He needed her.
Instead of hitting the shower yet again and taking his ass to bed like he knew he should, Jase took a detour, bypassing the staircase as he made a beeline for his weight room. Too wound up to relax, sleep would be impossible if he didn’t do something to work Avery out of his system. And whereas the better option would have been to just jerk one off and call it a night, Jase knew that it wouldn’t sate him. His own goddamned hand was a poor substitute for the real thing. The only option at this point was to distract the stiff bastard between his legs with physical exertion.
Lifting seemed like a promising way to beat his body into submission. He traded out the bumper plates for something lighter since he wanted to wear himself down, not physically exhaust himself. It only took a moment to shuck his jeans and Jase settled onto the weight bench in nothing more than a pair of boxer briefs. The cold metal of the bar felt good in his palms and the weight as he hoisted the barbell up off the rest and high above his chest was a welcome distraction. He pumped the weight down on a slow inhale and back up on an exhale. Up, down. In, out. He let the sound of his breath channel his focus, the weight pressing down on him, clearing his mind of all distraction. If he didn’t get Avery out of his head, he wouldn’t be worth a shit tomorrow. His plan to use a little booty to break his bad-luck streak had totally fucking backfired.
Sweat beaded on his chest and trickled down his neck as Jase continued to pump the barbell up and down. Up and down, his once slow and measured breaths chuffing in and out of his chest. No amount of physical exertion would banish the memory of her, soft and willing in his arms, from his mind.
How could he possibly focus on his career right now when all he wanted was her?
Chapter Eight
“Jason, this is without a doubt the best game you’ve played all season. Maybe even your entire career. Can you tell us what brought on such a dramatic change?”
Jase stared into Erin Andrews’s expectant face, knowing she was waiting for his response, but his brain was calling up an answer that he didn’t want his mouth to deliver. “It’s the playoffs,” he finally said, flashing her a confident smile. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t giving a thousand percent on the field.”
“Well, it certainly showed,” she said as she pulled the microphone back to her mouth. “Your performance seems to improve with each game. You’re one win away from the division title and with the stellar teamwork between you and Carson Rader, you helped to move the Cowboys one step closer to a Super Bowl bid. Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” Jase cast a quick look toward the camera before heading for the locker room. Carson was still fielding questions from the press. Erin wouldn’t waste a second to snag him next. Jase was thankful for the distraction his teammate offered because right now there were only two things on his mind: taking a long hot shower, and getting to Avery ASAP.
Amid knocks to the shoulder and words of congratulations from his teammates as he passed, Jase hurried through the locker room and straight for the showers. Anticipation coiled in his stomach as hot water sluiced down his body. It helped to ease his sore and too tight muscles, but he wasn’t planning to linger under the spray for long. He’d been seeing Avery for three weeks now. Easily the longest relationship of his life. The euphoric high of being with her hadn’t lessened in the slightest. In fact, the more time he spent with her, the greedier he became for just another minute, one more hour of her time. If he had it his way, she’d be moved into his house by now.
“Blackwell’s got himself a pregame lucky charm,” someone remarked as though in answer to a question from the other room. “Wish I had a sweet piece of ass to give me a good-luck fuck before next week’s game.” Fucking Carson and his big mouth. Jase was going to kick his ass. He gossiped worse than a nosey old woman. “Hey, Jase, you wanna share? Give the rest of us some of that superpower pussy?”
His earlier anticipation congealed into anger. Cold and heavy like a boulder rolling around in his gut. Guys talked shit in the locker room. Period. And giving in to his urge to beat the piss out of some sorry fucker wasn’t going to do anything for his team’s cohesiveness. To the guys on the other side of the wall, Avery was nothing more than a faceless fuck. Another football groupie Jase was using to work off the stress of playoffs. But the depth of his feelings for her was his secret. One that he coveted and held close to his heart. He’d never felt this way about a woman before. There was a chance that maybe … Maybe he could love her.
Shit.
The once-famed playboy converted to monogamy? Stanger things had happened.
Catcalls and lewd remarks continued to drift to his ears from the locker room as Jase wrapped up his shower. If he hung around to listen to their bullshit, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from laying into someone. The team couldn’t afford any rash, hotheaded behavior right now. Too much hinged on Jase keeping a level head.
“Sorry man.” Carson turned on the nozzle next to Jase and stepped under the spray. “I never would have said anything if I had known they were going to give you so much shit.”
“Yeah?” Jase shook out his hair like a wet dog and reached for a towel. “They didn’t come up with ‘good-luck fuck’ on their own. I’m guessing you had something to do with that, too.”
Carson cringed as he began to lather up his hair and body. “You’ve got to admit, you’ve been playing like a goddamned all-star since you started seeing her. Coincidence?”
Jase didn’t know a single player who didn’t harbor a superstition or ten. Some guys wore the same socks—unwashed—for the entire season. Others didn’t shave. He’d played with a guy in college who never stepped out onto the field unless his girlfriend’s panties were tucked into his jock. And yeah, a lot of them boasted pregame sex rituals. Could Jase really be mad over his teammates’ shit talk? He’d gone after Avery in the first place with the single-minded purpose of getting her into bed to help end his unlucky streak. If the guys were calling her a good-luck fuck, he had no one to blame but himself.
“I know it started out that way with her.” Jase paused and breathed in a lungful of steam. “But it’s different now.”
Carson gave him a pointed look. “How so?”
Jase snatched a towel from a hook on the opposite wall and slung it around his waist. “Avery’s not like any other woman. She’s tough. Funny. She wants a career and is just as ambitious as I am. She just needs someone to help her realize how amazing she is.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Jase stopped midstep but didn’t bother to turn and face his so-called friend. “You’re playing like a hard-core bad ass, but it’s not because of some bullshit superstition. Do I think she has something to do with it? Yes. Because she’s changed you, man. For the better.”
Jase’s spine stiffened. He didn’t feel any different. Could she have really made such a huge impact on his life in such a short time?
“Your ass had better be at my party tomorrow tonight.” The sound of the shower turning off was preceded by the slap of Carson’s wet feet on the tile. “And you’d better bring her with you. No excuses.”
“Yeah,” Jase replied as he headed back toward the locker room. He knew that things had changed between him and Avery in the past few weeks, but damn. It must’ve been major if Carson could see it, too. Talk about scary. “I’ll see you then.”
∗∗∗
“There’s something different about you.”
Avery kept her eyes on her saucepan and the béchamel sauce she was trying not to burn. “There’s nothing different about me.” Kristie had no idea what she was talking about. “I’m the same person I’ve always been.”
“No,” she said. “As a matter of fact, you’re not.”
Avery had a feeling that she wasn’t going to like the direction this conversation was headed. “Okay, since you’re so perceptive, how exactly have I changed?”
Kristie rolled her eyes as she whisked her white sauce. “You’ve got perma-grin. You’re skipping around like a Disney princess. And you haven’t burned, spilled, or broken anything in almost three weeks.”
“That’s not true.”
“Dude.” Kristie pointed her whisk at Avery for emphasis. “You aced your first attempt at hollandaise sauce this week without even batting a lash.”
Was it really so hard to believe that she could get something right on her first try? “So?”
Kristie’s blue eyes bulged. “Seriously? You know I love you, Ave, but you usually can’t get through a day without at least one klutzy moment. You’re like Cinderella post–glass slipper or something.”
Avery laughed. Okay, so klutzy was her middle name. But she hadn’t noticed any sort of Cinderella transformations in the past couple of weeks. “You’re crazy. Maybe I’m just growing out of my awkward phase.”
“Oh you totally have, and you have Jason Blackwell to thank for it.”
“I—”