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 chided, slipping my gaze down to the thin turquoise material covering her perky breasts. Although seeing the glower on her face as I inched my eyes back upward gave me an overwhelming inkling she wasn’t charmed by my proposition. Such a shame.

“If I ever catch you gawking at my tits again, I swear to god I’ll wear a turtleneck and peacoat every second until I’m six feet under the ground.” “Good thing you’re already on the fast track to hell, because lying is a sin.”

“So, tell me… when can I move into the pool house?” “Let me think…” Mae hummed, resting her palms on her hips and tapping her right foot against the hardscape before her face went flat. “Never. It’s occupied. Indefinitely.” “Don’t lie to me, March baby. I know Scarlett moved into Abel’s place across the street a few weeks ago. I was at their housewarming party last Friday, remember?”

“Mae, seriously,” I exhaled, running out of patience. My lease was ending in two days and I had more important things to spend the next forty-eight hours focused on, like preparing for the Matrix’s first preseason game that was coming up in a week. “Why do you need a place to live in the first place? You’re a professional athlete, and unless you’re financially reckless—which would make sense now that I’m saying it out loud—you have to have at least a few million sitting in a bank account you could use to find somewhere, anywhere, else to live?” “First off, I am not ‘financially reckless’,” I mocked her shrill voice in an exaggerated feminine tone. “Second, my contract with the Matrix was only for a season. They haven’t offered me an extension yet, and there’s still another month before the fifty-three-man roster is finalized. Even then, there’s always the possibility I could get released.” She threw her head back and let a wicked laugh ripple past her lips. “Sounds like a personal problem if I’ve ever heard one. Maybe if you played better last season, you wouldn’t be in this predicament.” “We were undefeated, won the League Bowl, and I broke four franchise records. Only a handful of players in League history have had a season as good as I did last year.” “If you say so…” she stretched her arms up over her head, pretending to yawn. “But it doesn’t sound very impressive, if you ask me.” I expelled a ragged sigh while poking my tongue into my cheek, trying to simmer down my g...

“Mae… please.” She reared her head back with an open mouth to observe my face, likely as astonished by my use of the word ‘please’ as I was. It wasn’t a term I was accustomed to, especially where she was involved. But seeing as this was the second time I’d used the word since stepping foot in her backyard, surely, she must’ve sensed my desperation. “Get on your knees and I’ll consider it.” I contemplated her offer for all of a millisecond before a slow smirk curled at the edge of my mouth. “All this time, I imagined I’d be the one saying those words to you instead.”

My thighs burned as I trudged up the porch steps and twisted the knob before darting through the front door without warning. “Scarlett!” I bellowed, ignoring Abel, who was lounging on the couch with a remote in hand. “What the fuck are you doing in my house?” “It’s not just your house anymore, dude. Pretty sure her name is on the deed, isn’t it?” “Touché.” He nodded in acceptance, drawing his attention back to the television screen. See? What’d I tell you about that fundamental disconnect? “Scarlett!” I called out again, darting my eyes around the disarranged kitchen which was sprawled with vegetable covered pans and marinated chicken skewers ready for the grill.

“Rough day?” “Don’t get me started.” My shoulders slumped, and I pushed out a breath before wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for a quick, welcoming hug. “Hands off my girl.” Abel’s voice rumbled from the living room. I peered over my shoulder, only to see that he hadn’t taken his eyes off the baseball game on the television screen. How was that possible? Scarlett rolled her eyes and poked her head out of the pantry to shout back to him, “Abel, come on! It’s a platonic side hug, and you know that.” “Yeah, it’s platonic,” I echoed her statement like a small child. “Like I give a fuck. Hands off, and they stay off. Got it?”

Am I right in assuming your audacity knows no bounds? Or has your infatuation with me become all-consuming?”

“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?”

“You want to move into the pool house.” That was a statement, not a question. A bit obvious, if you ask me, but nonetheless, it was nice to know she was paying attention. “Precisely.” “And I don’t want that.” “What do you suggest I do, then?” “You could stop breathing,” she replied flatly. “Then your new home would be a coffin, and I wouldn’t be subject to suffering through another ‘cordial’ conversation with you. It’s a win, win,”

“What is wrong with you?” “Many things.” “I’m aware,”

“You should really keep an eye open while you’re sleeping now that I know where you live and all.” “I’m shaking in my boots.” The corners of my lips curled upward into a taunting grin. “Truly.”

“You bitch.” “I might be a bitch, but I’m certainly not your bitch,”

“God, I hate you,” under his breath. “What was that?” I asked with a sarcastic smile. “You know exactly what I said.” “In that case… likewise.” I leveled my gaze at him. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be masturbating for the rest of the afternoon. So, if you need me… don’t.” I was attempting to unnerve him during a moment of weakness, but instead of getting flustered by my bluntness like I expected him to, he chuckled as he flicked the water out of his hair, giving me an amused expression. Ugh, his subtle delight was ruining my high. With that, I turned on my heels and headed for the house without glancing back at him. I’d gotten exactly what I wanted here, and there was no point in enduring his presence any longer than needed. “Think of me when you come,” he yelled as I reached for the handle to the back door. “I’d rather die first.”

“Why?” I looked over at her. “Are you finally considering getting your hands dirty with one of the players?” “At the risk of losing my job and enduring the wrath of my father?” She dipped her chin, giving me a dull look before drawing her gaze back out the window once again. “I might be horny, but I’m not an idiot.”

“Oh, cut the dramatics. There’s hardly anything to tell.” “So, you’re admitting there is something to tell?” Lea pried with narrowed eyes. “If I say yes, then I would be incriminating myself, and if I say no… that would be a lie.” I turned up my nose. “And frankly, I’d rather not accuse myself any further.”

“Scarlett… she thinks we should have a hate fuck or something. She says it’ll ‘resolve our tension’.” Mae used air quotes, still surveying the crowd. Again, talking as casually as if we were discussing what we ate for lunch. What the fuck was going on? A minute passed as I tried to wrap my head around what she’d just said, when Mae decided she’d catch me off guard for a second time tonight. “Maybe she’s right.” She sighed, sinking deeper against my pecs. My lungs stopped working. “Could you repeat that? I think I heard you say—" She rotated her upper half toward mine and cut me off with a palm to the mouth. “You heard me correctly. I said, ‘maybe she’s right’.” She released her hand and I stared at her blankly, without a single thought behind my eyes. This couldn’t be real, right? Certainly, this ship had gone off course and taken us to the Bermuda triangle or something? In all the years I’d known Mae, we’d never once acted on the sexual chemistry between us. Even when we were hormone rampant teenagers and our spark became volcanic, neither of us made mention of it. Sure, we made salacious remarks at each other from time to time, but that had all been in the name of friendly competition… hadn’t it? Damn it, she was getting in my head. Making me overthink this whole thing so I’d fall victim to whatever joke she was trying to play on me. It didn’t help that my dick was aching—aching—at slightest the mention of sex. When I first got drafted to The League and moved up to Nashv...

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 know what annoys me?” I started, feeling the warmth from the liquor taking root in my bloodstream. She rolled her eyes. “If you say me, I swear to—” “Yes, you,” I cut her off before she continued on with some line about how it was ill mannered to insult someone on their birthday. Too bad for her, because I was too intoxicated to give a shit. “And the fact that you’ve walked around here all night with a grin from ear to ear while you chit-chatted with other people. But the minute, the second, you lay eyes on me, your smile falls.” I took the last pull of whiskey from the bottle before lowering it down to my side. “Why is that, huh?” “Why do you care? I thought you didn’t like me.” “That’s the least of my concerns right now. I want you to tell me what I did,” I prodded, peering down at her. “What did I do that’s so bad that you can’t even look at me when I’m around, hmm?”

“Do you remember the time our classes got paired up to trade Valentine’s in elementary school? And we both got each other?” “Yeah, I made you a giant Dum-Dum bouquet.” I reminisced on the memory I’d long since forgotten. “My mom and I spent the entire night before the party sorting through the jumbo-sized bag to pick out your favorite flavors.” “What are you talking about?” Her tone was uncertain as she pursed her lips together. “What are you talking about? Didn’t you notice there were only sour apple and cotton candy flavors?” Mae ignored the question. “Wait, so, you’re telling me you spent an entire night sorting through suckers to pick out my favorite flavors…” “That’s what I just said, right?” “But…” “But what?” She sucked in a long, steadying breath and expelled it from her lungs. “I’m just confused… because right after the Valentine’s party, we all went outside to play because it was like seventy-five degrees or something, remember?” I nodded, recalling the vague memory. “I was pissed because Oscar had a cast on his leg and couldn’t go out, so he and Chester stayed inside. Mrs. Lowry wouldn’t let me stay with them.” “Exactly.” She threw her hands in the air. “And while they were inside, one of them had accidentally pressed their elbow to the button for the outdoor intercom or something…” I racked my brain trying to remember what was said between the two of them, but nothing came to mind. All I remembered was doing backflips on the monkey bars because I was an eight-y...

“Mae… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. If I had known, I never would have—” She shook her head, tearing her eyes away from mine. “I know.”

“This changes nothing between us. You know that, right?” “That’s not true,”

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

Those answers I thought I needed? I wished I’d never gotten them.

“Jesus!” I gasped. “What are you doing out here?” “Couldn’t sleep. You?” I paused for a second to calm myself before echoing him in an identical tone. “Couldn’t sleep.” “Are you just going to stand there and look pretty?” “Awww, you think I’m pretty,” I joked, placing both hands over my heart like I couldn’t bear the flattery. “Never said you weren’t.”

For the first time he made me see that he was more human than monster. Would he ever see the same with me?

“Lying is still a sin, even if the person you’re lying to is yourself.”

I’d made plenty of poor decisions in my life. Getting arrested in high school after being caught underage drinking at a house party. That time sophomore year of college when I sported a botched mullet for far longer than I should have. And that ice cream cone tattoo on my upper thigh was pretty ugly, not going to lie. Frankly, there were a whole slew of other bad choices I could rattle off on command if needed. This right here though—following Mae as she walked naked toward the outdoor shower—was easily the start of my worst decisions to date.

What level of horny was it to be jealous of some fucking water droplets?

“Are you just going to stand there and watch?” Her voice was sultry with a hint of underlying playfulness. When I failed to respond she shrugged a shoulder. “Fine by me, I guess. I don’t mind putting on a little show.”

“Aren’t you going to join me?” she rasped. “I’m not getting naked in your backyard.” “You’re the one who said that if I wanted a look, all I had to do was ask.” She dropped her eyes to my growing hard on. “Now I’m asking.” “I’m not—" “If you’re a liar, admit it.” “If you want to fuck me, just say that,” I countered, although the only thing I could think about was what it feels like to have her red lips wrapped around my throbbing cock. “I don’t want to fuck you. I want you to fuck me.”

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

poorhouse,

“If you’re trying to be convincing, you’re moving in the wrong direction, March baby.” “Hmm, let me think about it…” I stared off into the distance like I was pondering really hard about it. “Well, since you were too afraid to show me your micropenis last weekend, that takes road head off the table.” “I do not have a micropenis.” October rolled his eyes so hard it looked like he was having an exorcism. A small smile cracked at the corners of my lips as I held back a burst of laughter that was threatening to break free. “Yet, I’ve found that most men who get defensive about small dick jokes… do in fact have small dicks. The ones who are well endowed usually just roll with it since they don’t have anything to hide.” The way he rubbed the back of his neck while avoiding eye contact with me created a newfound exhilaration in my chest. “Care to defend yourself?” “You’re not going to leave me alone until you get what you want, are you?” he grumbled. “Not a chance.”

“Get in the truck. I’ll meet you there.” With my chin lifted high and a big satisfied smile on my face, I leaned over and placed a slobbery kiss on his cheek. “Did you know that you’re my hero?”

April Showers. May Flowers. Sunflower Summers. Autumn Falls. Breezy Winters. It was never ending. Although, I’d take these weird dummy nicknames over his typical “March baby” any day.

A dark-haired lady in her late-forties to mid-fifties reached for the handle of the freezer door next to mine in unison with me. I gave her a friendly closed-mouth smile before transferring my attention on the vast ice cream selection in front of me. Perusing through the pint-sized options, I silently debated back and forth between the options for a quick second before deciding to get both birthday cake and chocolate brownie crunch. I placed them on top of the mound of snacks I’d already accumulated and let the door slam behind me. “Sorry,” I apologized to the woman, thinking the repulsed look on her face was from the loud noise of the door shutting. However, the disgusted once-over she was giving me told me that this had nothing to do with the freezer. “You should really learn to put on some clothes.” She turned up her nose, giving me a once-over with a disgusted look on her face. Jealousy was a disease. And unfortunately for this woman, I wasn’t immune. I’d spent countless hours from the ages of thirteen to twenty-three being picked apart, ridiculed, and called every horrible name under the sun. While also spending a majority of my time with some of the most beautiful people on the planet—by society's standards, of course. Whatever this deeply insecure woman had to say to or about me wasn’t even penetrating the thinnest layer of my mind. Especially considering the fact that I was wearing a boring workout top and athletic shorts. If she considered this to be scandalous, I...

“Stop looking at me like you’ve seen me naked.” “I have seen you naked,” he said matter-of-factly. “The good shoppers of Publix don’t need to know that, though,” I scolded with a whisper. October turned his attention to the long, black-haired, college-aged cashier who had an equal number of tattoos as him. “I’ve seen her naked.” The girl eyed me up and down slowly. “Can I see you naked too?” This man. I swear. I can’t be seen in public with him. Do you see the kind of shit he gets me roped into? “I admire the confidence, but absolutely not.” She shrugged off my rejection and continued scanning our groceries.

“See, this is why I can’t take you anywhere.” “Oh, you didn’t tell me you were planning on us going out to more places together.” His smirk only made my displeased expression more prominent. “Geez, ask me out to dinner first, March. I’m not a piece of meat.” “Yeah, he’s not a piece of meat.”

“Oh, I know he’s not a piece of meat… he’s a cash cow, actually.”

“Thanks for paying for me, Toby boy.” I winked over my shoulder as I headed toward the exit. “You don’t have the—" “Keys?” I finished for him, waving the keychain I’d snatched from his back pocket while he was reveling in the high of his “victory” of embarrassing me. “Better be nice or I’ll make you walk home.”

“We should get to know each other,” he said confidently without taking his eyes off the road. “What is wrong with you?” I turned and gave him a blank stare from the passenger seat. What was up with him tonight? “Did you block out the part where we met when you were six or something?”

This girl. I swear she could argue with a tree, and, somehow, she’d still come out the winner at the end of

“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.”

“How do you rememb—" I cut her off. “And around the holidays you’ll trade out the ginger tea for peppermint instead.”

“You’ve been eye fucking me since the day I moved in.” “You must be mistaken, because I’ve hated your guts the entire time.” “No, you haven’t. You just wished I was rearranging yours.”

“If I were a betting man, I might even go as far as saying that you’re seeking me out. You’ll deny it, of course, but we both know it would be a lie.” “I can assure you that I’m not interested.” “In anything other than my dick, right?” “Your dick is the only thing about you that I’m remotely interested in.”

“You’re certain you don’t like me?” I asked one final time, trying to figure out if there was a hidden bluff she was concealing. Her gaze heated. “Who said I have to like you to fuck you?”

“I hate you,” she moaned breathlessly against my lips. “Likewise.” I grabbed her waist and lifted her up out of the pool and onto the ledge. “Now pull your swimsuit over to the side and spread your legs so I can taste your pussy.”