Dare to Touch (Dare to Love 3)

Riley shrugged. “So go into it with your eyes open. Hot, sweaty sex can be very fulfilling. You don’t need to worry about things like relationships and being hurt if you don’t invest your heart.” Riley met her gaze. “Right?”

A slow smile curled Olivia’s mouth. Maybe she should stop over-thinking things. Dylan wasn’t asking for her hand in marriage, God forbid. Then she’d have to dig into her deepest fears and darkest pain. He was just asking for lunch. And probably more, but that kind of more she could handle.

Olivia nodded, finally getting her head in the correct frame of mind to deal with Dylan Rhodes.

Chapter Two

Olivia worked through the morning, but as lunchtime crept up on her, she found herself watching the clock. As much as she’d been fighting it earlier, she was looking forward to going out with Dylan and exploring this thing between them.

Despite the fact that she’d been expecting him—she’d taken a moment to freshen her makeup and fix her hair—when she heard the knock at her door, she nearly jumped out of her seat.

Glasses on or off, she wondered, then quickly pulled them off. “Come in!”

Instead of the man she’d been expecting, her brother strode into the room.

“You’re not Dylan.” Olivia couldn’t hide the disappointment from her voice.

Her usually stoic brother’s lips turned up in a grin. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

She wouldn’t touch that comment. “What brings you by?” And how could she get rid of him before her lunch date showed up?

“Got an emergency with Big,” Ian said, speaking of their trouble-prone tight end, Marcus Bigsby, called “Big” by his fans and the media because of his massive size. The guy was six six and two hundred fifty pounds of solid musc

le, though still light on his feet.

Big was good-looking, charming, and had developed into an even more phenomenal player in the two years he’d been in Miami. The media and fans loved his oh-shucks attitude. Girls flocked to games to see the golden-haired star player. And the team threw big money his way as part of his renewed contract.

“Uh oh. What happened this time?”

Ian straightened his tie. “There was a party at his house last night. The neighbors called the cops. When they showed up, his cousin’s friends were urinating in the neighbor’s fountain.”

“Eew.” Olivia wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“That’s Wendell. Trouble every which way you look at him,” Ian muttered.

And therein lay the source of the team’s problem with Big. He’d been drafted by the Thunder after his star turn with the Oklahoma Sooners in college. A country boy, he lacked city smarts, didn’t know what to do with the money he made, and he was overly susceptible to being used, which often led to stupid choices and negative publicity. Most of which had been instigated by his cousin, Wendell, who had been sent to accompany Marcus to the big city, as his family called Miami.

Big was one of the youngest of seven brothers and sisters, and Wendell was only a few years Big’s senior, with none of the player’s charm or likability. Since he’d been the football star of the Bigsby family until a high school injury had sidelined him, Wendell seemed to think Big owed him a part of his career. He certainly didn’t have Big’s best interests at heart. He saw dollar signs in his cousin and used him for them. There were rumors that Wendell was involved with the Miami drug scene. But all Big knew was his cousin was family, someone he owed, and someone he naïvely trusted. In other words, Wendell was trouble.

“What’s the plan?” Olivia asked her brother.

They’d spoken to Big about the problem before, fined him when appropriate, and tried to counsel him. In fact, they’d enrolled him in the team’s program that taught players money management and other skills they’d need post-football career. Her half brother, Alex, had paid special attention to Big, hoping to help him out. Anything to get his head on straight.

Olivia drummed her fingers on the desk as she thought. “As long as Wendell is in the picture, I can’t see things changing any time soon.”

“That’s the plan. Coach Carter is going to tell Big either Wendell goes home immediately, as in before the Pro Bowl, or he’s benching him next season.”

Olivia’s eyes opened wide. “That will kill him,” she murmured.

“Hopefully it’ll be the push he needs.” Ian glanced at his watch. “Carter’s leaving in five. Meet him in the parking lot.”

“Wait. What?”

“Big looks up to Coach, but he likes and trusts you. He didn’t want to believe Alex when he told him the girl Wendell hooked him up with was a prostitute, but he believed you.”

Olivia sighed. “He’s such an innocent. He couldn’t believe the girl didn’t like him for him. I had to explain to him that she was bought and paid for. Because as usual, when Big needed him, Wendell was nowhere to be found.”

And Olivia had discovered him in a restaurant near the stadium, waiting for a woman who had no intention of showing up because she hadn’t been paid. It had taken her awhile to put things together, but after a word with a couple of his teammates, she’d figured it all out. That had been an awkward conversation, but someone had to have it, and his teammates would have just ribbed him mercilessly.