The Defender (Gods of the Game, #2)

by Ana Huang

In my defense, the pub didn’t have an explicit No Miniature Pigs rule. The owner was a stickler about no cameras and no fighting, but when it came to adorable porcine companions? Not a single warning until he spotted Truffle in my arms and lost his shit over “unhygienic animals.”

Ironic, considering his pub was called the Angry Boar. You’d think he’d be more understanding when it came to swine.

It wasn’t even about the lack of romance in my life; it was about being someone’s priority. Having an anchor. Knowing there was a person out there who would be my first call if shit went down and vice versa.

I was a balloon drifting aimlessly through the crowd while everyone around me found their tethers.

Instead, I was greeted by a distressingly familiar face: light brown skin, dark brown eyes, and full lips that slowly curved into a smile that would make most women swoon. Key word: most. My own smile vanished. “Oh. It’s you.”

“Don’t sound so happy to see me, buttercup. I’ll get the wrong idea.” I suppressed a laugh at Brooklyn’s eye roll.

Brooklyn may look angelic, but she had the tongue of a viper. It was oddly attractive. I shouldn’t enjoy verbally sparring with her so much. She was the manager’s daughter, which meant he would rip my balls off if I looked at her the wrong way. On top of that, she was one of my sister’s best friends, which meant Scarlett would also rip my balls off if I looked at her the wrong way. It was a lot of potential danger for one girl. The problem was, I’d never liked playing it safe.

He was like the moon to my tide; his mere presence altered my gravitational field.

“Who’s the one who can’t control themself now?”

“I never said I could control myself around you.”

“I now call this meeting of the Blackcastle Book Club to order.” Adil banged his mini gavel against the table. “I hope you all had a chance to look over the discussion questions I emailed⁠—”

“Oy, Chakir, get on with it already,” Gallagher called out. His injury was minor, but he was still grumpy about getting subbed out. “We’ve suffered enough today, yeah? Don’t need a whole song and dance when we already know how this goes.”

Adil glowered at him. “Obviously you don’t because the book club rules clearly state that whoever holds the gavel has the floor. For that, I use the power vested in me as the president of this club to ...

“What? That’s not fair!” Gallagher spluttered. “It was m...

“You should’ve thought of that before you broke the rules. No...

“It’s interspecies fucking, which is technically bestiality. We’ve passed the boundaries of ethics,” Samson said.

“That doesn’t count,” Stevens argued. “Interspecies fucking is the entire premise of the genre. We have to overlook it the way we have to overlook how everyone has, like, ten orgasms at a time in these books even though that’s physically impossible.”

“Impossible for you, maybe,” Samson said. “Don’t project your inadequaci...

“Personally, I’m more interested in the demographics of this world.” Gallagher frowned. “Were there no human therapists? Why did she go to a dinosaur? I feel like a human therapist would’ve been muc...

“Yeah, but would a human be able to rail her like Big T? No. That’s what makes this book absolutely bonkers!” Stevens slapped his paperback against his thigh. “This is dino erotica, peo...

“The reason is because I couldn’t stop thinking about you while I was gone. Then I come home to see you sitting there, doing nothing except existing, and I can’t fucking breathe.” His voice was low and taut. “Maybe you were right. I am pissed at you because you can float through the kitchen, making pancakes and cracking jokes, while I’m using every goddamn ounce of willpower not to touch you. That’s why I don’t want to be around you. You’re killing me, and you don’t even know it.”

He stepped forward with every word; I stepped back. Soon, I was pressed against the counter, trapped between cold tile and the searing heat of his body.

My mouth was so dry I could only scrounge up a whisper. “Th...

“Because I can’t fucking say no to you if I tried.” The words ground through his teeth, stripped...

“B! C! You’re here!” Adil said happily. “You’re just missing A!” He paused. “Wait. I can be your A! We’re like the alphabet trio.”

Carina eyed him. “Are you drunk?”

“Nah. He just feels left out because he doesn’t drink alcohol, so he acts drunk all the time to make up for it.” Samson was sprawled on the sofa with his arm around a beautiful brunette. “The other possibility i...

I clicked into it, confused, until I saw the name at the top. It was a group chat called Blackcastle Baddies. Besides Adil, the only other members were Asher and Noah.

“You’ve been added to the club’s elite chat!” Adil beamed. “We took a group vote, and we’ve decided to initiate you as a Blackcastle Baddie! Congratulations!”

“I tried to veto you, but I was overruled,” Asher said. Scarlett elbowed him wi...

“Wait.” I held up a hand. “You’ve had a separate chat going this whole time? I’m the captain!” I didn’t actually care that much about the chat, but it was the principle of the matter. “How the hell did...

“None taken,” Noah said, his tone dry. “Trust me. I didn’t want to be the...

“Well, I started the chat when you and Donovan hated each other,” Adil explained. “He was being shunned. I felt bad, so I added him to our bromance.”

“We do not have a bromance,” Noah said.

“Yeah, what the fuck?” Asher crossed his arms. “Don’t make it sound like a pity invit...

“Uh, negative. I don’t have to beg anyone to join a group chat. I can just add them, whi...

“It’s a sign of prestige—oh shit, Samson’s back.” Panic spread across Adil’s face. “Tina, don’t tell him about the chat. I don’t want to exacerbate his feelings of inadequacy, or he’ll try to overcompensate on the pitch, which never ends well.”

“My name’s Tamara.”

“What...

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I won’t tell him.” She returned to taking...

We used to try and keep up with Samson’s dates, but we eventually gave up. The guy went through girlfriends faster tha...

“Brooklyn.” I lowered my voice, my throat strained. “I’d lose every single fucking bet in the world if it meant I could be with you.”

“No, thank fucking God that you kissed!” Scarlett popped up in her chair again. “It’s about time. You two were killing me with all your flirting disguised as arguments. I thought I’d have to Parent Trap you boneheads before you realized you liked each other.”

“If you keep laughing at me when I’m half naked, I’m going to get a complex,” he said, sounding amused.

“Sorry.” I propped myself up on my elbows and cast a meaningful look at his briefs. “I was admiring your choice of underwear.”

“The person who bought them has good taste.” He stripped them off. “And I like to have pa...

And as we walked back to my car, her hand in mine, I realized that the most dangerous person in my world wasn’t the intruder or my birth mom or any rival footballer.

It was Brooklyn, because she was the only person alive with the power to unravel me.

“Je serais toujours là pour toi, mon coeur. Quoiqu'il arrive.”

“If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t survive. Do you understand? Tu es plus que mon cœur. Tu es mon tout.”