“Here’s the plan. We’ll party it up at this bar tonight and see where it goes. If you can find places to spend the nights, that’s perfect. It’s a little too cramped in our room.”

Heather already scanned the crowd, looking for a partner for the night.

I took a sip of my drink. It was impossible to even taste the alcohol over the sweet, sugary slush mixed with it.

Dangerous. I can already feel it.

“See, this is why I said we should just get two rooms for the four of us,” I said. “You might be a dirty slut—love you—but I don’t want to hook up with guys just so I can sleep more comfortably.”

“Loosen up, Juliette! You finally broke up with your high school boyfriend after months of us telling you that long distance college relationships don’t work. We’re here at spring break. Just enjoy it and find out what you’ve been missing all this time. The world won’t end if you have a one-night stand with no strings attached a couple of times, you know?”

The mention of Jim gave my bruised heart a jolt, but I shrugged it off. Heather was right. I didn’t have to be so uptight anymore. College was the time when it was excusable to let loose a little.

Besides, it’s been so long since I’ve had sex.

Jim and I hadn’t seen each other since Christmas break, and my fingers could only give so much satisfaction. I thought of the man from the airport. Flirting with him had been fun and had turned me on, and I couldn’t stop thinking about how he couldn’t take his eyes off me.

Nothing I can do about that now. There are so many people here for spring break. I won’t see him again.

I took a deeper gulp of the cold drink. It still felt wrong to be drinking at a bar, but the fake IDs we’d gotten before the trip had worked flawlessly.

Either that, or they know exactly who their clientele is. If they crack down on the underage drinkers, they won’t make nearly as much money.

An arm reached between Heather and me to rest on the pillar beside us. The man who’d separated us was big enough that I couldn’t see around him.

“Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked as I looked up at him.

The startling blue eyes that had captured my attention at the airport stared into my own. A familiar smug smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“Oh, excuse me. You’re the one who said I should spend my time with you.”

Heather peeked around his broad shoulders and gave me a thumbs up. She walked away, and I struggled to think of something witty to say.

“Um, that’s true—”

“But you didn’t think I’d ever find you again, did you?” His grin was less smug and more open now. It made his already attractive face downright devastating. “Aren’t you glad I did?”

“No… no, I didn’t think that one through,” I admitted. “You’re pretty cocky to think I wasn’t just messing with you.”

“Not cocky,” he said. “Confident. There’s a difference. What’s your name?”

I shook my head. “No names.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Interesting. I guess I’ll just have to call you Sexy, then.”

A pleasant flush crept up the back of my neck. “Then maybe I'll call you Cocky.”

“That’s a good fit. I’ll show you my big—”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Keep it in your pants for now. I’m not that easy.”

“For now?” The flush spread to my cheeks at the look he gave me. “I was going to say that I’ll show you my big heart. But if your mind is that deep in the gutter, then maybe I can show you something else.”

To save myself from saying anything else embarrassing, I took a long gulp of my drink instead. Cocky took my glass and set it on a table, then he grabbed my hand.

“Let’s go dance.”

His confidence was disarming—he didn’t give me a chance to say no.

I wasn’t sure if I could.

* * *

I knew what was going through Travis’s mind.

It was the same thing I couldn’t stop thinking.

“I should go. It looks like the guys are gathering with the coaches on the field.”

He hesitated, as though his business wasn’t finished.

“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” I said, shooing him away.

I didn’t say how much trouble he could get me into if he kissed me like we both wanted him to.

“We’ll talk later.”

The tight white practice uniform did nothing to hide the bulging muscles underneath as he jogged away across the emerald grass and crisply painted lines.

“How the hell do you know Travis King? He’s practically a god in this country.”

Dr. Kent had approached as I watched the quarterback lope away.

I was far too busy thinking about the conversation with Travis to pay much attention to what came out of my mouth.

“We had a fling on spring break about five years ago. I didn’t think I’d ever see him again.”

You made sure of it by avoiding all references to the league for the past five years. You didn’t want to see him in the papers standing next to a trophy wife.

“Will this be a problem, Juliette? You two looked… intense.”

Were we ever intense back then.

“Of course it’s not a problem,” I replied. “I’ve dreamed about this for years.”

Dr. Kent’s next words snapped me out of my reverie.

“I have to take you off this study, Juliette.”

That captured my attention. I took my gaze off Travis’s backside to catch the expression on Dr. Kent’s face. His eyebrows were furrowed and lips pursed.

“What? You can’t do that, professor. This study is my thesis project!”

“That doesn’t matter. Don’t you remember that massive contract we were given this afternoon? I’ve been trying to gain access to run this study for over fifteen years, and the league will do anything to retract their permission. If you get involved with the team’s quarterback, they’ll kick us out faster than you can blink.”

I stared at him. “We were just talking!”

It wasn’t fair. This thesis was not only my ticket to my graduate degree, but being a co-author would give me the credibility to launch a respectable research career.

“I saw the way he looked at you, Juliette. You don’t know how football players are. He won’t have any respect for the rules—it won’t be him that suffers the fallout.”

I know football players. This one, at least.

Dr. Kent may have a point. But I wouldn’t give up without a fight.

“Please, sir. I promise, I have things under control. Nothing will happen between me and Travis King. Nothing.”

No matter how much I want it.

He crossed his arms and tapped his hand on his elbow. “If this study gets messed up because of you, Juliette, your academic career is over, do you understand? This will be my crowning achievement, and if it’s taken away from me because you can’t control yourself around that man, then I will make sure no college in the country will ever accept an application from you again.”

I had never seen this side of Dr. Kent. The kindly older man had turned fierce and demanding.

The men on the field had broken into squads, and Travis controlled the ball at one end of the field. His teammate broke off into a sprint, eating up a huge number of yards in just a few seconds.

Travis waited. And waited.

He finally uncocked his arm and let the ball loose, the powerful movement unleashing the football in a tight spiral that arced down the field. The receiver had run far, further than should have been reachable. The ball carried dozens of yards, passing overhead of the defenders and perfectly over the shoulder of the receiver just as he entered the end zone.

Loud whoops echoed across the field as a few of the men jumped around Travis and gave him high fives.

I never thought I’d see him again. Now that he was back in my life, could I resist him?

“It won’t be a problem, Dr. Kent. I promise. I’m dedicated to my career and I will make sure that nothing gets in the way.”