“Well, she’s a good kid, Quil,” Brett said with a smile, hearing the little squirt giggling in the background.
“She’s the only thing keeping my feet here on the ground. I don’t know what I would’ve done without her. She’s my everything.”
Brett understood that statement all too well. It was how he felt about Madison. That angel in the room next door was the reason he was breathing every day. He couldn’t do life without her in his, which was why he’d made the choices he had.
“I can see Madi loves you, Brett, and you her.”
Brett’s eyes warned Quil off, but he didn’t heed it.
Quil’s hands came up in surrender. “I’m just saying, you can’t feel bad about what happened to Hunter. It wasn’t your fault. Just like Rian’s death wasn’t mine. Bad things happen and it’s out of our hands. We have to keep going though…for them.” Quil pointed to the room next door. “Don’t let your regrets and guilt and pain keep you from the Heaven we’re given here on earth. You both have hurt enough over what happened. Embrace the good that’s been left behind.”
With that, Quil clapped a hand to Brett’s shoulder and gave him an understanding smile.
He moved into the living room, leaving Brett to ponder what he’d just said.
Brett let Madi see them out and waved to his new teammate and the adorable little girl of his. Madi looked down then before approaching him, and he felt his heartbeat quicken.
“I…I’m gonna go to bed, I think. I’m really tired.”
“Madi,” he pleaded and reached his hand out to her.
“Thanks for being a good sport.” She gave him a weak grin and turned away.
Was she mad at him? Upset? Had someone told her how he’d acted at the complex today? Why was she being so distant with him?
Great, as if I didn’t have enough shit to deal with, he thought and decided to hit the treadmill again.
Madi’s eyes were sore and slightly puffy as she made her way downstairs to the weight room to work out the next day. She was surprised to see Brett pumping iron, all swoll and sweaty, and sexy as all get out.
Dammit, her womanhood was soaking up the smell of his musk like he was freaking heroine and she, an addict. Her desire was full throttle and had been all week as he’d been so close yet so far away. She understood his distance, she knew why he was being this way, she’d heard about his temper in the weight room yesterday and she hadn’t been surprised. Mr. Cool and Collected had always held his emotions in and now he needed to expel them somehow—and as a football player, physical combat was the only thing he’d ever known. Brett was an alpha, an apex predator, and when he didn’t have prey he went stir crazy. It didn’t help that he’d felt inadequate all week with his poor skill during passing drills or the fact that a newbie had shown up to take Hunter’s place—or the fact that the sexual tension between him and Madi was crackling like a lightning storm on a summer day.
No, they needed some way to expel their stress; sex was what should be doing it, but Brett was holding back. Madi understood that, too. Hunter wasn’t even cold in the ground yet, and Brett felt like he’d swooped in on the “damsel in distress.” She got it, but that didn’t mean her body wasn’t aching for the loving she knew he could give her. The way his mouth had possessed hers, the way his hands had moved over her, the way his fingers had dominated her body; she was dripping wet at the prospect of having him. And as she moved past him while he bench-pressed an impressive amount of weights and huffed out, she made her mind up.
She watched his eyes linger on her ass, scantily clad in a pair of bike shorts and when he looked up, his eyes sought hers as he re-racked his barbell and rose. She could have moaned aloud at how the shiny, sweaty muscles in his arms and his chest rippled with the movement. His masculine strength called to every cell in her feminine body. She wanted to rip his clothes off him and succumb to his domination in any way he wanted to take her.
She made her move. She turned and began to pull her shirt over her head, revealing the sports bra beneath, then she began removing that too. He inhaled sharply as she threw it aside and moved toward him. When she stopped directly in front of him, she peeled the tight shorts off her frame and stepped out of them, watching his eyes stop at the delta of her thighs. He licked his lips as if he could remember what she tasted like; it made her mouth water.
She moved to straddle the bench and held his gaze for a moment before her hands moved to the hem of his shirt. She had it up and over his head and thrown to the side in a matter of seconds. Then her mouth descended to his as her hands moved to stroke his damp muscles. He groaned hungrily, and her sex tingled in anticipation. She felt her womanhood oozing want as his hands moved to her back and pulled her closer. They kissed like they were crazed,
