Read Online Hearts in Overtime: A Bad Boy Sports Romance by Daphne Swan - Free Book Online

naïve. 
    “Okay, well, I had two different sets when I was in high school. For freshman year and about half of my sophomore year, I lived with this couple on the north side of Pittsburgh. It was one of those ‘family’ situations. They had four…no five foster kids packed into the house and they didn’t really give a shit about any of us. I was too old to care. I loved having the freedom to hang out with my friends whenever I wanted and not have to deal with curfews and stuff. But they got busted when the state did a surprise inspection and I got sent to live with the Catholic couple.”
    Charlotte has this sweet, sympathetic look on her face. She reaches out to squeeze my arm again, and I take her hand in mine, hoping to convey with the gesture that I’m not some traumatized, sniveling little basket case. For fuck’s sake. In addition to all the other reasons I want my past to stay hidden, I really, really do not need the American public to see me as some tragic little bitch.
    “The Catholic couple was all right,” I tell Charlotte. “I didn’t see much of the mom. She was always at her sister’s house and she wasn’t particularly interested in my life, but the dad was another story.”
    “How so?” Charlotte asks.
    “He was living vicariously through me, but not in a creepy way or anything. He said he always wanted to play football when he was a kid, but he grew up on a farm and there wasn’t any time for anything but farm duties after school. He pushed me.” I smile at the memory. James was a good guy. He was solid. “He pushed me hard. I guarantee you if he hadn’t come into my life when he did there’s no way I’d be where I am today.”
    “Wow.”
    I shrug.
    “Are you still in touch with him? With them?”
    “Sort of. Not really. I send a check every year—you know, because I do appreciate how he was with me—but I’ve asked them to respect my privacy and not call me out in public or anything like that. They always send me a Christmas card, but that’s about it.”
    I bring Charlotte’s hand to my lips and kiss the back of it.
    “What’s your favorite memory of your foster dad?” she asks. “And what was his name?”
    “His name was James.”
    I lean back in my chair as I comb through my memories for a really great one I can share with Charlotte.
     

9. CHARLOTTE
     
     
    “Come back to the residence hall with me,” Ryan says.
    A nervous little giggle escapes from between my lips. “I think I’ve just had a flashback to college.”
    “I’m serious.”
    He hooks a curl behind my ear and leans in to cover my neck with slow, sweet kisses. I feel the arousal stirring inside of me, but I am determined to stand my ground.
    “No way,” I tell him, doing my best to ignore how incredible his firm lips and talented tongue feel on my neck. “I’m here in a professional capacity, Ryan. I’m not going to go sneaking into your dorm room like a horny little co-ed. What if somebody saw?”
    He kisses his way up my neck, down my jaw line and to my lips before pulling back so he can look me in the eye.
    “Nobody would give two shits if they saw you, I promise. We’re members of a pro football team, babe. We’re used to seeing girls traipse in and out of our teammates’ rooms at all hours, every day of the week.”
    Well, that’s a lovely thought. How could Ryan think I’d find this to be a good thing? Like I’d really say, “Yes, please! I would so love to join the ranks of hyper-sexed groupies!”
    “Also,” he continued, “my ‘dorm room’ has a separate living room with a seventy-five inch HDTV, a bar stocked with all the finest spirits, a fridge stocked with delicious gourmet food, a king-sized bed with three hundred count sheets and a Jacuzzi in the bathroom.”
    Must be nice. I shake my head, unable to keep from cracking a smile.
    “Tell me what’s your motel room like?” he asks with an evil grin.
    “All right!” I give him a playful slap on the chest. “It