Free Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Kristen Flowers

down.

 
    “The session is
over,” I told him curtly. My tone of voice and the look in my eyes made it very
clear I wasn’t to be argued with.   

 
    “You’re right,”
Landon said.

 
    It took me a
moment to register the disappointment in his voice, as if my words had cut him
deep.

 
    He stood up and gathered
his things, but before he walked away he leaned in close enough to whisper, “I
may be an asshole, but you like me that way.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
    The following day
at practice, Ivy was still a heavy weight on my mind. As much as I tried to
force the last tutoring session out of my head, I wasn’t able to. We didn’t get
anything done and she also made it quite clear what she thought about me.

 
    My performance
during practice suffered with slow runs and a lot of fumbles. I was aware of
the questioning looks from my teammates and the frustration from the Coach, but
I couldn’t help it. For once, my mind just wasn’t on football. I was thankful
it was practice and not an actual game, otherwise I would have really get an
ass-chewing. That would have been disastrous.

 
    As I stood under
the bright sun and ignored whatever one of my teammates was saying to the
Coach, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. More specifically, I couldn’t stop
thinking of her calling me an asshole. I played it over and over again in my
mind. She had said it with such force and conviction.

 
    Never before had I
cared about the insults flung at me from a girl, much less from a woman pissed
off that I wasn’t able to commit to a relationship. Even though I always made
it clear what my intentions were, some of the girls I got involved with still
got upset at the end of the day. But none of them were like Ivy. We hadn’t even
slept together and she acted like she had a right to be pissed off at me.

 
    I tried to be
angry instead of being so upset. All we did was kiss. It was a really hot one,
but it was only a kiss nonetheless. It was impossible for me to be mad when I
thought about it some more. The way her lips felt against mine and how she sunk
into me completely made me feel something I had never felt before. I didn’t
even know what that feeling was. I couldn’t put it into words. One thing was
true however, no matter how I tried to frame it in my mind, I hated her
thinking that I was some jock-asshole.

 
    I was lost in my
thoughts of Ivy as I sprinted towards the thirty-yard line and stretched out my
hands. I managed to reach just far enough for the ball to scrape my fingertips
before landing on the ground with a thud.

 
    “Fuck.” I panted
as I came to a stop.

 
    “Shit! Bryce! Get
your head in the fucking game!” Coach Kingsley barked with a red face.

 
    I looked around to
see if my teammates were as pissed off as Coach. I was caught off guard when I
saw the concerned look on Noah’s face. The two of us looked at each other for a
moment before I looked down at the ground. I had to brush it off. I didn’t want
anyone to know what was running through my mind, much less why. There wasn’t a
single fiber in my body that wanted to invite any questions, but from the looks
of it Noah had already come up with a few.

 
    “Guess I was just
thinking about the Homecoming Game,” I mumbled. I didn’t want to apologize or
admit I fucked up; even if everyone knew I did. The Coach blew the whistle
effectively ending practice for the day and I knew a lot of it had to do with
me.

 
    I took off at a
sprint and grabbed my bag before heading off to the car. I hated going home in
my dirty uniform, but I much preferred it to sticking around for the third
degree from the guys. I zoomed to the house, parked it in the garage, and
darted straight to my bedroom. I threw my dirty uniform in a bag and walked
into the shower, letting out a long breath when the warm water landed against
my back.

 
    I stood in the
shower for a while thinking about the way Ivy’s face looked when she