Taking a Risk Read online

  Taking A Risk

  Jen Talty

  Copyright © 2019 by Jen Talty

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Taking a Risk

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Epilogue

  Epilogue

  Also by Jen Talty

  About the Author

  Taking a Risk

  A Family Affair Novella

  USA Today Best Selling Author

  JEN TALTY

  1

  The bar smelled of whiskey poured over a heavy serving of sex. Women with their cleavage hanging out leaned over the counter, pushing their boobs up to their chins, trying to get the attention of any football player. The preseason for the Miami Dolphins in any local watering hole was like taking dogs in heat to a dog park on a hot summer day.

  Jessica Roads twisted her long blonde hair into a ponytail. She’d moved to Florida two years ago after accepting a position in the marketing department as the online social media coordinator for the Miami Dolphins organization. The move from Virginia had been a difficult one, leaving all her family and friends behind. But then she’d met the man she believed was her soulmate.

  She no longer believed in fate.

  Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Robert and his wife in the back corner gazing at each other like they were the only ones in the room. Of all the places her ex could go hang out, he chose the one place he knew she might actually frequent.

  Was she his ex? He’d been married when they met, though she had no idea for almost a year. She shook her head. Under no circumstances was she dumb.

  Just blind.

  “Can you believe these women?” Lilliana Foster asked as she plopped herself down on the barstool. “I was in the bathroom, and one went on and on about how hot our boss is, and I’m like girls, he’s madly in love with his wife.”

  “Yeah, but come on, Alex Watson is one hell of a sexy man,” Jessica said, twirling her hair, trying not to look over her shoulder. It had been a few months since she’d seen Robert, and the last time it hadn’t been pretty.

  At least twenty men from the team were in the bar. Some picking up women, others with their girlfriends, others just hanging out, letting off steam. It was only two weeks until the first preseason game, and the boys were restless. She glanced around, noting who was there. Her job didn’t require her to check out what happened outside the stadium, but this gave her some insight into the players, helping her to make them more human in a hundred and forty characters.

  “Married men are so not sexy to me. And no way should they be to you.” Lilliana worked in the advertising department and had become one of Jessica’s only two friends in Miami. Jessica had promised herself she’d get out and meet more people, instead of crying over a lying, cheating asshole.

  “Now, Nolan Greer is one hell of a sexy man.” Lilliana kissed her thumb and forefinger and made a smacking noise.

  “He might be sexy, but he barely speaks to anyone, except for yelling out plays in practice. I wonder if he’s going to be as hotheaded with refs as a coach as he was as a player.” Jessica had interviewed everyone on the team, including coaches, but the new offensive coordinator had yet to give her the time of day.

  “I think his aloofness makes him even hotter.”

  Jessica laughed. “I wouldn’t call him aloof. I’d say he’s more like the brooding, angry type. He almost never smiles, and every interview I’ve seen with the man, he has no personality. He answers the questions about the game or his performance, but if you ask him about anything personal or family? He responds with an ‘I don’t discuss that’ or ‘let’s keep it to the field.’” However, she could get lost in his emerald eyes. They were like pools of aqua spring water, hot and steamy.

  Lilliana scowled. “Robert’s here, and with the ball and chain too.”

  “I noticed them the second we stepped foot in this place, and I would prefer to pretend he didn’t exist.”

  “Why didn’t you say something? We could have left.” Lilliana looped her arm around Jessica, kissing her cheek.

  “Because I’m not going to let him stop me from having a good time.” While she enjoyed Lilliana’s company, she couldn’t honestly say the evening had been any fun, but only because of Robert. Every time she saw him, the sting of being made a fool of cut through her pride, and now she second-guessed every man she met, making it impossible to date without thinking they were either married or hiding some twisted, dark secret.

  “Then move, because here they come.”

  Shit.

  “Hi, Jessica,” Robert said. “Maggs, you remember Jessica, don’t you?”

  “The charity event with the football team, yes?” Maggs batted her long brown lashes.

  The nerve of that man to say hello to his ex-mistress in front of his wife. Poor woman. Jessica had to wonder if she knew about her husband’s cheating ways. Or did she turn a blind eye?

  “Robert,” Maggs said. “I need to use the ladies’ room.”

  “I’ll bring the drinks back to the table, darling.”

  Jessica stared at the woman’s swollen belly. Fury bubbled from the pit of her stomach to her throat, and it was about to erupt in word vomit. She waited until his wife was out of sight. “You’re a fucking piece of work. Your wife is pregnant, and you waltz her over here in front of your ex-mistress? I have a mind to tell her what a cheating bastard you are.” Jessica waved the bartender over. “I need another and get me a couple shots of Fireball.”

  “Take it easy on that stuff,” Robert said. “You don’t handle hard liquor well.”

  “Fuck off. My boyfriend won’t like seeing you standing anywhere near me. He knows all about you, and I doubt he’ll be as considerate as I am of your wife’s feelings.”

  Robert’s eyes went wide before turning into narrowed slits. He turned on his heel and left.

  “That man is an asshole.”

  “I feel so sorry for his kid,” Lilliana said.

  Jessica tossed her head back, dumping the shot into her mouth, letting it linger as it slowly slid down her throat in a brutal burn. She certainly was over him, but she wasn’t over the humiliation she had felt that night he’d seen him and his wife at an event that he had to know she’d attend. “Except I just told him I had a boyfriend and that he’d be here any minute.”

  Lilliana grinned, and her eyebrows waggled like they always did when she had a crazy idea. “I dare you to kiss the next guy who walks through that door.”

  “Don’t dare me.” Jessica had always enjoyed a good dare, and most of the time, she’d do them if they weren’t too outlandish. With one more shot, that dare was something she could do, especially if it meant showing Robert she was soooooo over him.

  She threw back the other shot, then took out her ponytail and fluffed her hair, praying the next guy was God’s gift to women. Standing only five feet from the door, she watched it as someone slowly pulled it back. Staring at a pair of sexy feet wearing flip-flops, she let her eyes take in thick muscular calves, then a pair of pink golf shorts. She didn’t have to look any further than this man’s formfitting shirt, showing off his taut stomach, to close the gap between them.

  Flinging her arms around his thick, broad shoulders,
she thought she heard Lilliana call her name, telling her to stop, or maybe don’t stop.

  Jessica blinked quickly, catching a glimpse of familiar sea-green eyes, before landing her mouth on his soft plump lips.

  His rock-hard body went rigid as she tried to coax him into kissing her back.

  But he didn’t move.

  She darted her tongue across his lips and felt a moan vibrate from his throat to her mouth. His strong arms wrapped around her waist as he thrust his tongue inside, taking over the kiss like a wild animal trying to get out of his cage.

  Or in this case, get in it.

  He demanded more as his hands pressed firmly on her back, pulling her closer.

  Her chest heaved into his as she struggled to breathe. The room spun around her in a haze of green and gold. The chatter of people talking phased into a low hum like an engine waiting to be revved. He slowed the kiss, stroking the inside of her mouth like a soft brush hovering over the canvas, waiting for the artist to make that first mark. Her mind formed a picture of the man she’d seen for barely a second before. Soft-green eyes. Short brown hair, almost buzzed on the side with the top longer, and a thick wave…fuck, I’m kissing Nolan Greer.

  Double fuck. He’s kissing me back.

  She pried her lips from his, keeping her eyes closed tight. Not only did she not want to look at him, she figured all of his players were staring. Her cheeks flushed.

  “One way to get that interview,” he whispered into her ear.

  “I’m sorry.” The words came out in a throaty pant. “Will you please just pretend to be my boyfriend for like the next half hour?” God, this had to be the second dumbest thing she’d ever done. The first one had been believing Robert’s lies about why he couldn’t spend the night most of the time or be with her on Valentine’s Day. What a fool she’d been.

  “Why would I do that?”

  She shouldn’t have had that second shot.

  She shouldn’t have taken the dare.

  “So, I can show my ex I’ve moved on, that I am over him and couldn’t care less about him.” She really needed to shut up. Robert was right about one thing: hard liquor wasn’t her friend.

  “I think I can handle that.”

  She cocked her head back, opening her eyes, her hands still on his shoulders.

  “Just like that? The elusive, antisocial, hotheaded Coach Greer is going to play along?” Did that babble actually fly from her mouth? Yeah, he was going to want to pretend to be like a bee and buzz off.

  “I’m not antisocial.” His lips drew into a smile, creating a single dimple in his right cheek. His hands still roamed her back in a seductive motion. “But I’ll concede to being the other two.”

  She pursed her lips, staring into those damn eyes.

  He chuckled. “The starting quarterback is staring at us from across the room, along with three other young men I coach. The chick in advertising has her mouth gaping wide open. So, I either play along, or you and I have some serious explaining to do.”

  “We’re going to have to do that anyway.”

  “Maybe we won’t.” He winked. “Come on. Let me buy my girlfriend a drink.”

  People really needed to learn not to dare her.

  2

  Nolan had been a rising running back until he busted his kneecap for the second time. The injury wasn’t necessarily career-ending, but Nolan knew he’d never be the same.

  However, that wasn’t the only reason he’d decided it was time to move on to something else, and thanks to the Miami Dolphins’ groundbreaking education program, he’d already had a plan in place for when he did retire.

  Only he hadn’t thought it would be at the ripe old age of thirty.

  He stood behind the beautiful social-media-queen-of-Dolphins, as the guys on the team called her, with his arm draped over her shoulders. Jessica had been the first person he saw the moment he stepped onto the Dolphins’ field, and he remembered every detail of that encounter. She had been sitting on the players’ bench, computer on her lap, phone in one hand. She had just finished interviewing a couple of the new players, but he hadn’t known that at the time.

  She’d worn a pair of white slacks and a dark tank top, much like the one she had on tonight. Actually, she always wore the damn things, which caused a slight tightness in his groin.

  He had leaned against the railing separating the stands from the players and continued to admire the blonde-haired beauty. At first, he thought she might be one of the cheerleaders, so when she approached him with her sexy smile and sweet-almond eyes, he’d acted like an asshole, not letting her explain who she was or what she did for the team.

  He’d always been a standoffish man, keeping his work and private life separate for many reasons. But the day his ex-girlfriend called, telling him she was in kidney failure and would most likely not live and that she needed him to take care of his one-year-old daughter, Nolan’s life changed in another unexpected way. Heather had been the real reason he’d retired and became the offensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.

  He leaned in, trying not to inhale too sharply the coconut scent coming from Jessica’s hair that he wanted to tangle his fingers in. “So, where’s this jerk?” If it had been any other woman who’d kissed him like that, he would have pushed her aside, then said something direct and to the point but not too rude. He’d spent half his career trying to stay out of the limelight when it came to the press. At first, it had been because he truly hated being the center of attention. But as he got older, he hated what the press could do to a person.

  “Sitting to your right in the far corner table with a petite brunette with her tongue thrust down his throat,” Jessica said.

  The sharp tone of resentment pained him. Not so much because she was angry, but that it seemed she was still hung up on the man.

  “You mean like we were doing a few minutes ago?”

  She snapped her head in his direction, narrowing her eyes. “I might have started it, but you did the shoving, remember?”

  He laughed, waving at the bartender and ordering a round of drinks. “After someone licked my lips.” He kissed her cheek, telling himself he did it for the benefit of her ex, but in reality, he wanted to see what her response would be.

  She rewarded him with a smile.

  “Thanks for the drink,” Lilliana said.

  “My pleasure.” He glanced over his shoulder, catching sight of the couple she’d described. Her ex turned his head the moment he’d made eye contact.

  Coward.

  “Those are some big-ass tits.”

  Jessica nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “You’re not supposed to be staring at her; besides, she’s pregnant, so she had a little help from mother nature.”

  He glided his fingers under her hair, tickling the back of her neck. He understood her bitter tone. “You’re much prettier than she is.”

  “Thanks, I appreciate the compliment.” Jessica looked up at him with those sexy, golden-brown eyes and long lashes.

  He continued to keep one hand on her neck and shoulders, constantly gliding them over her smooth, silky skin. She’d been making him uncomfortable for weeks now, but standing next to her, touching her, he felt totally at ease.

  Only his dick wanted to stand at attention.

  “Oh shit, no,” Jessica said, holding her phone up. “Brad wants to know if he should snap a picture of us so I can post it on the team account.”

  “You wouldn’t dare? Would you?” Nolan asked. In all his career, he’d done his very best to keep the women he dated out of the spotlight, even the fake ones.

  Now that he had Heather, it was even more important. He couldn’t let the media make a circus out of his life…nor his daughter’s.

  “Never say those words to her,” Lilliana said, holding up her drink. “Unless you want her to, because a dare is how she landed in a lip-lock with you.”

  Jessica pursed her lips, shaking her head. “I’m not going to post a picture, and he’s a good friend, so I
’ll shoot him a text back about what’s going on.” She looked up at Nolan and smiled. “Don’t worry. Everything that happens here tonight, stays here.”

  “Thanks.” He swallowed, reminding himself he’d come here to see her, hang with the team, and stop being so distant with everyone, as his new boss recommended.

  “But I hadn’t thought this through. Hell, it didn’t even register with me that I was kissing you.”

  Ouch.

  He arched a brow. “Exactly who did you think you were jumping then?” This should be good, he thought.

  “A guy with sexy feet, in pink shorts, with green eyes. But I recognized them, so I knew it was you, but not until after the kiss started.”

  “Sexy feet, huh?” He set his beer on the bar, turning the stool to face him, reminding himself that he could have a night out and that didn’t make him a bad son or a bad father. Kissing a woman wouldn’t be the end of his world, as long as it was kept private.

  He ignored the tickle in his brain that told him he was standing in a public place.

  “Now this time, know it’s me before we kiss.” Resting his hands on her bare thighs, just below her shorts, he pushed his broad body between her legs. He smiled as she locked gazes with him. Her eyelids fluttered when he cupped the back of her neck, threading his fingers in her hair, tilting her head slightly, parting her luscious lips.

  She let out a soft moan when his mouth connected with hers like two ends of a magnet. Her tongue greeted his with a swirl, sending electricity from his head to his toes. Her firm thighs flexed as he teased the skin just under the hem of her black shorts.

  It had been two years since his mouth had been anywhere near a woman, and his body reacted to her touch with a powerful hunger he’d thought he’d lost.