Free ROMANCE: SPORTS ROMANCE: Bad Boys of Sports: A Complete Collection (Alpha Male, Football, Hockey Secret Baby Romance) (Contemporary Sports Romance) by Mallory Hart Page B

his surprise to jump up and take a step back. She wiped her mouth, panting, staring at him.
    She couldn’t do this, but she needed to do something .
    “You didn’t think it’d be that easy?” she asked, attempting a smirk. She inwardly sagged in relief when he smiled back.
    “I don’t get enough challenge in this business,” he chirped, relaxing against the couch cushions. “Make me work for it,” he dared, licking his lips.
    Alyssa raised an eyebrow in return.
    Flipping her hair, she started dancing, rocking to the music and outlining her curves with the palms of her hands. She kept moving, thinking of any way that didn’t end with her back on that couch with him. She glanced around, bending low to hide her face. She spotted a speaker a few feet away, and if that didn’t get the gears turning.
    Doing a smooth dance toward it, she clung to the side of it, using it as a stripper pole. It was a giant box of a thing that vibrated along with the song, so she couldn’t exactly swing her legs up, but she could still grind against it. She did it for a few minutes, watching Bruce nod along to the music until the song hit its chorus and she climbed on top of it.
    People cheered when they realized what she was doing, and she used it as fuel to keep moving. She started dancing dirty, popping her ass and swinging her hips, making obscene insinuations with her hands and her thighs. She was feeling it, relief keeping a smile on her face as she thought, “It’s working! It’s working!” But as she surveyed the crowd again, her heart fell when she saw the one face she hadn’t expected.
    Rich Henry was in the crowd, and he looked disgusted.
    ***
    Rich had put Maddie to bed at eight and did what he usually did–he went to a club.  That’s what his teammates always wanted to do anyway, at least the single ones.  Since he was single too, he didn’t have much of a reason to object.  He was a father and wasn’t all about that life, but he had to admit it. It did help him unwind, and it was only nights like these when the pressure was off, and he could just have a drink and chat up a girl.
    He spotted Alyssa when he’d had enough for one night and was heading for the exit. This place wasn’t his type of club, and if he was going to drink comfortably, then he needed to find a new one. It was the screams of encouragement that made him look up at the speaker, and it was with a shake of his head that he looked away. The lengths these girls were willing to go.
    Rich burst through the double doors, both his arms outstretched, and almost hit Maddie’s teacher square in the face.
    “Oh my god—I’m so sorry! Are you okay?” He gently touched her elbow to steady her.
    “I’m fine,” Janie waved him off, blushing. It was that handsome guy from the other night. “I was actually about to head in there to join my friend. Did you see her? Alyssa?”
    Rich frowned. “She’s, uh, she seems a little busy right now,” he said, and easily crowded Janie back to the bar. “Did you two come together?”
    “Well, she said she’s meeting a friend,” Janie admitted. “So she left me at the bar. I don’t know if she’s coming back. It’s one of those ‘anything goes’ nights, I guess.”
    “If you don’t mind,” Rich took a seat, hopeful as she shyly took the one next to his. “I’ll keep you company until she does.”
    “Oh, okay,” she said, looking into the crowd to act as natural as she could.
    “You don’t have to be so nervous,” he said, cracking a smile. “Not all of Alyssa’s friends are movie stars and models. I’m just a humble sports guy, myself.”
    Janie smiled.  “Yeah, you’re just a regular Joe, right?”  She turned to look directly at his face. She’d read that humans are attracted to symmetrical faces naturally, but wow, the nurses must’ve taken a ruler to him at birth because he was perfect. Big eyes, dark lashes, perfect eyebrows, deep voice… He probably manscaped, she supposed, and