First and Ten (11 page)

“Trying to hide his number by not putting his
name on the contact won’t fool me.”

“I’m not trying to fool you.” Dani didn’t
even get up from her seat. What was the point? The cat was out of
the bag. “As you can see that’s my first message from whoever it
is. Probably a wrong number.”

“Fine, so you wouldn’t want me to reply I’ll
be naked at the first place we met.”

Dani’s stomach flopped as she tightened her
jaw to keep the sick feeling down and her face stoic enough that
Esme wouldn’t figure out her feelings.

“How about typing Aunt Becky with a question
mark behind it,” Dani suggested as goosebumps ran up her spine.

“Fine. Sent.” Esme smirked.

“You really sent it?” Dani laughed.

“This isn’t some secret code you have is
it?”

A second text came through and Esme’s face
crinkled.

“Okay, this might actually be your Aunt
Becky. That is if you had one.” Dissuaded, she passed Dani the
phone and finally pulled her work out.

It took all Dani had in her to not burst into
a wide grin as she read,
My place. You bring the orange
soda.

“Dani, any chance…”

“Not in hell,” Dani replied and began
reviewing the research she’d done the night before.

After completing the fourth part of their
project, Dani and Esme went their separate ways. Esme had a
management theories class while Dani had advanced statistics for
the third time. She hadn’t flunked or anything, nope, she cut out
and dropped the class before that could happen. No longer able to
put off the inevitable, she made her way to Dr. Foster’s class
after responding to three urgent texts from Van. None of which were
for styling advice at least. Love life, as if she had time to help
him with his when she couldn’t even understand her own? Then again,
his is a bit more complicated. Do you let the paparazzi know you’ll
be somewhere or keep it casual? Then there’s the trust issue which
she understood all too well. Where money is concerned you have to
question every motive from the person you’re with.

“Orange soda?” Esme questioned as they left
Dr. Kent’s class four hours later. Thankfully it had been a Ted
talk and not her espousing on theories.

“You’re still on that?” Dani let out a
nervous giggle. Esme may give up on majors, but gossip, that she
couldn’t drop.

“Have you responded to him?”

“Why would I?”

“To let him know when you’ll be there and
find out why he’s a weirdo that doesn’t know it’s called pop. You
know only serial killers call it soda?”

“Fun fact.” Dani unlocked her car doors and
tossed her bag into the back seat.

“I’m only looking out for your safety.”

“Trying to get me to avoid freaks from
southern Illinois?”

“Among others.” Esme crossed her arms.
“What’s the deal? I’ve been racking my brain all day to try to
figure out what orange soda could mean.”

Dani rested her arms on the top of her sedan
as she took in her friend. Her glasses were serving as a headband
today while she rubbed the light red marks on the bridge of her
nose. With the fading sunlight reflecting in her hazel eyes, part
of Dani wanted to share with her friend. She wanted to tell her
about the feelings rushing through her at the thought of being held
by Jerome and that maybe, just maybe, he felt the same about
her.

“I guess I drank his last bottle of orange
pop,” she said, still afraid if she said more the budding
flirtation would never bloom into a real relationship.

Removing her glasses, Esme’s blond locks fell
around her face and with the glasses pointing directly at Danika,
she questioned, “Where did you find it?”

“In the fridge,” she replied and realized she
said too much.

“Who’s fridge?”

“Oh, you know,” Dani replied as she pulled
back and got ready to jump in her car and take off. “The fridge of
the world.”

“You were at his place,” Esme blurted then
opened the passenger door to get it.

“Can I help you?”

“Can I?” she questioned back. “Spill it, you
were in his house. Don’t hold back. Is it true what they say?”

“About what?”

“Did Speed really kill that pussy?”

“You just said pussy?” Dani blanched.

“I’m over the age of consent, it’s okay.”
Esme snatched Dani’s keys away before she could start the car.

“Give me my keys,” Dani ordered.

“Give me details,” Esme swooned. “Just one
little nugget. A real one, not some shit you pulled up on
ESPN.”

Dani sucked in a hard breath as she tried to
calm herself enough to talk. Emotions swirled through her from
embarrassment to fear then back to humiliation. Esme was the one
who dated famous people. She’s the one who’d hit Ibiza, Dubai and
Hvar on random weekends just because. Dani was a homebody, using
her job, her school, and her family for the lack of time in her
schedule. Fear was the bigger factor. She could have gone to any
college, yet she chose to stay home. It was an anchor that let her
be bold, but Jerome was a step into the unknown. As long as no one
knew about him then a failure would be for her eyes only.

“When he kisses me my toes curl,” Dani
admitted softly as the vise tightening around her bellybutton found
it’s last setting.

“Was that so hard?” Esme teased. “Seriously,
girl, you need to chill out. Go get an orange pop and make him lick
it off your chest.”

“Rome,” Joe, the trainer for the Grizzlies,
barked from across the weight room. At five-nine and a solid
two-fifty he walked like the brick wall he was. At first glance you
wouldn’t think he was fifty-three, but the hard ass drill sergeant
kept the Grizzlies toned and disciplined. At least in his weight
room.

“Yes,” Rome struggled and drew out the word
as he pressed up with his legs. Five hundred pounds seemed like a
good idea at the time.

“Drop them and get out of my weight
room.”

Rome lowered the leg press slowly as fire
burned up his thighs until the bar took the weight of the machine
and he dropped his legs. “Someone piss in your granola?”

“There’s a limit when you go from building to
destroying. You’re teetering on that point.”

“Fine, I’ll go hit the treadmill.”

“Didn’t you do cardio when you got here?” he
questioned.

“Your point is?”

“Go home. Rest your body for the next three
days. If you want to work out do it where I’m not liable.”

“Seriously? You’re kicking me out?”

“Who did we draft that’s scaring you?”

“Have I ever been scared?” Rome
challenged.

“Your first two years you weren’t exactly
King Kong.”

“King Kong ain’t got nothing on me,” Rome
quoted
Training Day
with a bit less enthusiasm than Denzel.
Joe extended his hand to Rome who gripped it and yanked him up so
they would be eye to eye or eye to chest since Rome had a good five
inches on Joe.

Joe sat on a bench and pointed to one across
from him for Rome. “I’ve known you for what, a decade?”

“Or six years,” Rome noted.

“Feels longer,” Joe replied as he rested his
thick forearms on his knees. “Now tell me something, you and I have
battled in here before, but I never had to kick your ass out.”

“Why start now?”

“I have a wife who expects to see me in the
few months between sessions. We have OTAs next week.” The organized
team activities were optional for veterans with the optional in
quotes by Coach Marshall. Sure Rome’s spot wasn’t in jeopardy, but
every move was watched since the new coach took over three years
ago.

“Is it really that late?” Rome looked over
his shoulder to the digital clock with the countdown clock to
preseason ticking away underneath it. Almost five with no response
from Dani. The working out hadn’t helped with his frustration.
Usually exhausting his body, hitting things, and pushing himself
physically could push aside everything in the world. God knows
Candace hadn’t been on his mind since he started his workout.

“Go home, for the love of all that is holy,
shower…better yet soak in an Epsom salt bath because there’s no way
you’re not going to smell like ass and be sore as one.”

“Your motivational speeches keep me
going.”

“I’m not here to be your shrink,” he replied.
“Whatever is fucking with your head is your shit. I’m all for
getting it out through lifting, but now is the time for alcohol,
cheap whores or a combination of the two.”

Joe grabbed his keys and started flipping off
lights. Rome got the message and headed to his locker. Getting his
own stuff, he decided to shower at home. Not that he had much of a
choice since Joe flipped off the lights in the locker room as the
final notice he’d overstayed his welcome. The soreness hit after
five minutes in his SUV. Stretching his neck from side to side, he
tried in vain to avoid the lactic acid building up in his
system.

The drive home took almost two hours because
of rush hour traffic. Going into the city shouldn’t be as bad as it
was, but then again this was Chicago. When Rome pulled onto his
street he saw an interesting sight. Pulling up to his driveway,
Dani was stretched out on the trunk of her car with a six-pack of
orange soda resting beside her. She looked beautiful with her hair
pulled up into a ponytail as she took in the last rays of sunshine
on the warm spring day. Today was a semi-casual day with red dress
shorts, stilettos, and a tight button down shirt accentuating her
breasts a bit more than she probably knew.

Rome let his passenger window down and called
out to wake her from her slumber. “Any chance I could get you to
move your car so I could get into my garage?”

Without lifting a finger or opening her eyes,
he heard her reply, “Tell me something.”

“Okay,” Rome said, trying not to smile too
broadly as he looked at her thighs being hugged tightly by her
shorts.

“Who sends a text in the morning for orange
soda?”

“A man who was denied days before.”

“Then isn’t at home when I bring said soda,”
she continued as if he’d never mentioned the first issue.

Rome got out of his running car, but didn’t
close the door. Keeping his footsteps silent, he walked up to her
and leaned over for a kiss. She jumped when their lips met, but
soon fell into the embrace. His hand rested on her belly and his
pinky brushed against the small bit of exposed skin between her
satin shirt and shorts. When her lips separated just enough that he
could enter, he held back. He had left his SUV idling on the
street.

“Will you please move your car for me?’ he
asked, letting his lips brush against hers.

“You should have led with that,” she said
before putting her hands on either side of his face and capturing
his lips for one more kiss.

After the shifting of vehicles, she waited on
his porch as he bounded up the steps only to feel the hours lifting
in his knees. Pain shot from his shins through the top of his
kneecap as he let out a little yelp.

“You okay there?” she giggled. “Claiming an
old football injury isn’t quite as dramatic on you.”

“Why not?” he questioned.

“You don’t seem like the type to be reliving
his high school glory days.”

“That would be moot at this point,” he
replied before snatching the six-pack of soda from her hands.
“These seem a bit warm.”

“You have any idea how long I’ve been
waiting?”

“If you would have replied to my text you
wouldn’t have had to wait.”

“You’re not really bringing logic and common
decency into this conversation, are you?” She followed him into his
brownstone and to his kitchen where he tossed his keys since his
bowl was now broken. She copied with her purse. “Were you really
craving a pop that much?”

“Not really.” He put the drinks in the fridge
then took out a few sports drinks.

“Then why,” Dani began, but stopped to wave
off his offer of a drink as she rested against the island,
“couldn’t you wait until Tuesday?”

Rome smiled before downing one bottle in one
long swallow.

“Impressive. Trying to show me how fast you
can go?”

“I’m sorry,” he practically purred while
leaning across the island to come nose to nose with Dani. “You want
me to take my time with this one.”

Dani glanced at the bottle of blue liquid
before challenging him and moving closer. “I don’t know,” she said
in a hushed whisper that brushed against his lips. “Long and
lingering can tease out the situation. Letting it dribbled down
your throat leaving its flavor on your tongue.”

Of all the swelling going on in Jerome’s
body, his groin was jumping by leaps and bounds. His cock hardened
uncomfortably against the wood of his kitchen island. He shifted
his hips and stretched enough that he could release the pressure
but not be able to feel Dani’s lips.

“You know I’m going to fuck you until neither
of us can walk.”