Double Tap by Lani Lynn Vale Read Free Book Online Page A

wake me up.”
    I rolled until my face was level with his. “What the fuck are you doing in my room at,” she looked at her clock on the nightstand then back to me. “Five in the morning?”
    He pointed to a box on the end of the bed, and I gave him a good, long glare before I moved to grab the box.
    The blanket that was covering my legs slipped until my lower half was revealed. I’d thought that the simple pair of cotton shorts that covered my butt was conservative, but obviously I was a little naïve when it came to my clothes.
    Moments later, when I sat back in my original position with the box in my lap, I stifled a giggle when I saw Nico conspicuously readjusting the large tent in his soccer shorts.
    I tossed a look at him and he shrugged, not apologizing at all.
    I opened the box to try to cover up my nervousness, and stared at the contents in confusion.
    He grinned unrepentantly at me. “You up for some soccer?”
***
    I ran up the length of the field with a large man at my back. His name was Michael, and he was incredibly competitive.
    He also didn’t like when he was losing against a girl.
    My new pink cleats tore into the spongy grass, trying my hardest to get into position to accept the pass that I knew Nico was about to lob at me from his position across the field.
    My lungs were screaming at me for oxygen, but I pushed harder, practically feeling Michael’s pounding feet catching up to me.
    My heart was beating quickly, and my hair was sticking to my damp forehead.
    Then the moment I was expecting to happen happened, and he side footed the most beautiful arcing pass I’d seen.
    It hit the sweet spot of my foot like it was meant to. One of the most perfect passes I’d ever witnessed.
    I juggled the ball ten more yards, coming to a stop and firing off the shot at the goal.
    The goalie blocked it, like I knew he would. He was too good.
    However, Nico, my Diablo , was better.
    He was there, bouncing the ball off his chest, then firing the shot like a bullet from a gun.
    The ball slapped against the back of the net, and I screamed.
    I was tempted to pull a Brandy Chastain, ripping my shirt from my body, but that’d look bad against a bunch of amateurs.
    Nico and I were playing the rest of his team, which included Bennett, James, John, Luke, Downy, and Michael.
    Bennett, of course, was the best on the other team since he’d played in high school and had kept up with the sport as Nico had.
    Sadly, they were no match for Nico and me. We’d played together no less than thousands of times. Literally. We’d done this so many times that I knew, instinctually, what he’d be doing.
    They never stood a chance.
    I was, however, dying.
    Once he scored, I fell down in an exhausted heap, laying my head down on the cool grass.
    Shadows, one by one, fell on me, but I still didn’t move.
    “I think you broke her,” Downy, the cute red-headed giant, said.
    I snorted but continued along my path, thinking that a nap sounded pretty darn spiffy right now.
    “She used to do that during high school, too. You wouldn’t even realize she was tired until she was laying on the field after the game,” Nico said, dropping down to one knee.
    I rolled over onto my back to see all seven men leaning over me.
    “I’m getting too old to play like that,” I panted.
    He grinned. “You’re only twenty six.”
    I waved an ambivalent hand. “Yeah, but I don’t recover like I used to.”
    He grinned. “I have excellent stamina. Enough for the both of us.”
    Before he could reply, the women and children entered the field, effectively putting a stop to anymore sexual innuendos.
    “Holy crap,” Shiloh, James’ wife, exclaimed. “I wanna be you when I grow up!”
    I’d been introduced to the other members of Kilgore SWAT this morning before we started playing.
    The two wives, Shiloh and Reese, had showed up at half time with their kids. Reese belonging to Luke, and Shiloh belonging to James.
    “I doubt it. I have arthritic knees,