Taking His Victory: (The Men of River City book 4) Read online

  “I wanted to talk to you, but you won’t answer my phone calls,” he tells me getting a little too close. I fight not to breathe in his scent. To not get intoxicated in those dark eyes. I take a couple of steps back to put some distance between us, but he keeps coming until he has me pushed against the wall of the building. Something tells me this is exactly what he wanted to happen.

  “If you don’t back up a little, there will definitely be a third time,” I tell him as I note the lack of space between us.

  “Try me, sweetheart. See if I’m lying when I say there won’t. Just. Try. Me.”

  Dear lord he’s fucking sexy as hell, but dammit if he doesn’t know it. I think that infuriates me as much as anything about him. I suck in a breath and squeeze my thighs as I fight against the need he ignites in my body. “I tried calling back. You didn’t answer,” I say it with as much – or as little emotion as possible.

  “That’s because I was five feet away from you.”

  I shrug off his words even as his scent wafts into my nostrils. I swallow against the need that is getting more intense. His hard body pressed against me is making it harder and harder to think clearly. I move quickly to the side to get that space I need between us. So, I can think clearly. Remember what it is I’m trying to say. Sirens going off in the distance pull my eyes in that direction, giving me a reprieve from his dark ones staring so intently into mine. “What do you want, Zane?” I finally huff out, proud of the impatience and anger in my tone.

  “I just want to fucking talk, Tori,” he grumbles. “I wanted to apologize. For everything.”

  “Great.” I acknowledge with sarcasm and anger. “You just did. Now you can leave me alone.”

  His dark eyes seem to grow inherently darker. His jaw muscles tic as his teeth clench. He rolls his shoulders in the leather jacket that makes him look dangerous in all the right ways. “Can you just fucking listen to me for five minutes while I tell you how much of a jackass I was?”

  My body reacts in ways I don’t want it to - the tone of his voice and the simmer in his eyes, but I manage to keep my head clear. As long as there is space between us, I can think. “I already know how much of a jackass you were. I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  I move to go back inside when my back is back against the wall. One hand grips my hands above my head while he pins my body with his hips. He moves so much faster than I realized he could. I never even saw him coming.

  “I was pissed off about Zoey, Tori,” he tells me with his teeth still clenched, “but I get it. I get why you didn’t say anything. I still don’t like it, but I do understand. I shouldn’t have ignored you. I did it because I was fucking pissed. Every time I went to respond, my words were nothing but anger. But just because I didn’t answer your calls or text didn’t mean I stopped thinking about you. Fuck, Tori, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

  He is so close to me again, that my clear head begins to fuzz. He smells so good. Why does he have to smell like that? I will my body to be absolutely still and my breathing to remain even. I work to keep any affect he has on me unnoticeable.

  I see his lips tip up in a smirk as he runs his nose down the side of my jaw. Unfortunately, this is Zane Valen, and he is very well aware of when he has an effect on a woman. He is well versed in the tiny nuances of their bodies. He knows what his smile does. He knows exactly how his voice and words charm even the iciest of females. Why would I be an exception?

  But just because I am insanely attracted to an insanely attractive man, doesn’t mean anything has to be done about it. I blow out a huff of air as it starts to rain. People on the sidewalks begin to make their way into the already packed bar to escape the cold wetness, but Zane keeps me right there.

  “Why are you telling me all of this?” I ask not trying to be callous or cruel, but because we both know nothing was ever going to come of this.

  “Because I fucking like you, Tori. It has been a very long goddamn time since any one person has consumed my thoughts like you have mine, and I know you like me too.”

  “So what?” I shrug best I can, considering the awkward but very seductive position he has me in. A position that has me struggling to breathe, think, or feel anything but the growing throb between my legs that his very close proximity is bringing.

  He cocks his head to the side as he lets go of my hands. He takes a step back with shock and confusion lacing his gorgeous features. The streets have quieted as people on the streets have sought out shelter from the falling rain. “What is that supposed to mean?” he asks me, clearly not accustomed to being told no.

  The space between us helps me to find my resolve that was threatening to waver. “Zane, what were you trying to have here? What is it you thought this,” I gesture between the two of us, “was going to be?”

  “I don’t know. That’s what I wanted to figure out.”

  “What’s the point?” I ask as the lust-induced fog continues to dissipate. His jaw goes completely slack. “Zane, we live two thousand miles away from each other. You have a job that requires a lot of your time for over half the year. There was no way this was going to work. Besides, I don’t do relationships. I haven’t had a relationship for more than a couple of months. If I can’t make a relationship work with someone in the same city, how could I ever with you? I don’t have a clue about relationships. Do you?”

  His features morph through so many different emotions it nearly gives me whiplash. Frustration, anger, disappointment, before finally settling on resolve. But what he’s resolved to I couldn’t begin to guess. I move to go back inside when, just like before, he catches me completely off guard with how fast he is. He, once again, pins me to the wall. His eyes are black pools of heat. In less than a second, his lips find mine. I try to fight him off the next half second before I find my hands tangled in his dark blond hair that’s longer since I saw him a few weeks ago. A moan escapes my throat as lust pools in my belly.

  He grabs me low lifting me. I wrap my legs around his waist grinding against him. His lips move down my jaw toward my ear. I tilt giving him better access. "Fuck Zane," I moan into the city night.

  “What the fuck, asshole?” I hear a very familiar and very unwanted voice say beside us. Zane is grabbed roughly away from me. Somehow, he doesn't drop me. He maintains his balance then sets me to my feet while my belligerent brother yells. “Stay the fuck away from her, football player.”

  Zane rolls his neck around as a slow smirk forms on his lips. “You gonna make me?”

  “Dane, stop,” I plead worried this is going to get out of hand fast. With Zane's celebrity, it could be very, very bad for him and my brother to get involved physically with each other.

  “No, Tori. He doesn’t get to treat you like trash then just put his hands all over you,” he yells at me. Then he’s back in Zane’s face with venom pouring from his tone. “Stay the fuck away from her, or I will fucking make you.”

  A smile that’s anything but friendly stretches across Zane’s face. His eyes light up in an eerie way. A way I don’t entirely understand, given his laidback persona, but one I’ve seen in others that lets me know that he’s more than just dangerous looking. There’s something there that gives me the same feeling I got from Jax and his brother.

  Maddox walks out as Zane starts moving closer to Dane. His eyes roam the situation and grow tight with nerves. Mine dart to him, pleading with him to do something. “This is between me and your sister,” Zane says with a calm that rattles me more than a little.

  “No. This is between me and you. I’m not going to let you walk over her like one of your random fucks just because you’re some hotshot football player.”

  Zane’s smile stretches impossibly wider as he looks to the ground with a dark chuckle.

  “Dane, go back inside. I can take care of myself,” I remind him, but my voice gives my nerves at the situation away.

  “Tori can handle herself, man,” Maddox encourages with a hand to Dane’s shoulder, but his eyes a
re on Zane. A silent message passing between them.

  Dane shrugs Maddox’s hand off. He has had too much to drink and common sense seems to be fleeting as his mouth opens again. “Fuck that. You think because you’re some fancy football player that you’re a badass? Why don’t you stick to catching footballs?” Zane closes the distance between him and Dane.

  “Badass?” he smirks as he is in my brother’s face. “A goddamn ball has nothing to do with how I’m about to kick your fucking ass, and that will be me being nice because of your sister.”

  I move to put myself between them. Maddox grabs me by the waist halting my steps, but not before Zane sees. His eyes scan me like they’re asking permission or begging forgiveness. I’m not sure which but I give a slight shake of my head letting him know he won’t get either. I watch as he inhales, and I can almost see the change in his body language. On his exhale, I see the danger blazing in his eyes transform into a simmer. Somehow in a split second he has went from the verge of eruption to dormant again. He’s not going to do anything. I can see his written clearly on his face. He won’t do anything because of me.

  He takes a step back. Then one more as his eyes focus completely on me.

  Then my stupid, drunk brother swings at Zane, catching him off guard with a sucker punch.

  “Fucking hell,” Maddox hisses.

  Dane moves to get another hit, but Zane, I have come to realize, isn’t the best receiver in the NFL for nothing. With lightning quick reflexes and speed, he dodges Dane’s incoming fist and has my brother on the ground with his knee in his back. “Stop,” Zane orders. He moves to get off of Dane, but Dane doesn’t stop.

  Zane moves out of the way again, his patience visibly wearing thin at Dane’s drunken relentlessness. That is until Maddox punches him square on the jaw, knocking him out. My mouth falls open in surprise. I notice he and Zane exchange nods of understanding, but I don’t fucking understand. “What the hell did you just do Maddox?”

  “I saved his ass,” Maddox hisses. “Dane thinks he’s a fucking badass. Especially when he’s drunk.”

  “And you don’t?” I mock.

  “I can hold my own but, no. I don’t. And I don’t pick fights with guys I know nothing about. You should know that better than anyone, Tori.”

  I know he’s right, but guys are so damn weird.

  Maddox bends over to get Dane off the ground. “He can sleep it off in the back until Ryder and I leave,” he tells me.

  I send him a silent thanks then turn my attention back to Zane. “Thank you for not fighting back,” I tell him with sincerity.

  He drops his head with a laugh. “I did that for you, Tori.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m saying thank you, but Zane it doesn’t change my mind. Whatever this attraction we have may be, it won’t – can’t go anywhere.”

  “What can I do to change your mind?” he asks shoving his hands into his pockets. His normal cocky posture seems to be a little deflated. “You’re trying with Zoey. What makes this different?”

  I laugh. Genuinely laugh because he really doesn’t see the difference. “Because it’s two different types of relationships, Zane. One requires intimacy and connections that you can’t have through text and phone calls. Like I said, I don’t really do relationships. I’m absolutely horrible at them. I like space. I like freedom to do what I want. I'm inconsiderate and selfish. I have the tendency to look for flaws when things seem too good or perfect. So, I know it would be so much worse trying a long-distance thing. Trust me in six months, you won’t even remember my name.”

  He looks to the ground again like it might have the answer he’s looking for. Then he looks at me with a determination that sends shockwaves through me. “Alright, Tori, six months.” I give him a confused look. “In six months, I’ll prove that you aren’t that easy to forget and neither is whatever this attraction is between us. And I won’t text or call you during the entire six months, so that you can’t use the excuse that I didn’t give either of us the chance to forget.”

  My mouth goes slack. “That’s not -.”

  But his mouth finds mine again. His hands grip my face as his tongue slides over the seam of my mouth. I open on a gasp as my head begins to spin. His tongue probes my mouth with an expertise I didn’t know was possible sending shivers down to my toes before he lets go. “That will be the kiss you measure all others by for the next six months, Tori. If you find someone to make you forget about that kiss, then I don’t deserve a shot anyway.”

  Then he turns and begins walking in the rain down the sidewalk. I watch until he disappears through the rain and the darkness, leaving me completely dumbfounded and thunderstruck.

  Zane

  Jax laughs so hard he is doubling over. I can’t stop the grin that forms on my lips.

  “You really told her that?” Zoey looks at me dumbfounded. “Why would you tell her that?”

  Jax just laughs harder at Zoey’s obvious obliviousness. “Because it will work,” he says with a huff as he tries to compose himself.

  “In six months, she might have found someone else.” She scrunches her nose with doubt. I feel a little insulted at her lack of faith in me. “How can you be so full of yourself?”

  I lean back with a grin as the waitress comes to take our order. I give her a smile and a wink as she walks away blushing. Zoey is scowling at me when I turn back to her. “What?” I ask confused about what I’ve done.

  My question makes Jax start laughing again causing him to draw Zoey’s ire as well. She elbows him but her little elbow does little more than tickle him making him laugh harder.

  She turns from him in a huff as the waitress returns with our drinks. She sets my Jack and coke in front of me, and Jax and Zoey’s iced tea in front of them. “Thank you, Darlin’,” I say with another wink. This time she giggles.

  “How can you, after you went all the way to New York to convince Tori to go out with you, flirt with another girl?”

  I raise an eyebrow at her. That’s what the scowl is about? “Zoey, I do like her, but I’m not dead. And I never said anything about being celibate. Fuck, she won’t be.”

  “You’re such a whore, Zane,” she shakes her head.

  I bite my tongue to stop myself from reminding her that she and Jax aren’t perfect little angels who abstained while they were pining for each other. I don’t want to trigger anything, but damn it’s irritating when she says crap like that.

  “Come on, Angel. That’s not being a whore. The whole part of the deal is that they are still thinking about each other in six months.”

  “I just don’t get how he can say he wants her, but flirt with someone else,” she says.

  “Pot meet fucking kettle,” I mutter quietly but she hears me anyway.

  She stiffens as her cheeks turn red. “Zoey, I’m sorry,” I say as Jax glares at me.

  “No.” Her spine straightens and she squares her shoulders. Every day she is more and more like my sister. My other half. The yin to my yang. We shared a womb, a room, and everything in between. The year she was gone was fucking torture. “You shouldn’t be sorry,” she continues. “You’re right, and it’s not my place to tell you how to live your life or what’s right or wrong for your circumstances.”

  Jax places his arm over her as he leans back in the booth. He is practically oozing pride right now, but, fuck, so am I.

  “So, what makes you think she will still be thinking of you in six months?” Zoey asks.

  “Seriously, little sister? Have you seen me?” I lift my shirt a little exposing my abs as I joke with her. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t have an ego, but I don’t necessarily think I’m God’s gift to women.

  “God, you really are full of yourself,” she snorts out a laugh.

  “No, Zoey. I just know. There’s something there. Something I haven’t felt in a long time. Not since Lacy.”

  The statement makes Jax lean forward. He knows whatever this is I’m feeling isn’t the run of the mill ‘put out, get
out’ thing I usually do, but I don’t think he expected me to say that. I’m not sure I did either, but it’s the truth.

  “Fuck, Zee, you really are serious about this,” he says with a low whistle.

  I run my hand through my hair with a nervous chuckle. “I just want to see what’s there.”

  “Do you want me to talk to her?” Zoey asks with a smile.

  “No. Let her keep thinking she will stop thinking about me. She’s scared or whatever. It’s fine, but I will get the girl eventually.”

  “What’s up cocksucker?” Christian asks as I take a seat in the club chair directly across from him at Night Sky.

  “Needed to get out and do something besides fucking promos and shit. I’m already tired of this endorsement crap.”

  He lets out a loud laugh. “Ah the troubled life of a superstar. Need something other than just throwing and catching a ball.” I smile with a shake of my head. I casually scratch the side of my head with my middle finger, making him laugh some more.

  “If I were catching a ball, it might not be so bad. I’m fucking restless, man,” I tell him.

  “I will say, apart from the weeding out we’ve been doing, things have been quiet as hell. Almost too quiet.”

  I let out a sigh. I need something to get my adrenaline going. The off season has always been a little difficult for me without the rush of the crowds and the game to get me going. I do what I can to stay in top form, but without the daily practices and constant pressure of the game, this time of year is always when I feel the most antsy. Tori could fill that gap. She gives me a rush like I've never felt before, but I told her I'd stay away. “I just need something.”

  He settles back into his club chair with his drink. His eyes roam the expanse of the rooftop club then move slowly up to the next level dancefloor. I notice his eyes focus on someone up there. I turn my head to see who it could be. A slow grin spread on my face as I see Hunter looking sexy as hell moving seductively. “What’s going on there?” I ask him knowingly with a gesture to her.