Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Kristen Flowers

to dinner or something? It seemed
impossible to me.

 
    In some ways, it
felt like I was living two different lives. The thought of having those two
lives meet felt terrifying.

 
      “Um,” I said before clearing my throat. “I
have to get to class.”

 
    Mom laughed and
waved me away, turning her attention back to the plants she was repotting. As I
got dressed for class and made sure all my things were together in my messenger
bag, a sense of relief settled on me. Any good day for my mother put me at
ease; especially when I had to be on campus all day. I pulled my hair into a
ponytail and tugged on the corners of my cardigan.

 
    It was going to be
a full day of classes and no tutoring. I wasn’t sure if I liked that or not.
Ever since Landon started appearing on my schedule at the Tutoring Center I was
unsure what the feeling in my stomach meant. Whether it was good or bad was
still lost on me. All I knew was it only happened when my eyes landed on the
name Landon Bryce printed on the
daily schedule. And, every time, it would take every ounce of my self-control
not to obsess over my upcoming session with him. It always turned out to be
excruciatingly distracting when I worked with my other students. As I walked
out of the house I realized it was probably no accident he always scheduled his
sessions during my last available slot of the day.

 
    I took my seat in
my Political Science class and waited for the room to fill up. I always got there
about ten minutes early to my first class. I liked to look over the key points
of the chapter the professor would be covering, but I was too distracted to do
that now.

 
    My mind wandered
to him, even as the professor started lecturing. I looked out the window to
look at the football stadium. This was the first time I actually looked at the stadium, despite having
sat in the same seat since the start of the semester. I stared at it for a long
while, remembering my day in the stands with Landon.

 
    Maybe it wasn’t as
ugly as I originally thought it was. Maybe the clash of the modern look to the
stadium wasn’t so bad with the old, classical buildings. It stood out. It was
different and took some getting used to, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad
thing.

 
    I placed my chin
on my hand, elbow propped on the table, as I continued to stare at the
building. I did my best to force my memory with Landon at the stadium out of my
head. Those thoughts were highly inappropriate to be thinking about in class. I squeezed my legs together and
let out a little whimper, weakly disguised with a cough. I grabbed my book and
stared at the words on the page until I was no longer thinking of Landon’s face
between my legs.

 
    I knew the big
Homecoming Game was coming up in a few weeks. The hype on campus had already
begun, but this was the first time I cared or even paid any attention to it.
Not only did I have a reason to, I actually knew someone in the game. Well, I
more than knew him.

 
    I suppressed a
giggle and pulled out my cell phone. I hid it under the desk as I opened up the
browser and searched “Haywood University Homecoming Game.”

 
      The first article I opened had a large picture
of none other than Landon Bryce running with a football in hand, sporting the
university team’s uniform. I stared at the picture. I would have never thought
a man in a football uniform, a jock ,
would be so attractive to me. My mother was right in warning me not to easily
dismiss others based off something so superficial. Now I was finally starting
to get it.

 
    I scrolled past
the photo and skimmed through the article, quickly becoming aware of the fact
that I was in way over my head. I knew nothing about the sport so I decided to
start by searching the different football positions. Then I looked up the rules.
I wanted to learn as much as possible before the big game, if not sooner. As I
got lost in articles, blog posts, and informational pages I couldn’t believe
how