Free Go Deep: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Bella Love-Wins

Bye Shawn,” I said, feeling bummed at being almost sixteen hundred miles apart with only the occasional phone call or text.
    Shawn’s degree kept him busy pretty much non-stop. And between my perpetually full course load and cheerleading, I was in pretty much the same boat for the last three years. We didn’t have nearly enough time for each other anymore. Luckily, there were still the summer holidays and Christmas, but it wasn’t always a guarantee that he’d be home for Thanksgiving. Hell, I couldn’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to come back to the land that time forgot either, if I had a choice.
    I stared at my phone’s black screen for a few minutes after we hung up, wondering if there was some way we could be closer after I graduated. Then, my phone vibrated as another call came in. My body instantly tensed up. It was Slade.
    “Hey doll.”
    “What’s up?” I answered.
    “I won’t be able to make our next meeting for the project, unless we can do it late.”
    I rolled my eyes. “How late?”
    “ Late late.”
    “Are you yanking my chain here?”
    “Nope. It’s got to be late. I’ve uh, got things going on.”
    “You’ve done enough work that I can let you off this once,” I told him. “But I don’t think meeting late is a good idea.”
    “Why not?”
    “Hmmm, let me think. Slade Clark trying to get together with a chick he’s after, and at God knows what hour of the night? Seems to me you’d like nothing better than to pick up where we left off.”
    “It’s not that. Really, it’s not. Besides, I’ve never let time of day stop me from getting any.”
    “God, you’re such a pig.”
    “The pig you had no problem dragging back into your dorm room,” he gloated. “Who knows what would have happened if I didn’t give in when you asked me to.”
    “Stop talking, Slade. Fine. You get a pass. I’ll take it from here with the project until we’re closer to the next milestone. Bye.”
    I didn’t mind having a little time to get in some of my own work on the project anyway, but two weeks later, after three more missed meetings, I texted him. He’d been so scarce after classes and between practices and games, I was starting to get concerned. He promptly phoned me back.
    “Hey, sugar. What’s going on?”
    I ignored the sweet talk and got right down to it. “We need to meet. I’ve sent you my changes since last week and you’ve blown off all our meetings since the last time we talked.”
    “That’s because like I told you, I can only meet late at night now.”
    I noticed loud bustling and voices in the background. “Where are you? Some big dinner party?”
    “No, no,” he stammered. “Look, can we do after eleven tonight? The student center’s opened all night. I’ll pick you up.”
    “Fine.” I huffed at my phone and hung up.
    “Why are you calling Slade all hours of the night?” Miranda asked out of the blue when she stepped out of the shower.
    “Huh? Uh, nothing. Just this project we’re working on.”
    “I haven’t seen him much either. Not even at the parties around campus. I wonder what that’s about.”
    “I have no idea,” I told her.
    Up to now, I’d managed to not tell her about what Slade got up to in our dorm room a few weeks ago. I wasn’t ready to be grilled on how great a kisser he was or why I didn’t jump his bones, so I kept it to my lonesome.
    “You wouldn’t be hiding something from me, would you?”
    “Me? No…hiding, what would I have to hide? Like what?” Damn, that came out too nervous. Even I thought I was guilty.
    “Tell me,” she persisted, studying me like she could drag secrets out of me by looking at me sideways.
    “There’s nothing to tell.”
    “Wait. Did something happen between you and Slade?”
    “Me and Slade? No…not at all. Why would you think that? Did I not just mention he’s been shirking on our project too?”
    “Hmmm. Okay…just be sure to tell me if it does, or there’ll be hell to pay, missy.” She