Broken Play Read Free Page A

with him, for all he’s supposed to be a giant asshole. As long as he can still run the ball, he’s the man.”
    “I’m sure Mr. Smith will be here for camp,” Marian said firmly. “He was unprepared to be traded by the Ravens. He’s merely having some adjustment issues.”
    “He’s a salary-cap casualty,” Cass said dryly. “He knew the trade was coming. His issue is being traded to the Rebels.”
    “I don’t give a shit if he and his mama need therapy to get over the trade,” Mike said. “He shows or he gets his ass fined.”
    “You want me and Cass to try to talk to him?” Beau offered. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d had to talk someone into playing for the Rebels. He wasn’t sure what Danny Smith’s deal was. Beau had enough of his own shit to deal with. He didn’t bother with other people’s if he could help it.
    Mike shook his head. “No, not yet. I want to keep this through official channels for the time being.”
    Beau kept watching Marian. Her shoulders relaxed at Mike’s decision. Why didn’t she want them to talk to Danny Smith? She’d met assholes in football, she said. And she didn’t want Danny Smith here. He was a world-famous asshole, but Beau got the impression there was more to it than that. Interesting. If Beau were a thinking man, he’d put those two together and make something of it. Maybe do the math.
    Or maybe not. He mentally shook off the urge to think about it. He was only three years sober. Some days it was still a struggle to stay that way. Those days he had Cass, and sometimes whatever woman they managed to find who wouldn’t sell them out on YouTube. That was enough. It had to be enough. He didn’t want to get tangled up with Marian Treadwell. Something about her set off his warning bells. She wasn’t the girl for them. There were secrets in her eyes and the set of her shoulders. She didn’t like Cass’s take-charge attitude or anything about Beau. She might be the stuff fantasies were made of, but he was worried she had an agenda. Most women he met did. She could use Cass to improve her position on the team, and Cass wouldn’t even know it. He’d be too busy trying to solve her problems, trying to chase the shadows from her eyes.
    But if Cass decided he had to have her, then Beau would go with whatever play Cass called. Because the one thing Beau knew for sure was that he couldn’t lose Cass. He meant everything to Beau, even if he didn’t know it and never would. Beau would never tell him how he really felt. He’d settle for sharing him, if that’s all he could get. Even with a woman between them Beau loved submitting to Cass’s every desire, every demanding, dirty, kinky desire. And if he wanted to make Marian submit to them too, then Beau would play along, improvising as he went.

Chapter 2
    “Marian!” The call of several voices rang through the locker room and Cass grinned as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel. They were all sitting around chugging some cold water and catching their breath after a hard day at mini-camp. Marian had just opened the locker-room door and stood there, her shoulder against the door frame. Today she was casual. A nice pair of light-blue athletic shorts with the Rebels logo, and a white polo, also with the Rebels logo. The big red
R
rested on the upper curve of her left breast and Cass envied that damn stitched letter. She had one foot crossed over the other as she regarded them all with a cynical smile. Her white Nikes looked too damn clean. He wanted to dirty her up, but good.
    “Nice job today, boys,” she said. “If we were playing high school ball.” The entire locker room erupted in boos and Marian laughed.
    Between the off-season workouts and rookie mini-camp, Cass had gotten to know Marian pretty well. She had a great sense of humor, high expectations, a hard-core work ethic, a sympathetic ear, and she knew statistics about everything football-related.
    And she never, ever came into the locker