Playing with Fire - A Sports Romance Read Online Free Page B

noise began, but turn to face the large double doors and the hallway beyond where a small group of suits is making its way towards us. In the group are three men I’ve only seen up in the administrative offices, each dressed in a fine dark suit and shiny black shoes. There’s also Claudia, an older lady who makes a habit of wearing her frumpy floral dresses and those white orthopedic shoes that remind me of my grandmother’s bingo pals.
    “Fuck me,” I mutter under my breath when the last of the party walks into the room behind the suits. My cock twitches and I have to lean forward in my chair and put my elbows on my knees, both to hide what’s going on with me and to get a closer look. It’s her. Ashley. She’s dressed in a charcoal grey blazer and matching slacks that hug her ass in a way that makes me jealous. Under her blazer is a royal blue blouse that gives a hint of her perfect breasts. Her golden hair is pulled up into a tight bun, and her look screams power.
    Back at the hotel, she looked like an angel. Here, dressed in this suit and standing before the team and staff gathered in the room, she looks like a goddess whose feet I should be bowing down before.
    Coach gets up and introduces one of the suits, but I can’t spare him any attention. I listen without hearing as the suit bumbles on about some marketing campaign and updating bios in the souvenir programs they sell to the fans on game days. My eyes are glued to this woman as my mind relives every moment of our one night together.
    It’s not until the suit gestures to Ashley that I pull my eyes and attention away from her for a few moments to listen.
    “I’d like to introduce the one who is going to be spearheading this whole campaign. Everyone, please join me in welcoming our newest employee, Frankie Sarcone.”
    I glance at the other two suits, expecting one of them to step forward, even though I know they’re not new. It’s Ashley who steps up to the podium amid murmurs and a small round of applause from the side of the room where some of the staff is located.
    “Thank you,” she says with the briefest of smiles. “As Dale mentioned, my name is Frankie.” She goes on about the bios she and the rest of the marketing and public relations staff are putting together, but I'm too floored to pay attention. Floored to know she lied to me. Floored that I didn't think of this play first. And floored when, as she glances around the room, her gaze lands upon me and she stutters for a second. She whips her eyes away from me as if it pains her to see me sitting here. And if I'm not mistaken, she purposely looks everywhere but at me the rest of the time she’s speaking.
    I have my hands steepled at my lips, my eyes locked on her, silently begging her to look at me, to invite me back in for one more taste. It isn't until Matt punches my shoulder that I realize the meeting is over and people are getting up to leave. Ashley… No, Frankie, is still standing at the front of the room talking to some of the staff.
    “Yo, Corey?” Matt says, “You coming?”
    “Huh?”
    “Lunch. At Louis’. You coming?”
    “Nah,” I say, standing up next to him, my eyes still at the front of the room. “I got plans.”
    “Oh yeah, okay. Have fun brother. See ya tonight.”
    Matt and Ramon shuffle out along with the rest of the team while I linger near the doors, hoping to catch her attention. But the suits have the monopoly, and at last I take off alone. I wander down the hall to the locker room, then back upstairs to the meeting room. Everyone’s gone when I get there, so I amble along through the administration halls. Finally, I find what I'm looking for.
    I stand outside the door to one of the fancy offices along the hall of windows looking out onto the ballfield. On the wall is a silver nameplate with her name etched on it. And beyond the solid wood door, between me and a large window overlooking the parking lot and the city beyond, is the first woman to have ever