On the Shore (Cottonwood Cove, #3)(53)

“I get that. My mom’s dated a few guys, nothing serious. But I didn’t find a single one of those dudes to be nearly good enough for her.”

I shook my head. “I get it. You’re protective over the people you love. It’s a good quality to have.”

We sat there quietly, listening to the waves for a few minutes.

“Tell me why you love your job. Where do you see it going?” he asked.

“I’ve always loved sports. I spent my childhood and teen years trying hard to beat my brothers at everything. So, choosing a career in the sports industry was a no-brainer. But I also have a love for knowledge. Information. Learning about people and what makes them tick.”

“You are a nosy little one,” he teased.

I elbowed him in the stomach, and he tightened his grip on me. “I majored in journalism, and I interned at Strive Forward magazine, and my mentor was this super cool woman, Audrey. She would tell me how much power there was in the written word. The ability to communicate with hundreds to thousands to millions of people. The ability to make people fall in love with a sport, a person, or a place. The ability to change people’s perception about an individual if they’ve been presented unfairly. It was a way to use your voice for good. And I found it inspiring, I guess. But I also know there’s another side. The side of the bloodsuckers,” I said with a chuckle. “But I always wanted to be fair. Tell the truth. And I was drawn to you because no one really knew your story.”

“Jesus. I’m not above saying when I’m wrong, and I was very wrong about you. I shouldn’t have called anyone a bloodsucker. Years of being stalked and hounded by the press put a bad taste in my mouth. But it wasn’t a fair assessment. It’s just like anything—there is good and bad everywhere. There are good football players, and then there are people that are out there for the money and the fame. So, I apologize for the way we met, even if I don’t regret it.”

“And why is that?” I tipped my head back and studied him.

“Because you wouldn’t have come home. We wouldn’t be sitting here right now, after the best sex of my life—butt-ass naked on the shore.”

“Was it the best sex you’ve ever had?” I asked.

“Fuck yeah. It was for me.” He raised a brow.

I smiled. “It was for me, too. I wasn’t going to show all my cards so easily, but since you did, I’ll admit it, too.”

“And you wanted to do it just once. I told you, once would never be enough.”

“You were right,” I said as he flipped me over onto my back, and I broke out in a fit of hysterical laughter. “This one time, you were right.”

“Only this one time?” he asked, leaning down and kissing me hard.

“This time was the only one that really mattered.”

He nodded. His gaze was soft as he took me in. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before we get caught naked and end up on the cover of every newspaper and magazine in town. They’re already talking about you jumping to my defense in the press.”

He helped me to my feet, and we both quickly slipped back into our clothes.

“It has to be close to midnight now. We need to get some sleep. We’ve got to be up early for our run in the morning.”

He took my hand and led me to the car. “Yep. And it’s not going to be easy getting any sleep with you naked in my bed.”

I sucked in a breath. I wondered if we’d each go to our own places once we left the cove.

“That’s presumptuous,” I teased. “You just think I’ll sleep at your house?”

“You want me to chase you, sweetheart?” he said, not hiding his sarcasm. “Because I will. If that’s what you need. But I want you in my bed. I want to wrap myself around you and wake up to you in the morning.”

“Well, when you put it that way.” I shrugged after I got into the car, and he reached over to buckle my seat belt. Normally, I’d slap someone’s hand away for doing that, but at the moment, I’d let this man do just about anything to me.

“Good. Let’s go home.”

I closed my eyes as we drove toward his house. I couldn’t remember a time that I’d been this relaxed.

This happy.

This content.





The last few days had been busy between Lincoln’s insane workouts and me in talks with Sports Today, as I’d be breaking this news with them. I’d been busy making tweaks to the final statement that had been released this morning.

Lincoln Hendrix Will Be Signing with the New York Thunderbirds.

It was now public knowledge that Lincoln was telling me his story, and I was also the same woman who’d jumped to his defense last week when we’d been in the city.

My phone rang, and I watched Lincoln through the sliding glass doors as he pushed a gigantic tire up and down the driveway as an extra core workout that he liked to do. He wore a pair of basketball shorts, no shirt, and a navy baseball cap turned backward on his head.

There should be some sort of rule about sexy men wearing their caps backward. It caused my ovaries to go into overdrive.

Every. Damn. Time.

His chest was tanned and chiseled, and the muscles in his arms strained each time he pushed the oversized tire another couple of feet.

I answered the phone and put it on speaker.