The Billion Dollar Player(15)

She burst through the front door gasping for breath. Kicking off her heels, Avery started off at a slow jog down the driveway. It was a forty-minute drive to her apartment, but she’d walk all night to get home and suffer blisters from hell before she’d stay another minute in that house and endure the humiliation of knowing she was nothing more than a pawn in Jase’s stupid game. God, what a fool she’d been! Her heart ached from the betrayal. Her stomach twisted into a painful knot. To think that she’d fallen for his act; actually considered the possibility that she could fall in love with Jason Blackwell and that he could, in turn, love her. All the while he’d be bragging to his teammates about her, trivializing their time together as nothing more than something he used to get pumped up for his next game. What a joke!

She was finally starting to feel good about herself. Like her life was on track and things were going her way. School was better. Work was better. Everything was better because Jase had been in her life and knowing that it was all a lie made her feel like throwing up.

Avery had put about a half mile behind her when she heard the growl of an engine creep up behind her. She squared her shoulders and kept her eyes forward, unwilling to look back. The car accelerated with a roar and Jase pulled up beside her, leaning over the center console as the passenger-side window slid down.

“Avery, what happened? Gena said she saw you talking to Malcolm Willis and then you ran out of the house crying. What’s going on?”

“Go away, Jase.” The concern in his tone gutted her. The thought that he must’ve brought her here tonight to show off his lucky charm disgusted her. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

“What? Why? Avery, what in the hell is going on?”

His insistence on keeping up the pretense snapped Avery’s control over her temper. “Oh, come on, Jase! I don’t want or need your fake concern. You’re an asshole! Go back to your stupid party and find some other girl to give you a good-luck fuck before the championship game!”

Jase hit the brakes so hard that the tires screeched on the pavement. Avery picked up her pace, ignoring the bite of the asphalt on her bare feet as she continued her trek out of the swanky subdivision. The car door opened and slammed behind her but she paid it no mind. Damn it, she’d left her damned purse at the house. Which meant no cell phone to call a cab to get her the hell away from Jase Blackwell for good. And she wasn’t about to endure the shame of going back to get it.

“Avery, stop.”

She ignored his demanding tone. “Go to hell, Jase!”

“Avery!”

The sound of his shoes pounding on the pavement behind her sent a jolt of anxious adrenaline through Avery’s body. She refused to run from him, but a brisk speed-walk was totally acceptable. A hand gripped her elbow and Jase spun her around like a whip.

“Don’t.” Fresh tears pricked behind Avery’s eyes but she stemmed the flow. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of witnessing her pain. “I don’t want to hear your excuses, Jase.”

His brow furrowed, the depth of emotion shining in his light brown eyes enough to break Avery’s heart all over again. Among his other talents, Jase Blackwell was apparently a pretty damned good actor.

“Avery, listen to me.” Jase gripped her shoulders tightly as though afraid she’d try to bolt. “I don’t blame you for being pissed off—”

“Well, that’s big of you.”

“But you have to know that what that asshole Willis said couldn’t be further from the truth.”

“Do I?” Avery asked with a derisive snort. “It’s funny, Jase. Now that I think about it, we’ve been together at least one night before every single game of the playoffs. I guess I should be flattered. I mean, I must be a hell of a good lay if I single-handedly managed to secure your team’s spot in the championship. Maybe I should rent my services out. If I got the Cowboys this far, imagine what I could do for other teams?”

“Stop.” Jase’s fingers dug into her arms, not painfully, but enough to convey his urgency. “I can’t control what those assholes say in the locker room. Hell, up until a few weeks ago, everyone still thought I’d bought my way onto the team. So of course, the second I up my game, those same haters are going to come up with another excuse to justify how I’m getting it done. Anything other than admit that I might actually be worth a damn on the field.”

She knew that his skills on the field were a sore subject and that Jase suffered from a lack of confidence in his abilities. Under any other circumstances, Avery would have been thrilled that he’d finally come into his own and was being recognized for the talent she knew he’d had all along. But not now, and certainly not at the expense of her dignity. “According to that jerk back at Gena’s, I’m the talk of the locker room. One more toss before the championship game? If that’s the case, maybe we should just get it out of the way right now. I mean, we’ve screwed in the front seat of your truck, your car couldn’t possibly be much less accommodating. I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a Cowboys fan if I didn’t do my part to ensure that you guys get a Super Bowl bid.”

Jase released his grip at her acidic tone. “I would never disrespect you, Avery.”

She leveled her gaze on him, the Maserati’s headlights illuminating his strong features. “Really? Then look me in the eye and tell me that Willis is lying. Tell me that you never, ever considered using me as some sort of sexual good-luck charm.”

Jase’s jaw clamped down tight and he averted his gaze. He raked his hands through his hair and let out a rushed breath. “God damn it, Avery, if you’d just let me explain.”

“That’s what I thought. Don’t blame yourself, Jase,” Avery said without an ounce of emotion. “This is my fault. I knew better than to hook up with you. All I wanted was a meaningless fling and ended up letting myself believe that you were different than any other guy I’d ever met. The mistake—and the humiliation—are mine. Good luck on Sunday.”

Avery turned and left Jase where he stood. With her back to him, she finally allowed the flow of tears to resume their path down her cheeks as a pained sob lodged itself in her chest. She might have left him behind to watch her leave, but she’d left her heart back there with him.

∗∗∗

Jase slammed the door of his Maserati hard enough to bust the damn hinges. Meaningless fling? All this time he’d thought his relationship with Avery was going somewhere and instead, she’d all but admitted that she’d used him for sex. She’d thought he was different? Who had played who, here? She was obviously just like every other jock-riding, football groupie out there. Fucking awesome. He put the car into gear and sped back to Carson’s house, all the while rubbing at his chest that ached as though someone had sliced him open between the ribs and scooped his heart out with a spoon.

No matter what she’d said in the heat of anger, Jase had seen the hurt in her eyes and it laid him low. Hell, if he hadn’t treated her like another conquest—a goal he had to achieve no matter the costs—in the first place, he wouldn’t be sitting in his car now, wishing he could rip his beating heart out of his chest. You really fucked up this time, buddy. Because of his own selfish stupidity, Jase had just lost the only thing in this world he gave a shit about.

He parked in front of Carson’s house and sat for a moment, gripping the steering wheel so tightly that it creaked in his palms. Anger mounted, the pressure building to a fever pitch, boiling and burning inside of him until Jase had no choice but to release the valve. Throwing himself from the car, he raced for the house, burst through the door, and beelined it for that rotten son of a bitch who’d ruined his life with nothing more than a string of malicious words.

“You’re a piece of shit, Willis.” Jase pulled back his fist and let it fly.

His fist connected with Willis’s jaw and the other man went sprawling backward. The idiot was shitfaced drunk and could barely stand, but that wasn’t going to stop Jase from beating the bastard to a pulp. He followed him down to the floor, throwing body shots and right hooks to the face. The ache in his chest intensified as the realization that he’d lost Avery—likely forever—burrowed itself into his core. He hit Willis again. And again. Jase’s knuckles grew bloody and his breath sawed in and out of his chest in desperate gasps, but he just kept hitting. Damn it, he needed something, anything, to take away the hurt that was eating him from the inside out.

“Jase!” Carson grabbed him by the arm and tried to haul him off of Willis but Jase shook him off and renewed his assault. “Goddamn it, Jason. Knock it off!”

Bodies closed in around him, his teammates joining in to pull him out of the fight. Jase snarled, his shouts of protest scouring his throat as he fought against the many hands restraining him. “Let me go!”

“You’ve stepped in it now, Blackwell.” Willis’s words were slurred and he swiped at his bloodied nose. “You’re done. Your career is fucking done! Let’s see your entitled rich ass take the field on Sunday after this. McNealy is going to suspend you so fast it’s gonna give you whiplash.”