Field of Pleasure (New York Sabers, Band 252) - Softcover

Buch 3 von 4: New York Sabers

Rochon, Farrah

 
9780373862276: Field of Pleasure (New York Sabers, Band 252)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 037386227X ISBN 13: 9780373862276
Verlag: Harlequin Kimani Romance, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Is love about to even the score?

Life is one endless touchdown for Jared Dawson. Until the former playboy and star cornerback for the New York Sabers discovers his girlfriend in bed with another man. Reeling from the betrayal, Jared returns to his flings-with-no-strings ways. But no man can walk away from Chyna McCrea. The ravishing choreographer is already tackling the pro-footballer's heart.

Playing defensively is supposed to safeguard against heartbreak. But how can Chyna protect herself from Jared's sensual onslaught? It seems the hunky athlete—and sports world's most eligible bachelor—has decided that playing the field is no longer an option. Together, can they score the greatest victory of all and be on the winning team of both their dreams?

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Farrah Rochon hails from a small town just west of New Orleans. She has garnered much acclaim for her New York Sabers football series for Harlequin's Kimani Romance imprint. Farrah has been nominated for the prestigious RITA Award from Romance Writers of America and the RT BOOKReviews Reviewer's Choice Award. She can usually be found on Twitter or at a Broadway show.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.



Ensconced in a plush velvet chair, Jared Dawson observed the LCD screen with disdain as the punt returner for the New England Patriots was brought down at the eighteenth yard line.

"Pitiful," he huffed. "At least get it to the twenty." He brought a cut crystal tumbler glass to his lips, mumbling, "I would have taken it to the house," before downing a generous portion of the casino's top-shelf Scotch.

Every seat in the ultra exclusive Players Club at Atlantic City's Rio Grande Casino was taken. It was the biggest gambling day of the year—Super Bowl Sunday— and everyone wanted a piece of the action. Jared glanced over at the craps table, able to gauge who was winning and who would have to take out a new mortgage on their house just by studying the players' body language. He'd been on both sides of that coin before.

He could not go back there.

Which was why, for about the thousandth time this hour, Jared asked himself just what in the hell he was doing in this casino.

He usually wasn't one for self-sabotage, but that was the only reasonable explanation he could find in a mind that was marinating in more alcohol than he usually consumed in a month.

One of the conditions of his agreement with the New York Sabers, the NFL team that should have been playing in today's Super Bowl, was that he steer clear of all gaming establishments. Even though Jared had never gambled on a Sabers game, the bet he'd placed on a Raiders-Broncos matchup a few years ago was enough to get him thrown out of the league for life. The NFL had a strict policy on employees gambling on NFL games. It wasn't tolerated. Ever.

Sabers upper management had decided to keep the incident in-house and not report him to the league, but Jared had been required to meet with the team's shrink for months to ensure that his betting wasn't due to a more serious gambling addiction. He had signed an agreement promising to refrain from all forms of gambling. For the past three years, he'd done his best to honor that agreement. Other than the occasional game of zero-stakes poker when his teammates grew tired of their weekly dominoes game, he hadn't come remotely close to anything to do with gambling.

But every man had his breaking point.

Losing in the first round of the playoffs had been a crushing blow, but this wasn't the first time the Sabers had come up short. They always had next year, and at thirty years old, Jared figured he still had another five years in the league, easy. It was walking into his hotel room six months ago to find his girlfriend of ten years—the love of his life—Samantha Miller, in bed with his recently traded ex-teammate Carlos Garcia that had nearly sent Jared over the edge.

Jared slipped his right hand into his pocket and fingered the five-carat radiant cut diamond he'd envisioned sliding on Samantha's finger today. The fantasy had played out a dozen times in his dreams. Amid the confetti and thousands of roaring fans, he would drop to one knee and pop the question. And because it was his fantasy, he, of course, would have just scored the game-winning touchdown to give the Sabers their first Super Bowl win.

But it hadn't happened that way, had it?

Instead, he was watching the big game on television like everyone else, while Carlos was doing only God knew what with the woman Jared had given ten years of his life to.

For a split second he had contemplated an assault, but he didn't want his mom to have to explain to her friends that her son was being tried for a criminal case. Instead, Jared had set out to do a little self-destruction. He was one Scotch away from killing his liver and one bet away from flushing his career down the toilet.

As the normally fifteen-minute halftime show stretched into a thirty-minute glitz-filled concert, Jared pushed himself up from his seat and, with glass in hand, strolled around the casino's private club. In the far right corner a high-stakes poker game was in progress. A familiar tingle inched along his skin as the tension radiating from the table seeped into his bones. He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths, recalling the rush of excitement laying down that first bet always induced.

He needed to step away. Now.

Before he reached his hand into his pocket and drew out his wallet.

Before he slid his black American Express to the pit boss and made an irrevocable mistake that would cost him so much more than whatever money he would lose at the craps table.

Jared didn't get a chance to make another move. A set of strong fingers gripped his biceps and spun him around so fast that Scotch sloshed over the rim of his glass.

"What the hell?" Jared barked.

"That's my question," Torrian Smallwood, ex-wide receiver and current assistant coach with the Sabers, growled. He was also one of Jared's best friends. It didn't surprise him that Torrian had tracked him down.

"Are you out of your mind?" Torrian bit out. "You trying to ruin your life?"

"Maybe." Jared washed the flippant answer down with the remainder of his Scotch.

Torrian's gaze darted around their immediate area. Grabbing Jared's arm, he tugged him to a darkened corner where they were partially shielded by burgundy curtains.

"Why don't you think about someone other than yourself for a minute?" Torrian snapped.

"Aren't you and the rest of the guys always telling me I need to stop taking care of everybody else and start taking care of myself for a change?" he snarled.

"Don't give me that, Jared. This is irresponsible and you know it. You have an entire team counting on you. Hell, I'm missing the Super Bowl running after you."

"I didn't ask you to come here," Jared stated.

"I've been waiting for something like this to happen. You've been living on the brink of destruction for months now." Torrian ran an agitated hand down his face, frustration evident in his tightly clenched jaws. "Look, I know what went down with Samantha hurt you, but don't do this to yourself. You've worked too hard at getting things right with the team. Don't throw it away."

It was the concern in his teammate's eyes that did Jared in. Torrian cared enough to track him all the way to Atlantic City in an attempt to save his sorry ass, when Jared wasn't so sure it was even worth saving. It was the kind of devotion only men who'd been through the fire together could share.

"How could she do that to me?" Jared choked out. "After everything—"

Unable to hold his emotions in check a second longer, Jared tumbled into his friend's arms and sobbed out the agonizing heartache of a betrayal handed to him by a woman he'd loved more than life itself.



Fingers planted on the running track's rubber surface, Jared focused his eyes on the white flag that marked forty yards. He counted down with the trainer as he got on his mark, set and took off down the track. In less time than it would take to write his full name, he was putting on the brakes. Jared checked the stopwatch. He'd improved his time by three tenths of a second, but he still needed to cut another five.

After where he'd been just six weeks ago, when Torrian found him wallowing in Scotch and on the verge of ruining his career, Jared was grateful to even be back here at the Sabers' practice facility. But having this second chance wasn't enough for him. He had to do something with it. He would show the team he was one hundred percent in this, which was why he was determined to run the forty...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Harlequin Kimani Romance
Erscheinungsdatum
2011
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
037386227X
ISBN 13 
9780373862276
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
224
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Purmerul LTD
https://strengholt.nl/en/

22 Liuleburgaz Str., floor 4, app. 9
0
Plovdiv
4000
Bulgarien

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9781947628168: Field of Pleasure (New York Sabers, Band 3)

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  194762816X ISBN 13:  9781947628168
Verlag: Wandering Road Press, 2022
Softcover