“To be fair, I did text you.” I grinned, honestly just happy to be near her. No worrying about saying the wrong thing or having her stab my back. “You think about our choices?”
“Streaking or making out?” She tapped her pointer finger against her lips. “Get over here and kiss me so I can go back to what I was doing.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, and I was mildly insulted. “What the hell are you doing?”
She blew a raspberry with her lips and opened the door. “Come on in, I’ll show you.”
I followed her, inhaling her perfume and orange scent. The aroma was incredible and subtle enough to not overwhelm. It reminded me of the night at the bar, her body against mine, the feel of her… I coughed into my fist. She had a ring light set up on her table and her phone on some holder. “What’s this?”
“I’m starting an OnlyFans account.”
Fuck.I sucked in a breath, gasping for air to the point I choked. Her knowing smirk was devilish. Evil. What a witch.
“God, your face. Ha! That was worth it. No judgement to those on there, earn that money, but damn.” She threw her head back and laughed, the jovial chuckle echoing in the kitchen, and I wanted to keep the sound.
It was carefree, unattractive, and beautiful all at the same time. My lips twitched as I fought my own smile. “Think you’re funny?”
“Mildly so.” She sat on the chair and waved her hand in the air, indicating the whole setup. “I’m nowhere near your status of social media fame, but I do live sessions twice a week and answer questions about what it’s like being a D1 soccer player. My fan base has been growing lately with the rise of attention on female athletes.”
“I love that. And my followers aren’t following me to talk about football. They want to see my persona, the life they all wanted. It’s a façade, for sure.”
“Yeah, I know. The guy I know as Dean Romano is very different than you are online.” Her words were kind, but there was an undertone in the sentence that had my spine stiffening.
“What does that mean?” I sat next to her at the table. My thigh touched hers, and her warmth radiated into me. It took alot of effort to not run my hand over her skin because damn, I wanted to.
“You’ve been a playboy and a flirt the last three years, for sure, but you’re not just some womanizing footballer. You volunteer with the team. You tutor the younger guys. You lead by example. None of that is shown on your social media. You just post photos of Central State Gear, cute women, fans, and the team.”
“Well yeah, they aren’t following me for anything other than my jersey number.” My face burned, and I frowned. “They don’t give a shit about my views or goals, just wins. It’s not like you. You can be yourself and speak up, and people want to listen to you. That’s cool as fuck.”
“Don’t you get to control what you post, what you speak about?” She tilted her head, a little wrinkle forming between her brows. She looked at me like I told her dogs should wear pants.
“I mean, sure, but they want the quarterback life.” I scratched my chest, hoping that would help the unsettled feeling behind my ribs. I came here to kiss this girl, and now we were having a heart to heart. “Mack—”
“Pretty sure you’re the boss of your own life and your own narrative, Romano.” Her eyes flashed. “Now kiss me quick so I can get back to this.”
“Using my body then kicking me out? Wow. You do have this professional athlete lifestyle down,” I teased, thankful as hell that the conversation turned to one more in my domain.
Flirting. Kissing. Seducing. Iusedto be incredible at this, and it felt good to flex those muscles again without freaking out. Sure, my mind went to Jessica and her face and the lies, but I could shove the images away faster now.
“I gotta practice before I’m playing professionally. I’ll just be going through men like takeout. Use them, kick them out.”
That… no. Didn’t love that image.
“That was a joke, Romano. Don’t judge me with those eyebrows of yours.” She laughed again. “If you don’t plan on kissing me, then do you mind waiting around for a few minutes? I’ll finish this round, then we can go hog wild and streak.”
“I’ll wait until you’re done.” I leaned back in the chair, the idea of watching her perking me up. I’d love to see what she said, how she interacted with her growing fan base. Mack went viral a few weeks ago, and since then, her following had grown fast. All sorts of people watched her account now, and I’d lie if I hadn’t followed her and watched a few of her posts myself. She was engaging and endearing.
“Okay, cool. I need to finish answering these questions that were submitted, then we can get naked, kiss, get face tattoos, whatever.”
“In that order, yes, please.”
Our gazes met, and a warm, pleasant feeling replaced the uneasy one, and there was no other place I’d rather be than right here. Nothing sounded better or more entertaining that spending time with Mack.
With the ring light on, she adjusted her phone and smiled into it. “Three more questions for today. This one is from Melodie Smith. How can we support women’s sports more? I’m a huge fan, but I don’t know what else to do. Great question. First, thank you for being a fan. Large markets often say that men’s teams drive in more revenue, so that’s always the reason why they don’t give women’s teams the most coverage, but y’all are missing out.” She laughed and leaned onto her elbows, looking cute as hell as she continued. “Talk about your teams. Buy gear. Tag accounts when you’re watching. Be loud and proud of the teams you support. If you can’t afford going to a game or buying gear, you can post and be creative online.Owners need to know there is a fan base at the ready, so the more engagement there is, the more likely money will funnel toward those teams.”
She paused and hit the stop button. “Okay, two more.”
“You’re incredible,” I gushed. “I love how your voice gets all high and excited when you talk about it.”
