Blitzed (The Alpha Ballers #3) (17 page)

Suddenly, I felt restless, and I rolled my arm over so I could look at the time. Shit, I had to get moving if I was going to make it to the facility. I may not be able to practice or play in any games, but I could still work out and study, and I intended to be ready in case the league got the collective stick out of their ass in time to let me play against the Steelers on Sunday.

I managed to get myself out of bed without disturbing Mack, but she did snore more than once as I did, which made me chuckle as I lightly walked to the kitchen. First up was coffee - I wasn’t a huge fan of the stuff, but I knew Mack couldn’t start her day without it, so I made a fresh pot then started on a bigger breakfast, remembering how she had liked her eggs the last time she was here.

It took about 15 minutes to get everything going in the kitchen, and I flicked on the TV there to ESPN to see what was going on in my world. Of course, there were mentions throughout the broadcast about the league investigating me, but mostly the reports were about how the Patriots and Steelers matched up, with or without me on the field. I sighed and went back to cooking.

“Smells good,” Mack said from behind me, and I turned to see her standing in the doorway watching me, wearing nothing but her bra and panties. I drew in a deep breath, shocked at how good she looked even this early in the morning, and I had half a mind to bend her over the kitchen island and welcome in the morning together with some hot sex, but a glance at the clock said we didn’t really have time for that today.

Maybe some other morning? If this ever happened again.

I got a mug out of the cupboard and filled it to the brim, handing it to her. Mack looked at me like I was Santa Claus, blowing on the steaming mug for a moment before taking a long sip. “That really hits the spot in the morning,” she said, smiling up at me before coming in for a quick kiss.

I brought out a couple plates and Mack and I sat down to eat, not speaking, both of us watching SportsCenter intently. It felt so comfortable and normal that I wanted to laugh, given the kinky sex we had had just a few hours earlier. I didn’t know how she did it, how she made me feel so relaxed around her, but I was done questioning it, and I was ready to enjoy it.

Mack looked up at the clock after she finished her second helping, and I marveled at how much food she’d put away in such a short amount of time - that couldn’t have been healthy. “I gotta go,” she said. “I gotta get home quick and change before heading to the office.”

I nodded back at her. “I’ll see you there.”

“Yeah.” She left the room and I kept eating. Mack came back a couple minutes later pulling her shirt over her head. When she came around to me, Mack threw her arms around my neck and I leaned down to kiss her. “Last night was nice, Hud,” she whispered, in between kisses.

“It sure was,” I growled back, and I knew we could both feel my erection pressing against her leg.
 

Mack looked down. “I wish we had time to take care of that, but I really gotta go or I’ll be late for my first meeting.”

I nodded. “These things happen.”

“I’ll see you at work,” Mack said as she went out the door. I looked around the room and noted how empty it felt without her, even though she was barely gone a few seconds.

I sighed as I put away the dishes and got into the shower, washing myself off and getting ready for the day. The ride to the Patriots complex was uneventful, except I noticed a few fans standing outside holding “FREE HUD” signs and chanting. I actually pulled over and met them, talking to them for as long as I could, and posing for pictures with each and every one of them. I wasn’t a famous player by any stretch of the imagination, but having fans standing out in the winter cold to support me was a feeling I couldn’t quite explain.

I didn’t get to go to practice, or even watch it, but I did spend a couple hours in the film room breaking down Steelers offensive plays while my brothers sweated out on the practice field. And when they came in afterward I was right there, talking to them and telling the defensive guys what I had learned, key things to look out for, any hints that could get us the win on Sunday, whether I could play or not.

Lance and Drake and I had lunch in the cafeteria mostly in silence. We didn’t have much to talk about today, but it felt good knowing my guys were there for me through thick and thin. We passed by Coach Armstrong in the hallway and he said nothing to me, giving Drake and Lance each customary nods.

I knew I might not be able to play in the next game, but that didn’t make it any easier. I wanted to be out there - I wanted to pull my weight, I wanted to make a difference.

I just didn’t know how I could until the league let me. And that pissed me off more than anything.

CHAPTER 15 - MACKENZIE

I drove home from Hud’s place just a little too quickly for my own taste. It was a combination of being late and still being excited from what had happened last night. Finally, Hud and I had come together, and he’d fucked me. Mmmmm, that had felt so good, I couldn’t believe it had really happened.

I was thrilled - thrilled that things were finally starting to fall into place. Sure, it sucked that Hud was in trouble with the league, but after talking to him last night I was more sure than ever that he was innocent and would be cleared and ready to play. He might miss a game, which I would fight tooth and nail to avoid, but sometimes the league moved a little too slowly on these things.

Still, though, as I drove home and got into the shower to scrub the sex smells off me and get ready for work, my mind couldn’t help but wander back to Hud’s big hands all over me, his thick cock sliding in and out of me. Almost without willing it, I started touching myself in the shower, bringing myself to a nice orgasm to start the day off right.

I quickly got dressed and did my makeup, flying out the door and back into my car to get to the facility and the comforts of my office full of people needing my help. It never ended, but all through those morning meetings I would look out the window and smile and think about Hud’s lips on mine, how he had held me, how he’d guided my body during sex, how he had been just rough enough with me.

It had been perfect. But was it the right thing to do? The thought crept into my mind all at once and I sat up in the meeting I was ignoring. We worked together; not exactly in the same office, but I was one of the people in charge of his contract situation. That had to be a huge conflict of interest.

How would we navigate around it? I didn’t want to stop seeing Hud right when the good stuff was starting, but I clearly was in no position to make any decisions about him as a member of the Patriots. I was a woman in a completely male-dominated field - I needed these people to respect me and not question my decisions.

If it got out that I was sleeping with a player, then all hell would break loose, and any credibility I had managed to scrape together ever since I had started working here would be gone in an instant.

I had to be careful with how I proceeded - because my career depended on it.

What made matters worse was that I was the owner’s daughter. Sure, I was unlikely to get fired for something like this, but it would reflect badly on my father, and that was something he didn’t need ever, much less now when he was still grieving over my mother’s loss.

No, I had to take care of this myself, and keep it under wraps until Hud and I could figure out what it would become. I knew that after last night whatever doubts I had about being with him were gone - I was head over heels into him, and the way he had looked at me in the kitchen this morning during breakfast made it pretty clear he thought I was nifty too.

I just had to make sure no one found out about it, while getting the league to let him play this weekend.

After the meeting was over, I went back to my office and started making some calls, calling up anyone I could at the league office, anyone who owed me or my father a favor.

We needed Hudson Asher on the field this Sunday, and I was going to make that happen. If for no other reason than I wanted to make sure everyone in the office knew that I could handle things when the going got tough.

CHAPTER 16 - HUDSON

The news came down after lunch - someone came running in from the front office and barged into the linebackers’ meeting room out of breath. Once he’d calmed down he said that while the league hadn’t ruled on the supposed evidence against me, they had cleared me to play this weekend.

I was thrilled at the change in stance, and at the same time surprised - I didn’t think the league would let me play if they hadn’t yet made a decision, and to be honest, it worried me that they hadn’t yet. Usually these things didn’t become public unless the league was ready to make a move on someone, and this holding pattern of sorts benefitted no one.

My happiness at being let back onto the practice and game field was short lived. Coach Armstrong noted that the league hadn’t made a decision one way or the other about me yet, and they could very easily come down and suspend me for real next time. As such, he said, he couldn’t let me practice with the first team and take practice and playing time away from the backup who very well might need to play in the last three games of the year.

It was a twisted little set of logic, but I couldn’t argue with him - he was the coach and I was the player. I practiced with the second team for the rest of the week, and while it felt good to be back on the field and sweating, I didn’t like playing with the backups. I was a starter and that was where I fit in the best.

The game came around and Coach Armstrong stuck to his word - I didn’t start, and while I got onto the field as a backup more than once, I didn’t get nearly the playing time I usually got. My backup did well for himself in his first major pro football game, and it wasn’t even all that necessary - the Steelers had an off day and the Patriots cruised to victory by a comfortable margin.

After the game I walked up to Coach Armstrong. “Great win, Coach.”

“Yeah. Good effort, good hustle out there by everyone.” He didn’t say anything else, just let the silence hang there.

“McKee did well filling in for me this time,” I added, trying to sound cool with the whole situation and not succeeding at all.

“Yeah, good first game from him.”

“I didn’t do it, Coach, and I’ll be there for the next two games. You gotta believe me.”

Coach Armstrong sighed. “Asher, I don’t know if you did it, and I don’t care. All I know is what the league tells me. I play the guys I got, and I played McKee over you this time because I needed to know that McKee would be able to stand the pressure if you couldn’t go in the last two games.” He stepped past me, toward the locker room. “It’s nothing personal, just football.”

“Football is personal to me, Coach!” I shouted after him, not caring who heard.

“That was your first mistake,” I heard him say just loud enough to hear, and then he was gone into the tunnel.

Back in the locker room every one yelled and hollered, thrilled that we were going to the conference championship. I was just as happy, but this time it was a hollow victory, since I hadn’t gotten to play as much or make as much of a difference. I went to McKee’s locker and gave him props on a game well played, then back to mine.

Everyone moved a little faster during away games, wanting to get their post game routine done so we could get back on the bus to the hotel and back to our beds quick. Tomorrow we’d fly home to New England, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the familiar cold and snow. Pittsburgh was no favorite city of mine.

Drake and Lance were sitting next to each other, jabbering about the game and ‘deepening that bond’ or whatever the fuck reporters called it when they marveled at the connection they seemed to share on the field.

I talked with them for a little while, shooting the shit, but it was awkward since I didn’t have nearly as much to share with them as they had - they had played the entire game, and I had mostly played when it was well in hand and the Patriots were definitely going to win.

I got ready in silence and walked outside, ready to get back onto the bus.
 

“Hud?” I heard Mack’s voice behind me and I turned around. She was there wearing all her Patriots gear - looking at her like that no one would ever have guessed she was a high powered team executive. She even had the Patriots logo sticker on her cheek.

Her outfit wasn’t shapely or anything, and definitely veered to the baggy rather figure-hugging side, but damn if she didn’t look sexy as hell in all that blue, silver, and red. I wanted to take her somewhere private and undress her, but as I looked around, there was no way we wouldn’t get noticed.

“Hey, Mack,” I called out to her. “What’s up? Good game, yeah?”

“Great game!” she flashed that winning smile at me as she waved her Patriots flag in front of her. “I wish you’d gotten to play more.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Come here for a sec?”

I wondered if Mack had the same idea - maybe she had found a place where we could be alone and get in a little lovin’ before the bus ride back to the hotel, but it was clear as I stepped toward her that Mack wanted to talk.

“What’s up?” I said, once we were out of earshot of everyone else, around a corner near one of the vending machines.

“I just wanted to tell you that this thing with the PED test isn’t over yet, we’re not dropping it and letting the league just walk all over us.”

“Thanks, Mack, that means a lot to me.”

“Don’t worry about it. I spoke to my father earlier today and he made some calls, including to the commissioner. It’s not taken care of yet, but we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

I almost choked up at the mention of Mack’s father, and I got angry that a man like him had to be bothered trying to help me out of a jam. “I’ll make it up to him, Mack, I swear…”

Mack pressed her hands against my chest, and I closed my eyes for a moment, remembering her hands on my chest while she rode my cock a few nights earlier. “Don’t mention it, Hud, he was happy to do it. I think it got his mind off other stuff.”