Tackling Her Heart (5 page)

“
Leaving so soon?” Marc
asked, apparently not thrown off by the change in
events.

“
She needs to go,” Kelsie
spat.

Marc grabbed the blonde’s
upper arm and escorted her to the door. He opened it and shoved her
through. “Go back to
your
room, Kelsie.”

As soon as he shut the door, he looked
at Sofia. “A childhood crush. She can’t seem to let go.”

“
I don’t need any
explanations—”

“
For once you don’t have
questions, when I have answers for you,” Marc said with a
grin.

“
This was a mistake,”
Sofia said, heading for the door.

Marc grasped her upper arm, stopping
her in her tracks. “Don’t let an uninvited guest end our night
prematurely.”

Sofia looked over her shoulder. “I
shouldn’t have been up here with you anyway. Her arrival reminded
me of just that.”

Marc watched her for a moment, then
let go. “Fine. If you want to go, then go. But know I don’t want
you to.”

Sofia took two steps to the door and
lifted a shaking hand to the knob. She didn’t want to go. She
wanted him to build her fire once more and make her come a few more
times, just like he had moments before. Yet, if she stayed, she’d
only multiply the mistake. She’d been given a partial reprieve, and
she needed to take it.

She opened the door and escaped into
the hallway. Forcing one foot before the other, she finally got to
the elevator and punched the Down button a few times, much harder
than it needed. With one hand supporting her against the wall, she
breathed deep, trying to calm herself before the car
arrived.

Sofia heard a slight click and looked
down the hallway. Marc stood half inside his room, half into the
hall, staring at her with that steel gray gaze of his. Her body
screamed for her to return to him, to continue to let him play her
body like the instrument it seemed to be in his arms. The elevator
pinged, and the doors opened. It was empty. She looked down at him
one more time before escaping into the relative safety of the car.
Punching the lobby button, she willed the doors to close before she
changed her mind.

They slid closed, and she could
breathe again.

She wasn’t afraid of Marc.

She was afraid of the woman she’d just
become in his arms.

There was just too much in their way.
Marc would never trust her enough to let her past his defenses,
which meant she would be a fast, quick screw and nothing more. No
matter how much she’d liked being in his arms, she wouldn’t subject
herself to that.

If things had been different—if there
had never been a scandalous story about Marc’s brother or if she
wasn’t currently working on one about him—maybe things would’ve
been different. Maybe there would’ve been a chance.

Sofia lifted her hand to her abraded
lips, touching the kiss-bruised flesh. Her body rebelled, throbbing
at the remembrance of his hands and mouth on her. She closed her
eyes, wondering if she should’ve just given in.

Chapter Five

Marc dropped onto the empty bed, the
one he’d hoped to share with Sofia. His cock was painfully erect
and his balls aching, ready to come. Damn, she’d looked beautiful,
coming in his arms. The scent of her juices still filled the room
and made it impossible for him to think of anything else but
surging inside her tight pussy.

Hard-up and alone. What the hell was
he going to do now?

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he
fished it out, almost hoping the little minx had gotten his phone
number somehow.

How wrong he was. His agent. “Max,
how’s it shaking?”

“
What the fuck where you
thinking, dumb ass?” That was Max—no filler, no bullshit. “The
commissioner is already screaming for your head on a
spike.”

“
Hey, at least I didn’t
murder anyone.”

“
At least with murder, the
NFL has to back off and wait for the cops to investigate the
charges. You dropped a teammate on live TV, and they’re ready to
level judgment. It doesn’t look good, Marc. Not good at
all.”

“
So they’ll throw a fine
my way. Maybe make me sit out a game. It’s the pre-season. No big
deal.” Max was making too big a deal out of the
situation.

“
That’s not the way the
commissioner made it sound. I think he plans to make an example out
of you. You’ve got an appointment in his office tomorrow at ten.
There’s a car coming to pick you up at six-thirty. A first class
ticket will be waiting for you at BWI in the morning and another
car to pick you up on the NYC side. Get some sleep and I’ll meet
you in front of the building before we go in.”

“
Fine,” Marc said, knowing
it wasn’t a big deal. He’d never had a problem throughout his
ten-year career. That had to mean something. It wasn’t like he’d
committed a crime like some of the other men he played with
throughout the league. Though, there was a sense of brotherhood on
a team and he’d broken an unspoken pact, and gotten flagged for
unsportsmanlike behavior on the field. “I’ll see you in the
morning.”

Marc hung up the phone, not all that
worried about what the morning would bring. His thoughts went back
to Sofia and the way she looked as he’d pushed her past her limits.
She’d been putty in his hands. Soon, he’d have her back in his
grasp. It was just a matter of time.

He unzipped his pants and drew his
hard cock from between the opening. Fisting his shaft, he stroked
the length from root to tip, milking a single bead of fluid to the
slit. Marc couldn’t remember the last time he’d had to stroke
himself to completion. He had better control over his lust than he
did in his younger days, and the thought of a woman leaving his
room before he’d found satisfaction was unheard of at this stage of
his life.

Sofia had left him hot and bothered.
She’d pay for that. Next time, she’d beg for release over and over
again as she writhed under him. He’d take her to the brink, only to
prevent her from coming as her retribution. And when he could stand
it no longer, he’d shove his cock into that tight little pussy and
fuck her until she screamed his name.

He came a few strokes later, so fired
up by Sofia, that it barely took any time to get him to spill his
seed into his hand. She’d pay for that, too—with her bright red
lips … wrapped around his cock … sucking him off.

Once he cleaned himself off, he
disrobed and climbed into that cold, empty bed. He drifted off to
sleep with visions of him fucking her dancing in his
head.

Chapter Six

Marc burst through the double doors
out of the NFL offices, enraged. The meeting with the commissioner
hadn’t gone as well as he’d expected. “What the fuck was
that?”

Max stepped closer, trying to quiet
Marc down. “I told you last night he wanted to make an example of
you. They can’t have teammates taking one another out over personal
drama.”

“
But six games? Not
counting pre-season? I can’t play again for
nine weeks
, Max.” Marc was in no
mood to be his normal calm, cool, and collected. He wanted to put a
fist through the wall over this bullshit. Brian Brooks had had it
coming. “It’s too harsh!”

Max brushed a hand over his balding
head and adjusted his glasses. He lowered his voice another octave
and lifted a warning eyebrow to Marc. “I think a six-game penalty
is better than being cut for an entire season, which had been
bandied around, just so you know.”

“
You’re going to fight
this, Max. I’m not taking a nine-week break at the beginning of the
season. I’ll pay a bigger fine, or I’ll agree to go to more
community events, whatever they want.”

“
A bigger fine? Two
hundred fifty thousand is already a big enough fine. I fought tooth
and nail not to get you benched for the whole season. They’re not
going to listen to me for a while.”

Marc started storming toward the
elevator, punching the button with ferocious anger. “Do you realize
that Brian only got a fifty K fine for driving under the influence
with a barely legal girl sucking his cock in the front seat and
letting the world catch him cheating on my sister in the process?
Yet I’m getting five times that and benched for nine weeks? This is
ridiculous.”

“
What he did wasn’t on the
field, Marc. You had weeks of summer camp and reconditioning to
enact your vengeance on that man, but you waited until the first
game of the pre-season to show your hand. That shows
premeditation.”

“
It
wasn’t
premeditated. Brian was being
a dick and taking Jennings down hard just because he’s with my
sister now. Jennings couldn’t retaliate because he was in an
offensive position and he would’ve gotten flagged. Brian needed to
learn a lesson. I decided to teach him. You don’t mess with me and
mine.”

“
So it was better for you
to incur the flag and get your ass in a vise?” Max entered the
newly opened elevator car and turned to face Marc. “I’ll fight it,
but for now, you’re benched. I suggest you getting out of Dodge,
and away from the press, away from the hoopla, and let it all blow
over a little.”

Marc walked into the elevator. “Run
away?”

“
No. Just go relax on a
beach somewhere and let me work this after heads have cooled a
little. You’re a star player on the team, and the fans will be
outraged over the length of your punishment. Once they start
freaking out online, then we can use that to our advantage. I’ll
see if I can get the length reduced, but I can’t promise anything,
Marc.”

“
A beach? Like I can relax
right now.”

“
It’ll be harder to relax
with the media breathing down your neck. Let me get a private plane
set up to take you somewhere, anywhere. As long as it’s off U.S.
soil and away from the circus this is going to become.”

“
Fine,” Marc spat. His
mind immediately went to Sofia and how this was going to throw a
big wrench in his plans. What the hell was he going to do
now?

* * * *

Sofia sat at her desk, staring at her
computer screen. She was on deadline for this story and other than
everything the whole world already knew, she didn’t have a lot to
add other than speculation and her gut instinct. If only she’d
stayed last night, she’d have had one helluva tale to
tell.

One she’d never be able to
print.

Her body still thrummed as she thought
of his hands on her body. Marc had brought her to orgasm in mere
minutes, just using his fingers. What would he do if they were both
naked, in a bed, and free to explore every inch of flesh? Visions
came to her head of him thrusting between her legs, and she felt
her panties dampen.

Ay dios mio!
What that man did to her.

Sofia’s cell began to buzz in the
midst of the scattered papers covering her messy desk. After
lifting a few sheets, she found it and clicked the Accept button.
“Hey, Rand, what’s up?”

Rand worked in the NFL
offices in New York and often handed her some choice gossip because
he
quote
thought
she had a banging body
unquote
. Under normal circumstances,
she’d be angry, but since he gave her a leg up in breaking stories,
then so be it.

“
Hey, sexy lady. Thought
you might like to know Marc Anders got called before the
commissioner this morning,” Rand said quietly. “He was handed a two
hundred fifty thousand dollar fine and a six-game suspension, after
pre-season starts.”

Sofia hissed. That was painful news.
“That’s awfully harsh.”

“
The commissioner isn’t
playing around. He said he needed to make an example of
Anders.”

An example? Even for an example that
was extreme. Poor Marc. Considering the probable reasons behind why
he did it, she felt bad for the guy. It was wrong, sure, but Sofia
could see the reasoning behind what he’d done.

“
I also overheard Marc
with his agent. His agent suggested Marc get out of town, a beach
somewhere, until all this blows over. So Marc might be getting out
of town, and fast.”

Sofia didn’t like that news, not one
bit. “Did he say where this beach might be?”

“
Nope, but Killian works
out of Marc’s agent’s office now.”

“
Killian Parker?” Killian
had worked the NFL offices alongside Rand. “I didn’t know he’d
left.”

“
He’s been gone two weeks.
I don’t know if he’s been in his new position long enough to know
details like where Marc would go, but it’s worth a
shot.”

“
Rand, you’re the best. I
owe you big time.”

“
So, ah, I was wondering.
Maybe we could go get that drink sometime?”

Sofia smiled. “You got it, buddy. The
next time I’m in NYC, I’ll give you a call. You’ve been a great
friend. I owe you a round or two at least.” She’d already made it
abundantly clear she wouldn’t be sleeping with Rand and that he was
only a friend.