Kicked: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by C. M. Stunich Read Free Book Online Page A

it was fall, there were plenty of evergreens to keep the atmosphere emerald and lush, a far cry from the dry desert shit hole where Teagan and I grew up.
    Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath.
    The rhythmic movement of my legs, the pumping of my arms and the thumping of my pulse in my neck kept me calm as I raced through the trees and over protruding roots. I leapt those like they were the enemies on the field, like I was a running a Hail Mary pass into the end zone.
    I was so up inside my own fucking head that when I actually veered around a corner and came up on another runner, I didn't even consider the fact that it might be Teagan, not until I closed the gap between us and caught a flash of that bouncing red ponytail.
    Fate.
    Fucking fate.
    I picked up the pace until I was literally running next to her, leaping over branches and stray bushes on the narrow path. The heavy sounds of our breathing mingled together, turning my thoughts in the wrong direction, sending all that pumping blood in my body to my cock. It didn't help that with each movement of her body, I saw the swell and bunch of long, lean muscles, the perfect roundness of her chest, the hot flush on her cheeks.
    “What do you want, Tyce?” Teagan panted, flicking her gaze over to me. Her eyes were the color of chilled mint ice cream, and I wanted so badly to dig into that expression, pull it apart and figure out exactly what was going on in her head. “I'm a little busy here.”
    “I thought you might need someone to catch you in case you fell,” I said, my voice pitching low despite my labored breathing. Without meaning to, I switched right into flirting with her when that was the last thing I'd meant to do. I flirted with girls that didn't mean shit to me. Teagan … was a whole different ball game.
    “Haha,” she said, but at least she didn't elbow me off the edge of the path. Deep breath, deep breath, deep breath. “Seriously though, what?”
    I wasn't about to cop to running on the off chance I'd see her again, so I lied. Again. Seemed like the easiest route out. I wasn't proud of it, but it was there.
    “Didn't know I'd run into you,” I panted with a shrug she didn't see. Her gaze was focused on the path in front of us again, on the constant beeping of the heart rate monitor strapped to her arm. “Just trying to be friendly.”
    “Really? That seems like a skill you could use some practice with.”
    Pound, pound, pound. Our feet hit the dirt in unison as we rounded a corner and came up on the cement. Moving across the Autzen Footbridge, I could hear the roar of the river beneath us like a second heartbeat.
    “We need to talk,” I said as we hit the end of the bridge and Teagan turned around to double back, coming to a stumbling stop and leaning hard against the cement railing on the edge. I moved up close to her, careful to keep at least a foot between us. I didn't know what I'd do if I got any closer. I wished I could say nothing, but I couldn't trust myself around her. This is why I left.
    I took another deep breath, reaching down to pluck my sweaty shirt away from my chest.
    “You … chased me … all the way down here to … talk,” she gasped, glancing over her shoulder at me, sweat dripping down the tip of her small nose, right over those freckles I used to tease her about way back when. “Don't you mean berate me? Yell at me?”
    “I never yelled,” I said, feeling my fists clench and release. That old familiar anger was still burning inside me. It never went out, like embers in a fire, hot coals to burn anyone that got too close, who was either too stupid or too naïve to realize they should stay away. “I just … I want to know what you're doing here, Teagan?”
    “I live across the street, Tyce. Why wouldn't I come here?”
    “You know what I mean,” I snapped back at her, trying to control my temper. It'd never done anything good for me, so I don't know why I hung onto it. In the past though, anger had been my shield,