Page 55 of How to Prevent a Fumble

And I’m instantly hard.

Settling in, I reach into my sweats, pulling out my dick.

It’s been just me and my hand for the last couple of months, despite popular belief. Just the two of us. A great team.

Sighing, I start reading about a girl being bent over a balcony, and as the scene gets more intense, so do my strokes.

He fists her blonde hair in his hand, pulling back—wait. Her hair wasn’t blonde. It was brown. Okay. Got real confused there.Have to pay attention to the details, Leo.

Lifting her head up, he looks into her brow—blueeyes. They’re blue. Blue is a pretty color! You like blue eyes!

But brown eyes are better.

God, I’m fucked.

19

BRIAR

“We’ve been going over our schedule, and it may have to be modified,” Zhuri says over the phone.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that Leo’s image is, well, to put it mildly, really fucked up. and I think we may have to take a little more of an aggressive approach.”

“What does that entail?”

“Well, depending on how things go, I think you guys are going to have to move quickly. Get the media talking about how you guys are so incredibly in love, you’re definitely soulmates, instead of, well, everything else he’s been doing this off season.”

Drinking, passing out in people’s yards, getting in some fights. Most of it has been swept under the rug, but some of it was too public for that.

Leo has been out of control, and even he knows it, no matter what he says.

Last year he got in a huge fight with my brother over how Owen was dating Isla. All I know is that his mother let himhave it, but it was too late. Owen hadn’t talked to Isla for weeks. I’m pretty sure until the Super Bowl, actually.

But he never stopped caring about her. Leo had hung his career over his head, and Owen couldn’t justify throwing away his career. But he knew Leo would come around.

It took a long time.

I can’t be totally sure, but I’m willing to bet Leo is still a little irritated at the whole situation to this day.

But Isla is the little sister. Doesn’t make it any better, but there’s an expectation.

I’m older than Owen by a couple of years, and I’ve already been through some of the worst things I could go through. I can take care of myself, and Owen knows that. Which is exactly what he had told me after Leo left their place the other day.

“Is there anything extra that I have to be aware of?” I ask her hesitantly.

“Well, how do you feel about an engagement?”

I choke on my coffee.

“Fake engagement?”

“Yeah. You don’t have to go through with getting married of course, but that would be big news. I think you’re already doing wonders for him, but we need to get the media to stop talking about how he’s spotted with a new woman after being caught with strippers coming out of a hotel room. That story has been a bitch to get past.”

I’d say so.

“I—” What am I supposed to say? I’m absolutely thrilled to get engaged to a man I don’t want anything to do with?

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