I don’t doubt he’d deliver in the bedroom.
Or any room, for that matter.
Jayden is fiercely competitive. The best agent in Hollywood. The fastest on the ice rink at Christmas. The first to run into the sea for the Boxing Day dip. When he commits to something, he does it with a passion. It’s like a weird personal mission.
I’m pretty sure he’d devote the same fervid passion to his lovers. Of which, by all accounts, there have been many. I’m ashamed to admit I know more about him than I should. I’ve scoured far too many news articles about him, googled his name more than is healthy, purely with a curious disgust, of course. Not that you can avoid it. Every few weeks, his picture is plastered across the media with a different conquest on his arm.
I’m no virgin myself. So why does the thought of him with anyone else send a fresh ripple of irritation coursing through me?
‘Do you think you could handle two of us?’ The striker’s breath brushes my ear.
My head whips round to face Carl, certain he’ll shoot his teammate down, but he shrugs and smirks. Looks like anything’s on the table. Including me, apparently.
Liberated or not, I’m not interested in either of them, let alone both of them. Time to extract myself. Quickly.
There’s zero chemistry.
Not like the toxic crackle I suffered when Jayden offered to bury his tongue between my legs, as he put it.
Speak of the devil. He appears like a vision before my eyes.
A crisp white shirt hugs his taut chest. His sleeves are rolled to the elbow, revealing tanned powerful forearms dusted with a smattering of dark hair. Navy jeans hang from his narrow hips like a goddamn work of art. His usual teasing expression’s been replaced with an unnerving glower. Steely graphite eyes glint in a manner that has me half terrified and half intrigued.
As he stalks across the room, he oozes an aura of dominance, power and authority. Women, and men, gape open mouthed.
His narrowing gaze focuses intently on me. Specifically, my thigh, where the captain’s hand is still lingering. A vein pulses furiously at his temple.
Carl leans into my ear, his hand tracing higher up my thigh, squeezing suggestively, inching beneath the hem of my dress. They’re assuming I’m a forgone conclusion.
‘What do you think?’ Alcohol fumes sting my eyes.
What do I think?
I think you’re way out of line and the only man my errant lady parts are screaming out for is marching across the room with the expression of a trained killer carved on his exquisite face.
Jayden grabs both my hands, jerking me up onto my feet. ‘We’re going.’
‘Hey, she’s with us,’ Carl protests.
‘Actually, she’s with me. Get your fucking hands off her.’
Ruby’s huge blue eyes widen from across the table. Jayden Cooper needs no introduction.
‘O-M-Fucking-G.’ She mouths through the noise and escalating tension. Crimson nails fly back and forth in front of her face as she dramatically fans herself at Jayden’s blisteringly hot arrival.
Anger fumes from his broad frame in ferocious, palpable waves. Carl jumps to his feet, his hand catching me by the wrist. His features twist into a sneer.
Jayden’s menacing hiss is weighted with a warning The Hulk himself would be foolish to ignore. ‘Get your hands off my woman while they’re still attached to your body. I won’t say it again.’
The grip on my arm drops and I’m ushered away from the table by a hot palm nestling against the base of my spine.
I don’t know whether to be relieved, flattered, or downright incensed. Okay, I was uncomfortable, but I had the situation under control. I don’t need a hero. Especially not Jayden.
‘Your woman?’
‘Yes. My woman. And you’re welcome, by the way.’
As much as I hate to admit it, possessive Jayden is even hotter than infuriating Jayden. I’ll die before I admit that out loud. Resentment ripples through me even as his huge hand lingers on my spine, sending delicious hot tingles in every direction.
