Page 55 of Filthy Ruck

“Which one of them are you sleeping with?” Belinda asked, obviously trying to take me by surprise.

Since it was such an obvious question, I was ready for it. Even if I wasn't, I'd fielded questions like that for the last couple of years, as a dancer at Flirts. New customers always wanted to ask about the famous ones, they couldn't seem to help themselves.They wanted to be the guy who fucked the woman who fucked an Oscar winner. It was a strange ambition, but here we were.

“Who says I'm sleeping with one of them?” I asked sweetly. Not much sleep happened, but all three of them were involved, not just one.

“My journalist senses,” Belinda said. “Like I said, I can see a story from a mile away. Why wouldn't you be sleeping with an attractive, single rugby player?”

“I think you're projecting,” Sadie said. “How many rugby players have rejected your advances?”

Belinda ignored her.

“I know this is wild,” I said slowly. “But it's possible for men and women to interact without sex involved.”

Okay, I felt like a massive hypocrite for saying that. So much of my life revolved around sex. It had for a long time. But it was also true that I'd interacted with lots of men and we hadn't touched, much less anything else.

“I know it's possible,” Belinda said. “But in this case, I know you're sleeping with one of them. “If you just tell me?—”

“Hell would freeze over before I told you anything like that,” I snapped. She was pushing me to the edge of my last nerve, and she was doing it on purpose. I knew that, but I couldn't seem to contain my irritation any longer. She was trying to get me to reveal something out of frustration, or anger.

She smiled. The kind of look that suggested I'd confided all my secrets to her. “That was what I thought.”

“I'm surprised you're capable of thinking,” Sadie muttered.

“Whatever you think you know—” I started.

“You'll read about it in the morning,” she said. “Thank you, this has been very informative. It's a shame you didn't want to share in the money I'll be making from this.” She looked incredibly smug. Nodding to me, then to Sadie, she backed away and left.

“She's bluffing,” Sadie said. “She can't possibly have learnt anything from what you said.”

I picked up my spoon and stabbed it into the cheesecake, leaving it standing vertically. “She might not be, but maybe she picked up on something I said accidentally. People like her are?—”

“Full of shit,” Sadie finished for me. “If she says anything about you, it'll be made up. Then you can make a lot of money by suing her ass.”

Or she might publish something that made me lose my job.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Storm

Teeth clenched around my mouthguard,I ran a couple of steps and lunged. The winger tried to swerve, but I came at him from an angle, grabbing him in a side tackle and bringing us both down to the ground. The ball slipped out of his grasp and went flying. It was snatched up by the eight man and passed back, down the field.

I rolled over and jumped back to my feet, my concentration not lapsed for a moment.

I lived for days like these. Days when there was nothing else on my mind but the game I loved. Nothing and no one else existed for now. Just the rush of blood through my ears and the men around me.

All I needed was an audience and I'd be in my element.

Willy Jones, known to most of us as Free Willy, caught the ball and bolted, slamming it and himself down beyond the try line, landing clear of the offence's attempted ankle tap.

The coach blew the whistle, calling an end to the training session.

I grunted with annoyance.

When I was in the zone, I hated having to snap out of it. The adrenaline was still thumping through me. It always took timeto work its way through my system and out. I didn't want it to. I liked the rush it gave me. It was better than skydiving. Better than anything but sex.

“Hey.” Frost walked alongside me, towards the locker rooms. “We've hit form right on time.”

I glanced over at him before pulling out my mouthguard and shaking off the saliva.

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