Free Sacking the Quarterback by Alexandra O'Hurley Page A

tonight.”
    Taylor jumped from the bed. “You don’t
own me, Rhett. You can’t come waltzing into town after being gone a
decade and then act the conquering hero.”
    “ The conquering hero?” He
laughed. “Tell me you don’t feel the connection between us. If you
can tell me that, I’ll back off.”
    She did feel it, but admitting it
would change her whole trajectory. Her plans would be ruined, and
that wasn’t going to happen. “There’s no connection. I just needed
a couple of good fucks.”
    Rhett smiled, but there was no mirth
in it. His eyes were dead as he looked at her. “A couple of good
fucks.”
    “ Yep. And now that I’m good
for a while, I suppose I’ll go.” She picked her nightgown up off
the floor and tugged it over her head. “Thanks for the help
tonight.”
    “ Are you taking the
job?”
    How’d he know about that? Oh, right,
her damned brother. “Yeah, I suppose I am. So you can consider that
a goodbye lay. See you around, maybe in another decade or
so.”
    Taylor walked from the room, half
expecting him to follow her down. When he didn’t come, she was
almost disappointed, but she’d been enough of a bitch up there that
she’d given him no reason to chase after her. Why she’d felt the
need to be so mean, she didn’t know. There had been no good reason
for it.
    She cared about Rhett, even though she
was loath to admit it. But he wasn’t getting in her way. If only
her circumstances were different, theirs could be an interesting
story.
    Instead of ending like
this.

Chapter Seven
     
    Rhett tossed and turned for the next
several hours, the events of the evening running through his head.
For how many years had he used women for the one thing he’d been
used by Taylor for? Of course, he’d not seen it as using when he’d
been in sexually driven relationships, but now that he was on the
opposite side, he now understood why women didn’t like to be
objectified.
    Taylor had claimed she’d wanted one
thing and one thing only from him. It stung. No two ways around
it.
    His outlook on love and sex was the
reason his marriage had failed. His wife had been a trophy, to look
pretty on his arm and then grace his bed. Yes, he’d enjoyed her
company in the early days, but then as things soured, he’d not
understood it. He’d come home and been schooled in why his
relationships always failed—by having the roles
reversed.
    Now, he wondered if there was any way
to fix things and salvage something of their relationship, if it
could be called that. Rhett wanted another shot to prove he could
be different.
    Taylor made him want to try. He
couldn’t say he wouldn’t fail, but the desire meant something,
didn’t it?
    When the sun rose, he’d go to her.
He’d tell her they deserved a chance.
     
    * * * *
     
    “ What do you mean, she’s
gone?”
    Mrs. Ashby wiped her hands on a
dishcloth as she leaned into the doorframe, a perplexed look on her
face. Rhett was dumbstruck. Taylor had slipped out in the middle of
the night and headed to Houston.
    Right after they’d had sex.
    “ She left a note before she
left. Said she just needed to get away before she made a mistake.”
Mrs. Ashby cocked one eyebrow. “Why do I get the feeling you were
that mistake?”
    Rhett scrubbed his hands over his
face. Nothing was working out like he’d wanted it to. Maybe this
was a sign from above that it wasn’t supposed to work out. He’d
learned a lesson too late, and now he just needed to move
on.
    “ Maybe I was, but I didn’t
want to be,” he murmured.
    “ She has a chance to get
out of Dixon and make something of herself,” her mother said. “Why
not let her? If she’s meant to be in your life, then perhaps fate
will bring her into your life.”
    “ No offense, but I’m not
fond of fate. It’s not done such a good job on my life as of
late.”
    “ Rhett, you made poor
choices and had to deal with the aftermath. Start making some
better ones and get your head out of your