After All These Years (One Pass Away #2) Read online

  What she found out about Sean should have sent her screaming in the opposite direction. He was the definition of a manwhore. He played hard—on and off the field. If he didn’t have a football in his hands, he had a woman. Never the same one. Blond. Brunette. Redhead. The only things they seemed to have in common were large boobs and beautiful faces.

  For the first time in her life, Riley stood in front of the mirror and looked herself over with a critical eye. Her build was average. Not skinny. Not fat. A little above average in height with a good complexion and straight teeth. Her face was…? How could she judge? No one had ever run screaming from the room. Children didn’t cower in fear when she walked down the street. As faces went, hers was fine.

  Riley sighed. Next to Sean’s bevy of beauties, she faded into nothingness. Pulling back the neckline of her shirt, she gave her chest a brutal critique. Well-endowed she wasn’t.

  What the hell? Riley could almost hear her grandfather. Didn’t I teach you better than this? Brains. If you want that boy, dazzle him with your smarts. False eyelashes. False boobs. You don’t want someone who can’t see past all the smoke and mirrors.

  “Yes, I do.”

  Riley wasn’t proud of it. But facts were facts. She wanted Sean McBride. It was unrealistic—and completely shallow. She chuckled. See, they already had something in common.

  One thing was certain. For Sean to notice her, he had to be nearby. The draft was only a few short months away. It was time to set the groundwork. Over the past few years, she had learned something important. Her father would never let the team pick Sean if he thought it was what she wanted.

  Between now and May, she had to convince him that the last thing the Seattle Knights needed was Sean McBride.

  “WITH THE THIRD pick in the draft, the Seattle Knights choose Sean McBride. Wide receiver. Georgia Tech.”

  The applause filled the room. Riley didn’t join in. She sat stoically while Gerald Preston and Patrick Kramer, the Knights’ general manager, shook hands. Her father glanced her way. There was a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. She didn’t react. Inside she danced like a maniac.

  This was her doing and no one would ever know.

  Her plan had been simple. Get Sean’s name in her father’s head and make sure he believed Riley didn’t want the Knights to have anything to do with him. Subliminal messaging. Some people scoffed at the idea. Not Riley. She was now a firm believer. In April, when she saw the team’s shorted draft list, Sean McBride was one of three names.

  Gaige Benson and head coach Harry Coleman pushed hard for Sean. Riley wanted to kick them both in the butt. Shut up. You’re going to ruin everything. Luckily, her opinion held more weight with her father. Riley made her choice clear. Take one of the running backs. It was pathetically easy.

  A psychiatrist would have had a field day trying to figure out the deep-seated resentment that brewed in her father. What had she done to earn it? What might have fascinated the shrink even more was the fact that Riley couldn’t have cared less. She didn’t need, nor want, the love and affection of a man who had been nothing but a sperm donor. The father of her heart was Douglas Preston.

  Happy beyond measure, Riley rose. She was about to leave the conference room when Gaige Benson stopped her.

  “I don’t know how you did it, Riley, but thank you.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes, you do.” Gaige smiled and kept on walking.

  Riley didn’t know how Gaige had figured out her involvement. Not that it mattered. He wanted Sean on the team almost as much as she did.

  Riley stepped out of the team’s headquarters, breathing in the wet, spring air. Sean McBride was coming to Seattle. Suddenly, the future seemed impossibly bright and full of possibilities.

  CHAPTER TWO

  THREE YEARS LATER

  “YOU GREEDY BASTARD.” Marcellus Weeks, tight end for the Knights, shook his head in amazement. “No one needs three women at a time.”

  “It isn’t about need,” Sean McBride informed him. “They were there. They were willing. What would you have done?”

  “Run home to his wife with his tail between his legs,” Gaige Benson quipped.

  Marcellus threw his used towel at Gaige, missing by three feet.

  Picking up the towel, Gaige slung it back, hitting the other man in the face. “And that is why they pay me the big bucks.”

  “QBs,” Marcellus said with good humor. “Arrogant pricks, each and every one.”

  “The hell with you pussies. I want to hear more about our boy’s walk on the wild side.”

  Sean grinned at Sol Fellows. Before the big linebacker had tied the knot last spring, the two of them had closed down more than one club. It seemed more and more of his buddies were moving past their party days. He didn’t begrudge them for their need for home and hearth. However, he missed the camaraderie. Tossing back shots of Jack and scoping out women was more fun with a group. His posse was dwindling fast.

  “Wild side?” Sean said with a shrug, his eyes twinkling. “Hell, son. That was just a slow Wednesday.”

  “Oh, man. You’re killing me.” Sol groaned. His wife was eight and a half months pregnant. Sex was not in his foreseeable future. “If there is any justice in the world, your dick will fall off from overuse.”

  The men exited the locker room. Practice was over and the Knights’ facility was almost empty. They headed toward the parking lot, laughing companionably.

  “Stamina is my superpower. My dick takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

  “I need details.” Marcellus clasped his hands in mock pleading. “How much licking are we talking about?”

  “They passed me around like an all-day sucker. The blond —”

  “Ixnay on the dirty talk.” When Sean shot Gaige a confused look, the quarterback motioned with his head. “Innocent ears at twelve o’clock.”

  The other men turned. Five feet away, Riley Preston leaned against her car. Sweet and friendly, the team considered her their unofficial sister. Growing up with brothers, Sean felt a special connection to the owner’s daughter. He liked her goofy charm and big, earnest blue eyes.

  “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Seeing Riley’s wave, Sean smiled and lifted a hand in greeting. “Do you think she heard anything?” he whispered to Gaige.

  “That kid has ears like a bat.”

  “Maybe she didn’t understand what we were talking about.”

  Gaige almost choked on his laughter. “Jesus, Sean. She’s twenty years old and hangs around professional athletes. She may not give them, but she knows what a blow job is.”

  “Shh,” Sean frowned. “What the hell, Benson?”

  “Hey, beautiful.” Gaige ignored Sean’s last comment. He gave Riley a friendly hug. “No classes today?”

  “I had one this morning. Hi, fellas.”

  Riley smiled at the men, making sure she didn’t single out Sean. From the very beginning, she made a point of keeping her feelings to herself. It would be humiliating if everyone knew how she felt. Loving Sean was hard enough without being the butt of the team’s jokes.

  The men returned her greeting.

  “Are you waiting for your dad?” Sol asked.

  Other than Gaige, none of the team knew of her strained parental relationship. Something about the QB made her want to spill her guts. She often confided in him about her father. Her mother. School. However, she didn’t mention Sean. Never Sean. That was a line she never crossed.

  “My car won’t start. I called for a tow truck, but they said it would be about an hour.”

  “I’ll give you a lift.” Sean’s smile was easy. With no effort, he made Riley’s heart beat faster.

  “I don’t want to put you out.”

  Riley hoped she sounded sincere. Disabling her car had been easy. Her high school automobile maintenance class had finally come in handy. When the mechanic looked under the hood, the problem would be easily fixed and just as easily explained. Things came loose�
��on their own. There wouldn’t be any reason to suspect subterfuge.

  “I like the company.” Sean draped a friendly arm around her shoulders. “See you guys tomorrow.”

  Gaige and the other men watched Sean escort Riley to his midnight blue Ferrari.

  “He has no idea?” Marcellus asked incredulously

  “Not a clue.” Gaige shook his head.

  “Amazing.” Sol sighed. “Sean was born with babe alert. If there is an interested female within a fifty-mile radius, he can scope them out. He’s around Riley all the time. Why can’t he see her painfully obvious crush?”

  “In Sean’s eyes, Riley isn’t a woman.” Gaige walked toward his car, his teammates at his side. “She’s a girl. A little sister.”

  “She’s twenty?”

  “Yes,” Gaige said.

  “Well, shit.” Marcellus suddenly felt old. He had been with the Knights for ten years. He had watched Riley grow up. In a blink of the eye, she was a young woman and he was sliding down the back end of his career. Where had the time gone?

  “We should be grateful for Sean’s blinders.” Gaige looked over his shoulder as the blue sports car zipped out of the parking lot. “The day will come when Sean opens his eyes and sees what’s right in front of him.”

  “Train wreck in the making?” Sol wondered.

  Gaige’s smile didn’t quite reach his green eyes. “I don’t know. Something tells me one day we’re going to find out.”

  “HOW IS SCHOOL going?”

  “Good. I love my classes.”

  Riley wiped her hands on her jeans. She didn’t find herself alone with Sean very often. Manipulating the situation seemed like a good idea at the time. It had been a calculated risk. Gaige might have offered her a ride. If he had, she would have taken it without hesitation. It would have been disappointing, but not the end of the world.

  When Sean fell easily into her plans, Riley was thrilled. Riding in his car with plenty of time to talk—it was exactly what she wanted.

  Finding something to say was harder than she expected. When she was alone, she carried on long, involved conversations with him. However, those were in her head. She was witty and interesting. She flirted like a pro. Not too slutty. Sexy. In her head, she was amazing at doing sexy.

  The reality was another matter. Sean asked about school. She could have mentioned all the parties she went to. Her numerous boyfriends. It would be a lie, but he didn’t need to know that. Instead, she told him she loved her classes. Fascinating, Riley.

  She wanted to slap her forehead. Nerd alert! She knew the kind of women Sean liked. Bookworms need not apply.

  “It’s Friday. Have a hot date lined up?” Sean winked.

  “Sure. And I might end the night with a blow job.”

  Riley wanted the earth to open up and suck her in. Why? With a million things she could have said, she chose that? Sure, it was on her mind. She heard what Sean and the guys said. They didn’t think that kind of talk was for her ears. Innocent Riley. God. She didn’t know which was worse. The fact that Sean believed she was an inexperienced virgin, or that it was true.

  “Riley!”

  Sean sounded shocked. Appalled. Riley sat up straight. Maybe this was a good thing. She could deal with a little embarrassment if it meant Sean began looking at her in a different way. She was twenty. He was twenty-five. It was time for her to make her move.

  “What do you think I do on my hot dates, Sean?” Riley challenged.

  “I hadn’t thought about it.”

  She could tell Sean was uncomfortable. He bragged up his sex life with the guys. He probably let loose the dirty talk with his many, many conquests. However, one mention of a blow job and color stained his cheeks.

  “I’m surprised you can still blush.”

  “Me too,” Sean mumbled. “You shouldn’t talk like that, Riley. It isn’t…”

  “What, Sean? Ladylike?”

  “Riley-like.”

  Riley wanted to tear her hair out. Riley-like? What did that mean?

  “I’m not a little girl, Sean. How old was the last woman you…?” Riley was going to say dated. Sean didn’t date. He enjoyed and moved on. If she wanted him to think of her as an adult, she needed to use adult language. “The last woman you had sex with?”

  “Age is different than experience.”

  “I have experience.” Riley waited for the heavens to open up. When lightning didn’t strike her down, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Bull—”

  “Go ahead. Say it,” Riley dared him.

  “Bullshit.”

  “See. I didn’t collapse in a fit of the vapors. There isn’t anything you could say that would shock me, Sean.”

  “Don’t be so sure, little girl.” Sean shifted the car into a lower gear before he pulled off the highway. “With all the things I’ve seen and done, I can still be shocked. You have no idea what goes on out in the big bad world. And I would prefer to keep it that way.”

  Riley felt her heart melt. She was ready to let it go, happy that Sean cared about her. He ruined the moment by calling her little girl and patting her hand. He wasn’t a man touching a woman. He was a man placating a child.

  Three years. She had been waiting patiently. When Sean was drafted by the Knights, Riley accepted that the age difference would have put him off. She had been seventeen and still in high school. At twenty-two, he had graduated college and had a newly signed NFL contract.

  Never shy, Riley had let him know who she was. He liked her. She knew that. She put up with the big brother/little sister vibe because she knew her time would come. If he wanted to fool around with every bimbo that flashed her cleavage his way, so be it.

  Riley hated watching how easily Sean’s head could be turned. However, she was the only one. His teammates followed his love life with good humor. As long as he showed up for practice and did his job, they didn’t care what Sean got up to after hours. The press and the Knights’ front office weren’t so lenient.

  Sean McBride’s reputation had arrived in Seattle before he did. He partied hard and played harder. Management gave him a warning after the first fight. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t to blame. Sean would have walked away when a drunk started flinging insults. He didn’t care what anyone said about him. He had heard it all. When the man went after Sean’s companion, the trouble started. When he demanded the guy apologize, Sean received a face full of beer for his trouble. Even then, he didn’t throw the first punch. Witnesses said the drunk attacked Sean, giving the wide receiver no choice but to defend himself.

  A swollen right hand hadn’t kept Sean out of that week’s game. It was easier to turn a blind eye when your rookie sensation made game winning catches. Harry Coleman told him to tone it down, and Sean agreed. Unfortunately, where Sean partied, trouble followed.

  Two more fights during his rookie season had Gerald Preston pushing for Sean’s release. The shareholders, including Riley, pointed out that they wouldn’t be able to find a replacement with Sean’s talent. Gerald tried to push the issue. He had figured out his daughter’s role in getting the Knights to draft Sean. Nothing would have made him happier than to kick the cocky bastard off the team and out of town. He believed it would have served him—and Riley—right.

  The team was never going to terminate Sean over a few fights. However, they didn’t like the negative publicity. When Gaige stepped in, incorporating Sean into his group of friends, the antics died down. The QB became the stabilizing influence needed by a young man suddenly faced with more money and fame than he had ever known.

  Riley loved that Sean stopped getting into trouble. If he dropped the never-ending stream of women, she would jump for joy.

  Sean drove up to her parents’ house, stopping the car by the front door. Riley often thought of moving out. She was in college and most of her friends either lived in the dorm or shared an apartment. Finding a place away from Ambleside Road made sense for a young, single woman. It would have done wonders for her social
life to have a roommate closer to her own age.

  “I’m thinking of getting a place of my own. Or with a friend.”

  “Really?” Sean put the car in park. “Why?”

  “Because I’m twenty. And in college.”

  “I guess you are.” Sean laughed. “When did you go and grow up on me?”

  “I swear, if you pat my hand again, I will punch you in the mouth.”

  “Hey,” Sean called out when Riley jumped from the car. Using that famous wide receiver speed, he caught her before she could enter the house. “You’ve been prickly the whole trip. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.” She sighed. “Everything.”

  Riley had to tip her head back. She loved how tall he was. She loved the way the sun brought out glints of red in his almost black hair. She loved his smile. His hazel eyes. She loved Sean. Period.

  “Can I help?”

  “Kiss me.”

  “Sure.”

  Riley knew it wasn’t that easy. Sean aimed for her cheek. A nice, brotherly kiss. The hell with that. A second before his mouth made contact, she turned her head. Lips to lips. Finally. Before he could react, she threw her arms around his waist and held on for dear life.

  “Riley!”

  She recognized her mother’s gasp, but Riley didn’t care. Sean tried to pull away as gently as possible. She had no intention of letting him go. Her arms tightened. Her lips opened. Who knew when she would get another chance like this one? Audience be damned, she wanted Sean to kiss her back.

  With more force, but not enough to hurt her, Sean disentangled himself.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Breathing hard, Riley opened her arms, ready to tell Sean not to be sorry. She wasn’t. She was mortified to find out he wasn’t speaking to her.

  “I don’t blame you, Sean.” Football bored her mother to tears. Corrine Preston knew who the Knights’ players were because she liked handsome young men. When she batted her eyes at Sean, Riley was mortified. “Riley is immature for her age. I’m sure she mistook your kindness for something else.”