion that a celebrity was on board caused a bit of a ruckus at first. People whispered to each other and craned their necks to catch a glimpse of him.

“He’s a fighter?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard of him.”

“I think he’s the champ.”

And so on.

But people’s attention spans are short and before long they seemed to get over it. I took a sip of my cranberry vodka.

“Bit early for a drink, isn’t it? Especially for a lawyer.”

Luke was swilling a small cup of ice water in his fingers. He always had water with him.

“Paralegal,” I corrected. “And you obviously don’t know too many lawyers.”

I lifted the armrest that separated us and scooted closer to him.

“Besides, you told me to relax on this trip, didn’t you?”

“Hey, it was only a question,” he said, raising his hands in front of him. “I don’t want to get on your bad side when your sober, let alone drunk.”

“Shut up,” I said, nudging my way under his arm.

The plane took off right on schedule. As we gained altitude, gravity pulled me closer to him. The fresh scent of his recently showered body drove me wild. He smelled like soap with a hint of mint leaf. There was also a bit of a fragrance from the oil he’d been rubbing into his new beard. It was something woodsy and it blended perfectly with the rest of him.

I couldn’t stand to keep my hands to myself any longer.

I pulled the blanket from the small compartment in front of me and threw it over our laps. Luke absentmindedly pushed it off of him as he read something on his phone. When I tossed it back over him he seemed to catch my drift.

My hand slid up his knee and found his waiting tool half way up his thigh.

I was still rubbing him through his pants when the flight attendant came back to check on us.

“Can I get you two anything else?”

“No, we’re fine.”

I cupped his balls and I thought I heard his voice waver.

“Are you sure? Maybe I can bring you another drink, miss.”

“Sure, I’ll have another one,” I said. Luke’s cock was like a steel beam beneath his pants.

“Hey, when are we allowed to get up. To, you know, use the bathroom,” he said.

“The captain should be turning off the fasten seatbelt sign any time now,” she replied.

“Great. Thank you.”

A bead of sweat formed above his brow. He was trying desperately not to move around in his seat.

I tugged the zipper of his jeans down and worked my hand inside.

“So, I heard a rumor that you were some kind of professional boxer or something. Is that true?”

She would NOT leave. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to amuse myself.

“Uh, yeah, something like that,” Luke said, uncomfortably.

He was full and strong in my hand. I stroked him slowly under the cover of the blanket.

“Well, this might be unprofessional but I’d like to take a picture with you.”

“Okay, sure, as soon as we land-”

“Great!” She whipped her phone from her back pocket and started fiddling with it.

When she looked away I reached up to lick Luke’s ear. He squirmed and I settled back into my position before she turned back to face us. I tightened my grip and increased the speed.

“Here we go,” she said, kneeling in the aisle and leaning in close.

“Here
we
go,” I whispered under my breath.

Luke gave me quick glance as if to say ‘you’re gonna pay for this’ then looked back just in time to see the camera flash.

“Say cheese!”

“Got it? Good. And please don’t forget my girlfriend wanted another vodka cranberry.”

“Sure! I’ll be right back with that.”

Apparently satisfied, she skipped down the aisle and behind the heavy curtain.

“You have to be out of your mind. You know how close you had me to shooting a load right in the middle of that picture? I don’t even
want
to know what my face looked like.”

I slapped my free hand over my mouth to stop the giggles.

Luke pulled himself free of my grip and discreetly tucked his rock hard shaft back into his pants.

There was a ‘ding’ and the seatbelt sign turned off and he looked over with a wicked smile.

“Now you’re in
real
trouble.”

I
told
her to wait thirty seconds and then join me in the bathroom. The girl showed me more and more of her personality every time we got together and I have to admit, I was eating it up. She was a true testament to the old adage ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover.’

When I first pulled her out of that car in the alley I made her for a stuck up goody-two-shoes. And when I found out she worked in a law office, it only reinforced the idea. After getting to know a little bit more about her, I could see just how wrong I’d been. This girl was a wildcat; smart as a whip and
dangerously
fun…

Bria clumsily shoved the door open and made her way inside.

“What the hell?!” she whispered. “There were two other bathrooms and I didn’t know which one you were in. I walked in on some poor old man and he got really excited for a second there...”

This time
I
laughed.

“That’s karma. It’s what you get for trying to make me explode all over first class.”

“Forget it. We don’t have that much time.”

She was right. The flight to Miami was short one and the captain would want everyone back in their seats soon.

“Ever given a lap dance in a phone booth?” I asked.

“You can’t be serious.”

I crossed my arms and leaned back against the sink.

“Serious as a heart attack.”

We had the hottest five minutes of sex imaginable. We fucked against the wall so hard that the passengers in coach probably thought the plane was going down.

By the time we got back to our seats we were both so flushed and out of breath, we didn’t have the energy to care if anyone heard us.

This is your captain speaking. If you’ll look out your windows, you’ll see the beautiful clear skies above Miami International Airport. We are expecting a smooth touch down in the next ten minutes or so, so please return your seatbacks and tray tables to their upright and locked positions…

“We’re here!”

“Yep. When we get off the plane there’s going to a lot of people waiting. Don’t freak out, it’s just the handlers from the M.M.A.C.S. They’ll be there to make sure I get to the press event on time.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“And maybe a few fans. I’m sure the word is out, so we might have a few waiting for us at the gate.”

Bria was staring out the window at the water.

“Can we go down to the beach when you’re done? I’ve always wanted to see it…”

“I know the perfect place to take you. It’s the best at night, too.”

She pulled her eyes away from the window and gave me a hesitant look.

“I’m not gonna be in the way, am I?”

“Not in a million years. I’m having a car take you to our hotel when we land. You can chill there for a few hours while I do all this bullshit and then the rest of the night is ours.”

The plane landed with a bump. Passengers started to stir and I immediately began to regret the fact that I was going to have to leave her.

We marched up the jetway like a herd of cattle. Flying commercial pissed me off more than most things but I hadn’t even thought about it until now because I’d been so fixated on her. It didn’t matter anymore though, because if I played it right I’d make enough money on endorsements and pay-per-view buys to put us in a private jet for the rest of time.

I pulled Bria under my arm and walked with her through the terminal. We let the rest of my crew get ahead of us a little bit.

“You gonna be okay while I’m gone?”

“This is Miami! I might start having fun without you.”

“Yeah? I bet that once you get to the room and see the view, you probably won’t ever want to leave.”

As we stepped on to the escalators and started our descent a little cheer went up from the crowd that had gathered near the baggage claim. There were more of them than I expected. This fight was already starting to generate some serious buzz.

“Hey Luke, how’s the fight gonna go?”

“Hey Luke, are you gonna knock him out? What round?”

“Luke! Simmons said you aren’t ready to fight him. Any comment?”

I simply nodded and waved. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Bria was trying to gauge my reaction.

“This is it, sweetie. That guy over there with the sign will take you to the hotel. Everything is already all set up. Your stuff will be there waiting for you when you get there and I’ll catch up with you later.”

My publicist was begging me with her eyes to hurry things along.

Bria gave a sweet smile and told me to have fun. I watched as she disappeared behind the crowd of people gathering around me. This was going to be a long night. For a split second I wanted to blow the whole thing off and go with her. But I had to take care of my business. A few short hours and I’d be back with her.

T
he suite was absolutely amazing
. I couldn’t believe we were only scheduled to be here for less than forty-eight hours and they went to this much trouble.

I had to tell Kaitlyn about it. She picked up on the first ring.

“Hey you!”

“Hey. So we made it to Miami.”

“Oh good! What’s it like?”

“The hotel is incredible. It’s right on the beach and the view looks like something off of a postcard. I think I want to live here.”

“Oh my God that sounds unbelievable. What about Luke? Is he with you?”

“Not right now. He had to go do his thing. I guess it’s somewhere just up the road at the Events Center but he wanted me to stay here. He said those things can get out of control.”

“Wow. Sounds like you’re living the dream.”

There was a brief silence. I could tell there was something she wanted to tell me. If Kaitlyn got quiet, it meant she was holding something back.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Huh? Nothing. I just wish I could see it. It sounds great.”

“No. You’re acting weird. Is something going on?”

“No, no. It’s fine. Nothing to worry about. You’re having a great time and you don’t need to think about anything that’s going on back here.”

“Kaitlyn! Now you have to tell me. What is it?”

There was a longer pause this time.

“Well… there was kind of… an incident this morning.”

“What kind of incident? What are you talking about?”

She sighed.

“It’s Kevin again. He… was arrested.”

“Arrested? For what?”

“Okay, I don’t want you to freak out because there’s probably an explanation for it but they arrested him for burglary.”

“Burglary? Kevin? Why would he be doing that. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. He was probably drunk and didn’t know what he was doing,” she said.

“But Bri, there’s more to it.”

“Okay…”

“But I don’t want you to worry. Do you promise you won’t worry?”

“Oh my God. Kaitlyn, would you please just spit it out already. You’re making me more anxious than ever right now so just tell me.”

“Well… he was, I guess, trying to break into your house when they caught him.”

“What?!?”

“I don’t know for sure. I guess one of your neighbors heard some noises coming from around the back of your house so they called the cops. They said it sounded like someone up to no good back there.”

My head was starting to spin. Kevin had always been such a vanilla guy. He was usually so obsessed with himself that this didn’t make any sense at all.

“When the cops showed up he was trying to pry open your sliding door by your patio. It must have happened right after you and Luke left for the airport.”

“That’s crazy,” I said. “Was he drunk or something?”

“I don’t think that was it. I think he was looking for you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because they found a gun on him...”