Authors: Donna Gallagher
Rook had heard that her folks were over in the UK, her dad coaching again, so had just assumed she was there. He had certainly never expected her to waltz back into his life—maybe if he had, he might not have stuffed it up so royally!
But Rook thought he could try to make it right. He could walk over—
hobble
over—and apologise, explain why he had walked away from her. Walked away because he’d known he hadn’t been good enough for her, back then. Perhaps he still wasn’t, considering that he knew of Gareth’s intentions towards her and yet he was still going to try to steal her from him. Hell, if he was going to be kicked from the team anyway it wouldn’t matter if he and Gareth came to blows over her. And
yes
, she was definitely worth fighting for, Rook finally realised—right now, meeting be damned.
He managed to seat himself in her car with a modicum of decorum, bad knee notwithstanding, and now she was facing him. Startled at first, her eyes were now drowning him in their depths. A little gasp or moan escaped her perfect lips, lips that Rook wanted to kiss more than he wanted his next breath. Finally managing to get a grip on his wayward thoughts, Rook took a deep breath and began to form the words that he hoped would help her understand, help him maybe convince her to take a chance on him, let him compete with Gareth for her affections. He needed to let her know that she had always been in his dreams.
“Mind if I join you?” Rook smiled hopefully.
“Seems you already have.” Pippa’s answer, Rook noted, was not much above a whisper. Her eyes never left his.
“We need to talk… I need to tell you what you do to me, Pippa, what you’ve always done to me. My God, woman, you fill my dreams. Have for as long as I can remember. It just took me a while to realise that the woman who has starred in all my dreams was you. I remember that night in your family’s backyard. I’ve revisited that night in my fantasies many times, wishing I had acted differently. But no matter how much I wanted you back then—and I did, Pip, you have no idea how much—I did the right thing walking away. Not because of the warnings from your father and Brodie to keep away from you if I wanted to keep my contract with the Jets. That wasn’t what made me ignore what I wanted. It was knowing I wasn’t good enough for you. Pip, you were just starting your life, and you were so smart…and I was just a footy player from a single-parent home. I couldn’t take advantage of you—you were so young and beautiful, so tempting, but I had nothing to offer you…”
Rook ran his fingers through his hair, trying to control the build-up of emotion that threatened to overwhelm his confession as he remembered that night. The pain and sorrow he had felt. “I was unworthy of someone like you…”
Rook took a steadying breath.
“Pippa, I just wanted to apologise and explain my behaviour. I never meant to hurt you. I was protecting you, baby… That night at the club, I should have known it was you, it was…beyond words. I’ve thought of little else since then. You mean so much to me, Pippa. I’ve been acting like an idiot…it’s just that I don’t understand why you pretended to be someone else. I just want you to know that…you are amazing and I really hope we can be friends, no matter what happens from here.”
What on earth was Rook saying? How dare her father and Brodie warn him off her as if she were some object to be protected? Or worse, used as a threat. No wonder he had fled from her—his career would have been over if he had not.
But how could he honestly think he was unworthy of her? Young or old, Rook was a good man. As if she cared that he didn’t know his father! It was his father’s loss, not knowing Rook. Pippa could feel the hysterical giggle forming and could do nothing to repress it—she actually snorted trying to stop the sound from coming. Which, of course, just made it worse and before she knew it, she was caught up in an uncontrollable case of the giggles.
Pippa wasn’t even sure why she was laughing. Truth be told, she should be crying over the lost time, the emotions that she had wasted by pining over Rook when all this time they could have been in the midst of passionate lovemaking instead. Thoughts of their one night together flooded her mind, and her giggles were replaced by longing. Talking time was over—it was time for action. She turned the key, still in the ignition of her car, and listened as the engine of her car came to life. Seeing the hesitant look from Rook, she smiled.
“Oh, Rook, shh! Stop talking and kiss me. Or you can wait till we get home to my place—your choice. But as of this second I’m kidnapping you, taking you home to my bed, where I intend to prove to you for once and for all that you are way good enough for me. In fact, being with you is all I’ve ever wanted.”
Pippa was a little surprised when Rook sat back. He seemed to be pulling himself as far away from her as he could get, considering the confines of her car. She began to panic, thinking maybe she had been too bold, sounded too forward. It would be just like her to blow this before it had even got started. She was so busy silently chastising herself that she nearly missed Rook’s question.
“That sounds amazing, Pippa, wonderful, the words I’ve dreamed of hearing…but what about Gareth? I don’t want to cause you any trouble with the Jets. Hey, they might be about to toss me but I don’t want any drama for you. Don’t you want to talk with Gareth first, maybe put everything on hold for a while?”
Now she was very confused, wasn’t really sure what Rook was saying. She hadn’t heard anything about the Jets cutting ties with Rook, and what needed to be put on hold with Gareth…?
“Oh, Rookie, there is nothing going on with me and Gareth. He is just a friend, and there is that whole ‘no fraternisation’ thing and all,” she added with a sly grin. “And more importantly, why do you think the Jets are tossing you? This meeting with Brodie had nothing to do with that. Um, this is going to be really embarrassing.” She continued, her voice a mere whisper, dropping her gaze from Rook’s and fiddling with the threads of cotton that had broken from the stitching in the leather cover over her steering wheel, “It was a meeting to sort us out… Brodie was going to try and match-make.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rook could not stop laughing. The idea that
the
Brodie James
,
once the nightmare of opposing forwards and coaches alike, had taken on the role of matchmaker was hilarious, and without a doubt the most wonderful news Rook had ever heard. Truth be told, Rook had always thought if he could pick out a man to be his father Brodie James would have been streets ahead of the competition. So to hear that this man he so admired was not about to cut him from his football family, but wanted to sort out his love life, was priceless.
“Princess, if I kiss you now I won’t be able to stop, and I want to show you how much you mean to me. I want to go slowly, take my time, and maybe we can even try an actual bed this time. Not that the floor, bath or even a car wouldn’t be just as enjoyable—it’s just that I think if we don’t go now we may have an audience, judging by the little group that is forming in front of your car.”
Rook laughed some more as he watched Pippa take note of the group of Jets staff watching them—Brodie and JT included. He was more impressed, though, when she gave them all a little finger-wave, threw her car into gear and, after checking over her shoulder that it was all clear, took off. Glancing in the side mirror, Rook watched as a smiling Brodie turned away and walked towards the building’s entry.
In Rook’s opinion, the fact that Pippa still lived in her childhood home brought them full circle. As she explained to him that Cassie shared the house with her now, and that her parents had moved away, all Rook could think about was the moonlit night in the garden, when he had caused her so much pain. He hoped he could make it up to her, put the past to rest and forge a future. But first he needed to know about the marriage proposal—he had heard Gareth, and as much as he wasn’t about to give up this chance with Pippa, he did want to know why she thought that there was nothing going on between them.
“Last night, at the club, I was coming over to speak with you, pretty much to say all the things I just told you.” Rook hesitated.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Well, that’s the thing, princess. When I heard
Cowboy
ask you to marry him, it took the wind outta my sails. Can’t begin to tell you how bad it felt when I heard your reply—it was along the lines of, ‘It’s a deal, love you too’,
wasn’t it?
”
“Oh, Rook, it’s not like that. Gareth has his own heartbreak story. He knew how I felt—feel—about you, so it was more of a pact between us losers, really. A promise that if we both ended up alone we could keep each other company, sit in our rocking chairs and reminisce about lost chances and broken hearts.”
Rook could not fathom how one day could change so quickly, from the depths of despair to almost perfect in a matter of minutes. He not only still had his football career but even better, Pippa wanted to kidnap him.
Although it isn’t much of a kidnapping when the victim is just as eager
, he mused. But as much as he wanted to feel Pippa writhing beneath him again, and soon, Rook wanted more. He wanted everything. This thing, whatever it was, with Pippa was long term—he didn’t want to waste any more time apart. He wanted Pippa to be his. Rook just hoped he could convince Pippa that she wanted it, as well.
* * * *
She was delirious. Her head was floating in the clouds. Not only had Mitchell ‘Rook’ Harris walked her to her door, but he had done it while ravaging her mouth, backing her up her own path, devouring her to the point of insanity, oblivious to the spectacle they were making. She wasn’t even sure how they’d managed to get the door open, but they must have, considering she was now standing in the living room and tearing at his clothes.
Pippa heard buttons ping as they hit a hard surface—maybe the wall or table. She didn’t care. All Pippa wanted was Rook naked and filling her. She was thankful that it was mid-week and therefore Cassie was teaching, otherwise it could have been quite embarrassing for her housemate, because Pippa was not stopping until she had completed the task at hand.
Rook naked—pronto.
“You have too many clothes on, Pippa,” Rook groaned in her ear as he nipped at the sensitive spot of skin behind her lobe.
She could rectify that problem easily enough, she thought, and grabbed the hem of her sweatshirt, pulling it over her head while at the same time trying to shuck her shoes off. All she managed to achieve, though, was to trip herself up in the scramble. She would have fallen if not for Rook sweeping her up into his arms.
“Which way?” he said.
Pippa knew Rook was asking for the way to her bedroom and nodded her head in the right direction, then latched on to his mouth with her teeth, gently tugging and nibbling on his lower lip. She felt so feminine being carried—he seemed to be holding her so effortlessly, right up until he bumped into her bed with his bad knee.
With a grunt and a surprisingly eloquent use of profanity, Rook fell. They ended up sprawled in a tangle of limbs on her bed.
“Whoops, I forgot all about your injury. Great physio I make.” Pippa giggled. “Are you okay? Do you need me to kiss your boo-boo?” she said, pursing her lips together teasingly. But Rook didn’t answer. Pippa was starting to become alarmed that maybe the strain of carrying her, then the knock he’d received, might have actually done him some serious damage.
“No, really, Mitch—are you okay? Say something. You’re starting to worry me, maybe I need to have a look—”
Before she could finish her next word, Pippa found herself flat on her back, a familiar pair of silver eyes staring back at her, eating her alive with their intensity.
“You called me Mitch… My God, it sounded so sexy, hearing you say my name. Oh, Phillipa, I’m fine—the knee is good. I was just taking a few seconds to savour the moment, enjoy the fact that I’m finally in bed with
Pipsqueak!”
Rook chuckled, the sound of his amusement so endearing to Pippa that it made up for his use of her teen nickname. But she couldn’t let him get away with it, she thought a little evilly.
“Do not
ever
call me that again, Mitchell Harris. How I hate that name. It reminds me of the years I had to watch you hook up with all those other women, and it’s not something I want to think about while I have you nearly naked on my bed.”
“Baby, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. I’ve done enough of that in the past. I never want to hurt you again. I promise you with all my heart that I will make you happy. I want you, and only you, Phillipa Rodgers. I think I always have and just so you know, I’ll want you forever. I love you, Pippa.”
She couldn’t stop the tears from tumbling down her cheeks at Rook’s heartfelt words. She had just been teasing him again. She didn’t care what he called her—Pipsqueak, Princess, Pip—but she hadn’t been expecting him to say the ‘L’ word. It caught her off guard. It was like a dream and she was a princess finally getting her dream prince.
“Oh, Mitch, I was just teasing you. I understand why you walked away—really, I do—and who knows, but it was probably not the right time for us, back then. I was so young, so naïve, and yes, I was hurt—but imagine if we had ruined any chance of what we could have now by rushing it. I love you too. You are my heart and I can’t think of being with anyone else but you.”
“Yeah, well, we’ve still wasted too much time, and that ends now. Get your pretty little lips back here on mine.”
Pippa loved the feel of Rook’s mouth on hers. His tongue danced with hers, a mating ritual that had her burning, frenzied with want.
“Rook, please…”
She heard herself beg, felt his hands move over her now naked breasts. He rubbed and pinched her turgid nipples, the sensations rippling down to her clit through that invisible wire that connected her nerves. She needed to feel him buried inside her. Struggling with the ties of his sweatpants, and very pleased that he was wearing them so she could ease them over his injured knee, Pippa shoved them over his hips. Breaking free from his grasp, she managed to remove them from his toned, muscled legs completely.