Pippa's Fantasy by Donna Gallagher Read Free Book Online Page A

night, chatting about life, about movies she liked, the music she listened too, mesmerised by her natural beauty. Her aura had been that of a sweet, likeable young lady, a girl he’d really felt very attracted to, but he had also realised that she was too naïve and inexperienced for him.
    Given the clear threats to keep his distance from her, Rookie had come to the conclusion that he would have been taking advantage. Phillipa had a life ahead of her, and from what her father had bragged, a life that was going to be very successful. Rook didn’t want to be the uneducated football player from a single-parent home who was holding her back. So, trying not to waver in his resolve, he had used every ounce of self-discipline he could muster while ignoring the look of pain on her beautiful face. As her eyes had filled with tears at his rejection, Rook had just fled from Phillipa, that night she had come to him with her heart on her sleeve in the darkness of her family’s garden. 
    It was amazing to Rook that he had felt the exact same reaction to her touch again, so many years later.
    “How could I have not recognised her? So she changed her hair, cut those blonde locks and coloured them black. Hadn’t I secretly looked into those incredible blue eyes enough to remember them? What a fuck-up! Does she hate me that much, after all this time?” he chastised his stupidity aloud. 
    “Well, Princess Phillipa certainly isn’t innocent anymore.” Rook lifted his beer in salute at his own words as he remembered the things they had done the previous Saturday night.
    He decided wisely, after finishing the sixth beer, that he would just get over it, but that she sure as hell wouldn’t be touching him with her hot, deceitful little hands. He wasn’t planning on getting injured. He drunkenly told himself that he would just steer clear of her sexy self and let her look after the other guys.
    An image of her hands massaging the masculine bodies of his teammates flashed like a sword through Rook’s mind. The image did not make him feel any better. No, not any better at all.
    So after Rook had drunk the last beer from his fridge, as he contemplated the idea of going down to his club and raiding the well-stocked bar, he fell into a drunken slumber. He dreamt of the life he had imagined when he had discovered he had not used a condom—the life that contained Phillipa with a blonde-haired toddler nestled on her hip. Her blue eyes twinkled and the smile on her face showed the love he assumed was for him. But then the dream changed and another man appeared as the recipient of Phillipa’s love, while Rook faded away into oblivion.

Chapter Nine
     
     
     
    When Pippa arrived home Cassie was sitting on the couch reading, looking relaxed and contained, dressed in her usual attire of jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt with her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. Pippa couldn’t help but note the differences between them now. At one time, they had commonly been mistaken for sisters. It wasn’t just the change in Pippa’s hair colour—it was more. Cassie had this air of calm surrounding her these days, an aura of confidence, probably honed to perfection due to her role as a teacher. The thought of standing in front of a roomful of angsty teens was enough to make Pippa break out in a sweat. Cassie had once confided in her that teenagers were like sharks—one sniff of blood in the water, or more literally fear or indecision, and they attacked unmercifully.
    Pippa, in contrast to Cassie’s calm demeanour, thought she probably looked like she had been through the washer twice. She collapsed down next to her friend, exhausted from her emotional day, and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. Cassie, taking one look at her, shook her head.
    “Day didn’t go so well then, I’m guessing by the look of you, Pip.”
    “It was horrible, Cass,” Pippa replied mournfully, kicking off her shoes and tucking her legs up underneath her body. She wrapped her