RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) by Abbey Foxx Page B

Vann Haden wins again.
    “ You don’t know the meaning of love”, I say.
    Crawling across the floor to get to me again, but I won’t allow it, not until I’ve finished. Alex leans back against the wall, while the rain continues to pitter patter, the wind makes wolf sounds outside and the boat rocks, my heart in a million pieces.
    “ I’m not the emotionless robot you think I am.”
    “ No, sure. It’s better for you. I envy you. So much easier if you can’t feel any emotional attachment at all. Just fuck without the connection and then move onto the next.”
    He’s shaking his head. “That hurts.”
    “ You admitted it yourself, you’ve never been in love.”
    “ Love takes two people, Lucy. It’s something that develops over time in a  relationship between two people.”
    “ And how would you know that?”
    “ Because I’m not cold hearted and single-minded.”
    “ So what were you planning to do with me after conquering me into bed? No wait, don’t answer that, it doesn’t matter anyway.”
    “ I’m sorry, Lucy.”
    “ For what?”
    “ Not having the balls at that moment to risk getting my heart broken for something I wanted.”
    I wipe the tears away from my eyes with the heel of my hand. I feel like a class A twat for letting him see me like this. How pathetic is crying about a crush in college that never went anywhere? Even if that crush is Alex Vann Haden. Even if, right now, that example of perfection is staring at me with his smoldering, fuck me eyes.
    “ Do you have the balls now?” I say.
    Alex tilts his head at me, and the look of disbelief on his face is matched only by the disbelief I’m feeling inside at having actually said it in the first place. Am I actually giving him the go ahead? Am I telling him that it’s ok? Am I-? What the fuck am I doing?
    I can’t take that back, even if I want to. The boat lulls and lilts and Alex looks at me, still unsure if he’s heard me right. If we fuck and he leaves because he’s the man he says he’s not, my heart will never repair itself, but if we fuck, and he’s the man he promises he’s always been, this could be heaven and more.
    A heartbeat, a whip of lighting and a thunderous crack of sound above us and Alex and I are on our knees running towards each other so quickly, neither of us have a chance to back out.
     
    Six.
     
    Lucy
    I’m eighteen again, seeing him play for the first time, his arms alone enough to get me wet. I’m every day of every week in that place, every fantasy and every desire all rolled into one. This is happening. No more cutting off my nose to spite my face, no more hiding away from risk, no more conservative, careful Lucy. I can’t resist him any longer. I hate that I need him, and I hate what he does to me, but I can’t avoid it. For whatever reason, Alex Vann Haden pushes my buttons. He pushes them so hard it makes me think I’m going to explode.
    My skin is a mesh of so many goose pimples it looks like I’ve been rolling around in nettles, and that heat from my pussy burns its way outwards and upwards in a fan of heat that makes me think someone’s setting me on fire.
    The lips. The Alex Vann Haden lips I could close my eyes and picture are finally up against mine, and while he pulls me into him passionately, I make sure I show him how much I’ve been waiting to do this.
    If it’s only tonight, and only once, so be it. I’m going to make sure he gives me his best of all time, and I’m going to make sure I take it.
    “ Admit it.”
    Still cocky enough to want to be right, even when what I’m doing is obvious. I bite his lip a little harder than he likes, just to channel my energy, and then find his tongue and wrap mine around it, sucking it back into my mouth.
    I shake my head when his eyes repeat the question. “Not yet.”
    Alex pulls at my hair to tilt my head back and expose my neck so he can bite it softly. It’s delicate enough to send shivers down my spine, dirty enough to make me want