Free Guarding the Quarterback (Champions of the Heart #1) by Liz Matis Page B

get a room.”
    Alexa broke the kiss and backed off, her cheeks tinged pink. The shy smile she wore now was real.
    “Don’t worry, they’re just jealous,” I whispered. “Let’s go.”
    Alexa waved goodbye to the group.
    “Aren’t you coming out with us?” asked Jacob’s wife.
    After a win at home, a large group of them would go out for a celebration meal. I usually had better things to do. Now with a girlfriend I’d be expected to go.
    Alexa turned back. “No, we’re going to do as you suggested and get a room.”
    I hooted with laughter. Alexa was one of a kind. Ballsy and beautiful. If only she meant what she’d implied. Once in the cocoon of the car, I turned serious. “Okay, cut the shit. What happened?”
    “Is that a nice way to speak to your girlfriend?”
    How she enjoyed throwing my words back at me. She was too smart for her own good, but that’s what I liked about her. And that was scarier than a charging linebacker.
    “Alexa?”
    “Fine.” Like a sports announcer, she gave a play by play of the events that had unfolded while I was on the field, adding a little dig along the way. “I knew the flowers couldn’t be from you, so I…” And so on.
    All this time I was convinced the threatening letter was a joke. I’d only been humoring Alexa and my boss by allowing the security detail. Now though, without doubt, I realized someone wanted not only me but Alexa dead. What if it had been a bomb instead of dead flowers?
    “There was some sort of white residue on the tips. It’s being sent to the FBI for testing.”
    Alexa was in danger because of me. I wouldn’t have it. If anything happened to her because of me, I’d be the biggest asshole on the planet. “You are fired. If you aren’t my girlfriend, then you won’t be a target.”
    “Dean, part of the point of me posing as your girlfriend is to transfer her focus from you to me.”
    “That’s insane.” Who does that?
    “That’s my job.”
    “Well, fuck your job.” So much for me not cursing around women, but Alexa was beyond frustrating—besides she talked like a guy. And kissed like a siren determined to bring me to my knees and make me beg for more than kisses.
    “Well, fuck you too,” she said with all the charm of a sailor.
    “Please do.”
    The corner of her mouth lifted into the beginnings of a smile. “In your dreams.”
    “Every night, baby doll.”
    Alexa stopped at a red light. “Easy, Superman.”
    I had a feeling she’d never let me forget greeting her at the door in my Superman boxers. We joked easily and naturally the rest of the way home. Alexa probably thought I’d dropped the issue of her remaining as my bodyguard, but first thing in the morning, I was calling my agent. Until then, I’d be the one doing the protecting.
    Unlocking the door to my apartment, I used my body to block her from entering first.
    “Dean, this is not funny.”
    “Damn straight it isn’t.” I opened the door, charging in to leave my bodyguard to close and lock it. Stomping my way through each room, I ignored Alexa’s warnings that she was going to kill me first.
    Conveniently, she ended up in my bedroom before me.
    “You’re an idiot.” She placed her gun on the nightstand and fisted her hands on her hips in that “you are so in trouble” stance I’d come to adore. “What’s wrong with you?”
    I closed the distance between us and pulled her to me. “You. You are what’s wrong with me,” I growled. Then I unleashed my frustration upon her lips. Just as abruptly I broke away. I needed to know that she felt the same way. “I burn for you, Alexa.”
    Our panting breaths mingled until we are inhaling the same heated air.
    “Dean, I can’t—”
    “ Can , yes, you can.”
    “It’s complicated.”
    “No, it’s not. It’s the most basic yet raw feeling in the world.”
    I felt her indecision. Felt the war between her body and mind. I knew her analytical brain would never surrender, so I stopped using words and