Final Score (36 page)

‘You’re not doing as you’re told, Mr. Allen.’ Her hand was still between her legs and his eyes were still watching her.

‘Well, I’m a bit like that, honey. I don’t take orders too well.’

A slow smile spread across her face as he crouched down between her legs, his hands on her knees. ‘Oh, you want a closer look.’

‘You gonna let me touch you yet?’ His heart was beating so quickly now, he almost felt faint.

She shook her head. ‘No. Not yet.’

He pushed her knees a little further apart, watching as her fingers continued to work against herself, slowly and carefully, but it was too much now. It was too painful, too hard to control. She was driving him crazy and he needed to join in. Observation time was over. ‘Amber…’

She shook her head again. ‘I’m almost there, Jim. You see? I can do all this shit without you.’

‘Okay, that’s enough.’

She couldn’t help letting out the loudest laugh as he pushed her back onto the bed, replacing her hand with his own, and the relief he felt as he finally touched her was indescribable. It was as if someone had turned a valve somewhere deep inside him and now all that pent-up pressure was slowly being released.

And she wasn’t exactly objecting. Those incredible legs of hers had wrapped themselves around him as though it were the most natural thing in the world; her mouth was on his, their kisses urgent and deep, her body telling him how much she needed him. And she was warm and she was wet – Jesus, she was so, so wet he almost slipped straight out of her, and it took her hand guiding him inside for him to make it in there. But once he’d sunk into her, it was as though a blanket of calm had been thrown over him. A feeling so beautiful he could never explain it. He couldn’t. He just knew it wasn’t something he was willing to give up without a fight.

His fingers intertwined with hers as he pushed deeper, his heart beating so fast it was knocking every ounce of breath right out of him, and he literally had to fight to catch that breath, every gasp painful and raw. But when that climax hit, it hit hard, rushing over him like nothing he’d ever felt before, causing him to cry out so loudly, grip her fingers so tightly and push down into her so deeply it felt as though he was falling right into her.

Her hips bucked and her fingers clung onto him, her head thrown back as she hit her own climax. Every shudder, every convulsion her body made beneath him, he took it all, felt it all, until there was nothing more to give. Nothing more to take. Just this beautiful silence filling the air, punctuated only by their ragged breathing and short, sharp gasps of breath.

‘That wasn’t watching,’ she whispered, her fingers still clinging onto his. ‘That definitely wasn’t just watching.’

He looked at her, unable to keep the smile off his face. ‘Call me weak, but, Jesus, baby, the second you slid those fingers inside yourself I was gone.’

She reached up and touched his cheek, kissing him quickly. ‘You just have no willpower, Mr. Allen.’

‘Guilty as charged.’ He rolled over onto his back, watching as she got up off the bed, watching as that incredible body of hers headed into the bathroom. It gave him a second to get his head together, to try and work out just what the hell was going on here. Because it was so crazy and confusing even
he
couldn’t really work it out.

‘You okay?’

He opened his eyes and looked at her, sitting cross-legged on the bed wearing nothing but one of his shirts. His beautiful girl. His life. His whole, entire, fucking world. ‘I messed up, Amber.’

She cocked her head, frowning slightly.

He sat up, taking her hand as he looked right into her eyes. ‘Doing what I did to Ryan… I messed up.’

She stroked his knuckles with her thumb, breaking the stare to watch their every movement. ‘It’s done now. He’ll take his punishment and he’ll get over it.’ How cold and callous did she sound? This was Rico’s dad she was talking about; a man who hadn’t deserved anything Jim had done to him. He hadn’t deserved to have a past he’d so obviously tried hard to put behind him dredged up all over again. And he didn’t deserve the punishment he’d had to take because of her husband’s actions. He didn’t deserve to be treated the way she was treating him now. But if all that had to happen in order for her to be with this man here, then her conscience would just have to learn to live with that.

‘But you blame me, don’t you? And that trust I so wanted you to have in me, I’ve blown it, haven’t I?’

Her eyes met his, her fingers clinging onto him. ‘I love you, Jim.’

‘But you still can’t trust me?’ He noticed her eyes drop again, once more breaking that stare. ‘Amber, baby, look at me. Look at me, honey, please’

She slowly raised her eyes to meet his, letting him pull her astride him because she was weak. She knew this was only going to lead to more sex, and sex was what she wanted right now. Sex was a diversion. A chance to not have to think about anything. ‘You’re just gonna have to work harder to build that trust back up, aren’t you?’ she whispered, shrugging the shirt she was wearing back off her shoulders.

‘I can work hard,’ he murmured. ‘I can work
very
hard.’

And that was exactly what he intended to do.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Amber flung open the front door, leaning against the doorpost and folding her arms.

‘Morning, sexy.’ He grinned at her, that same cocky grin he’d tried to reel her in with just a couple of years ago.

‘I thought you’d gone back to Newcastle yesterday.’

‘Got the F.A. hearing this afternoon. Not going back ‘til this evening. You on your own?’

‘If you mean is Jim here, no, he isn’t. He’s already at the training ground.’

‘Can I come in? Or do you want to kick-start the gossip by making me stand out here on the doorstep? One hell of a doorstep, though, I have to admit. How frigging big is this house?’

She pulled him inside by his arm, closing the door behind him. ‘Have you come to see Rico before you go?’

‘I’ve come to see
you
, Amber.’

She frowned, heading off into the kitchen. ‘Why? You only saw me yesterday.’

‘You know Jim was the one who made sure my involvement with that betting ring was made public. You know it was him.’

She stood still, placing her hands on the countertop in front of her, but she didn’t turn around to face him. Closing her eyes she swallowed hard, breathing in deep. But she couldn’t say anything. This wasn’t going to go away. No matter how hard she tried to pretend it had never happened, it wasn’t going to go away. And that was partly because she herself wasn’t letting it.

‘Amber…’

She swung around to face him, folding her arms across her chest. ‘I’m so sorry, Ryan. Really, I am…’

‘Is that all you can say? You’re
sorry
? Jesus…’

‘It wasn’t
me
who put it out there, Ryan.’

‘But you’re defending the bastard who did.’

‘That’s my husband you’re talking about, okay? And you don’t get to…’

‘What? Out him for what he really is? Are you so fucking blinkered, Amber, that you can’t see what he’s doing? What he’s
still
doing?’

‘You really need to go if that’s all you’ve come here to say because you’ll upset Rico, do you hear me? We are not getting into this here.’

He moved closer to her, his hands in his pockets, his dark-blue eyes determined as he stared into hers. ‘He stood there and he told me himself what he’d done. And believe me, there wasn’t one ounce of fucking remorse coming from his direction. He’s one cold-hearted bastard and you need to know that.’

‘Get out of my house.’

‘Is all the great sex blinding you, Amber? Are all those fantastic fucks really worth it?’

‘I’m warning you, Ryan…’

‘You gonna spout all that crap about how he’s changed, huh? Really?’

‘I don’t need this…’

‘And I don’t need your fucking husband trying to damage me any more than he already has. I’ve lost the captaincy at Newcastle Red Star, been overlooked for the international matches at Wembley, been fined so much frigging money even my accountant had to do a double-take, and now it’s rumoured the F.A. could be banning me from playing until the end of the season and
you
don’t need this?’

‘I don’t know what you want me to say, Ryan.’ And she didn’t. What
could
she say? She couldn’t make it any better, could she? She couldn’t turn back the clock or pretend none of it had happened.

He looked at her, straight into those beautiful pale-blue eyes of hers. ‘I want you to tell me you aren’t happy, Amber. I want you to tell me you’ve finally seen through him. I want you to tell me you still love me.’

She shook her head, blinking back stupid tears she really didn’t want to cry. ‘I can’t do that,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t. Because it wouldn’t be true.’

Ryan took a couple of steps back, breaking the stare, turning away from her briefly. ‘This is so fucking hard…’

‘I don’t know why he told you, Ryan.’

Ryan swung back around to face her, his expression colder. Tougher. ‘He told me because he lives to kick me in the fucking teeth, that’s why. You think there was an apology included when he broke the news? Huh?’

‘He’s changed, Ryan, and I’m…’

‘Do you know how fucking deluded you sound, sweetheart? Standing there and telling me that. Because he hasn’t changed. He’ll never change. Oh, I’m not saying that he doesn’t love you, because I’m sure he does. I’m sure he loves you so frigging much but he’s insecure, don’t you see that? A man who felt confident in his relationship, would he really be trying so fucking hard to make sure another man kept well away? A man he still considers to be one hell of a threat, no matter what he might be telling you. And I can understand his actions, in some weird and warped way. I can. Because I’d probably do the same, in some respects. If you were mine, Amber, I’d fight tooth and nail to make sure I didn’t lose you again. But I would never,
ever
try to bring someone down the way he’s trying to destroy me.’

‘Trying?’

Ryan gave a small, derisive laugh. ‘You think this is over?’

She looked at him, hugging herself tighter, trying to get her head around everything Ryan was telling her.

‘It’s not over, Amber. The game is still on, sweetheart. And there’s only gonna be one winner.’

*

‘Can I have a word?’

Jim looked up, unable to stop the surprise from registering on his face. ‘Ronnie… yes, yes, of course. Come in.’ He stood up, walking around the front of his desk and leaning back against it.

Ronnie closed the office door behind him, coming just a couple of steps further into the room. ‘I know what you did, giving that story about Ryan to the press.’

Jim just looked at him, his expression stoic.

‘You’re going to hurt her, Jim. And I’m not gonna stand by and watch that happen. Not any more.’

‘Nobody’s making you stand by and watch anything, Ronnie. And – not that it’s any of your business, but, I am not going to hurt Amber. I can promise you that.’

The cynical laugh escaped before Ronnie had a chance to stop it. ‘Yeah, okay. Look, you might have sucked her in with all your charm and a heap of crap about how you’ve changed, but she’s weak, Jim. Where you’re concerned she’s the weakest person I fucking know, so she’ll probably never see through you. But I do. I can see right through you and you’ll hurt her.’

It was Jim’s turn to laugh, bowing his head and folding his arms. ‘You all think you know how my relationship with Amber works…’

‘She’s fucking obsessed, Jim. That’s how it works. You walked back into her life and you took the girl we all know away, and in her place you left this weak woman who is obsessed with you. You should have stayed away from her. She told you to do that; she told you to stay away and yet you ignored her. That’s how much you care about her.’

‘I love her, you got that?’ Jim’s expression was hard, angry, even, as he walked over to Ronnie. How dare people assume they knew all there was to know about his and Amber’s relationship? They knew nothing.

‘You don’t love her. You just want to control her. And all it takes is for you to throw her up against a wall and fuck her senseless for all of five minutes and you’ve got her right where you want her.’

That was it. He’d lit a touchpaper and Jim was having no more of this crap. He’d had enough. Pulling his arm back he threw a punch at Ronnie so quickly the other man hadn’t stood a chance. Ronnie was knocked sideways as Jim’s punch sent him reeling back against the wall, his body ricocheting so hard, it sent a wave of pain flooding through him.

‘Jesus Christ…’ Ronnie gasped, clutching his jaw.

‘You know
nothing
about me and Amber. Nothing.’ Jim hissed, his eyes boring deep into Ronnie’s. ‘And you don’t ever talk about her in that way again, okay? You don’t cheapen her name or assume that’s the way she acts. You don’t fucking do that.’

Ronnie shook his head, his hand still clutching his now-throbbing jaw. ‘She needs to be rid of you.’

‘She needs to be loved.’

‘By you?’

‘Get out of my office.’

‘She needs you out of her life.’

‘Are you jealous, Ronnie? Oh, you want to go back there, is that it? You want to fuck your best friend again? Is that what all this is about?’

‘You’re fucking unreal. I care about that girl;
that’s
what this is about.’

‘And so do I.
I
care about her, more than you or anyone else will ever know.’

‘They’re just words, Jim. They’re just empty fucking words…’

‘Get out of my office. Before you say something you’ll really regret.’

Ronnie reached out to grab the door handle, his eyes never leaving Jim’s. ‘She deserves better than you.’

Jim said nothing. He just watched as Ronnie slammed the door closed behind him, his stomach dropping so low he felt sick. Amber deserved better than him – and Ronnie was right. She hadn’t deserved any of what he’d done to her previously. But she knew why he’d acted that way now; he’d explained it all to her. But had he left everything too late?