Dare to Play (Dare Nation 3)

Her cheeks flushed and burned as she faced her sister. “I don’t know what to say.” She’d thought her night would be personal and private. A joke considering everything Jaxon did seemed to be caught on camera. He was the playboy the press loved to watch, and she was caught in the chaos.

Hannah studied her with wide brown eyes. “You barely date. I can’t believe you were with a hot jock. Wait until my friends see! I’m going to share it!”

“No!” Macy shook her head. “Please?”

“What’s the difference? It’s public! Everyone will see it anyway. This is going to get me so many likes,” she said, going ahead with her share despite Macy’s feelings.

Before she could react, her cell rang. Seeing Bri’s name, Macy’s stomach churned, and she drew a deep breath before answering. “Hello?”

“You slept with my brother?” Bri’s voice carried, and Hannah stared, clearly interested in the fallout.

Macy rose and took the call in the family room. “It just happened. We were talking at the party, he was down from you guys getting on him about the brawl, I … have some issues I haven’t told you about yet, and we left to get dinner. One thing led to another…” She trailed off, figuring enough was enough. Bri had already figured the rest out for herself.

“Yeah, I got that from the photo.”

“Jaxon can’t even get privacy at his own home?”

Bri let out a long sigh. “You wouldn’t believe the lengths the paparazzi will go to. I wouldn’t be shocked if one was in a tree to get that shot.”

“Well, this is awkward,” Macy muttered.

“You’re an adult. I’m not judging you. I just wish Jax would learn some discretion. Even he knows anywhere outside isn’t safe.”

“I guess he wasn’t thinking?” Before Bri could jump on that comment, Macy went on. “Is this going to get him in more trouble?”

Bri said something to someone and then replied, “Sorry. I was talking to Austin. I don’t know. He just doesn’t know the meaning of lying low.”

“It seems to me a lot of these incidents aren’t his fault.”

“But they call attention to him anyway. He’s got a list a mile long. And listen to you, all #TeamJaxon,” Bri said, laughing.

At least she wasn’t pissed at Macy. And she hoped Bri wasn’t angry at Jaxon, either.

“Listen, I have another call. Talk later.” Bri disconnected, and Macy returned to the kitchen to find Hannah talking on the phone.

“Yeah, isn’t it cool? The Jaxon Prescott, pitcher for the Miami Eagles,” she said.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Mom,” Hannah said and turned away to continue chatting.

Macy winced and lowered herself into a chair. Hannah had no idea her mother had threatened to go after custody, but if she was serious, Macy had just given her a very wide opening to take Hannah away from her. The last thing she needed was to be portrayed as a groupie or a slut who indulged in one-night stands, getting rid of her sister so she could have sex.

She groaned, putting her head on her arms, wondering what she was going to do now.

* * *

When a man couldn’t even kiss a woman in the privacy of his own driveway, something was really wrong with the world in general. Fucking paps. Social media. People who lived to see what famous people did in their spare time. They all needed to get a life of their own and stop fucking up his. This time they’d captured a nice girl in their clutches, and that pissed Jaxon off even more. Macy hadn’t signed up for his kind of life. Not the way the groupies who followed him from game to game and bar to bar did.

He didn’t have a chance to check on her, and even if he had the time, he didn’t have her number, which meant he was going to have to beg his sister to share it. That was the only good thing about him being summoned to Dare Nation.

He walked into the building and headed straight for Austin’s office, smiling at the main receptionist on his way to his brother’s corner office, where Quinn, Austin’s personal assistant and wife, had a desk right outside.

“Hi, Jaxon,” Quinn said, greeting Jaxon not with her usual happy smile but a pitying grimace.

“I take it they’re waiting for me?” he asked.

She nodded.

“How’s my adorable niece?” he asked about the baby, not only because he cared but because the longer he avoided the firing squad inside that office, the better. His brother Austin had found baby Jenny on his doorstep, moved Quinn in to help him navigate being a dad, and the two had fallen in love. Despite Jaxon’s cynicism on the subject of love, he was happy for his sibling.

Eyes lighting up at the topic, Quinn went on to tell him all the things the six-month-old baby was learning to do. “And she stands up and bounces on her chubby little legs and she’s scooting backwards. Pretty soon she’ll be crawling!”