Page 118 of Salvaged Hearts

“That’scheating!!” Leighton screeched as she sprinted, hips first, for the end zone, only for Ollie to ‘tag’ her long ponytail. “Hair doesn’t count.”

“Better than your ass,” I mumbled, bending over to brace myself on my knees and catch my breath.

Play. Grey had realized what I needed wasn’t to sprint headstrong in the opposite direction of our problems. It was to play. Maybe having the family in town for a few days wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all. They helped me unwind like only siblings could.

“We need those red football tape things,” she panted petulantly. “The Velcro screechy belt things.”

“Flags?” Ollie asked, grinning like a child as he sucked down air, hands on his hips as he walked in a circle.

“Flags!” Leighton growled enthusiastically. “Yes, flag football! Duh. I need them,” she demanded, snapping her fingers like a genie would appear to grant her request.

“We don’t play with flags. We’re not children,” Paxton scolded as he sidled up between his two team owners. His statement was ironically punctuated by Dallas unceremoniously pegging him in the side of the face with a foam ball.

“No concussing the quarterback,” Greyson complained to a round of laughter as Pax nailed a fleeing Dallas in the back of the head with said ball. “Or any of the fucking merchandise,” he grumbled. It was adorably forlorn.

“Boys,” I sighed theatrically.

“Man-children,” he countered. “I pay millions of dollars a year to a seven-foot-tall fleet of man children.”

“I think our tallest player is six foot seven,” I pointed out, my knowledge on the subject sending his and Ollie’s brows arching. I shrugged, “Seemed like something an owner’s wife should know.”

“Most of the wives know nothing.”

“They don’t have brothers on the field,” Pax pointed out, grinning as he looped a sweaty arm around my shoulders.

“True,” Greyson said snootily, flashing a proud smile down at me. The man wasspectacularlygood-looking. How I’d ever worked three feet from him under the delusion he was nothing but a heartless cyborg, I would never understand. Choleric? Sure. Could he probably practice affirming his employees a bit more frequently so they didn’t constantly think they weren’t doing enough? Probably. ButCaptain Hartlesspossessed one of the most heroicheartsI’d ever seen under all the pretense of being Emerald Bay’s Titan.

Hair disheveled, sweat gleaming across his tan, bare chest, a rare smile on his face, Greyson truly was the living embodiment of Adonis, a reigning immortal trapped among laymen.MyAdonis. I yearned to trail my fingers through that glorious smattering of chest hair, to slip under the loose band of his gym pants and cup that god-sized weapon he loved destroying me with.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Greyson murmured as he snaked an arm around my waist, pulling me into him and startling me out of my pathetic ogling. The others had dispersed to the bench for a water break, and I’d been so trained on him that I hadn’t noticed. “You’ll make me do something the media would absolutely love to get their hands on.”

“Oh yeah?” I teased, rising on my tiptoes to steal a kiss but wincing when I went to wrap my arms around his neck. Concern flickered in his eyes, but he did his best to conceal it, to keep playing. God, I loved the man.

“Yeah.”

“Like what?”

“Like fucking you right here on this field until our knees are raw.”

“Might cause quite a tizzy,” I agreed, glancing around at the security he had stationed throughout the enormous arena.

“Or commandeering the locker room and bending you over every solid surface until you’re screaming my name.”

“Nothing says team spirit like a raw throat.”

“Mmmm,” he purred, smile giving way to feline satisfaction.

“Thinking about my throat?” I guessed knowingly.

“And the way you smile around my cock when you’re looking up at me.”

“Dirty man,” I teased.

“Filthy,” he agreed before crashing his lips to mine. When he finally pulled back to take a breath, he studied me intently. “Feeling better?”

I released all the air in my lungs with the same level of enthusiasm as the tension he’d eradicated from my body with our field trip. “Yes,” I sighed contentedly. “Much, thanks to you.”

“Least I could do,” he assured before silencing any remaining worries with another kiss.

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