Chapter Sixteen

Cody

“Slippery little minx…” I chuckled to myself and set the phone aside. That was fine. It was all a part of the game and I knew the cards she was holding in her hand. It was only a matter of time before I could get her to fold.

I pushed up from the hot tub where I’d been warming up after an ice treatment on my shoulder. It was all part of the deal. It was my job to go out and lay down fire on the field and then when I got off the field, a team of people worked to put me back together. As nice as the hot tub was, I was ready to get back to my room where I could continue to explore the nasty thoughts about Chelsea that I’d been batting around all day. They would require some privacy. Maybe I’d take a picture of myself lying in bed, shirt off, abs flexed, and send it to her with a little note. Give her a little something to dream about.

I grinned as I remembered her confessing, in a throaty, breathless voice, that she’d fantasized about me after we first met. The idea of her slipping her fingers under the covers, pleasuring herself late in the night, with my name on her lips. Fuck that was sexy…

“Wright!”

I hurried to wrap a towel around my waist and then stripped my shorts off underneath. My bulge popped, creating a slight tent in the towel, but I didn’t care. Robby wasn’t gonna be staring at my cock. At least he better not be…I’d kick his fuckin’ ass.

Judging by the smile on his face as he got lost in a pair of stripper’s double D’s the night before, he was as straight as an arrow.

“Hey, man,” he said, catching up to me. “You all done here? A bunch of us are getting on the bus to go out.”

“Nah, man. I’m gonna go hit the hay.” I looked at him, remembering what Chelsea had said. She’d put her money on him and Paris get busy on video chat all night. “You’re not gonna go call your woman?”

Robby glanced down at his feet. “She didn’t take my call.”

“Oh.” I shook my head. “Shit. I guess Chelsea misjudged that one…”

“Chelsea?” His chin shot back up and he arched a brow at me.

“Just got off the phone with her.” I held up my hand holding the phone and waved it back and forth a couple of times. “She went to lunch with Paris today.”

“I see. What’d Paris say about me?”

I laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. “Go back to the hotel and call her yourself.”

“She didn’t answer. I just fuckin’ said that.”

I leaned in. “Then try again. Damn, man. I’m no love doctor but this seems pretty basic.”

Robby grinned and punched me on the shoulder. “I like that. Love doctor.”

I snorted. It was a completely inapplicable title. “Let’s just hope some sports gossip mag didn’t catch you taking shots from that stripper’s tits last night…”

Robby laughed. “She would just be pissed I didn’t bring her with me. She loves strippers.”

“Damn. Now I see why you put a ring on it!”

Robby cracked up as he started out of the locker room. “I’m gonna go get a drink and then I’ll head back to the hotel.”

“All right, man. Take it easy.” I waved as he left and then crossed over to where my shit was stashed. I dressed and glanced around at the empty room. I’d lingered in the hot tub, talking to Chelsea, and in the meantime all the other players and staff had cleared out. It was almost eerily quiet.

Until…

I turned at the tap of stiletto heels and my jaw dropped open. Summer strut across the room, a megawatt smile firmly in place on her delicate face, and a sway to her hips that could only mean one thing. Her seventy-year-old, millionaire boyfriend couldn’t keep it up and she wanted to get good and fucked.

Shit.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I growled, thankful that I’d slipped into my jeans before she arrived. Though she could have been lurking in the doorway watching the show. With the press badge around her neck and her showcase of cleavage there was nowhere she couldn’t go.

“I came to see you,” she purred, stepping close enough that her perfume carried over, enveloping me for the second time in two days. “I was waiting outside, but you were dawdling. Everything okay with your shoulder?” She reached out and brushed my bare skin, her eyes taking in the rest of my torso.

I grabbed her wrist and held it out in front of me. She didn’t falter, never losing her self-assured smile. “I don’t want to see you.”

She stuck her lip out in a spectacular pout. It was the same one she used to get me to stay in bed for ten more minutes when I was supposed to be going to class or to get me to stay in with her when the rest of my college teammates were going out drinking.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because we’re not together. We’re not even friends. You made that pretty clear once I said I wanted to move on with my life,” I replied, flashes of that final conversation coming back to me, each packing an emotional punch.

“What did you expect me to say, Cody? You thought that after three years I’d be willing to follow you around and pretend like we were friends? I was supposed to be cool with watching from the sidelines while you went out and got drafted and launched into this big, exciting, new life without me?”

“Summer…don’t.” I ducked my chin. “Don’t do this. It’s not going to get you what you want.”

“How do you know what I want?” Her question snapped through the room like the lash of a whip. I jerked my eyes to hers and watched the fire blazing as she stared at me. “You never took into consideration what I wanted. You’re the most selfish man I’ve ever met, Cody Wright.”

“Then what are you doing here?” I asked, releasing her wrist in a flinging motion once I realized I was still grasping it. “Why are you with the team? Why are you in this locker room? Why are you even talking to me if I’m such a piece of shit?”

Her eyes flashed, more angry than sentimental. “Because I’m still in love with you.”

“No, you’re not.” I pulled my shirt on, suddenly feeling too exposed. “You’re not in love with me, Summer. You’re in love with the fame and fortune that comes with what I’m doing. You wanted to be a baller’s wife since day-fuckin’-one. Don’t you think I saw through you from the beginning? You picked me like some old geezer picks a fuckin’ race horse at the track. You looked around the campus and watched all of the athletes, studied us like we were fuckin’ animals trained to perform, and then you latched onto me. You wanted to be with me, marry me, have my kids. Maybe you loved me then, but that was after the fact. A side effect, not the reason you wanted me.”

“Cody—”

I held up a hand, silencing her. “No. I’m not going to listen to this. I’m sorry I hurt you all those years ago. I am. But it’s been a long time. I’ve moved on and so should you.”

I pushed past her. “Go home, Summer.”

“This isn’t about money, or fame, Cody!” Her footsteps came after me and I stopped near the door. I rounded on her. “I already told you who I’m with now. Willis is more wealthy than you’ll ever be. He gives me everything I want. I bat my eyes and it appears. It’s easy. But that’s my whole point…it doesn’t matter to me because I want to be with you. I want what we had.”

“Then go find it with someone else. We have burned too many bridges to ever go back to the way it was before.”

Her eyes filled with glossy tears. “We can fix it…”

“I’m seeing someone else, Summer. I’m happy. I don’t wish you ill will, but you need to leave me alone.”

“You’re seeing someone?” She genuinely seemed shocked by the statement. “Like, dating?”

I set my jaw and gave a firm nod. “Yes.”

She folded her arms. “That’s not what I heard…”

“What are you talking about?”

“Before I came here, I did a little digging. You have a certain reputation…and it’s not the kind that makes me think you’re telling me the truth right now. Everyone I talked to said you don’t date. You use women to get your rocks off and then never call them again. From what I can tell, you haven’t had anything meaningful since me.”

It shouldn’t have surprised me that she’d done her homework. That was classic Summer. Smart, ambitious, and ruthless when necessary.

“It’s new.”

“And made up,” she fired back without blinking.

My fists went tight. “Her name is Chelsea and she’s very real. She’ll be sitting in my section at the next game. You’ll be there next to your boyfriend-a-saurus. See if I’m lying.”

I whipped around and stalked from the room. “Leave me alone, Summer. This conversation is done.”

She didn’t follow after me this time, but as I ducked into the hall that led out of the stadium, a sinking feeling settled into the pit of my stomach, and I knew that while the conversation was done—the situation was only just beginning.