Luka had seemed so much more relaxed since then. It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off of him. After seeing how he handled the situation, his father had been giving him more responsibility at the strip club, allowing him to bring in higher end clients, which was what Luka had planned on doing with the company all along. I could tell it had given him a sense of purpose. We now spent every day together, planning out our lives. We were looking into places to buy a house and get married. We were talking about baby names, of both sexes because we had chosen not to find out. His mother had welcomed me back into the Gioti clan with open arms. She could not have been happier with his choice to be with me. It was like the past had been forgotten, but as we closed in on the yearly anniversary of my mother's death, some tension still hung in the air.
“Are you going to light a candle for her?”
I was kneeling next to Luka and considering the exact thing myself. I had never done it before. Now seemed like as good a time as any. I was back with the people that she loved most. The people that had taken her in as their own. She didn't just leave the Agnelli family because of my father, as much as Roberto wanted to believe that. She had left for a better life. And after living with Roberto for the past few years, I realized that my mother went from one abuser to another. Although I was sure my uncle never hit her, he was mentally and verbally abusive. He had contrived this image of Luka and his family in my mind and made them seem like they were the devil. The truth was, they weren’t the horrible people that he made them seem to be. The Giotis had taken my mother in when she didn't have anyone else, and treated her like family. Roberto’s mindset of what had really happened was completely off. And he used that idea to poison my thoughts. But as Luka helped me stand from my spot and walk up to the front of the cathedral to light a candle for my mother, I looked back and saw my real family.
I was a Gioti through and through.
Luka had made me that way.
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Turn the page to look at my bestie Violet Paige’s bestselling sports romance, Dirty Play
Dirty Play
Playing dirty might not be playing by the rules. But I say f*ck the rules.
Wes Blakefield has it all. A winning record. A killer arm. And a smile that will get any woman in his bed. But everything changes when an injury leaves the Wranglers’ quarterback sidelined.
Lennon Ashworth is trying to rebuild her life in San Antonio. Focused on her career in medicine she has no idea what the fuss is about when a hot green-eyed athlete ends up in her operating room.
Wes is used to getting what he wants and when he meets the woman who repaired his hand, he decides he’s not letting her get away. The only problem is Lennon fights her attraction for the country’s hottest playboy.
Tension grows. The fire heats up. And lines are crossed when Wes is determined Lennon is his ultimate score.
Dirty Play is a FULL LENGTH, Standalone sports romance with a dirty talking football star and explicit sex scenes. When you're done reading, hitting the showers will have a whole new meaning.
Wes
I was a god. And not just any god. I had an arm that could throw a lightning bolt a hundred yards, with two seconds left on the game clock, and score. They should have called me Zeus. I could run faster than any damn lineman trying to knock the shit out of me. I could read the defense faster than the whistle blew. I could call plays and execute before the defense could say their own names. I was a fucking god out on that field, and everyone knew it. The coaches. My teammates. The fans.
Hell, I had known it since I joined the pee-wee league when I was six. That’s what kids do in Texas. Kids that have dads who want them to be competitive assholes before they can read. And that was me. Born to play football. Born to dominate. Born to win. Molded and coached into the best fucking quarterback to walk the planet.
And I did win. I won state playoffs in high school, I won our conference title in college, and I was on our way to taking our team to the Super Bowl. Nothing stopped Wes Blakefield. Nothing.
I could fuck any woman I wanted. I could gamble. I could party after a game. All of it. Because I won. The American Football Association wasn’t going to stop me. And neither was my team. I brought them millions. As long as I won, they would look the other way.
They didn’t give a shit about the women or the bets. As long as I put a W in the column every Sunday, they stayed off my back. I was a walking cash machine for those bastards.
Until everything came crashing down.
2 months earlier
“Blakefield, you want me to pick you up tonight?”