The Red Zone (The League, #2)

by Meg Reading

I wasn’t one to call people profane names often… but what a fucking bitch.

“Sweetheart, I’m sure we can talk through this…” “Eww.” Mae’s entire body cringed as she swiveled on her heels to face me. “Do not ever call me ‘sweetheart’ again.” “How about sugar tits instead?”

I’d be a stone-cold liar if I said I didn’t get a bit of a high off of our deranged dynamic. As much as Mae’s presence annoyed me, there was no denying that I found our little feuds to be quite entertaining.

“You’re not getting the pool house.” “What are you going to use it for?” Mae sucked in a breath as if I’d insulted her before stomping toward her back door once again. “I don’t have to give you a reason,” she called back over her shoulder as I trailed behind her. “It’s mine. If I want it to sit there and collect dust, then so be it! Hell, maybe I have plans to turn it into a sex house. Who knows?”

“I’d rather be trapped at the bottom of the ocean without an oxygen tank.” “Why suffocate down there when you could suffocate on my cock instead?”

Man, I hated to admit how good she looked wearing my shoes… and there she was in my head again. This girl was going to be the death of me, I swear.

“You can continue making me the villain in your story all you want, but you’re done being the villain in mine.”

there was an uncertainty between the two of us that landed somewhere between hatred, lust, and acquaintanceship.

Now, what I hadn’t planned for was the surge of jealousy at her mentioning another person taking my place.

“You know my brain inside and out. In the span of a minute, you can make me feel a rainbow of emotions. You know exactly what makes me tick. You can read my facial expressions like you memorized them a thousand lifetimes ago. So, while you might not know my favorite color or how I take my coffee… you know me. Far better than I’d like to admit.” “Blue.” “What?” “Your favorite color is blue. Light blue to be specific. And you don’t drink coffee, you drink tea. Ginger tea twice in the morning and chamomile once at night. If neither of those are available then you’ll settle for green.”

“Aren’t you, though… my little whore? Just for the night.”

“Whenever you stop making your little noises… I stop.” “Do you really need your ego stroked that badly?” I scoffed. “I need more than just my ego stroked, March baby.” The wry smirk that seemed to be permanently smeared on his face was intoxicating to say the least. “But you can help me with the other half after you come for me.”

“I don’t like you,” I grumbled as he turned away from me, revealing the bright red scratch marks on his back from last night. It took everything in me not to gasp. “Like? We’ve taken a step up from hatred, haven’t we?”

“Twenty years.” I squished my eyebrows together. “That’s how long it took to get you to admit you don’t hate me.” The corners of his lips twitched. “Twenty more and you might actually admit you like me.”

There were two things I knew with complete and utter certainty. One, I wasn’t going to throw away ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat. And two, had ten grand not been on the line, I without a doubt would’ve crawled back between the sheets with October Calhoun.

“It’s brand new… I wouldn’t give you a jersey someone else has worn. You deserve better than that.”

“You’re gorgeous, Mae. More gorgeous than my thoughts from the last seven years led me to believe.” He ran a thumb over his bottom lip slowly as he looked me up and down. “Like it or not, I’ll never apologize for admiring how beautiful you are.”

I’ll take the loss. Mae I’ll take my payment in the form of Jimmy Choo’s. I’ll give you anything you want on one condition… Yeah? Jersey stays on. Aye, Aye, Captain.

“Oh, so you’re trying to impress me?” “Why would I try to impress you?” I bluffed. “Just seems like you’re trying a little hard for someone who’s just a booty call.” “First of all, you are not just a booty call.” I kissed the side of her neck. “Second, I’m not trying hard.”

“What’s this for, anyway?” Mae grabbed the device from my hands. “You’re going to give me something.” She arched a brow at me. “And that is?” I couldn’t fight the coy grin that tugged at the corner of my lips. “Control.”

I liked this. I liked us. Together.

Why did every man have flat pillows? Such strange, strange creatures.

Crazy how much time can change things, huh? One day you’re a scrawny little third grader with a smart mouth, and the next you’re twenty-five and the crush you abandoned almost two decades ago has suddenly started blooming again. Only this time, you’re not quite sure it’ll go away again.

I am calm. I am cool. I am collected. I am calm. I am cool. I am collected.

Standing in the tiny room alone, I realized I knew two things: Life changes fast. I was a goner.

Smiling and shaking hands with attendee’s and donors like she hadn’t been sobbing in my arms two hours earlier. I couldn’t help but wonder how many times she’d done that before. Enough to make it look effortless, and that thought alone ripped my heart right down the middle.

My Mae.

I hated how she could be in the same bed, two feet away from me and I still felt like she wasn’t close enough. Was it even fucking possible to miss someone who was in the same room as you?

Was I in love with October? I didn’t think so. Not yet, at least. Was I headed in that direction faster than I could comprehend, though? Undeniably.

“You’re mine. Do you understand that?” I leaned in, sealing my words with a kiss. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I never stop thinking about you. Even when we lived a thousand miles apart and I hadn’t seen you in seven years, you consumed my thoughts more than I’d like to admit. Don’t you get that?”

“For a long time, I hated that I wanted you. I hated that you drove me fucking crazy, taking up space in my head at all hours of the day. I hated that when you joked about not sleeping in my bed tonight, the first thought I had was how awful my day would be tomorrow because I wouldn’t get to wake up next to you.”

“I want to hear you say it.” Our eyes locked in the mirror as I thrust into her one final time before we both came together and she drained every last ounce of cum out of me. “I’m yours.”

“You ever going to ask him out, or what?” The guy was an attractive looking dude—six-foot-four, jet black hair and a chiseled jawline. My opinion didn’t matter much, but the two of them would make a good-looking couple. “You ever going to admit to yourself that you’re in love with Mae?” She glanced up at me with a popped brow, but I tried to keep my face as impassive as possible. Touché, Miss Sterling.

When my body finally hit the ground, her face was the last thing on my mind before everything went black. My Mae.

The moment I saw him go down on the field, my heart felt like it was being ripped from my chest, and it was right then that I knew that I was in love with him. The hatred that I’d once harbored in my heart for him had dissipated.

“I love you.” He pulled back, whispering against my lips. “That’s a horrible decision on your part, really,” I countered, pulling back with a playful smile. October leaned in, kissing me gently before pulling back and giving me a weak smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. “Just say likewise.” “Likewise.”

“I mean… we were definitely practicing.”

Scar and Abel eloped at their beach house in Malibu a few weeks ago, less than twenty-four hours after getting engaged. What she didn’t plan for was finding out that she was pregnant a week later during their last-minute honeymoon trip to Fiji. Apparently, she was sick the entire time, thinking she got food poisoning until Abel bought a test from the resort’s convenience shop and convinced her to take it. Little did she know, she was about to find out her “food poisoning” was actually my soon-to-be nephew instead.

“I have something to tell you…” “Let me guess,” He looked off behind me like he was thinking for a moment before he snuck a hand around my back with a mischievous smile and snatched the test from my hands. “You’re pregnant.”