Bradford Bastard (Bradford Bastard 1)

“Oh, yeah?” he questions, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “Care to make it interesting?” I watch him carefully, my nerves on fucking fire as I wait for him to go on. “If I can get her in bed by the end of the week, you have to ditch this revenge plot and focus on football.”

I narrow my gaze on him, my hands balling into fists at my side. “And if you can’t?”

“Then she’s all yours, man,” he says. “I’ll back off and you can have her, make her your fucking girl for all I care.”

I fall back a step, my brows furrowed. “My fucking girl?” I grunt, the horror of what he just said messing with my head. “The fuck are you talking about? I don’t want her like that. I just want to show her who’s boss around here, and once I have her right where I want her, I’ll fuck her and send her on her way.”

“Right,” Riley laughs, backing further away from our group and toward the rest of our teammates. He spares one more glance toward the student parking lot to where Brielle is ducking into her piece of shit Civic. Riley looks back at me, a cocky grin resting on his lips. “I bet she’s going to taste so fucking sweet.”

Something cracks inside my chest and a protectiveness comes over me, but I don’t dare speak on it. I hold my position as Riley laughs and takes off at a light jog, deeper onto the field. “What’s it going to be, Morgan? Do we have a deal?” he calls loud enough that every one of my team members looks back at me.

Fucker. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Glaring back at him, I nod, knowing damn well that I could regret this. “One week, man. If you can get her, she’s yours,” I tell him, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t stop trying in the meantime. No matter what, I will see this through. Brielle Ashford is going to succumb to my hold. She’s going to fall at my knees, and she’s going to beg for forgiveness, and only then will I give her exactly what she’s been craving.

It doesn’t change the fact that picturing Riley beating me to her makes me feel sick, makes something tighten in my chest and I don’t fucking like it. To Riley, this is just a game, but for some reason, it feels like so much more to me.

Seeing the frustration in my eyes, Hudson knocks my shoulder, encouraging me to run along with him. “Come on,” he murmurs, Jax stepping into my other side. “If coach catches us down here fucking around instead of warming up, he’ll fucking destroy us.”

He’s right. Coach Wyld is tough. He’s strict and has high expectations for his team, expectations that we always strive to meet, and I’m not about to fuck with that on day one.

Taking off at a jog with the boys by my side, I call out to the team, knowing they need their captain more than ever this season. “Alright boys, let’s do this,” I demand, knowing an order from their captain will be respected without questions. I glance back at the parking lot one more time, watching as the sky-blue Civic pulls out onto the road, probably heading right home, and with that, I put the feisty blonde to the back of my mind. Riley was just messing with me when he said that I could make her mine. That’s not what I want. All that matters to me is this season, leading my team to victory, and getting one step closer to my future.

The team grunts their approval, and just like that, we take off around the field, Riley taking the lead while I follow up the rear, pushing the stragglers along, more than ready to dominate this season.

Chapter 9

BRIELLE

Nerves pound through my body as I pull my Civic right into the driveway of my new home. The girls said that Tanner will be in football practice for another few hours, but that still doesn’t keep me from glancing toward his house.

I must be insane for wanting to do this. I’ll be starting a war, and while all three of the girls warned me off doing this, the thrill is too intoxicating. The idea of making a stand and capturing Tanner’s attention, if only for a moment, makes adrenaline thrum through my veins like a potent drug.

Arizona’s Audi pulls to a stop on the curb, and she bails out of her car, racing to meet up with me by the front door. “You sure about this?” she questions, still having my back despite knowing it’s a bad idea. She’s really going to make a great friend. “It’s not too late to bail. Or we could wait till tomorrow when we have both Chanel and Ilaria to play lookout.”