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“I’m retiring after this season. This is my last chance to go to the Super Bowl,” I wheedled.

“No.”

“Please Violet,” I said, not above begging. Violet was a legend in sports physical therapy. “I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?”

She raised one red eyebrow, her gaze turning speculative, and I suddenly had a bad feeling about this. A long pause dragged on before she spoke again.

“You’re single, right?”

“Keeping tabs on me, sweetheart?” I teased.

As impossible as it seemed, her green eyes turned even colder. Really it was stupid of me to rile her up anymore than she already was, but I couldn’t help it. Anger was better than the cold detachment she’d started with.

“I just figured no woman has been dumb enough to fall for your charm long-term,” she snipped. “Plus, I’m sure it would have been all over the headlines if the great American hero Robbie Mason got hitched.”

I was smart enough to know there was no winning this argument, so I redirected her back to our original discussion.

“What do I need to do to get you to take me on as a client?”

I hoped she would say something awesome, like give her another chance. Because as I stared at my first love, my only love, I realized that I had never gotten over her. I resolved to do whatever I needed to so I could get back in her good graces and make her mine again. I was willing to do whatever it took.

“Let me sell you in a bachelor auction.”

Oh crap. Except for that.

Violet

“Bachelor auction?”

Despite his career, Robbie hated being in the spotlight. The team mostly tried to keep him out of press conferences and anything other than single-reporter media appearances because underneath all his cocky swagger he was actually kind of shy and super introverted.

I remembered the first time he’d asked me out. He’d been sitting next to me in Exercise Physiology class for weeks, sending me shy looks out of the corner of his eye. I’d tried to talk to him several times, even tried to flirt with him, but he seemed immune to my charms.

Until the day he grabbed my wrist as I started to get out of my seat after class and quietly asked to talk to me. He’d mumbled and stuttered and blushed so red that I agreed to a date partly because I hadn’t had the heart to reject him. And partly because he was hot as hell and every time I saw him my heart started pounding.

Kind of like it was right now. Stupid heart.

Being on stage, acting sexy while horny women bid on him was Robbie’s idea of hell. He knew it, I knew it, and he knew that I knew it. The question was, how much was he willing to step outside his comfort zone to get me to help him? Because having one of Denver’s most eligible and elusive bachelors in the auction would raise a ton of money.

Living in the same city as him and being a fan of his team, it had been impossible not to see pictures of him over the years. And of course I rarely missed watching the Cougars play. Yet nothing I’d seen online or on TV had prepared me for the reality of seeing him again in real life.

He hadn’t changed much despite it being eighteen years since we’d graduated college. His hair was still dark and straight, kept short just the way he liked it. Dark slashes of eyebrows and sharp cheekbones gave his face an almost harsh appearance that was softened by his beautiful brown eyes. His jaw was clean shaven, his chin just a little bit pointy.

He was big and muscular compared to most men, but as a kicker, he was on the small side for a football player. He was sitting down now but I knew he was just a hair over six feet. Looking down at his paperwork, he’d listed his weight as one ninety-five. It was all muscle though, I thought, as my eyes traced his thick thighs, bulging biceps, and trim waist.

“I’m the co-chair for the Women in Sports Foundation,” I answered. “We’re having a bachelor auction as a fundraiser to provide sports scholarships for girls from low-income families to participate in sports camps, pay the admission fees for teams, and buy them uniforms and equipment.”

He gave me a fond smile. “I love that you do that. You always liked to help people.”

“You’ll have to go up there on stage shirtless of course.”

His smile fell and he looked like he wanted to puke.

“Shirtless?”

“Sure, the women are going to want to see what they’re bidding on.”