It’s a fun, invigorating performance that reminds me why I begged my parents to take dance classes when I was only three. I love dance because it frees me from everything around me. It is the one place where I am me and the rest of the world doesn’t exist. It doesn’t matter if you are a size two or a size twenty-two, anyone can dance, and they can do it well.
By the time my performance is over, I’m straddling Elvis’s lap, sweating like a pig, and I have the biggest smile plastered on my face. With my excitement at an all-time high, I forget there are hundreds of spectators behind my back, watching my every move. I’m only alerted to the fact when they break into uproarious applause. They stomp their feet on the ground like Elvis’s fans do every time he charges onto the field and shout my name like I’m the only superstar in their midst.
“Go and soak it up, buttercup, cause your ass is mine for the rest of the night.”
Elvis’s grin turns blinding when I jest, ”What is it with you and asses? Anyone would swear you’re obsessed with anal.”
I vomit a little when he replies, “Only if it’s your anus.” His shoulder touches his ear when he shrugs. “Too much?”
“Just a little.” I hold my index finger and thumb an inch apart before curling my hands around his bristled jaw so I can line up our lips.
After kissing him long enough my heart rate returns to the crazy tempo it beat when I somersaulted across the stage, I stand to accept my praise. I curtsy to the audience, then thank the judges with a dip of my chin and a smile before shifting on my feet to face Elvis. When he waves off my silent gesture for him to join me, I drag him front and center.
I tug on the hem of my skirt when wolf whistles break across the room. My worry that I’m flashing my panties is pushed aside when I realize the squeals of jubilation are coming from the female attendees.
My eyes bug out of my head when I shift them in the direction the women are gawking. Just like he was the first time I performed for him, Elvis is hard. I don’t just mean a little outline his football pants can conceal. He’s making every seam bulge and sending more than just my head into a tailspin.
“I guess we’ve taken care of your underwear modeling catastrophe?”
With a giggle, I seize his hand in mine before sprinting for the wings of the stage. His response to my impromptu routine is too good to give up, and I’ve finally realized that so is he.
EPILOGUE
Willow
Two years later. . .
I gnoring the way my jersey is absorbing his milky dribble, I bounce one-year-old Beau on my hip. Just like his daddy, his eyes are as dark as his hair, and his face is downright handsome. He’s the cutest 69er fan in the entire stadium.
“Oh, look. There’s your daddy. Can you see him?” I swivel Beau to face the recently crowned three-in-a-row national championship team just as Elvis breaks through the huddle.
The crowd shouts his name, encouraging him to do the routine he does at the end of every game. He climbs the bleachers, kisses me like the entire world isn’t watching, then demands a private performance to celebrate his team’s victory.
Actually, scrap that. Even when they lose, he anticipates some kind of bump and grind. He says my dancing soothes the sting of a loss and enhances a win. I act annoyed every time he asks, but in reality, I love it. Not only do I get to dance for my number one fan, but the moves I’ve created during our private sessions have benefited me greatly. I’ve taught them to superstars around the globe and even performed a few of them myself.
I’ll never be a prima ballerina; I’m too curvaceous for the ballet world to accept me as I am, but I don’t need a tutu covering my backside for people to fork over their hard-earned money to watch me dance. I’ve done quite well for myself the past two years, but none of it will ever rate higher than my relationship with Elvis. Nothing is perfect, but our relationship is pretty damn close.
When Elvis’s muddy cleats land on this side of the railing, I hand Beau to Skylar. I could pass him to his mother, but she has her hands full with Jayla and a seven-months pregnant belly. It’s like after her first conception, Becca’s uterus finally caught on to the concept it took her and Dalton seven years to achieve the first time around. Becca has been popping out kids like Skylar spits insults at the referees when they go against her beloved team.
Skylar has plenty of time to heckle the referees since she got the lifetime tickets she so desperately craved. They weren’t gifted by the person she suspected, though, but that’s a story for another day.
My heart beats in an unnatural rhythm when Elvis cocks his head to the side, smirks his wickedly delicious smile before crooking his finger, demanding I meet him halfway. I play hard to get, like my pulse isn’t racing a million miles an hour just at the thought of tasting his scrumptious mouth again. I can’t help but tease him. I wouldn’t if he didn’t love it so much.
Lucky for me, he likes being challenged off the field even more than he does on it. That’s why I have no qualms riling him about his “old man” sperm having no expiration date every time he asks if I’ve caught Becca’s breeding germs yet. I’ll catch the bug one day, but Elvis just asked me to be his wife during an outback adventure in Australia, so we have an off-season wedding to plan before we can add babies to the 69er fandom.
I throw my head back and laugh when a man on my left shouts, “Go on, Elvis, show her why you’re the king!”
With a sidestep that exposes why he deserves the eighty-seven million dollar contract he just signed to remain with the 69ers for the next four years, Elvis does precisely that. He climbs the stairs two at a time, grips my hair to hoist my head back, then seals his lips over mine.
Every time he kisses me, I swear it’s his best one yet.
This one is no different.
And neither are the million that follow it.
The End!
Did you enjoy Willow and Presley’s story? If so, can you please leave a review.
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This book is a standalone, so I don’t have any that match in this story. Becca and Dalton do have a short story, it is called Falling for a Stranger.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I can sit down and write a book, but this, this is hard.
Thank you to those who inspire, encourage, and support me. Thank you for buying my books, reading them, and leaving reviews. Thank you for sending me messages of support, and telling me how much you love my characters. Thank you for being there when I wanted to walk away from writing. Thank you for taking a chance on a high school dropout who can’t string two sentences together without making a mistake. And last, but not at all least, thank you for seeing past the mess to understand the story beneath it.
Without you, there would be no me, so for that, I’m forever in your debt.
Much Love,
Shandi xx
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shandi Boyes is a USA Today Bestselling Author who was an avid reader for many years before she discovered the love of writing in February 2016. Her first penned novel 'Perception of Life’ is a new adult rockstar romance that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat until the very last word. In September 2016, her focus shifted to hot alpha men in steamy contemporary reads that sizzle off the pages.
Shandi’s novel ‘Enigma of Life’ is an award-winning story on an FBI agent and the subject she was assigned to investigate. Her men are swoon-worthy, devoted, and alpha; and her heroines are strong-willed, determined, and lovable. You should start her stories first thing in the morning, or you may not sleep.
You will laugh and you will cry, but Shandi's characters will stay with you for a lifetime!
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&n
bsp; ALSO BY SHANDI BOYES
Enigma Series - Steamy Contemporary Romance
Enigma of Life - (Isaac)
Unraveling an Enigma - (Isaac)
Enigma: The Mystery Unmasked - (Isaac)
Enigma: The Final Chapter - (Isaac)
Beneath the Secrets - (Hugo - Part 1)
Beneath the Sheets - (Hugo Conclusion)
Spy Thy Neighbor (Hunter - standalone)
The Opposite Effect - (Brax & Clara)
I Married a Mob Boss - (Rico - Nikolai’s Brother)
Second Shot (Hawke’s Story)
The Way We Are (Ryan Pt 1)
The Way We Were (Ryan Pt 2)
Sugar and Spice (Cormack)
Perception Series - New Adult Romance
Perception of Life - (Noah & Emily)
Reality of Life - (Conclusion of Noah & Emily)
Fight of Life - (Jacob - standalone)
Player of Life - (Nick - standalone)
Beats of Life - (Slater - standalone)
Wrapped Up With Rise Up (Novella)
Bound Series - Steamy Romance & slight BDSM
Chains (Marcus and Cleo)
Links (Marcus and Cleo)
Bound (Marcus and Cleo)
Restrained (Marcus and Cleo)
Psycho (Dexter)
Russian Mob Chronicles
Nikolai: A Mafia Prince Romance
Nikolai: Taking Back What’s Mine
Nikolai: What’s Left of Me
Nikolai: Mine to Protect
Infinite Time Trilogy
Lady In Waiting (Regan)
Man in Queue (Regan)
Couple on Hold (Regan)
Standalones
Just Playin’ (Presley and Willow)
COMING SOON:
Asher (Russian Mob Chronicles 5)
Skitzo
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Also by Shandi Boyes
Australian Glossary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Shandi Boyes