Page 25 of The Game

He peeled himself away from the wall and stepped forward. "Can we talk?"

What? He wanted to talk now? I was so over talking it was joke. "No."

"Rivers." My name was a low growl in his throat. He really was a lion, and I had a feeling I was the prey he could destroy with one simple swoop. I knew this. He could kill my new career in one strike should he wish.

I turned and blinked tired eyes up to his face. I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home, sleep and forget that this day had ever happened.

If he didn't make my day's so exhausting, with his endless animosity I had to fight through, then maybe I wouldn't be so tired. Maybe I wouldn't have let the team down and done such a shit job that we lost our second match.

Anger flourished through me, filling me with much-needed vitality. "No, I don't want to talk to you."

He tried to grab my hand, his grasp aiming for my wrist just like he had the previous day but I dodged its approach. "Please." The word was almost choked out, and I hoped it had burned him to say it.

"No. This is all your fault, you're an arsehole of the highest order, Jase Willis. We lost because of you, because you are a pig ignorant bastard."

His head dipped for a moment as my onslaught landed on his shoulders.

I carried on, unable to stop now that I'd opened the floodgates to my repressed anger; it boiled in my veins begging for release. "You haven't done my training, you won't let me help you and you won't admit that there is anything wrong so the team can compensate for you while we try to help. We are a team, Willis, not a goddamn one man show. And this is all because of your ego. And now, I look bad. It looks like I can't do my job right because you aren't strong enough to lead the team either on the field or off it."

I started to shift away from him, sure that his infamous temper was about to be released onto me. Instead, he was silent.

He still couldn't be bothered to talk to me. Gah, that man.

I threw my hands up in the air. "You are a prize dick." Did that tick lift his lips again? "I know you were great and all that, but if you're past your prime you should admit it." My next words were soft, and I was almost repulsed at myself for saying them, but I couldn’t hold them back. I wanted to hurt him, the need was driven deep within me. "I mean that you are about six years past your prime."

His cheeks flushed a florid pink under his golden stubble, and his eyes narrowed. I stepped back. I had no idea what he was going to do. I mean the guy was shrouded in rumours, which ones were true I didn't want to find out.

His hand snaked out and I thought it was going to grab me, or worse, hit me, but it didn't. It went for my shoulder as he grasped firm fingers into my flesh and yanked me forwards, his mouth landing on mine.

The Lion was kissing me.

I repeat. The Lion was kissing me.

It was short and hard. Raw and explosive. His mouth bruising as it slammed against my lips. Hot breath filtered between my teeth as I gasped and my lips parted. From under the sudden movement, there was softness there in the curve of his smile against me like he’d known I was going to react with the wanton opening of my mouth. I hated him for kissing me, but the moment he’d claimed me, I’d wanted it. A flourish of desire unfurled itself within me and I wanted to drown in the dark abyss it provided. My legs went to jelly instantly, and he wrapped a steel strengthened arm around my back, pinning me momentarily to his chest, his mouth crushing hard. Then he released me and walked away, his shoulders high and his step wide, and I was left with stinging lips, my body quivering like a leaf and wondering what the hell had just happened.

Sammy was in bed when I got home. Maria's daughter, Scarlett, was sat at the kitchen table, her chin resting in her palm, while she flipped through a magazine. "I'm so sorry I'm late." I flung my stuff down on the breakfast bar and turned towards the teenager. 'It was a really bad night." Hell, was it a bad night. First we lost. Then he kissed me. Worse, I’d wanted him to and I’d kissed him back. I was sure that if I thought about it I would hurl over the breakfast bar.

She flashed me a smile that was all her mother’s. "That's okay, we played and then played some more and then eventually he fell asleep."

"You're a darling for babysitting; you know how much I appreciate it." I rifled through my bag until I found my purse and dug out the twenty quid I'd drawn earlier for her. My hands shook and I didn’t think they would ever stop. My lips tingled like I’d applied some of that venom to my mouth to create a pout. Fuck, I didn’t need venom, this bruising was real.

I tried to shake it off and concentrate. Babysitters were like gold dust, and while I didn't often need one, the night time games were a challenge for me to cover. Maria wanted to do them all, but I couldn’t allow her to do that. Lucky for me she had a teenage daughter who needed cash since having her pocket money cut off. She may drive her parents mad, but she was great with Sammy and he was all that mattered to me.

"Did you win or lose?" She pocketed the money and started to gather her stuff.

"Lost, we lost badly." I shuddered at the memory and the arse ripping we'd been dealt by a furious Waller. Then I remembered what had come afterwards and my cheeks flushed.

"Are you okay, Lyssa?" Scarlett asked leaning forward. "You look a bit...uh?" She struggled to think of the word to describe the flushed cheeks and dazed expression I knew I had plastered on my face.

Holding a hand to my hot cheek, I took a deep breath. "Sure I'm fine, just tired. It was a long night."

Scarlett nodded like she understood, but hell, she had no idea. "When are you getting my friends and me tickets? We all want to come and look at Sean Bailey in the flesh." She fanned herself, which was very much what I wanted to do over his older, ruder, more obnoxious team mate.

"He's a nice guy, but way too old for you, so don't ask me to introduce you."

She did that teenage eye roll thing that I was dreading the little guy learning. "He's only four years older than me."

I had nothing to say to this. A man eleven years older than myself had just kissed me in the hallway outside my changing room, and my legs had given way. Nope, there were no words. Instead, I went for. "Can you text when you get home please?"