he twisted to face her, expression tight, eyes worried as she spoke. “We had arguments.” Reese shrugged, swallowing down the wave of bullshit she felt suffocating her. “Like siblings, I guess.”
Liar. Big fat liar, she thought, ignoring the flash of memory, the recall of Ryder’s naked skin the night of Ryder’s last home game in the locker room, how he clearly thought he was alone. How he stopped just inside the showers when Reese turned, her naked body wet, sore from the game, aching from need that Ryder had stirred inside her the night before. They’d been alone in his Chevy, ready for things to move forward, but he’d stopped her. Ryder always stopped things before they went any further than his fingers teasing her. That night in the shower, with her naked and waiting, Ryder hadn’t stopped.
“I need to walk away,” he told her, standing still, not looking at all like a man who intended to leave what was waiting for him under that spray of water.
“No, you don’t.” Reese loved how every shift of her body, every twitch of her hands as she slid them over her skin, caught Ryder’s attention. “You don’t need to do anything but walk into this shower.”
“This…isn’t how…”
“I don’t need roses and poetry.” Reese touched herself then, fingers spreading wetness across her stomach, to her hips, settling between her legs. Ryder held his breath, attention on her fingertips as Reese petted herself. “I just need you.”
He’d taken her for the first time in those showers. Then nearly every night after that for four months. It had been intense and, Reese thought, it had been nothing like sibling rivalry.
Gia waited. The woman watched, her mouth set into a straight line as she gawked at them, finally shaking her head. “You expect me to believe that the screaming match at Decadence last night was some sibling shit from your college days?” Gia asked Reese, head tilted to the side as though she was insulted her placekicker thought she was that gullible.
“It…”
“She’s not lying,” Ryder interrupted, lifting a hand to keep Reese quiet. For once, she let him speak over her. He’d been at this for a while. He knew how to manipulate the media and the coaches. Reese had no clue how to manage any of that. “Coach Noble was like a second father to me. Mine, he wasn’t much interested in me playing football. He wanted me to be an engineer like him. So, the coach, he took me under his wing, helped me out when I needed it. He…” Ryder adjusted in his seat, biting the inside of his bottom lip as he glanced at Reese. “Sometimes he put the team, me in particular, above everyone else. When Reese started playing with us, well, she got in the way. I wanted to pay the man back for everything he’d done, but he was focused on her.” He pointed a thumb in Reese’s direction and his voice took on an exasperated tone. “She got sloppy. She got in the way and cost us a field goal against Baylor when we were down. I didn’t much like her after that.”
That wasn’t a lie. The Baylor game had been a bad one. The worst of her short college career. But, Rhiannon had just given Reese news she made the girl promise to keep from everyone, including Ryder. It was no excuse, but when he asked what her hushed, serious conversation with his sister had been, Reese had refused to tell him. It had caused the biggest fight they’d ever had. Right before the game. It had been the beginning of the end.
“Things got worse after that,” Ryder said, fiddling with his jacket as he sat straight in his chair. He looked calm again, his demeanor settled, as though the explanation he gave should suffice. “If you recall, I wasn’t too happy about you guys signing her. She’s a distraction.”
“Not if you’re a professional,” Gia offered, one perfectly plucked eyebrow moving up. “Which, one would assume with the salary you demand, you would be capable of being at least moderately professional.” The team manager walked around her desk, hitting a button on her phone that blinked.
“Yes, ma’am?” a soft voice asked.
“Cat, bring me the camp journal, please.”
“On my way.”
Gia flipped through a calendar on her desk, pen sliding around the dates, lips moving as though she was speaking to herself and didn’t want Reese and Ryder to hear her. A minute after she’d summoned her assistant, Cat