All In: Playing to Win (Gambling With Love Book 5) Read Online Free Page A

losing an eighty million dollar contract for.
    "You've both got until Sunday's home game to find and serve up your goody two-shoes on a silver fucking platter for the press, or this time you're done!" Jerry barks. Then he strides out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
    Fuck.

Chapter Three
     
    Natalie
     
    I look down at my cell phone again, knowing no more than a minute could've passed since the last time I checked the time. Zack Bradford, the "star" quarterback, is late.
    An hour late.
    If his items didn't bring in the most money for our fundraiser then I would've already given up. But no, I need his famous signature if I'm going to raise the ten thousand dollars I need. The money will pay for a hundred women who can't afford mammograms to receive one for free.
    It seems like such a small number that we'll be able to help, and I wish we could do something to raise even more money. But if just one of those hundred women have breast cancer, hopefully it'll be caught early enough to save her life.                                                                
    I boxed up all the signed merchandise and sat down in one of the leather conference room chairs, spinning in circles while I waited. And waited. Then waited some more.
    Now I'm really starting to get angry at the famous jerk. What an arrogant ass! He's standing me up when women's lives could benefit from his name scratched on a few measly items. These early screenings could save the lives of mothers, daughters, and grandmothers, but he can't take five minutes out of his freaking day to help out! 
    There's also another more selfish reason I'm so determined to wait Zack out.
    It's been four years since the last time I've spoken to him...not that many words were exchanged on that particular day.
    It's disappointing to think that the man I've had a crush on since my freshman year of college isn't as wonderful as I imagined him to be. None of the other players had been late. Most had been early, and they'd all been genuinely nice guys, even though they're famous.  
    I built Zack Bradford up on a pedestal in my fantasies right after I started cheering on the sidelines for him in his very first college game. Not that he ever noticed me in a school as big as ours. Well, except for that away game during our sophomore year when we played Virginia Tech.
    On a read option play, Zack had held onto the football and ran it in for a touchdown, coming from behind to win the game for our team in the last few seconds. A bastard playing for Virginia Tech hit him late after he'd scored and was already out of bounds. I'd been creamed by Zack, landing flat on my back with his two hundred plus pounds of hotness lying on top of me. His warm, sincere brown eyes had looked down into mine as he asked if I was okay before helping me to my feet. Then, for whatever reason, he'd jerked his helmet off, grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me. Not just a quick peck of a kiss, but a honey-I'm-home-from-war-and-missed-you-like-crazy kiss. 
    It had been surreal, and afterwards I thought I'd received a concussion or imagined it after taking the hit to the ground. But no, there were video replays that confirmed Zack Bradford laid one on me that made my knees weak and my heart race in front of the entire stadium and televised audience.
    I even deluded myself into thinking it had been more than a spur of the moment kiss. That maybe he'd actually noticed me and wanted me.
    Wrong!
    The man never looked at me again after that game.
    A few days later I received the unexpected results of my biopsy and dropped out of school to start treatment. So that kiss had just been a single moment. An unbelievable, seriously romantic moment that I'll never forget for as long as I live.
    Just as I've given up all hope, the man of the hour - no make that now almost two hours - finally appears, strolling in like he doesn't have a care in the world.