Sports + Bad Boy + Second Chance
The Hard Way
By Katie Ashley
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Blurb
Cade Hall has always been the golden boy of the gridiron.
Because of his talent at football, coupled with his father’s wealth, he’s
always gotten his way. But when a night of drunken debauchery lands him in hot
water with the college athletic board, neither his influential father nor his
charming grin can save him. Cade finds it a total buzz kill when he is
sentenced to community service with troubled youth at an inner-city shelter.
But his nightmare is only beginning when his greatest high school regret is the
very one in charge of the program, and she has him by the balls in more ways
than one.
For Avery Prescott, senior year was a nightmare of epic
proportions, and Cade Hall played the lead villain. After she fled her small
town for college in the bright lights of Atlanta, she thought she had escaped
the painful memories of her past. She never could have imagined Cade would
waltz through the door of the outreach program she presided over. But Avery has
news for Cade—she isn’t the same shy, doormat of a girl she was in high school.
Since she holds Cade's football future in her hands, she’s more than ready to
make payback a real bitch.
Will they stay in the defensive zone or discover that
sometimes life's greatest lessons are learned the hard way?
Excerpt
“Is this one of those old-timey record players?”
“A Victrola,” I answered as I joined him.
Cade snapped his fingers. “That’s right. There was one of
these at my grandparents’ house.” He eyed the contraption curiously. “Does it
work?”
“Sure.” I set my cup down before winding up the crank. Then
I placed the needle on the record, and a slow instrumental tune came out of the
Victrola’s horn. At Cade’s groan, I grinned. “Not a fan of classical music?”
“No. It’s more about the fact that it’s one of Strauss’s
waltzes.”
Cocking my brows at him, I asked, “You know Strauss?”
With a snort, Cade said, “Don’t look so surprised, and no, I
didn’t learn about him in Harlington’s music appreciation class either.”
I held up my hands. “I wasn’t alluding to anything.”
“Yes, you were alluding, as you say, to the stereotype of me
being an uncivilized jock,” Cade teased in a snooty-sounding voice.
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to stop doing that. You really are so
much more than a jock.”
He swept his hand to his heart. “Why, thank you.”
“So tell me how you know Strauss.”
“I have waltzed at ten cotillions and three debutante
balls.”
“Wow. That’s quite impressive.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve never been to a cotillion or deb ball.”
“No, I mean, haven’t you ever waltzed before?”
I laughed. “Oh yeah, I often practice my dance skills out in
the corn.”
“Every lady should know how to dance.”
“But I’m not a lady.”
Cade smiled. “Yeah. You are.” When I started to protest, he
said, “Money and position aren’t what make a lady. It’s what’s inside you that
counts.”
His words and his tone caused the breath to wheeze out of my
lungs. Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me any more with the things he
said, he went and said something like that. “Thank you,” I finally mumbled.
“You’re welcome.” The world seemed to slow to a crawl around
us as we stood there staring at each other. The sound of Cade clapping his
hands together caused me to jump. “Okay. One waltz lesson coming up.”
“I’m going to warn you that you’re probably going to regret
this. I’m the worst dancer ever.”
“How can anyone who plays the piano suck at dancing?”
“I’m not sure how it’s possible, but trust me, it is.”
Cade laughed. “We’ll see.”
A tingling jolt of electricity shot through me when Cade
took one of my hands in his. After he put his other hand on the small of my
back, he drew me closer to him. Even with all the times I had sat next to him
while we worked on our project, I hadn’t been this close.
“Now you put your other hand on my shoulder.”
“Okay.”
“Step back with your left foot and then bring your right to
the side.” After I followed Cade’s lead, he said, “Now bring your left foot to
your right, and then step forward with your right.”
My mind spun as I frantically tried processing Cade’s
instructions. Somehow it managed to click together, and I followed his lead.
“Hey, you’ve got it,” he remarked with a smile.
“It’s not because of me—it must be the teacher.” I glanced
up at him and smiled. “Sports, brains, and dancing; you’re really a true triple
threat.”
“You forgot devastating good looks and charm.”
I grinned. “Does that make you a quintuple threat?”
“Make it a sextuple threat if you throw in the money.”
“I should have known you’d find a way to have ‘sex’ in your
title.”
Cade threw his head back and laughed. “Always busting my
balls, Prescott.”
“Yep. Just consider me your Little Ball Buster like Judith
in Walking Dead was called Little Ass
Kicker.”
Cade’s brows rose in surprise. “You watch Walking Dead?”
“Sure I do.”
“That surprises me.”
“Why?”
“I guess I just figured you only watched pretentious stuff
like Downton Abbey.”
“Downton Abbey is
not pretentious.”
Cade grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes that you watch it.”
“I certainly do.”
“At least I’m 1 and 1 on picking the TV shows you like.”
“While you know me pretty well, you have a lot more to
learn, Mr. Hall,” I teased.
“I look forward to you educating me.”
As I stared into his face, Cade’s expression grew serious.
The idea of educating him suddenly seemed to take on a deeper meaning—one of
both mental and physical knowledge.
Cade dipped his head to where our mouths were just inches
apart. His breath fanned across my cheek, causing me to shiver. I stared into
his eyes, silently pleading with him to go ahead and kiss me. We’d already been
down this road before. Since Thanksgiving night, I’d wanted nothing more than
to feel his lips on mine again.
When he finally kissed me, it sent energy humming all over
my body. I’d kissed other boys, but it had never felt the way it did with Cade.
It was all-consuming of my mind, body, and spirit.
Considering his experience, it shouldn’t have been too
surprising that Cade was a good kisser. What surprised me the most was the
emotion behind his kiss. It ran so much deeper than just a physical act, as if
he was putting his heart and soul into kissing me.
Cade deepened the kiss by plunging his tongue into my mouth.
It tangled along with mine in a waltz of its own composing. My hand snaked up
his back to capture the hair at the base of his neck, and I ran my fingers
through the silky strands, marveling at how much softer it was than I had
imagined.
The Victrola ran out of steam, and the only sound filling
the room was heavy breathing. At the loss of music, Cade stopped leading me
around the floor, and his hands slid underneath my buttocks. He gripped the
globes of my ass before hoisting me up to wrap my legs around his, and I molded
myself tighter against him. I couldn’t seem to get enough of him—the way his
strong arms felt around me, his thick waist against my legs, his broad,
muscular back underneath my hands. Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I wanted all
of him.
When we crashed into a chest of drawers, Cade momentarily
released my lips to breathlessly ask, “Are you okay?”
“Mmhmm.” I gazed into his hooded eyes. “Don’t stop. Please
don’t stop.”
I rubbed myself against the ridge in Cade’s pants, causing
him to groan against my throat. “Jesus, Prescott, if you keep doing that, I
won’t be able to stop.” When I did it again, my action was rewarded with a
growl.
Cade’s wild eyes glanced around the room before leading us
over to the wide red settee in the back corner. We collapsed onto the smooth
velvet material. I widened my legs to allow Cade’s hips between them and his
mouth sought out mine in a frantic kiss.
As our tongues battled against each other, Cade’s hand came
to my breast. He kneaded and cupped it over the fabric of my uniform, my
nipples hardening under his touch. When he began undoing the buttons of my
dress, he broke the kiss to glance at me as if asking my permission. At my nod,
he practically ripped the remaining buttons open.
He gave me a sheepish grin as he pulled me into a sitting
position. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay,” I said as I slid my arms out of the sleeves.
My breath hitched when Cade’s arms snaked around my back to
undo my bra. Once it was unhooked, I couldn’t help bringing my arms to cover my
chest and keep the bra in place. I hated that in this moment I couldn’t seem to
get past my modesty, or my fear that my average-sized chest would turn him off.
Cade tilted my chin with his fingers, forcing me to look him
in the eye. “You sure you’re okay with this, Prescott?”
“I am, I promise.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“I’m just a little scared,” I whispered.
“That I’ll hurt you?” Cade questioned with a wounded look.
I gave a quick jerk of my head. “That you won’t like what
you see.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been with so many other girls. I’m afraid I won’t
measure up.”
His expression darkened. “That’s the stupidest fucking thing
I’ve ever heard.”
I ducked my head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help the way I
feel.”
Cade cupped my face in his hands. “There’s only right here
and right now, and there’s no one else but you and me. None of the past, just
us and this moment.”
My heartbeat thrummed wildly at his sentiment. “Okay,” I
murmured as I stared deeply into his eyes.
“And you could never not be beautiful to me. I like
everything about you, both inside and out.” At what must’ve been my incredulous
look, Cade grinned. “And I’m not just saying that so you’ll let me in your
pants.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” Deep down, I knew it to be the truth.
If Cade had really wanted to just screw me, he would have attempted it over the
past two months.
“I wouldn’t be here tonight if I didn’t want to be with you
for the long haul.”
Once again, my heart began to beat so erratically that I
felt a little dizzy. “Really?”
He nodded. “You’re all I need, Avery.”
About Katie Ashley
Katie Ashley is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon
Best-Selling author. She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her daughter,
Olivia, and her two very spoiled dogs. She has a slight obsession with
Pinterest, The Golden Girls, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Supernatural, Designing
Women, and Scooby-Doo.
With a BA in English, a BS in Secondary English Education,
and a Masters in Adolescent English Education, she spent 11 1/2 years educating
the Youth of America aka teaching MS and HS English until she left to write
full time in December 2012.
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