Читать книгу The Bad Boy's Redemption - Joss Wood - Страница 15

SEVEN

Later that afternoon Lu was in the players’ lounge, working on her laptop, when she heard low, masculine laughter and Will, Jabu, Matt and Kelby walked in. Everyone but the suited Kelby was now dressed in casual clothes, their hair wet from the shower.

Lu was getting to know their weekly schedule; it was Wednesday, so that meant that after they’d returned to the stadium from St Clare’s they’d spent the morning watching a video analysis of their opposition for the weekend’s game and then they’d hit the field. Full-contact rugby and Will had been in the thick of it.

She could see a scrape on his knee and a bruise forming above his elbow. He did not believe in shouting instructions from the sideline. He put his body on the line practice after practice. And, judging by the satisfaction she could see in his eyes, he loved it. Despite their deal to keep it friendly, he made her heart go flippity-flop every time he sent her that engaging grin, and with the way his eyes heated when they settled on her face. Lu closed her laptop lid as he took the seat opposite her and offered her a taste of his just-opened soda.

Lu took a sip and handed it back. ‘You look like you took a couple of hits on the field.’

Will rubbed his shoulder. ‘I did. Jabu is the human equivalent of a Sherman tank.’

‘Thanks for what you did this morning. Again.’

‘No problem. Again,’ Will answered as the others sat down around them.

Lu greeted them and asked what their plans were for the evening.

Jabu yawned. ‘Nothing more exciting than an early night. Training was brutal this afternoon; Wednesdays are the worst day.’

Will grinned. ‘Whiner.’

Jabu lifted a lazy middle finger and yawned again. Looking over Lu’s head to the television mounted on the wall, he sat up and reached for the remote control on the table in front of him. ‘Hey, Will—your ex is on.’

Unlike the others, who immediately looked at the screen, Lu looked at Will. His face tightened instinctively, his lips thinned and his eyes darkened. Jabu adjusted the volume control and Lu reluctantly looked over her shoulder.

Beautiful. Lean and long, finely muscled. Long blonde hair, big blue eyes, legs that went on for ever. High cheekbones and a quirky mouth completed the package. How and why had Will let her go?

‘Do you mind if we watch it, Will?’ Matt demanded. ‘Your ex is a fox!’

‘Knock yourself out,’ Will replied, looking for all the world as if he didn’t give a damn. Which he so did. She could see it in his flattened mouth, in his tapping finger on the side of his thigh.

They listened to Jo talking about her training schedule, her fitness regime. Lu cast the occasional look at Will and sighed every time. His face was a mask of control, his body seemingly relaxed but his eyes radiating tension and frustration.

The interviewer was asking another question. ‘So, Jo, you’re now ranked at number two in the world, but there was a time when your off-court antics garnered a lot of news.’

Lu saw the flash of panic in Will’s eyes but still he didn’t react.

‘Yeah, it’s not a time in my life I’m proud of...’

‘Shortly after your divorce you turned your life around. You embraced religion, cleaned up your act. Why do you think it took Will Scott so much longer to do the same thing?’

Everyone else in the room inhaled and Will forced out a laugh. ‘Because I was having too much damn fun, jackass.’

His friends laughed, relieved when they heard his jokey tone. Only Kelby, Lu thought, might suspect that he was acting his socks off.

‘It was only two years—and I wouldn’t presume to talk on Will’s behalf,’ Jo replied.

‘Your marriage was characterised by fighting and making up. When you were happy you were ecstatic—when you were fighting it was obvious. Despite that, the world thought your marriage would survive. So what precipitated your divorce?’

‘God, why do people still care?’ Will demanded. ‘Aren’t there any twenty-year-olds behaving badly these days?’

‘Not as many as we’d like.’ Matt shook his head sadly. ‘And few of them are as good entertainment as you and Jo were. You two rocked!’

‘Until I nearly lost my career because I couldn’t come to work sober or at the very least not hungover,’ Will said, speaking over Jo’s reply. ‘And talking of that...while I’ve got the CEO, the Captain and the Vice-Captain here all at the same time, with no other ears listening, you guys need to do something about Campher. He’s on something. Drugs, booze, pills, steroids—I don’t know what, but it’s something.’

Jabu swore. ‘It hasn’t popped up in the drug tests.’

‘I’m telling you he’s on something,’ Will said. ‘I’m only here for another eight weeks. You still have the rest of the season with him. I’ll order a comprehensive drug screening, but I wanted to run it past you first.’

Three heads nodded their agreement and then turned back to the television screen.

‘Are you proud of what he’s done? Achieved?’

The interviewer was still talking about Will.

‘Sure. I always knew that Will was destined for great things. We both just took a detour, lost our way for a bit. Why are people still wanting to hear about it?’

‘You were good entertainment value. So, let’s talk about your sponsorship deals, Jo.’

Matt jabbed his finger upwards. ‘You see—he agrees with me! Now you’re just old and boring, Scott.’

Will stood up and swatted Matt across the head. ‘Funny—you didn’t say that when I face-planted you this afternoon. I need to do some paperwork before I leave, so I’m going to head off.’

He hadn’t even made eye contact with her, Lu thought as she watched his departing back. Yep, he was good at concealing his emotions—but so was she, and she knew what to look for.

* * *

Will had instinctively headed for the far corner of the gym, avoided the fancy equipment and yanked a pair of gloves from the shelf on the far wall. Jamming them between his knees, he pulled off his T-shirt, divested himself of his trainers and socks and left the pile of clothes on the floor next to an exercise mat. Pulling the gloves on, he proceeded to punch and kick the stuffing out of the dangling bag.

Kelby had made him do this years ago. Every time he’d felt out of control and frustrated he’d found a bag and pummelled it. At one time he’d been spending so much time with the punch bag that he signed up for Thai kick-boxing and learnt to do it properly.

He only ever did this now when he was feeling particularly stressed or when...punch, kick, punch...he felt out of control.

What was it about watching Jo this evening that had pushed every button he had? She was a prominent personality but he’d learnt how to hear about her, see her on the screen, read about her, with a detachment that came from a decade apart. Why now?

It had nothing to do with Jo, he realised, and everything to do with the life he’d led when he was with her—the person he’d been. Fun, crazy, spontaneous...out of control.

Being with Lu, spending time with her, reminded him of that person he’d once been. Oh, there was no alcohol or drugs involved this time, no dancing on bars and wrecking cars, but like during the best times he’d had back then they did have fun. They laughed. They talked.

They didn’t screw like bunnies.

And they were rapidly becoming friends—proper friends. Instead of just finding her to be a fun person to hang with he was finding that he wanted to tell her things, open up. And that scared him to death. Sex would have been so much easier. This? Not so much.

Being with Lu made him feel like the best version of who he’d been as a young man. Fun. Spontaneous. Curious.

Alive.

He’d been all of that and more. He’d been touted as the most promising young player in a generation—a team man, an amazing talent. Then he’d met Jo and had—oh, so willingly—fallen into the wild life she’d embraced. They’d married on a whim in Bali, and their life together had been fuelled by booze and dope and causing as much chaos as they could. They’d been untouchable, arrogant and superior. He’d started to work less and believe his own press more, had become enamoured of the adulation and adoration of fans and groupies. For a long time he’d thought he was a special person with a talent for rugby. It had taken Kelby to make him realise that he was just an ordinary guy with a special talent for the game.

As for their marriage...he’d been bored with her within three months and hadn’t been able to understand why. Sure, she was smoking hot—but she was also bright. Something he’d frequently forgotten. She could be hysterically funny, had superior mattress skills and a personality as big as the sun. There had been no reason to get bored with her. She was everything he’d ever thought he’d wanted but...

The spark had died. Quickly.

Could he be blamed for having doubts about his ability to stay in a relationship, to commit to a relationship? He’d been handed everything any guy anywhere in the world would sell his soul for and he hadn’t wanted it. But he’d kept it going—and he suspected she had too—because he’d earned big bragging points for being married to the sexiest woman in the world. And he’d liked the attention.

He hadn’t had the balls to break it off...until she did. Apparently there really wasn’t any good excuse for having an Argentinean woman in your room at three in the morning when you were married.

Will snapped a full round-house kick at the punching bag and followed the kick with an upper-cut when the bag came roaring back towards him. He’d been a yellow-bellied coward and after the divorce, instead of putting up his hand and saying sorry, he had bounced from affair to affair, party to party, bottle to bottle, making more of an ass of himself every month, losing a little more respect for himself every day.

If it hadn’t been for Kelby...

Will glanced at his watch. He’d been at it for a half-hour and he hadn’t even noticed. Sweat snaked down his bare spine into the back of his shorts and his hair was matted to his head. Using the back of his wrist, he pushed the hair back from his face and hauled air into his lungs. The adrenalin and anger were gone and he realised that he was utterly exhausted, his muscles beyond fatigued. Between the run this morning, the full body contact practice this afternoon and beating the crap out of this bag, he was skating on the edge of physical exhaustion.

Will grabbed the sides of the bag and rested his sticky forehead on the thick plastic. Well, he should sleep well tonight—that was if he didn’t start thinking about his crappy past. And Lu. And how much longer he could keep his hands off her...

Will turned on hearing the gentle slap of Lu’s sandals as she crossed the gym.

‘How long have you been here?’ he demanded, pulling off one glove with his teeth, then ridding himself of the other.

Lu tossed him a bottle of water which he caught with his free hand. ‘A while. Want to talk about it?’

Will cracked the lid and took a long sip before sinking to sit on an exercise mat. He held Lu’s sympathetic eyes as water slid down his throat.

‘Nothing to talk about,’ he said when he’d lowered the bottle.

Lu tipped her head and shook her head. ‘The past loses its power when it’s talked about. Secrets too.’

‘What would you know about secrets and the power they hold over people, Lu?’

Lu’s eyes sharpened and hardened. ‘Try clearing out your parents’ personal effects on your own at nineteen and say that again, Scott.’

Will winced. ‘Ouch. Did you learn some stuff you’d rather not know?’

Lu folded her arms and tapped her foot. ‘Yes. So don’t try and take the high road with me about secrets. I know what I’m talking about.’

Will stretched out his legs and placed his hands on the mat behind him. ‘Bet you haven’t shared them with your brothers.’

Lu twisted her lips. ‘There are some things they don’t need to know.’

‘And there are some things the world doesn’t need to know about my life.’

Lu’s mouth thinned. ‘I’m not talking about the world, Will. I’m suggesting that you talk things through so that you don’t have to kick a bag.’

‘I like kicking the bag.’

Lu threw up her hands. ‘OK, if you’re going to be facetious then I give up. I’ll just go and leave you to it.’

The words were stiff and staccato and Will sighed at the hurt look that passed over her face. A part of him wished he could tell her, wished he could trust enough to talk it over with her, to confess his stupidity. But apart from the fact that he was not in the habit of talking about himself he thought that talking to Lu about it would be akin to slicing himself open and watching himself bleed. He also didn’t want to see the look of disgust on her face, to see her disappointment in the man he’d used to be...a man he suspected still lurked under his tightly held cloak of control.

‘I’ll see you when I see you.’

Lu turned to go but Will’s leg shot out, gently catching Lu behind the knees. She tumbled to the mat, landing on her back next to him.

‘What the—?’

Before she could say another word Will rolled onto her and covered her mouth with his. Her fist clenched against his shoulder, but as his tongue touched hers her tension disappeared and her hand opened, fingers splaying over him and branding his bare skin.

Will pulled his head back to look down at her, raised his hand so that the tips of his fingers brushed her cheek.

‘Lu, if there was anybody I could tell it would be you. I just don’t...can’t...talk about it.’

She echoed his action, lifting her hand to touch his face. ‘You need to talk to somebody about it. You can’t kick the hell out of a bag every time you get angry.’

‘Actually, I can.’ Will’s eyes glinted down at her. ‘I need to. It’s the only way to relieve the tension.’

He knew that Lu felt his erection along her hipbone—could feel his accelerated heartbeat beneath her hand. They both knew it but didn’t acknowledge the other, tried and tested way to relieve stress. He liked feeling her under him, but he also liked the fact that she’d noticed that he was out of sorts, that she cared enough to make the effort to comfort him.

Will’s eyes collided with hers and underneath the attraction he saw sympathy there, and understanding. Flat-out affection. He could care for this woman. He really could. But when it all went south and the flames died—as they always did—he suspected that he’d be left with third degree burns.

Not an option.

Will reluctantly rolled off her and heard Lu’s sweet sigh of exasperation. He knew how she felt. He craved her too. They lay on their backs on the mat for a while, staring at the ceiling.

Lu rolled her head on the mat to look at the bag and couldn’t believe she was about to say what she was about to say.

‘Does it work for sexual tension too?’

Will sighed. ‘Not as good as a cold shower but...yeah.’

‘Want to teach me?’

‘Are you sexually frustrated, Mermaid?’

Will’s hand slid over hers and squeezed. She knew that he’d been aiming for a jokey tone, but his words had come out pained instead.

And instead of sounding cool and sophisticated her words were soft and sad. ‘Well, I have this guy that I’m mega-attracted to, and in a fit of madness we agreed that it would be better to just be friends. I’m having the best fun with him, but sometimes I just want to...’

Will pulled in a hot breath. ‘Nail him?’

‘Yeah.’ Lu wrinkled her nose as her rueful eyes met his. Like him, she’d been aiming to lighten the tension, but instead she’d just tumbled them into a miasma of emotion. Lu wanted to look away and couldn’t—wanted to make a sassy comment but couldn’t find any words to say.

Will’s hand contracted around hers. ‘God, Lu, I know how you feel.’

‘I’m having so much fun with you and I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll punch a bag if that helps,’ Lu gabbled.

Will rolled to his side and placed his free hand on her face. ‘I don’t want to spoil it, either so I’ll teach you to box,’ he said, his voice rough. ‘But if we don’t get up soon we won’t need to punch anything.’

Lu turned her face into his hand and dropped a kiss on his palm. ‘OK.’

But they still lay there for a while longer, his one hand holding hers, the other on her face, feeling physically and emotionally connected.

Whoops, Lu thought. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

* * *

It was late Sunday afternoon and Lu was attempting, unsuccessfully, to make the transition from lying on her surfboard to standing up. Will, standing hip-deep in the Indian Ocean off North Beach, was trying to hide his smile.

‘Stop laughing at me, you jerk!’ Lu shouted at him as she popped up from under a two-foot wave. ‘We weren’t all born super co-ordinated!’

‘You’ll get there,’ Will told her, laughing as she rubbed her face.

She would have given up hours ago, but she knew that learning to surf was a way to get some distance from their emotionally charged discussion in the gym the other night.

Constantly looking like an idiot and getting sand in her bikini bottoms was a small price to pay to put the fun and laughter back into their...whatever it was they had.

‘I would like to point out, for the record, that we only seem to be doing things you like to do.’ Lu slapped her hands on her hips. ‘We never made it to that art exhibition—and what happened to dance classes?’

‘We’re going to the photography exhibition,’ Will pointed out.

‘That’s in two weeks’ time,’ Lu retorted. ‘I’m sick of sucking at sport.’

Will laughed. ‘Say that again—five times and fast.’

‘I’m sip at supping at...aaargh!’

Will laughed as he walked through the water to her and took her board from her grasp. ‘That’s enough for today; Mak and Deon look ready to leave anyway.’

Lu looked towards the beach, where Mak and Deon stood at the water’s edge, Deon’s head droopy against Mak’s arms. The four of them had spent the afternoon there and Will and Mak had spent hours tossing a rugby ball to Deon, much to his delight. They’d all taken turns to swim with him too, and the little guy was utterly, happily exhausted.

Lu scooped him up, gave him a huge kiss and handed him over to Will, who piggy-backed him back to their bags and towels scattered over the still hot sand. Will put Deon on his feet, helped Mak load up their bags and rubbed Deon’s head.

‘Are you coming to the stadium with the St Clare’s kids on Tuesday?’

Deon nodded. ‘I’m their main man.’

Will grinned. ‘That you are. Later, dude.’

‘Later, dude,’ Deon echoed and the adults laughed.

After they’d left, Will cocked his head at Lu. ‘I’m going back in. You coming?’

Lu nodded and they turned back to the sea, sighing as the warm Indian Ocean crept higher the further in they went.

‘School and work day tomorrow,’ Lu said, as the waves lapped against her chest.

She wondered what the twins had been up to today...if they’d had as much fun as she had. On days like these—beach days, happy days—she missed them with every cell in her body. She’d been fighting the urge to call them all day, and the couple of messages she’d sent them still, as of ten minutes ago, remained unread. They were never without their phones, so what had they been doing all day?

Lu felt Will’s thumb brush the space between her eyebrows and she turned her head to look at him. ‘Sometimes you drift away and then this frown appears.’

‘Sun in my eyes,’ Lu replied blithely.

‘Yeah, tell me another one.’ Will snorted.

Lu snuck a look at his frustrated face. ‘How come you want me to talk but you don’t...or won’t?’

‘Because I’m a guy.’

Lu’s snort was bigger than his. ‘We’re really good at having fun and really bad at talking to each other about the things that go deep,’ she commented. ‘I know that you were seriously upset after seeing your ex on TV—’

‘I wasn’t.’

‘Will.’ Just her saying his name had his protest dying on his lips. ‘And I’m missing the twins. Yet we still try to pretend that everything is fine.’

‘I don’t know how to—’ Will stopped and automatically reached out to steady her as a large wave broke over them. Using his strength, he planted his feet and kept her upright as water rushed over her head. Lu linked her arms around his neck, droplets of water on her face.

‘I wish you’d talk to me, Will,’ Lu murmured, frustrated. He was holding back, keeping her at arm’s length mentally, and she didn’t like it. If he could push her out of her comfort zone why couldn’t she do the same for him?

The problem was that he just had to look at her with those hot eyes and she forgot about comfort zones and talking and anything else but her need to have his mouth on hers.

Will kissed her shoulder as he whispered, ‘I’ll tell you that I think you are incredibly beautiful.”

Lu hiccupped a laugh. ‘Freckly and skinny.’

‘Beautifully, gorgeously freckly and skinny,’ Will insisted. He looked down into her eyes. ‘I don’t know how to do this...the other stuff...the talking stuff. I can’t do it—haven’t the skills. But this...this I know.’

Yes, Lu thought. And it was the perfect end to a wonderful day as Will’s tongue slipped into her mouth and his hands pulled her hips into his.

Her stomach pressed against his erection and her breasts were flattened against his chest. She felt uninhibited and free. His actions under the water were hidden from the last few people on the beach, and the surfers were too far away for them to see and too uninterested to give a hoot. Scooting her hand up his hip, she caressed his stomach, feeling the wonder of the warm skin over hard muscles. Will responded by cupping her breast, instinctively seeking her nipple, which instantly bloomed in his hand.

Lu gasped and wrenched her mouth away from his, arching her back as she buried her face in his neck and swiped her tongue across his skin. This was what she’d been missing—this intensity, this flood of lust and emotion that she hadn’t experienced with a man in a long, long time.

Will groaned as he snuck his hands under her pink bikini top and tangled her tongue with his. He sensed her frustration and responded with a silent chuckle. She wasn’t the only one who craved more. But suddenly this wasn’t about him. This was about Lu and the pleasure he could give her—the pleasure he knew she hadn’t experienced in a long, long time...if ever.

‘Wrap your legs around my waist, honey,’ he murmured against her mouth.

Lu, eyes glazed with passion, obliged. Will dropped his gaze to look down between them. Her thighs were slim and baby-smooth; he could feel her hipbone under the palm of his other hand. A beaded ring was hooked through her belly button.

‘Just enjoy, Lu,’ Will told her, and saw the soft reply in her eyes, tasted it in her lifted lips.

She became compliant beneath him, her trust that he would take care of her blindingly obvious. Will braced himself by pushing his feet into the sand while kissing her—he couldn’t get enough of her luscious mouth. He moved his hand over her ankle and calf, tracing his way up her thigh, lingering to knead her bottom. His long fingers slid under her bikini bottom to stroke lightly between her legs. He ignored her whimper and felt her intake of breath as he moved his hand between them and trailed it over her, bending his head to kiss her again, feeling her throb beneath his fingertips. His fingers—urgent now—slid into her furrows, automatically finding her nub, causing her to lift her hips, thrusting into his hand. Astounded at her passionate reaction, by the tension he could feel in her, Will felt immensely powerful, intensely male.

He felt her orgasm against his hand, saw it in her eyes, heard it in her whimpered cries.

She made him feel more of a man...

Long, long minutes later she dropped her feet back into the sand and pushed her hands through her hair. As long as he lived Will knew that he’d never forget Lu standing chest deep in the sea, tipping her face up to catch the last of the sunshine, looking a lot like the mermaid he sometimes imagined her to be.

‘What are we going to do about this, Lu?’ he demanded as they walked back towards the beach. ‘We’re dancing around it and something is going to have to give—soon.’

Lu ran her hands through her hair again, making spikes. ‘I don’t know, Will! I don’t! I know that I want you, but I don’t want to stop having fun with you either—and that was the deal, remember? Sex and you walk. No sex and you don’t.’

‘Whose stupid idea was that?’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Oh, that must have been yours, Scott. Moron.’

It was the deal, and he’d thought it made sense all those weeks back, when his life had made sense. Will grabbed a towel off the beach mat and swiped it across his face. He didn’t know how much longer he could resist her—resist the temptation to take her to bed, to make her his. But she terrified him. She had the ability to make him lose focus, to do the things, feel the things he’d used to when his life had been out of control. Like acting first and thinking later. His life had the potential to spiral out of control when he allowed that side of his personality to rule.

With Lu, his devil-may-care side was demanding a lot more decision making opportunities and—what had Kelby called him?—Mr Disciplined Control was taking a beating.

Either way, he felt as if he was fighting a demonic alien invasion with a water pistol in a desert.

Lu could see all her confusion reflected in Will’s eyes. He wanted her—she’d have to be dead not to realise that—but he didn’t want to want her. As for her, she knew that if they moved from friends to lovers then she would be inviting a whole bunch of complicated craziness into her life. It would be a lot harder to say goodbye to a lover than a friend when he left, and even worse it would be so much more difficult to keep her mind thinking friends, her body thinking lover and her heart out of the equation if she was sleeping with him.

Lu held his gaze, hating his rigid self-control. He wasn’t going to ask her to bed, wasn’t going to take that step. If only they could really talk to each other...

What would she say?

I love spending time with you, she told him silently. But I don’t think that I’m ready for a relationship, strings or not. I’m just getting to know myself again, learning to be on my own. I’m finally coming into myself, learning who I am without the responsibility of raising the twins. If we hook up I’ll have someone back in my life and I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Because you are a strong character, a protector, another alpha personality, and when you go I’ll be back to square one, learning to be on my own again.

It was so hard to resist him, and it would be easy to let him slide into all the empty spaces in her heart and home that the boys had left. But for the first time in her life she had to think about what was best for her and, as much as she thought it would be fun, she didn’t think it was a smart move long-term. For the first time in a decade she didn’t have to worry about someone else—and she liked it.

Lu sighed. ‘Will?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Do you know that neither of us has said anything for ten minutes?’

Will shrugged. ‘OK...so?’

‘If we need to think about it so much maybe we should leave things the way they are?’

Will twisted his lips. ‘Confused and horny?’

Give the man another gold star, Lu thought morosely.