Pinned Down: A Triple Threat Sports Romance (2 page)

Kendra

My first fundraiser event with the local charity organization Older Brothers was a media circus, and it really made the local non-profit look like a joke. When I arrived, I saw that the local pro football team was swamped by photographers and self-styled reporters keeping the players from being able to interact with the kids we were all supposed to be there to help.

Not cool.

Also, my staff wasn’t helping matters at all. A couple of them were glued to their phones, probably following the tabloids online and getting updates as the interviews and impromptu photo sessions were taking place. A couple of others were talking to reporters. I hoped they were at least talking about what Older Brothers was doing there.

We were trying to connect local at-risk youth with positive role models in fields that would catch their interest. I had my reservations about pairing at-risk kids with the standard go-to answer of sports, but it was better than letting them hang with the local drug dealers and street thugs. Unfortunately, with the tabloids and sports papers hogging the spotlight, the kids were pretty much just getting ignored.

Not cool.

I wasn’t helping either by being late. It was my first event as the new director of the program, and I was showing up after the event was already supposed to have started. I had spent the morning fighting with my clothes, with my hair, and with my purse. Then, I had spent an immeasurable amount of time searching for my keys. I felt like a train wreck walking onto the field at the state-of-the-art practice facility the city had installed just a few years ago.

Lucky for me, the whole thing looked like a train wreck. I probably looked like I had it together compared to the Older Brothers staff playing on their phones and sneaking bites of food from the refreshment tables.

My first order of business was to gather my team and organize them so we could show the local businesses and private investors, who had agreed to help us make this happen, that we were professionals and that the program had some merit. I pulled everyone away from the food, away from the reporters, and certainly away from the kids.

“Look,” I leveled my eyes with each of my staff members, “we’ve been given grants. We’ve been given donations. We’ve been given an opportunity today to show the community at large that despite the past problems Older Brothers has faced, we’re serious about helping our children. I take this very seriously, and I’m counting on each of you to help me show that dedication to our investors.”

There was some hemming and hawing. There were a few rolled eyes and smacked lips. I saw the kind of ship the previous director had run before she had been taken away in handcuffs by the authorities on abuse and embezzlement charges. Something told me she hadn’t been the only one treating the charity as some sort of joke.

Well, I wasn’t going to allow it. Older Brothers was my last chance. I’d failed at my previous charity position, though it was nothing as epic as what had happened here. I just hadn’t been able to overcome the apathy that had settled over the community.

“If any of you think you won’t be able to help out properly, or don’t feel like you can take this charity seriously, you can leave today. If you are still here after I grab a cup of coffee, I’m going to assume it’s because you want to be, and I’m going to expect you to act accordingly. But remember, I’m not afraid to clean this organization out if I have to,” I warned them before walking over to the refreshment table to pour a cup of coffee.

While I was there, I watched the jocks getting their egos stroked by the reporters and cameras in their faces. They weren’t here for the kids. They were here for the publicity. I wondered if we would be seen the same way by aligning ourselves with pro-football. Over the years, it seemed that professional athletes had begun lowering themselves to the levels of other celebrities. They were known for parties, sex, and drugs. It seemed like there was always one or another among them in the news for their poor decisions. I wasn’t sure we needed to line up behind them, but it was the best I could come up with right away.

When I returned to my crowd, everyone was still there. Phones had been put away, and they were talking when I walked back up. I didn’t mind interrupting their conversation and establishing my authority.

“Good. I’m glad to see everyone is still here. That means it’s time to get down to business. Look at what we’ve got in front of us.” I turned around and nodded back over to where the players stood around in their uniforms, surrounded by reporters. The kids were just sort of hanging around, watching the spectacle, and waiting for their opportunity to talk to the athletes.

“It’s just a circus, like everything else,” one of the women standing behind me said in a disgusted tone.

“Exactly, and that’s not okay. Why are we here?” I asked the group.

“We’re supposed to be here for the kids,” another of them said.

“Exactly. Now, does this look like we’re here for the kids, or does it look like we’re feeding the tabloids and sports papers?” I continued leading them with my questions.

I heard the revelation dawn on my team as I sipped my coffee. Their eyes were finally open, and it sounded like they were getting on board.

“The first order of business is to at least shove the reporters back so we can get the kids in to talk to these guys. This is where our grants and other donations are supposed to be going,” I told them, issuing my first real orders to my staff.

We descended upon the kids first, apologizing that they were being ignored. We led a few of them with us as we positioned them in front of the reporters, trying to get them to where they could actually spend time with the athletes and talk with them.

That was when I started to meet the athletes for the first time. They seemed just as happy to see the at-risk teens as the kids were to meet them. As we moved the kids in, the reporters naturally started to sink back.

Then, I met Lucky. I didn’t have a kid with me. We had sort of handed them all over to the other guys when the tall, muscular body appeared before me. He wasn’t as thick and wide as the others, which still wasn’t saying a whole lot. He was scrappy by comparison to the thicker, musclebound jocks who made up the rest of his team.

I froze when I caught his gentle puppy-dog brown eyes staring into mine. He wore his hair a little longer than everyone else and kept it brushed back so that it looked short and neatly kept. He gave me a warm smile and stretched out his hand. I wasn’t exactly sure whether to take it or not.

“Cade Hendrix,” he said, introducing himself. “But everyone calls me Lucky. I’m the new kicker. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss…?”

“Kendra,” I told him, letting him take my hand in his. His grip was intense. There was something more in it than just taking my hand to give it a shake or squeeze. I felt desire channeling itself through his grip. It made my knees weak. The skin between my thighs trembled slightly at his touch.

I thought it was an odd reaction to have to someone taking my hand, but it was there. No one had ever awoken my desire as swiftly and effortlessly as Lucky had. I figured that was why they called him Lucky.

Cameras went off as we shook hands and started to talk. Lucky was all charm.

“I’m new to the area,” he told me at one point, following up his statement with, “Is there anywhere you would recommend for lunch once we get out of here today?”

I wished I had been local at that moment, but I had nothing. “We have catering here for the event,” I suggested.

“Oh, I definitely intend on grabbing a snack while we’re here, but maybe you could show me a local diner or café for lunch?” He cocked an eyebrow.

I tried as hard as I could not to blush, but there really wasn’t anything I could do to stop it. I smiled politely. It was such a shame to have to turn him down. His charm was working, despite how misplaced it was.

“I’m not from around here either,” I finally gave in and told him. “I just moved in from out of town to help get Older Brothers back up and running. I haven’t really had a chance to get out and check out the local scene.”

“Well, maybe we can explore together sometime, but I’ll let you get back to work. I’ve taken up enough of your time,” he said before walking off to join the rest of the guys and their potential Younger Brothers.

I didn’t think much of the interaction. It was cute and endearing, and that was really all I thought about it. I was glad someone had reached out the way he had. Lucky had broken the ice for me a little and made me more comfortable talking to people, especially the athletes.

That was before I saw the tabloids the next morning. Each front cover showed pictures of us shaking hands and smiling at each other. The looks on our faces were obvious. The papers put us
together
, not just meeting for the first time as business people.

The headlines said things like,
New Older Brothers Director Gets Lucky
. It was all very tongue-in-cheek, but I was still a little put-off at first. After looking through several of them, though, I realized I could use Lucky’s reputation to draw attention to the organization. Granted, his reputation wasn’t exactly what we wanted to associate ourselves with. He was a womanizer who had apparently been traded off by his last team to avoid embarrassing them and doing irreparable damage to the team’s reputation.

If I wasn’t careful with him, I knew he would do the same to us, but if we were supposed to be together, I figured I could possibly show a different side of him. It was obvious he needed an image makeover before he was traded off to another team for his behavior. And I needed a local celebrity to attach to the program.

It was the perfect plan. Plus, he was gorgeous. He had charm for days. If he used it responsibly instead of just trying to get women into bed with him, he would be unstoppable. Hell,
I
would be unstoppable with him at my side. I just needed to get ahold of him and get him approved for the program. The board of directors was so hung up on using athletes as positive role models, it would have been easy to get him approved to be a Big Brother.

I figured I would spin it as a way to show the program’s positive impact on the Older Brothers as well as on the Younger Brothers. Everyone had seen results in the program’s Younger Brothers so far, but no one had mentioned how our role models and mentors were affected by it. No one seemed to care very much.

I was determined to show them that the Younger Brothers could help us turn some Older Brothers around to make them positive role models for everyone in the community. I just needed the right pairing between the two, and the approval of the board of directors in order to get started.

I looked down at the tabloid cover on my desk at the headquarters of the local chapter, and I couldn’t help but answer everyone’s question. Yes, I was feeling lucky.

Lucky

The tabloids were in. They got their first taste of Lucky by putting me on the cover with the director of Older Brothers. I was rather amused by it all, but the owner of my new team wasn’t. A couple of quick photos and cheeky headlines landed me right in the owner’s office. It had apparently become an ordeal overnight.

“Relax, Cade. You’re not in trouble yet. We’re just trying to take some proactive steps to make sure we don’t have the same issues you experienced before with your last team,” he said.

Mr. Stevens was the owner of my new team. He wore loose slacks and a polo shirt that fit him pretty well across his chest and shoulders. He was a fit man. He looked like he could have gone out on the field with the team at any time. He had a little salt-and-pepper action going on in his hair, just enough to set him aside from all the young bucks who worked underneath him.

Coach Anglin was there as well. The office was large, with dark cherry bookshelves built into the walls and a large, shiny dark cherry desk positioned in the middle of the room. When I entered, Coach was already seated in one of the deep red leather armchairs in front of the desk, leaving the other chair for me.

I didn’t feel like sitting. I felt like making my usual promises and going out to find that cute little piece of ass they had me next to in all of the papers. I figured they were on to something by pairing us up.

I had singled her out when I saw her because she was a little shorter than I was. She had that fresh-out-of-bed look in her eyes. Her suit and skirt revealed more of her body than she realized. She had all the right curves in all the right places. She underestimated her beauty. That much was obvious with the modest clothes and the lack of attention she paid to her hair and makeup. And that put her right in my sights. I was going to turn her around and show her how beautiful she could be, how beautiful she could feel.

She had gorgeous golden brown curls and hazel eyes. She had a beautiful, modest smile. She tried to hide it from me when I met her, but it was in the papers and on the covers of all the tabloids just the same. To top it off, her lips begged to be kissed or used in other ways.

“Cade, are you listening?” Mr. Stevens snapped, bringing me back from meeting Kendra at the fundraiser.

“Sorry, sir, I was just distracted by the beautiful smile they caught in that picture,” I joked. There was no denying that I’d spaced out for a minute. He’d caught me. I was used to these meetings. They had been the norm under Coach Hawkins and Mr. Clark.

“Look, I’m taking a big chance with you, Cade,” Mr. Stevens said, leaning onto his elbows across the desk from me.

“I understand,” I told him. His insistence on calling me Cade was beginning to make me feel a little less lucky, if I had to be honest about it.

“No, Cade, I don’t think you do. Sure, you get the words. You understand the concept, but do you really understand what I’m trying to tell you? No, I don’t think you get it at all. No one else would take you because of your reputation. You’re reckless. You’re careless. You are a liability. Now, get you on the field, and you’re amazing. I’ve watched you score off of kicks when we wouldn’t have even imagined someone running the ball that distance. That saved your ass this time around, kid.”

He was right. I really wasn’t following what he was trying to tell me. I didn’t see how any of what he was saying had anything to do with Kendra from Older Brothers. And he must have seen it, because he sighed and took a different approach.

“Listen, what I’m trying to tell you here, Cade, is that you need to straighten up if you want to stay with this team. I can’t have you coming in here and disrupting what we’ve got going on. We aren’t flashy. I don’t have a bunch of playboys playing football for me. My guys understand they are professionals, and I expect them to behave as such,” he explained to me.

“Yes, sir,” I said quietly. I was starting to get the picture. This was the last stop on my way out of my career. I had to shape up, but I had no idea how to do that. I only knew the life I had been living since day one.

“If you have to have girls around you, keep just one steady girl, okay? Can you do that for me, Cade?”

I took a deep breath. “I think I can,” I told him, looking down at the tabloid cover in front of me. I understood why Jake had decided to go after a staged relationship after Mr. Clark had told us to settle down. If I had listened, I probably still would have been there with the guys instead of here with a new team, new girls, new hometown.

“Good. You will not turn this team into a spectacle. Do you understand me?” he added.

“Crystal clear, Mr. Stevens,” I said.

“Alright. You’re dismissed. Get back to practice,” he told me, waving me off as I got up from my chair and started towards the door to his office.

I hated the idea that somehow we were supposed to maintain the image of being positive role models for the communities in which we played. We were celebrities, and we were wealthy. We had money and star power. Girls wanted us. We were positive, successful role models for guys who wanted to be hot and successful. If there was money in being quiet and humble, we would have taken humble desk jobs.

I was a competitor. I wanted to win at everything. I wanted to be the best on the field, in the club, and even in bed. I hadn’t toned my body just for the game alone. My body was a gift to women everywhere, and I wanted to share that gift with as many of them as I could.

I had swiped the paper from Mr. Stevens’ desk, the tabloid with me on the cover with the beautiful Kendra Boles. If anyone could help me straighten up my image, it was Kendra. That was her job. She worked directly with role models, pairing young guys up with successful adults who could show them the right way to do things.

I wondered if her program could help turn me into the positive role model I needed to be for the team. It was definitely worth a shot, I decided. It would get me close to her, and I could probably get her in bed with minimal effort. She was the perfect candidate. I needed a positive image, and she needed a boost in her confidence.

I decided to call her office. We had all received information on how to get involved with Older Brothers at the fundraising event. I wasn’t sure if anyone else had called yet, but I needed a girlfriend, and it would have been easier just to use someone I’d already been seen with.

I pulled out my phone and punched in the number that was on the pamphlet. The receptionist answered and directed my call to Kendra.

“This is Kendra,” she answered, and I was immediately reminded of the big beautiful hazel eyes staring into mine at the fundraiser. I wanted her to pose as my girlfriend, but I also really wanted her to let me take her to bed.

“Kendra, hey, it’s Cade Hendrix, from the fundraiser?” I phrased it as a question, asking if she remembered me.

“Yeah, Lucky! Hey, it’s a pleasure to hear from you. So, are you interested in joining up with Older Brothers as a positive role model?” she asked, going immediately into sales mode.

“Not exactly. Actually, I have some business I want to talk to you about, and it may include that, I guess. I was calling to see if there would be a good time for us to get together and go over a couple of things that could be beneficial to both of us,” I said, hoping I wasn’t so vague that my proposal sounded creepy.

“I’m not sure,” she said hesitantly. “What did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking maybe I could show you a nice, quick little lunch spot I’ve discovered,” I told her, taking it back to our previous, flirtatious conversation.

“I thought you didn’t know anything,” she said, playing along. I could hear that bashful smile in her voice. I could think of some other quick lunch options besides just taking her to a diner or café. Like taking her back to my place and feeding her myself. But it was a bit soon for that, and I had other needs besides sexual ones.

“Well, I asked around,” I told her.

“Did you do that just for me?” Those eyes twinkled. Those cheeks blushed. I could imagine it perfectly, summoning my memory of her from the short time we’d spent talking.

“Guilty as charged. I simply could not pass up the opportunity to help you out after you gave me that look yesterday,” I told her.

“Okay, then. It looks like I’m free for lunch today. Where do you want to meet?” Her tone switched again as she regained her composure and returned to her professional voice.

“Well, there’s Daily Grind, which is not far from your office,” I suggested. “It started off as a newsstand, and now it’s a little not-so-greasy spoon diner. It’s a nice place, very public, but also quiet and reserved like a coffee shop.”

“You sound like you’ve done some research,” she teased.

“Hey, I’m just telling you what I was told. Apparently, it’s a pretty popular place, especially with the professional crowd, like yourself.” I was already working my charm to get her to agree to meet for lunch.

“Okay, that sounds good,” she said. “See you around noon?”

“I’ll be there.”

We hung up. I wasn’t really sure where Daily Grind was, and I wasn’t sure what to expect once we got there. All I knew was the description that I’d found when I looked up
local favorites for lunch
on Google.

Lunch wasn’t that far away. I caught up with Coach Anglin as he was leaving the owner’s office.

“Hey, Coach, I just got off the phone with Kendra at Older Brothers. She wants to meet me for lunch.” I told him just enough to let him hear what he wanted to hear.

“That’s great, kid. Older Brothers will definitely help you present a cleaner, more professional image.” He clapped a hand on my back.

“Well, we haven’t decided anything yet. This meeting is to see if I’m a good fit for the program, I think. Plus, I want to know what all she’s bringing to the table, so to speak.”

He shot me a stern look. “Don’t let this turn into one of your conquests, Cade. You’re running out of luck here.”

That much went without saying. I could feel the luck leaving. So far, the only person still calling me Lucky, besides myself, was Kendra. I was going to run with that for now. She seemed the best bet. I figured if I followed my luck, I’d be able to regain some ground and get back on top of my game, even if that meant having to change it a little.

I hurried to the diner in time to see her arriving. She got out of a small hatchback sedan. It didn’t look ratty, it wasn’t old, but it was still a hatchback. Those cars were good for moving, and I felt like she’d probably done her share of that in the past.

She wore modest business clothes, trading the skirt from the fundraiser for a pair of very professional-looking slacks. Try as she might, she couldn’t hide her beauty from me. Her hair was pulled back in a bun, and she wore a light blue blouse under her navy blue coat. She almost looked like a cop instead of the director of a non-profit charity.

It was a shame I was there to talk business with her. All I wanted was pleasure.