Page 27 of Caught Up In You (Indigo Royal Resort)
“Leona!” She heard him call after her, but it didn’t stop her as she power walked her way through the lobby and straight toward her suite in the staff dorms. Now that her head wasn’t all foggy with lust, she was slightly ashamed of what she had just done. Did she really let him finger her in the back seat of his town car? Just what kind of slut was he going to take her for now?
As she closed the door to her suite, she ran the water for a quick shower. For as out of this world as that experience was, she didn’t want to go to bed still being able to smell the spice of him. She might not have been on her best behavior tonight, but she told herself she had nothing to be ashamed of. So she let him give her a hell of an orgasm. She deserved it for all that he made her put up with. Just as long as he didn’t try to pay her off tomorrow morning.
Chapter Thirteen
“How was that not a card?” a blonde girl of about fourteen asked as she recovered from being knocked to the ground.
“It was a clean hit,” Cullen responded. “You gotta learn to stand your ground. Push back a little.”
The kids had been scrimmaging pretty much all day and by every indication seemed to be having a blast. Broken up randomly into two teams, or at least as random as Cullen could make it while trying to keep the teams even talent wise, they were all wearing either red or blue pinnies and were flat-out running circles around him as he tried to ref the game. Maybe if he had his head in the game and not in the back seat of his ride, he’d be able to keep up a little better. But no matter what he did, his thoughts kept drifting back to last night, the scenes creating a hell of a filmstrip in his brain.
Of course, it wasn’t just the images from the encounter with his favorite little blonde that he kept remembering. It was the sound of her breathing heavy and her voice going husky as she told him “don’t stop.” It was the smell of sex in the air, combined with the flowery scent that was Leona, and the feel of her coming apart courtesy of his handiwork. It sent a thrill through him every time he remembered the look on her face as she climaxed, causing him to have spent a good portion of the day fighting a hard-on. Thankfully none of the kids seemed to have noticed—or at least if they had, they’d also had the good sense to keep it to themselves.
He knew that he needed to get his head on straight, not just because of camp, but because he needed to be prepared to see her again. It was inevitable that over the two remaining weeks he had at the Indigo Royal that they’d see each other, and he didn’t need to be a walking boner when it happened. Or else, he was likely to do something more than what he’d done the night before, and that’s not what he wanted.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want another go-round with Leona, because he most certainly did. He wanted that more than he wanted one of those damn magic muffins that Miller made. But if he were being honest with himself, it wasn’t all he wanted from her. It was tough to admit, but the verbal sparring that had fueled him these last ten years was no longer enough. He wanted more. That more included spending time with her just talking, cuddling, hanging out. It included spending time with her family and investing in her brother’s talent. He knew she was the whole package, and he wanted it.
A quick blue blur caught the corner of his eye, and he turned to see an older boy, who was easily pushing six feet tall, slide tackle Josef. Luckily Josef saw him coming and was able to dodge most of the contact from the cleats headed his way, but that was a foul no matter what league you played in. The kid was studs up, and he made contact with absolutely none of the ball. Cullen blew his whistle and pulled out the red card he was carrying in his pocket, holding it up to the kid in the blue pinnie.
“A straight red? Seriously, coach?” the perpetrator whined as he helped Josef up from the ground. Cullen liked the sound of being called “coach.”
“Without a doubt, Jefferies. You were studs up and yo
u got no part of that ball. That’s a red in any game, in any league, no matter what part of the world you’re in. To the bench you go for fifteen minutes,” he responded, enforcing the rule he had put in place at the beginning of the day. The kid made a face, but he knew Cullen was right so he took his spot over on the side of the field as another kid swapped in.
The remainder of the afternoon sped by without any more red-card infractions, although he did have to bust out the yellow a couple of times. He let the kids finish up a little early so he could sign whatever items they brought with them and take selfies so they could brag about this experience to all their friends and anyone else who would listen. Once they were all done, the parents started showing up, and Cullen posed for selfies with a couple of them as well.
Keeping an eye out for Leona, his heart skipped a beat when he saw the family sedan pull up with a little blonde behind the wheel. His heart dropped, however, once he realized it was Anna getting out of the car. He had intended on surprising Leona with some good news, but he supposed her mother was just as legitimate a recipient.
“Mrs. Filipe, how nice to see you today,” he said, wandering over, trying to get to her before Josef joined in.
“Oh, Mr. Cruz, hello. Do you greet all the parents?” she asked skeptically.
“I have tried to know who belongs to whom this week.”
“That’s quite responsible of you.”
“Thank you,” he said, choosing to take her statement as a compliment. “I know I mentioned it briefly last night, but I wanted to talk to you again about Josef attending camp again next week.”
Anna sighed heavily and Cullen could tell he was walking a fine line. “Look, Mr. Cruz, I think it’s very nice that you think my son is talented. Every mother loves to hear about how great her kid is and I am no exception. However, I am going to be very honest with you here. It is just not in our budget. I’m sure it’s hard for someone like you who has more money than God himself to understand, but some of us have to be particular with where our money goes.”
“I understand that fully, Mrs. Filipe, which is why it would be at no charge to you,” he countered her objection.
“We don’t need your charity, Mr. Cruz,” she said rather indignantly. He couldn’t see her eyes from behind her sunglasses, but he didn’t need to in order to know she was glaring at him.
“It’s not a handout, Mrs. Filipe. It’s my camp, so I get to decide who pays and who doesn’t. And you are correct, I do not need the money, so it’s no loss to me for him to be here for free. I see a lot of myself in him and—”
She scoffed, cutting him off midexplanation. “Oh, I’m sure you do,” she remarked sarcastically.
“Mrs. Filipe, I really do. I wasn’t always one of the highest paid athletes in the world,” he said. “I understand exactly what it’s like for things to not be in the budget because our choice was a meal on the table or heat for our flat.”
Anna pulled off her sunglasses and looked at him quizzically, trying to determine if he was being serious. When she didn’t say anything, he took this as his cue to continue on.
“My father, Paolo, was a Portuguese immigrant in London, and my mother, Luisa, was the daughter of immigrants, although she had been born in London. My father was a handyman who did a decent amount of business, but since he was an immigrant, he wasn’t well paid. My mother was a housekeeper. We weren’t rich by any means, but we made do. They both worked long, hard hours. When I was nine, my father was in the wrong place at the wrong time, walking home from a job, and was the victim of a mugging. He was beaten to death—the police believe for the contents of his tool bag. Since he was an immigrant, no one really cared, and the perpetrators were never pursued.”
“Oh my goodness,” Anna said, inhaling sharply.
“After that, my mum took on extra shifts, additional homes, did some mending at home, whatever she could to keep food on the table. We went without quite a bit. But I got lucky. One day while I was outside waiting on my mum to finishing cleaning a house, the man of the house happened to see me kicking around a football I had found. He knew someone who knew someone and the next thing I knew, we were moving up north to Liverpool so I could play for their academy. So, please, trust me when I say I understand your situation, and that I see a lot of myself in your son.”
