RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) Read Online Free Page B

with so many women he has to be infected. I don’t want that. Why do I want that? Yet I can’t stop thinking about The Rhino’s horn. I can’t stop thinking about who he really is underneath his bad boy exterior, and whether he’s actually serious about retiring, or threatening it at least, or serious about being lonely, or whether this is a gigantic fuck you to the press after five years of silence, just because it’s a game for him.
    I don’t doubt he’s capable of that. The first interview in five years just to throw people a hooky ball. Bad boys don’t change, I’m old enough and wise enough to know that. Leopards don’t change their spots, and Rhinos don’t lose their horns, unless someone comes along and saws them off.
    My room is bigger than my apartment. It has a wall of glass that gives a panoramic view of the sea, a retractable roof, a bathroom with a bath big enough to swim in, a bed that I don’t want to get up from, and a piece of artwork hanging on the wall I think is an original Picasso.
    I get the tour. Bedrooms after bedrooms, none of which look like they’ve ever been used, bathrooms, reception rooms, kitchen, cinema, swimming pool, gym, terrace and patio, the works. The works +1 actually. I’ve never seen anything like it.
    Alex shows me his room too, just so I know where to come if I want to find him. I’m momentarily surprised to see it clean and ordered, but then realize there must be a team of waiting staff to fulfill his every desire. I expect he has a legion of women at his disposal whenever he feels a little horny too.
    The whole building sits in a complex with landscaped gardens, Alex suggests we explore over the coming days, on a rock that is big enough to not be able to see from one side to the other. I am casually informed there are beaches that disappear gradually into clear blue water and the fact that I haven’t brought my bathing costume is not a cause for concern. I assure Alex that skinny dipping is definitely not on the cards, and he gives me that we’ll see look he pulls off so well.
    I shower, and then I get in the bath as well, just because I can’t resist it. It’s been a  long day already and having the warm water soak into my skin feels every bit as luxurious as it sounds.
    Here, as I begin to relax into the heat of the water, I start to think about my interviewee.  
    Alex Vann Haden. The Rhino. The meathead, star athlete asshole. It would be a shame for the world of sport if he retired, even for those who openly hate him. Maybe the key is finding a balance. Maybe what Alex really needs to do is stop being such a dick and hope the world embraces him. Bad boys are fine. We need bad boys. I love bad boys. Assholes are not. Nobody needs arrogant alpha holes in their life, not even lonely reporters who might struggle with their advances. You know, if they were, in the unlikeliest of all scenarios, to make advances upon them.
    Maybe he just needs someone serious to keep him on the straight and narrow. Sex is one thing, a relationship is another, and this girl does not suffer fools gladly, no matter how thick their arms are, how sexy their eyes, how cute their bum or how big and hard and insistent their horns.
     
    Alex
    Women are so transparent sometimes. They think they’re not but they are. I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, but I don’t think you have to be. This isn’t a work environment so there’s no need to be formal, yet Lucy’s dressed up. She’s put on something special for dinner, something I know she thinks that I’ll like. She looks good too, really good.
    “ Are we beginning?”
    “ I thought we already had.”
    “ It’s just, I’m a little lost without my notepad.”
    “ It wouldn’t suit the dress.”
    “ This is your plan?”
    “ I don’t have a plan.”
    “ Bombarding me with compliments so I change my opinion of you.”
    “ One compliment isn’t a bombardment, unless, and I hope this isn’t the case, that nobody ever