The Red Zone: An Enemies with Benefits Sports Romance (The League Book 2)
The Red Zone: Chapter 7

SHOULD I have been surprised by Mae mindlessly miscalculating the fact that every partygoer had their focus zeroed in on the two of us as she blurted out her disapproval of my presence? Because I wasn’t.

If her intention had been for everyone to keep their attention to her, she’d certainly achieved it.

“My apologies, ma’am. Are you hurt?” The scrawny teenaged-looking server mumbled with a slight tremble in his voice.

“I’m fine, thank you, though.” Mae gave him a soft smile as he let out another stream of incessant apologies while scurrying to pick up food scraps from the floor and placing them back on the tray. “No, it was entirely my fault. I should’ve been paying closer attention to my surroundings,” she insisted, repeating herself twice before the guy finally eased. Finally, he flashed her a timid smile before disappeared into the crowd of people with his head bowed.

At this point, a few eyes still lingered on the two of us. Though it was no surprise when the rumble of voices began to up again, signaling that people were returning to the pre-collision conversations they’d been taking part in.

Yet, somehow, Mae was still seated firmly in my lap. Not having said a word or moved a muscle.

I leaned forward to whisper against her ear, “I’m beginning to sense that these compromising encounters you keep getting us into are your way of coming onto me.”

“Get over yourself.”

“If I’m wrong, then I’d love an explanation as to why your ass is burrowed against my cock right now. And even more so, why you aren’t scrambling to get off my lap?”

Doing the opposite of what I expected, she stayed planted exactly where she was, not budging a millimeter as she locked her narrow-eyed gaze on mine. It took a beat for me to pick up on it, but there was something off in her eyes I couldn’t get a read on.

Was she embarrassed about what had just happened with the server? Maybe she was pissed about the nauseating fish smell reeking from her dress? Whatever it was, she was concealing it well with a practiced neutral expression, masking her feelings to make them unnoticeable to everyone around her.

Too bad for her, because I was too intrigued to let it slide.

To my right, Fortune, the Matrix’s wide receiver, was sitting with one leg loosely crossed over his knee. He had a drink held halfway to his lips as he observed Mae and I’s stare down. In my peripherals, I could see him shaking his head, brushing off a grin before throwing back the final swig of his cocktail.

Mae peered over her shoulder, perking up as she gave him a warm smile. “Hi. I don’t think we’ve been officially introduced. I’m Mae.”

“Fortune.” He extended a hand out and she twisted in my lap to accept his handshake. I had to tighten my grip on her hip to hold her in place so she didn’t fall yet again.

She could thank me later, because if she’d fallen twice—almost three times if you counted her nearly falling backward out of my lap after her initial fall—people would’ve thought she was a drunk. Call me a cynic, but all it took was one snake to snap a picture and tip off the tabloids before some fabricated headline came out about her using tequila to cope with some forthcoming quarter life crisis.

How generous of me to save her from a PR nightmare.

“Thanks for coming to the party. Lea and Scar did such a great job with the surprise, didn’t they?” She didn’t give him a chance to respond before continuing on. Though there was a subtle longing that took over his face at the mention of Lea’s name. It might’ve been faint, but it was definitely there. “Hey, do you mind giving us a minute? I need to talk to October about something kind of, um… personal. If you know what I mean.” Mae wiggled her brows.

“Sure thing.”

“See you, man.” We shared a parting nod before he walked off in the bar’s direction.

Mae whipped her head around, slapping me in the face with her hair. “What are you doing here?”

“Ahh, asking a question to evade mine from earlier?” I countered. “Nice try, but it’s not going to work. Why aren’t you moving?”

“You said it best yourself. Taking a seat on your lap has been on my birthday wish list for a while. Thought I’d finally take you up on the offer.”

“While I’m glad you finally got your long-awaited wish, I wasn’t offering. Now, I’d appreciate it if you moved.” I tapped the side of her hip twice with my palm, signaling for her to get up.

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t? Stand up on your feet and start walking until you replace someone that actually wants to have a conversation with you. It’s simple, really.”

“Seriously, who invited you here? This is a horrible way to treat someone on their birth—’

“Looks like I’ll be helping you then.” Using my hand that was holding her in place, I slid it down her side to scoop under her butt while my other hand slipped underneath the backs of her knees. She squirmed in my arms as I moved to stand.

“Wait, stop!” she whisper-yelled with her eyes bugging out. “Please.”

I stopped, bunching my eyebrows together as I settled back down on the bench. “What’s going on?”

Mae sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But you have to promise you won’t make a big deal about it…”

“I’ve been warned about making deals with the devil.”

“I would laugh, but unfortunately, I don’t replace you funny,” she deadpanned.

“Will you just tell me what’s wrong, so we can get on with the night.”

She paused for a moment to examine my face, no doubt contemplating whether or not she could trust me. I didn’t blame her, but then again, I wasn’t going to wait here all night for her to cough up details on whatever the hell was going on.

“Any day now, March.”

“Fine… IthinkItwistedmyankle,” she mumbled, her words spilling out so quickly I couldn’t make out half of what she said.

“Louder.”

“I think I… twistedmyankle.”

“You what?”

Releasing an elongated breath, she lifted a hand over the side of her mouth for privacy and leaned closer to whisper against the shell of my ear. “I think I twisted my ankle.”

The firm hand I had resting on her side gripped tighter as I pulled back a few inches to examine her expression. “You’re hurt?”

“Yes, but I said don’t make a big deal about it,” she scolded in a whisper, flicking my chest with the back of her hand.

To the outside eye, we probably looked like a couple flirting and murmuring sweet-nothings, ignoring the people in close proximity to us.

If only these people knew the full truth.

“How bad does it hurt?”

“I don’t know, maybe like a six and a half out of ten? It feels swollen and sort of tingly. I can’t explain it.”

“Stay here until it’s at least a four. Do you need ice?” I raised a palm to grab the attention of the server passing by.

“No, stop. I’ll be fine.” She swatted at my hand.

“Are you sure?”

“Sir, yes, sir,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

“I thought we agreed on you calling me ‘master and commander’, no?”

She shot me a murderous glare that I couldn’t help but chuckle at. As I laughed, Mae held back a smile of her own while still trying to maintain her lethal expression. Something inside me eased at the sight of her tiny smile.

“To answer your earlier question, Scarlett is the one who invited me.”

“Of course, she did…” she trailed off. As her eyes surveyed around the room, she relaxed her posture and slumped back lightly against my chest. “You know she thinks we should fuck.”

I coughed away from her face, choking on my saliva. “Excuse me?”

There were few things in life that shocked me these days, but hearing those words tumble out of Mae’s mouth as casually as chatting about the weather? Yup, that did me in.

“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 Nashville to play for the Knights, a couple of teammates introduced me to the idea of temporary celibacy as a means to increase athletic performance.

Some people believed it was bullshit, and maybe they were right about it being some weird placebo effect. However, in the six years I’d been playing professionally, the only time I had a below average season was when I got too intoxicated during bye week, and picked up a month-long fling from Broadway. She’d been fun, but it was my worst season to date. We didn’t come anywhere close to making the playoffs that year.

In the three seasons since then, I’d abstained from sex from our first preseason game until the final post-season game. Once the season was over, though, I made up for everything I missed out on during my time away… and then some.

Hold up. What was wrong with me? Season celibacy or not, I wasn’t going to give into some stupid “hate fuck” with Mae.

“You’re joking, right?” I shook my head, running a hand through my hair.

“Nope.” She made a pop sound at the end of the word. “Wow.” She laughed. “Who would’ve guessed you’d look so perplexed by someone coming on to you? Oh, wait!” Mae drew in a breath. “Aww, women never make a move on you, do they?”

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, for starters, you’re as white as a ghost.”

“Trust me…” I schooled my expression before dropping my gaze down to meet hers. “I can assure you that I have no problems when it comes to getting women.”

“Oh, so it’s me who you’re flustered by? What an honor.” Mae placed her hands over her heart in flattery.

“Even if I was interested, which I’m not, I don’t fuck during the season.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, pushing up her breasts to accentuate her cleavage. Man, I hated that I was so aware of every time she did that. With her eyelashes batting slowly and desire coating her voice, she said, “That’s fine, I’m willing to be patient.”

Alright, now I was certain this was a joke.

I squinted at her. “You’re playing me right now, aren’t you?”

“Like a fiddle.”

“And that weird boob adjustment thing you just did… that’s part of it, isn’t it?”

“Finally, you picked up on it!” She let out a deep laugh, placing a hand over her stomach as her head dropped back. “It’s a deflection tactic. Every time I do it you get in your head contemplating my reasoning behind why I’m doing what I’m doing, right?” I didn’t respond, but we both knew the answer. “You think you’re getting the upper hand when I cross my arms, assuming it’s because I’m angry or flustered. When in reality, I was always aware of what I was doing…” She inched her face close to mine as she spoke, so close that I could feel the warmth of her breath against my lips. “Every. Single. Time.”

“Even a few weeks ago when I asked to move in? You knew what you were doing when you did it?”

“I fiend innocence well, didn’t I?” Her nose crinkled as a coy smile pulled up the corners of her lips. “That was some of my best work, if I do say so myself.”

I was smart enough to know she was playing her game with me right now. The only problem was that my dick was too slow to catch on, so my pants tightened despite trying to continuously will down my arousal.

This no sex thing was hard enough as it is, but when temptation was quite literally sitting in your lap? Fucking excruciating.

“You’ve been hanging around Lea too much.” My voice was flat.

“What can I say? I learned from the best.”

“For the record, I enjoy the boob thing… Every. Single. Time.” A hint of a smirk pulled at the corner of my lips as I mocked her. “But now that I’m aware of it, it might work better if you just get naked next time.”

“I thought you said sex was off limits during the season?” She raised a brow at me.

I leveled my gaze with hers. “Who said I was interested in fucking you?”

Her eye roll was no surprise.

Scooping underneath her legs again, I gently lifted her from my lap and planted her in the seat next to me. Another second of her ass pressed against me, and I would’ve had a raging hard on that would’ve been impossible to conceal.

Shaking my head, I leaned down to untie my shoes so I could slip them off of my feet.

“What are you doing?”

“You can’t keep walking in those all night.” I looked down at her high heels. “So, we’re trading shoes.”

“As much enjoyment as I would get out of seeing you struggling to strut around with red bottoms on, these are special editions.” Mae slipped off her shiny black stilettos and held them up to show me, although I had no idea what I was looking for that made them so “special”. “Plus, it’s not like I haven’t spent years walking around in uncomfortable shoes for work. Another night of it won’t kill me.”

“You did that because it was your job. This is not your job. It’s your birthday party.” I pinched my lips together. “You’re not going to walk around in unnecessary pain for the next who-knows-how-many-hours if you don’t need to.” I leveled my gaze with hers, grabbing the shoes from her fingertips. “So, again… we’re trading.”

“What shoes are you going to wear?”

“None.”

“You can’t go—’

“Stop telling me what to do and take the damn shoes before I throw yours overboard.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Those are Louboutin’s. You can’t do that.”

“Argue with me again and you’ll replace out exactly how much I don’t care about those unbearably overpriced hunks of leather you call shoes.”

“That might be the most offensive thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Sounds like I need to work harder, then,” I smirked, holding out my pair of size twelve dress shoes. “Put them on.”

She grumbled to herself, reluctantly taking the black loafers from my hand.

“Damn it, we should’ve had everyone sing happy birthday while you had everyone’s attention earlier.” Scarlett popped up out of nowhere with what appeared to be a green apple martini in one hand, while she silently grabbed Mae’s shoes from me with the other.

“If you need her to fall again, I can make that happen,” I offered.

The glare Mae shot me held the venom of someone who had just been granted the license to kill.

Joke not well received. Noted.

“You two seem like you’re getting along.” Scar waggled her brows while bouncing her gaze between the two of us.

“Don’t be fooled. I’m seething on the inside.” Mae looked up at me with a not-so-subtle glare. I watched as she secured my shoes onto her feet with one last knot and pushed off her knees to stand.

Instead of looking like a clown with oversized shoes, she somehow had a way of making them look like a new fashion trend. 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.