Aliyah Burke

#sportsromance #football #unrequitedlove #fakerelationship #brothersbestfriend #bestfriendssister #curvygirl

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This ruse may cost him everything…

Star Tight End in the NFL, Kaeden “HP” Archer needs another scandal like some need a hole in the head. Agent ready to drop him, just traded to the last team in the league willing to put up with him, he can see the writing on the wall. Until a chance reunion with his friend’s little sister, brings more than just a gleam of hope. It’s brings an insane idea.

Faye Reynolds is used to being overlooked by men, she’s comfortable in her skin and is fine with not being a size zero. And that’s fine until Kaeden Archer is transferred to the Vancouver Storm and is back in her life. Unable to tell him no, she agrees to help him improve his image. Only problem is, her feelings have always been real for him, like they’ve been her entire life. Does she have what it takes to play the player, so she’s not hurt even more when the deception ends?

*** excerpt ***

She loved him. Not from the first time they met, of course, because that wasn’t what any intelligent six year old would do. A foolish one, sure. But she wasn’t a foolish little girl, no matter what her brother tried to tell her.

So, she held off on that very first day. Was it a bit of a miracle? Perhaps. Either way, she held out on day one. She fell in love with him on the second day he came around. His chocolate hair that was so soft, his blue eyes that crinkled in the corner when he sent her a smile. One that was just for her.

It didn’t matter he was a few years older than her and her brother’s best friend. He was always there, or she at his place with his family. They were next door to one another so it was easy to watch him.

And she did.

Watched him while she read her books. Stole looks while he and her brother played football with some of the other guys from school. Pretended she was his girlfriend when she was allowed to go watch them play.

Things began to change. They all grew up and it wasn’t right to for her to follow after them anymore. It didn’t matter, she still loved him, holding onto the hope he would wait for her.

But he didn’t. The first time she found him kissing another girl hurt. What hurt worse was that he began moving from female to female like they were disposable.

He’s waiting for me to be older. It will be different then.

It wasn’t.

On her eighteenth birthday, when she was finally legal, she had plans to kiss him, to show him that they were meant to be. Excited all day for him and her brother to arrive from college she lingered as much as she could in his embrace.

Dinner was amazing as she listened to them talk about college. She wanted to go to the same school, just to be close to him and had been accepted there. More of the news she was going to share with him. Tonight. She told him when they had a few seconds alone she wanted to talk to him after the party.

After the house had settled down, she walked outside and cut her gaze to the house next door. She loved his parents and him. Everyone would be thrilled when they got together.

Staring at her watch, she knew she was early but didn’t want to miss any of the time she had with him. Doing a shimmy, she walked toward his house and slowed when there were noises from the porch there.

Correction, not just noises. Grunts and groans. The sound of flesh on flesh, like two people… Her heart sank. She knew she should turn away and not continue forward, but the part of her that refused to give up on her love for him, propelled her forward.

She peered around the corner of the porch and in the faint glow from the moonlight, she stared and watched as the love of her young life, fucked another. Her silky blonde hair wrapped in one thick fist of his as he pumped his hips into her.

“You shouldn’t have come here.” He shook his head, all without stopping the smooth action of his hips.

“You wanted me in high school. Figured that hadn’t changed.” She gasped and dug her nails into his shoulders. “What’s the rush?”

“I told her I would swing by and see her later, she has something to tell me.”

“You sweet on her?”

“God no. She’s not my type.”

“What is?”

“The one my dick is in right now. She’s a tagalong girl that I grew up with. Family in a sense.”

“Then blow her off and keep fucking me. You know I do all the things you like.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Then he turned his head and looked directly at her. Never once did he stop fucking the girl, just looked, like he’d known she was there the entire time.

He shredded her.

And just like that, her heart that had been consumed with love for him, shattered, the pieces falling like torn up paper fluttering to the wet ground where they disintegrated. One tiny piece survived but she ignored it and walked away, numb.

She nearly gave up going to the same school, but a full ride was a full ride, no man would take that from her. She saw him a few times around campus with other footballers but didn’t talk to him unless he initiated the conversation. Even then, her replies were scripted, her joy feigned.

Then he was drafted along with her brother and she barely saw him from then on. Until the day he showed up in Vancouver, Washington. Apparently, to ruin her life and her sanity.

A tumultuous meeting leads to a journey across the ocean and starts something new.

#historical #RakesNRogues #Book3 #pirate #seamstress

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