Page 31 of The Hellion and the Captain (Scandals and Scores #2)

Chapter Twenty-Six

E mmaline stared at the river flowing before her.

She was supposed to be with the team. They had scheduled an extra practice and a dinner this week, as the championship game was in just a few days and Rhys had suggested they could use a few more sessions together.

She had been given her new uniform and had practiced, for she hadn’t wanted to let her team down, but she had escaped immediately afterward, hoping no one had noticed her leave.

Yesterday, she had gone to the practice field in hopes that she could bring the uniform home with her and dress before the game, while also getting in a few practice reps, in anticipation of the game to come.

But the more threats she felt from all sides—her brother, Victor Reeves—the more she wondered whether she was still doing the right thing.

She had formed a pile of rocks beside her, and she picked them up, throwing them into the moving water one at a time, watching the water ripple in circles as they sank to the bottom.

“This doesn’t look like dinner with the team,” said a low, gruff voice from behind her – one that caused her every nerve to tingle when she heard it.

She didn’t turn around as she stared at the river, the wind pushing a few tendrils of hair across her face, the rest captured in the cap atop her head.

“I had my meeting today.”

“I know,” Rhys said, sitting beside her a fair distance away, although his hand rested on the bank just beside her hips. “How did it go?”

“Terribly,” she sighed, resting her chin on her knees. “They practically laughed me out of the room. They treated the idea of ladies playing football like one big joke.”

She heard a growl and looked up to find that Rhys was staring out over the water. His jaw was clenched in anger, as opposed to her own current emotion of despair.

“Then they’re all idiots.”

“They are,” she agreed. “I appreciate that you feel the same.”

“What will you do now?”

“What else is there to do?” she said with a shrug.

“It’s done. We’re not going anywhere with it.

Thinking I should take any opportunity to play football was a mistake.

I was foolish, Rhys. I should never have entertained the idea of playing football with men.

Who do I think I am? Not only am I not good enough, but all I have done is bring risk to all of you.

I’ve been discovered, and I’m sure Reeves is waiting to make his move at the championship match today, and you will lose it all. ”

Rhys lifted his gaze from the water to stare at her.

“Emmaline, you must listen to me and understand that there is truth in everything I say.”

She eyed him warily.

“First, I added you to our club without knowing who you truly were. You were the best of those who tried to play with us, as Emmett Williams, even before all the extra training we did. And if you think you do not deserve to be on this team, then you are taking my judgment and training into question, you hear me?”

She swallowed hard. “I do. I’m sorry, Rhys, I didn’t mean?—”

“And further, just because a bunch of old men, set in their ways, don’t think your idea is good, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It just means you haven’t found the right backer yet. You are not a woman who gives up on her dreams. Why stop when you’ve only just begun?”

“It’s just all too much.”

“Too much for one person, perhaps,” he said.

“But you are not alone, Emmaline. You have me, and you have Lily, and all your other friends and the women on your football club. Trust me in this. As for the game, we need you. We need to start with you, and we will stand beside you no matter what happens. I know these men we play with. If they knew the truth, they would support you however they could.”

She sniffed and wiped away a tear that threatened. She wouldn’t allow him to see her cry.

“Thank you,” she said softly.

He lifted his hand as though he was going to reach out toward her but stopped before touching her.

“I’ve never met a woman like you.”

“Not the first time I’ve heard that,” she said, biting her lip. “Usually followed by, ‘it’s been fun, but you’re just too much for me.’”

“Is that what you believe I am going to say?” he said, capturing her attention as she swung her gaze toward him.

“Something of the sort.”

“You truly think that I’m going to give up on you, that I’ve had my fun, that once I see this through, I’ll be gone?”

“Perhaps,” she said warily .

“Well, you’re wrong,” he said resolutely. “When I told you I love you, I meant it, and I am not going anywhere.”

“You told me yourself that you have always become bored with women after a time, that you didn’t believe you would ever find anyone you would be interested in staying with for any length of time.”

“Exactly,” he said, and she could only stare at him until he continued.

“Everyone else bored me after a time. You, Emmaline, are anything but boring. You keep me on my toes. I never know what to expect from you – what you will say, what you will do. I love that about you. You say others find you too much? Well, I find you just the right amount.”

She teared up at his words, especially knowing that Rhys was not a man who said anything he didn’t mean. In fact, he usually barely ever said anything at all.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” she said, her voice so low it was almost a whisper.

“That’s the thing, Emmaline,” he said gruffly, “you didn’t have to do anything at all but simply be yourself. You let me see who you truly were, and that means more than anything else.”

That did it.

She launched herself into his arms, rolling him backward so that she was hovering in a straddle over him.

Rhys’s strong hands came up to grasp her hips as she pressed herself against him, eager to find the friction she was searching for.

Their lips met in a searing kiss, her skin hot everywhere they touched.

Emmaline poured all the love and desire she felt for Rhys into the kiss.

She talked so much that she needed to show him, beyond words, just what he had come to mean to her.

His tongue swept into her mouth, tangling with hers as the kiss deepened. She ground her hips against his, eliciting a low groan from Rhys, his grip on her tightening.

“Emmaline,” he rasped against her lips. “One of these days I need to take you on a real bed, not on a picnic blanket or a cabin in the woods or on a riverbank.”

“You don’t want me here?” she said, although her words were teasing.

“Oh, I want you all right,” he growled. “Every time I see you, I want you more.”

“Well, I am yours, Rhys,” she breathed. “Wherever you want me. Make love to me. Here. In the field. In a gardener’s cottage. On a real bed. It makes no difference to me, as long as I am with you.”

“You sure about that?”

“Completely.”

Rhys rolled them over, his solid weight pressing her into the soft grass. His hands roamed her curves as he trailed hot kisses down her neck. Emmaline arched into his touch, craving more.

Their urgency overcame the need to touch their bare skin against one another, and their shirts remained as they each removed the layers from their bottom halves.

It had been long enough since they last came together that the tension between them was stretched, although Emmaline imagined that she would want Rhys again and again, no matter how many times they were together.

They explored each other reverently, Rhys’s work-roughened hands reaching beneath her shirt to caress her breasts, impatiently moving the linen out of the way for his mouth to follow, lavishing attention on her sensitive nipples.

Emmaline threaded her fingers through his hair, holding him close.

“Rhys, please...” she whimpered with need, her hips rocking upward repeatedly .

He settled between her thighs, his hard length nudging at her entrance.

Before Emmaline had a chance to reach down and tease him in turn, he joined them as one with a swift flex of his hips.

Emmaline cried out at the exquisite fullness, wrapping her legs around him to pull him even closer inside of her.

They moved together, finding a perfect rhythm. Rhys drove into her with deep, purposeful strokes that had her seeing stars. Emmaline met him thrust for thrust, savoring the slide of his body against hers, within hers.

“I love you, Emmaline,” Rhys groaned. “This was meant to be.”

“And I love you,” she gasped. “I’ll never stop.”

She was a better person with him beside her. Rhys protected her, yes. But he had also encouraged her, enhancing her strength and courage, giving her full use of a power she hadn’t known was within her.

The spring coiled tighter and tighter within Emmaline as Rhys brought her closer to the peak. His thrusts grew more urgent, hitting that spot inside her that made her see flashes of white.

“Let go, love,” he urged. “I’ve got you.”

Emmaline shattered with a cry of his name, her release crashing over her in intense waves. Rhys followed her over the edge a moment later, spilling himself on the ground next to her with a shout of completion.

She wished he could finish inside of her, but knew he prevented himself from doing so only to protect her.

They clung to each other as they came down from the high, trading soft kisses and caresses. Rhys brushed her damp hair back from her face, his blue eyes filled with tenderness.

“No matter what happens, we face it together,” he vowed. “I’ll be by your side. We’ll take on those club committee members, the Athletics, Reeves, your brothers, anyone who wants to stop us. ”

A small smile danced on her lips as she stared at him.

“Us?”

“Yes,” he affirmed, his lips pressed together in determination. “Your fight is mine. You don’t take anything on alone any longer. Even if you do, I’ll be right there behind you.”

She nodded, looping her arms around his neck as she stared at him.

“I started playing with Manchester Central only because I wanted to find a place to play football, with those who could challenge me. But now I know how much the FA Cup means to you, Rhys. I will do everything in my power to help you win it. Whether that means taking the field and giving it my all or stepping down if the need for it arises.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t,” he said in a low voice. “I need you on that field, Emmaline. As yourself, and as Emmett. I need you for your support, and Emmett to help us win. Felix was right. You helped bring us together this season. You keep us all together and working toward a common goal.”

“That is very kind, Rhys, but?—”

“It’s true,” he interjected, sitting up. “I would never lie to you.”

“I know you wouldn’t,” she said, noting that darkness was already approaching.

Between her family’s suspicions about her and now the ill-fated meeting with the Manchester Central Club committee her parents were bound to have heard about, she would be more closely scrutinized than before.

“That is why I trust you, why I know that you will always have my best interests at heart. But you need to look after yourself, too.”

He nodded understandingly, stroking his hand over her cheek before kissing her forehead. She loved the affection he showed her, this man she never thought would show his feelings with touch.

“We will also find a way to make your women’s football club a reality,” he said. “I promise you that.”

She shrugged as she smiled sadly, not wanting to allow any more hope to rise within her at the thought, for she knew she might have to give up that dream at some point.

She focused on another instead.

“I cannot wait until we can be together for more than these stolen moments,” she said, her smile for him growing.

“Nor I,” he said, pulling her in close. “Now, let’s go win ourselves a Cup and get you a women’s football club.”