False Start (Red Zone Rivals, #5)

by Kandi Steiner

I’d had countless women since that night, and yet they were all forgettable in comparison.

“Who did that to you?”

“Oh, stop it,” she tried, waving me off. “You know how clumsy I am. I just—”

“I swear to fucking God, Madelyn, if you try to tell me you fell and bruised your arm in the shape of a hand—”

“My ex.”

“He’s dead.”

“But I have a proposal.”

“Date me.”

“I don’t want you around Marshall without me there.”

“You don’t want me around the father of my child who I co-parent with.” It was a deadpan statement,

“N...

“He’s Sebastian...

“I don’t give ...

“Did you hear what I said? Unless I am with you, you’re not...

“You calling me trash, Robbins?”

“If you’re trash, then I’m a dumpster diver.”

“Shut up and let me take care of you.”

THANK YOU !

“The only reason I’m letting you live is because I care enough about that woman to do what she asks me to,” he said, and when his finger pointed right at me, I felt it like a bolt of lightning to the heart. “But slip up even one time,” he continued, shaking his head as a damn near evil smile spread on his stupidly handsome face. “And I will risk it all. Understand? I will risk it all.”

“I’m picking him up at 6 PM sharp on Sunday,”

“Wonderful. We’ll see you then,”

You still like Earl Grey? Honey and milk?”

He remembered the kind of tea I loved?

“I heard you earlier.”

He heard me?

“You said my name.”

“I also know you left yourself… unsatisfied,”

“Don’t worry,” he added with another nip of my earlobe. “I can help with that.”

“Am I going to have to put a baby in you to tie you down the way Clay did with G?”

LMFAO

“Because I didn’t tell your parents that I wanted you to stay away from me, Kyle. I told them I was pregnant.”

“I was terrified of losing you.”

“Losing me?” I let out a breath, shaking my head in disbelief. “Why… how could you ever lose me?”

“You were sixteen,” she cried. “You had your whole life ahead of you. You had...

“I had you, M...

“I lost the baby,”

“And I lost you. And I lost myself. And now, realizing you didn’t even know… I… I…”

Fuck. I couldn’t help it...

“They stole you from me,” I whispered, stomach curdling at the realization. “They stole our child from us.”

“But we can be together now,”

“You’re about to be a rookie in the NFL, Kyle. I… have a kid, one who isn’t yours. I have to get away from Marshall. I have to—”

“Fuck all of that,” I said gruffly. “Fuck any excuse your brain is trying to give you right now. You’re a survivor, Mads, and I get it now. I understand why. You’ve had to survive on your own your entire l...

“But listen to me,” I added, bending to hold her gaze again. “You don’t have to do this alone. Not anymore. Not ever again. You’re mine, Mads. You always have been. I lost you then, but I refuse to lose you now. Whatever you need, I’ll give it to you. Whatever we have to do, we’ll do it — together. No more letting anyone or anything get between us, you hear me?”

“From this moment on, it’s you, and me, and Sebastian. Okay? We will figure it

out. We will find a way. But I’ll be fucking damned if I ever let you go again. I’ll lay down my life before I let you walk alone. I’ll walk away from everything else if I have to — Seattle, the team, football, my family — but never you. Do you understand me? Never, ever you, Mads.”

“If we do this,” he said, swallowing. “If you let me have you…”

“I’m not taking it back, Kyle.”

“Claim me,” I begged, arching into him. “Leave your mark. Get back what’s always been yours. Ruin me, if that’s what it takes.” I slid my hands into his hair and made him look at me before I kissed him hard, my next words vibrating against his lips. “Have me in every way you want, Kyle, because I’ll only ever belong to you.”

Something incredible happened this weekend, as if the moment we got on that plane together, we slipped into another universe where nothing and no one else mattered. We faced our past. We learned the truth. We couldn’t fight our feelings for one another anymore because there were no distractions.

She would always be my number one priority.

“Madelyn, you have had to think so hard about everything. For years now. You had to go through what happened to us alone. You healed alone. Then, with Marshall, you were the only one thinking about your family. You had to plan ahead for everything for you and Sebastian. You have always had to be the responsible one.”

“Don’t think about this,” he pleaded, his blue eyes searching mine. “Just… let it be. Let us have a chance.”