Page 36 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

SARAH

I t had rained most of the morning, the field was slick and covered in mud for the throw-down game between the baseball team and us. Coach had been on board instantly, but she lived for a good ‘put men in their place’ moment, so I knew I wouldn’t have trouble convincing her to be our referee.

“Should we like… make them sign waivers or something?” Sunday asked, doing up the laces on her cleats. “I feel like someone is going to get hurt.”

“You can guarantee Todd and his fragile male ego are going to get hurt, Rhea’s in a mood today,” Kaia quipped, her eyes focused on Rhea stretching her Hillcats jersey over her massive shoulders. “We might want to ask if they set aside funeral expenses…”

I laughed as my fingers raked through her hair, tightly twisting them together into thick braids that met at the nape of her neck.

“Just be careful with Jensen’s face, I’m kind of attached to it,” I teased quickly and Kaia looked up at me with a soft expression I wasn’t expecting. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Have you told him yet?” She asked, leaning back against me in the locker.

“About California?” I asked. The answer was no, I hadn’t. I had given my answer to Coach, I was going come season end. It was too big of an opportunity to pass up, but even the thought of talking to Jensen about it made me sick to my stomach.

“Not about that,” Kaia said, poking my cheek. “About how you feel about him.”

“There’s nothing to talk about it’s just a casual thing between us, he knows that and so do I.” I pushed away from her gently, double checking my laces and the tensor wrap around my knee. I could feel her glare, the heat pooled between my shoulder blades and it was laced with judgement.

I thought about defending myself from her onslaught of silent arguments when Sunday opened her mouth again, “do you think they have mouth guards?” She asked.

“God I hope.” I paused, before turning to the team. “Alright I know today is goofy, but we have a point to prove and I am not letting those boys leave this field without a decent amount of bruises, a win and Todd has to cry.”

“Which one is Todd?” One of the girls asked.

“You’ll know,” Rhea, Kaia and I all said in unison.

We made our way out to the field to find the Hornets stretching on the other side dressed head to toe in Hog colors.

“Who the fuck gave them those?” Rhea was the first to ask, breaking out of the line up and stepping onto the field with a dirty look.

“That fucking asshole,” Cosy grumbled, her middle finger extending out to a waving Judd Loveday, who was standing next to Boone and Brighton on the other side of the field.

“God, he sticks that beautiful thick head in everyone’s business and if he didn’t look like a Viking god, I’d probably share your sentiment…” Kaia hummed, her body leaning into mine as she swooned.

“Are you going to be able to concentrate?” I asked Kaia and she smiled at me.

“Are you?” She countered, her eyes sweeping the Hornet’s team and landing on Jensen, bent over tying his cleats.

“Holy fucking shit,” the words tumbled from me before I could stop them.

It was like a slow-motion scene out of a romantic comedy, we all lined up in silence to watch him in the misty weather.

Every inch of him damp and shiny from the rain.

The rugby shorts hugged every muscle in his strong thighs and ass.

Every single tattoo was on display and every single girl on the team gave him their full attention as he straightened out.

“Fuck,” Sunday mumbled as he smiled at me and started across the field. His hair was damp and hung on his forehead in funny, messy curls that begged to be touched. “At this rate, I won’t even be able to concentrate.”

“Nice gear,” I said as he got closer and he looked down at himself .

“It’s a little snug,” Jensen groaned, pulling at the hem of his shorts around his thighs.

“No, they fit perfectly, baby…” I looked down at his thick thighs and wet my bottom lip. I couldn’t figure out if I wanted them on him forever, or permanently off him…

“I guess someone told Boone about the game today, him and Judd came down to the stadium with a box of crap for us to use,” Jensen explained, his hand reaching out to wrap around my waist but Kaia interjected, slamming a rugby ball into his stomach with a glare on her sharp face.

“No fraternizing with the enemy, get back to your side of the field fuckboy,” she said with a smirk, but it didn’t stop Jensen from leaning around her with his hand on the ball to kiss my jaw gently. His direct defiance of Kaia’s orders only riled her up further but he wasn’t paying her any mind.

Jensen dared to tease as he pulled back. “What we’re we supposed to play in, our baseball pants?”

“No,” both Sunday and I chimed in and Jensen laughed at the ridiculous show of love for the rugby shorts.

“You involved the Hogs, that’s foul play and we haven’t even started,” Kaia argued.

“We had to make sure that the game was played fairly, you didn’t think we were going to let your coach solo referee us?” A smug look formed on Jensen’s face and I could feel the heat rising in Kaia beside me.

“Boone Black is the biggest cheat on this field, he doesn’t put a toe on it. You want fair, you can have Brighton. He’s a stickler for the rules and won’t make bad calls just so you win,” Kaia argued and Sunday giggled as Rhea paced around behind us like she was going to war.

“You’re taking this way too seriously.” Jensen looked over his shoulder at the Hornets, all waiting for instruction.

“Maybe you aren’t taking it seriously enough,” she said, watching him like a hawk. “ Maybe there needs to be higher stakes,” she snapped.

“No more bets.” I shook my head, trying to stop what was coming but Jensen and Kaia were paying me no attention and there was no stopping what came out of his mouth next .

“We win, you all show up to the next baseball game, painted head to toe with pom poms. The Hornets need some new cheerleaders,” he said to her and I sighed as she started to laugh.

“Alright.” Kaia nodded, her laugh dying out as she looked up at him, “but if you lose, the bet stands only you all show up to our game… painted head to toe with pom poms.”

“In nothing but rugby shorts.” Sunday added so quickly her words strung together.

“In nothing but rugby shorts for Sunny, because she asked so nicely,” Jensen said, not looking away from Kaia as he extended his hand to her.

He started to back away when I stepped forward, “also if we win by more than three tries, Bright, Boone and Judd all have to come,” I warned loud enough for them to hear me. I watched as their expressions changed from confident to worried.

“And how do you expect me to convince them of that?” Jensen asked me, purposefully stretching his arms over his head and showing off the hardened ridges of his stomach as his jersey rode up.

“You’re the charming one, figure it out.” I scrunched my nose up at him before turning back to the team. “We cannot lose.” My tone dropped and I narrowed my eyes on all of them.

“Your lack of faith in us is rattling, Minty.” Rhea grinned, showing all her sharp teeth as her hungry eyes scanned the line of men on the other side of the field.

“Not a lack of faith, questioning our focus. We can’t just rough them up, we need to win. ” I warned as the girls started to huddle around. We ran over a few plays, hyping ourselves up as Coach talked to Brighton at center field.

“We’re playing sevens because the Hornets couldn’t find enough players,” Coach said.

“Pussies,” Kaia coughed out.

“Do you know how hard it is to talk anyone to go up against godzilla?” Van said from the other side of the line. “Rhea has better personal records than half the guys on our team. ”

Rhea beamed at Van like he had just called her every sweet thing in the book and gave him a little wink before her face dropped back into focus and narrowed in on Todd who was rearranging what little cock he had smuggled into his rugby shorts.

“Statement stands.” Kaia shrugged.

They had collected the usual suspects, and I recognized a good handful of the lined up baseball players.

Jensen, Dean…Cael and Van… Todd. But their ringer was Arlo King himself standing at the end of the line with a grumpy expression on his chiseled face.

The three other guys all looked equally terrified as Coach ran through the rules for them.

“I want Kaia’s wraps checked,” Boone said over the noise of conversation.

His white shirt was damp and stuck to the rolling form of muscles, giving show to all the patchwork tattoos that littered his massive toned body beneath.

The growl that left Kaia was feral and she glared at him like her eyes could burn holes in his skin.

“Don’t give me that look, Killer. You’re just as much of a cheat as I am,” he purred with a bright, knowing smile.

Kaia, unwrapped her left hand, wiggling it at him before flipping him off with a bare set of knuckles, “The brass is reserved for dickheads,” she sneered.

“Mmhmm,” Boone eyed her with that same smile before backing off to join Judd on the sidelines.

“Let’s get this game started before the rain gets heavy,” Coach barked, her whistle slipping between her lips.

“Play safe, play fair… if I see anyone out there getting too rough this game is being called. I am not bringing the ambulance down here today or risking a bunch of D1 athletes over a bet, do you understand me?” She looked over both teams and we all nodded in agreement.

As soon as Sunday’s foot touched the ball it was apparent that the Hornets had been given a crash course on rules from the guys.

They were nowhere near ready for the onslaught of contact and within seconds Sunday had slipped between Dean and Van like she was invisible, both of them grabbing at her but too slow to turn on their heels and she was gone, jogging into the scoring zone and tapping the ball on the ground between the posts.

“Easy like a Sunday morning.” Kaia dog whistled at her.