Play Me

I’m confused. You want a raise for having a good time? That swing does look fun. Let me know if you’d like for me to add it to your list of demands you so eloquently provided the other day.

Kendall

It hadn’t even been a week, and I was losing my mind. I was going to wind up murdering her before the year was up. This team has to win. For my own sanity… they have to win.

I needed a run. I needed a drink. I needed to fuck Kendall senseless and show her who was in charge.

Okay, so that last one was a fantasy. But before I left for the day, I had to fill her in on the day’s events. The thought of going to her Lysol-filled office made me queasy.

“Let’s get this over with,” I mumbled as I gathered up the tapes I intended to watch later that evening.

“Hi Amber, is she in?” I asked, stopping at the woman’s desk. She smiled up at me with a dreamy look on her face.

“Let me see if she is free to see you, Mr. Owens.”

I nodded and waited while she got up and made her way into Kendall’s office. With a frown, I watched her. Why the hell couldn’t she just call her? I followed her and stopped short of the door. Amber thought she had shut it all the way, but it was cracked open ever so slightly.

“Hunter is here to see you.”

Kendall groaned. “Where is my Lysol? I need it for preemptive measures.”

What the fuck? She’s using that because of me?

I quickly lifted my arm and sniffed. No odor there, as far as I could tell.

Amber responded, “At least he doesn’t wear a belt and pull his pants up all the time like Coach Bailey did.”

“Thank goodness for small miracles. I watched his coaching videos before extending the job offer to ensure he didn’t have a habit like that.”

Amber chuckled. “That is a rather weird pet peeve to have.”

“It’s ridiculous. There is a reason you put on a belt, and that’s to keep your pants up. It drove me insane. Either tighten the belt or get properly fitting pants.”

I grinned and knocked on the door before pushing it open.

“Did you ladies forget about me out here?” I asked as I strolled into the office.

Kendall rolled her eyes and then smiled sweetly at Amber. “Thank you, Amber. I’ll call if I need anything.”

Lifting my brow, I gave Kendall an innocent look. As if Amber could really save her from me.

“So, to what do I owe this honor? You’ve been hiding out the last few days.”

I sat in the chair facing her desk. “I can’t stand the smell of the Lysol. It’s giving me a headache.”

She almost looked regretful. Almost. However, she gave no response.

“Anyway, I’m here because I walked in on something rather disturbing in the locker room today.”

Kendall sat up straighter. “Disturbing?”

“Yes. Your players were sucking condoms up their noses.”

She stared at me with a look of sheer disbelief. Then she laughed. When I didn’t laugh along, she stopped immediately.

“Wait. What?”

With a sigh, I repeated my statement. “Your players were sucking condoms up their noses and pulling them out their mouths.”

“Why are they my players in this circumstance? Why not your players?”

My jaw hit the floor. “These are not our kids, Kendall. We don’t get to argue about who is claiming them and under what circumstances.”

She smirked, which was sexy as hell. The idea of Kendall pregnant with my baby hit me hard. It warmed my body in a way I did not want to think about. Pushing all those thoughts aside, I continued.

“These are grown men doing a damn middle-school or high-school challenge.”

She nodded, seeming to get back on track. “What did you do?”

“I picked up a baseball bat and hit a locker.”

Her eyes went wide. “You hit a locker? With a baseball bat?”

“Twice.”

That brought her brows into a frown. “That’s going to cost money to fix!”

Leaning back in the seat, I put my ankle over my knee. “Would you rather I hit one of them over the head? The thought did cross my mind.”

“I believe you know the legal ramifications of that. Next time, let’s be mindful of what we are hitting. We have a budget to stick to, Mr. Owens. Hitting things that cost money to fix affects the bottom line. Actually, why don’t you just let me have the baseball bat?”

I laughed. “No. That’s mine, and I’ll use it how I see fit.”

She lifted a brow and said, “Do you always use force to get what you want?”

“Not always, but I do rather enjoy it under certain conditions. My partners do, too.”

Kendall seemed to stop breathing for a moment.

Hunter, two; Kendall, still at zero.

She cleared her throat and continued. “I am not the least bit interested in what you do in the bedroom, Hunter. We’re here to discuss the team and how you’re going to get it to a championship in one year.”

“Who mentioned anything about a bedroom, Kendall?” Her cheeks heated, but her face retained a blank expression that I was going to refer to as Boardroom Kendall from that moment forward.

“Let’s keep the bat-swinging to a minimum, if you don’t mind.”

I nodded.

“Anything else?” She was trying to dismiss me the way she had the first day I arrived.

Standing, I pulled in a breath and gave my jeans a good tug up before sighing. “Not that I can think of.”

Kendall’s eyes widened in horror, and she stared at my hands where they rested on my waistband. She was clearly disturbed, but then something in her eyes changed. She licked her lips, and my damn knees nearly buckled.

“See something you like, sweetheart?”

Her gaze jerked up to mine. “What? No! Why? Um… if you’ll excuse me, Hunter. I’ve got work to do. That will be all.”

10

Hunter

My feet hit against the pavement hard and fast. I had never run for so long or so hard. The tension I was feeling had nothing to do with struggling to get the team under control. Or the fact that I would never be able to look at a condom ever again.

It did, however, have everything to do with her.

Kendall Wales.

> She was going to drive me insane and be the reason my dick fell off from jacking off so much. The cool night air felt good in my lungs. I was positive it was clearing out all the damn Lysol fumes Kendall was letting out in the office. Making a mental note to pick up new deodorant, I stopped and placed my hands on my knees. Taking one deep breath after another, I attempted to focus on the team. Focus on finding a decent coach who would take on these hooligans.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, smiling when I saw who it was.

“Hey, beautiful.”

“Good evening, Hunter. How is my favorite son doing in his new job?”

Running my fingers through my sweat-dampened hair, I sat down on the bench. “First off, I'm your only son, Mom.”

“Minor detail. And second?”

“The job is a job. It’s going to be difficult finding a coach who wants to take this team on.”

“That bad?”

“No, they’re all actually decent players. Well, they are when they’re not sniffing condoms up their noses.”

There was a silence on the other end of the phone before Mom laughed. “Come again?”

My phone beeped with a text message from Kendall. I put my mother on speaker and pulled it up.

Kendall: I want you to know I just threw up.

I frowned. Then I began to type my response while continuing to speak to my mother.

“Apparently there is some weird-ass challenge out there where you snort a condom up your nose and pull it out your mouth.”

My mother gagged audibly. “Why would anyone do that?”

I smiled and hit send on the text message.

Me: Aww… Is the Lysol getting to you?

“That’s the million-dollar question. These men act more like twelve-year-old boys.”

“Sounds like you have a challenge on your hands.”

“That’s putting it mildly.”

My phone beeped.

Kendall: I pulled up a YouTube video of the condom challenge. For the first time ever, I don’t have a lot of words or know what to say. I have to give you props for only hitting the locker. I might have hit one of them if I’d been there.