My mind drifted back to Cassidy. “Why do you think she ran? Cassidy, I mean.”
“I think it was my fault. Something I said freaked her out.” Cash’s jaw muscles worked as he took a deep breath. “I don’t even know what I was saying.”
“Or maybe it was the fact that she was about to get fucked by three big guys who were panting and pawing at her. Shesaid she’d only been with one guy before. That was probably intimidating.” Punching Cash in the arm, Hayes played big brother, as always. “You didn’t do anything we weren’t doing, too, Cash.”
“She was insanely tight. Felt like fucking heaven.” I could still taste her on my tongue. “We would’ve destroyed her.”
“Maybe, but she would’ve loved it.”
Hayes grinned. “And begged for more.”
The game ended on the field and I welcomed the distraction so I didn’t end up with a fucking hard-on while sitting alone with my brothers. My eyes moved to number eleven and I shook my head at the guys on our team moving around her. Just when I was starting to feel sorry for her she took her helmet off and shook out her hair.
“Motherfucker.” I slapped Cash and Hayes on the shoulder as I scrambled past them. “Dibs.”
Hayes was on my heels. “Not a fucking chance.”
Cassidy was number eleven. Hot, sexy, smart-mouthed, and a skilled athlete? Yeah, she was mine.
8
***Cass***
“Yo, dude. You need to come to practice with us. You could teach us some shit.” Casey, a guy I’d met on the field after running over him, grinned at me with a wide-eyed wonder that I’d gotten used to. I’d grown up playing football under Coach Carrington’s tutelage, USC’s head coach. He hadn’t taken me seriously out of his back yard but he’d treated me as an equal when I was playing with his son and friends.
I was used to guys being impressed by ‘a girl’ playing so well. They didn’t know that I was funneling every ounce of the anger and disappointment I felt in my life into every hit. I was basically shooting up emotional steroids before stepping onto the field. Ineededto play hard to be able to sleep at the end of the day.
I held back a cringe at being put in soliddudeterritory so early on. “Talk to my manager.”
“Where’d you learn to play like that? You shouldn’t be able to hit so fucking hard, man.” Another guy, whose name I hadn’tcaught, shook his head and held out his hand to fistbump me. “I was expecting to feel a little nudge but you knocked me on my ass.”
Before I could answer the group of guys around me parted to let Weston, Cash, and Hayes through. I flushed hot under the bulky pads I was wearing and had to fight the urge to touch my hair. It didn’t matter if it was messy. I had no business trying to impress the Ford brothers.
Weston cleared the field around me with a mean looking snarl. Then he was right there, in my personal space, big hand gripping the back of my sweaty neck. “Two things. Why’d you run? And how the fuck are you so skilled on the field? You were amazing.”
I might’ve swooned under the praise if I wasn’t so aware of everyone still hanging out on the field watching us. As it was, I was struggling to meet his eyes. He was in his cowboy hat and he smelled like warm leather and expensive bourbon, aka he was overwhelmingly attractive. I still wasn’t used to reacting to anyone but Cole so it was a shock to my system. I’d been working overtime to convince myself that I was remembering it more intensely than it was but I couldn’t lie when Weston was in front of me and the attraction was burning through me.
“Um…” I wanted to slap myself. I wasn’t that girl. I didn’t lose myself over men. Especially after everything with Cole. I cleared my throat and tried again. “I am skilled, aren’t I? Thank you for noticing.”
Cash wasn’t shy about touching me as he slid into place behind me and gripped my hips. Even through the thick pads I could feel his body heat seeping into mine. “Let’s try this again, Cassidy. Go out with me.”
Weston’s lips lifted in a scowl. “No. Go out with me.”
It was pathetic but I looked over at Hayes, greedy for more of their attention. He was watching me with a smile twisting one side of his mouth and his blue eyes crinkled at the corners. I feltlike he could see straight through me when he looked at me like that.
“Oh, I want to take you out, too, Strawberry. I’m just waiting on my brothers to roll their tongues back up and get out of my way.” He came closer and lifted his hand to stroke his knuckles over my cheekbone. “You were impressive on the field. I’d love to take you out to celebrate.”
“Strawberry?” That was the easiest thing for me to focus on and I was being a coward.
Hayes leaned in close enough that his lips brushed the shell of my ear as he answered me. “You smell like a delicious, ripe strawberry that’s begging to be eaten.”
I swore to myself when I felt my face darken. I also promised to thank Aunt Jolene for only using strawberry scented bath products.
“Say you’ll go out with me, Strawberry.” Hayes’ eyes traced every curve of my face and burned so sincerely that I felt the world shift under my feet. “Please.”
My heart stuttered as I looked past my own lust and saw just how serious they were being. They touched me with raw hunger, sure, but the way they looked at me was deeper, more intense. The men I’d planned to hurt were looking at me like maybe I hung the moon and it hurt. It hurt so much that I couldn’t catch my breath for a second.
The connection I’d felt with them, the connection I’d been starving for for so long, was right there in front of me and I’d lied to them by omission. I knew who they were, who their sister was, and I’d been best friends with the guys they believed caused their injuries. I’d played the villain to their sister’s hero and I knew they’d be disgusted by all those things. I didn’t want to spend another second longing for men who didn’t want me, the real me, so I couldn’t let them go on thinking I was someone else.If I stopped it right then and there, I’d escape with my heart still intact. Or at least as intact as it’d been when I met them.
