Brick, p.1
BRICK, page 1
Brick
A Football Romance
Lisa Lang Blakeney
Writergirl Press
LISA LANG BLAKENEY
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Copyright © 2023 Lisa Lang Blakeney.
All rights reserved.
Published by: Writergirl Press
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License Note
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real events, people, or places is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without the permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations used for review.
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The author acknowledges the trademarked status of products referred to in this book and acknowledges that trademarks have been used without permission.
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This book contains mature content, including graphic sex. Please do not continue reading if you are under the age of 18 or if this type of content is disturbing to you.
What Readers Are Saying About Lisa
“Lisa writes books that are intense. Explosive. Panty Melting. Raw. Exposed. Angst. Multifaceted."
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“Cover to cover, page by page every word was amazing. This author is amazing and her work is even more amazing. She really can get all the details and words to sound great together."
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To Every Girl Who Had A Crush On Someone Off Limits
Contents
Books By Lisa
FREE BOOK
Introduction
Prologue
1. Brick
2. Brick
3. Kaya
4. Kaya
5. Brick
6. Brick
7. Kaya
8. Kaya
9. Brick
10. Brick
11. Kaya
12. Kaya
13. Brick
14. Kaya
15. Kaya
16. Kaya
17. Kaya
18. Kaya
19. Brick
20. Kaya
21. Brick
22. Brick
23. Kaya
Epilogue
Special Thanks To My Romance Ninja Patrons!
The Nighthawks
Also From Lisa Lang Blakeney
Where You Can Find Me
About the Author
Books By Lisa
The Masterson Series
Devour this addictive series about the possessive bad boy, Roman Masterson, who falls hard and fast for the girl he’s promised his family to protect.
Masterson
Masterson Unleashed
Masterson In Love
Masterson Made
Joseph Loves Juliette
Masterson Box Set
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Masterson Next Generation Series
The crazy hot fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. Dive into this second generation of Masterson men!
Knox - Knox & Gigi
Bronx - Bronx & Karma
Seven - Coming soon!
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The King Brothers Series
Dive into this series of interconnected standalones featuring 3 alpha hot brothers and the women they lay claim to without apology.
Claimed - Camden & Jade
Indebted - Cutter & Sloan
Broken - Stone & Tiny
Promised - All King Brothers
King Brothers Box Set
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The Nighthawk Series
Sexy & sweet sports romances set in the professional world of football. All standalones.
Saint - Saint & Sabrina
Wolf - Cooper & Ursula
Diesel - Mason & Olivia
Jett - Jett & Adrienne
Rush - Rush & Mia
Freak - Freak & Willow
Brick - Brick & Kaya
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MASTERSON
Meet Alpha Roman Masterson
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“Our passion is incredibly intense. The connection between us borders on the possessive. Our feelings are absolutely forbidden. The question now is…what the f*ck are we going to do about it?”
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Introduction
A one-click, unforgettable, forbidden romance featuring an NFL hottie who falls hard for his best friend’s sister.
From USA Today Bestselling Author, Lisa Lang Blakeney, comes another unputdownable, enemies-to-lovers, forbidden sports romance between an NFL pro baller and his best friend’s sister!
I can have any woman I want.
Except for Kaya.
The only thing I’ve ever wanted is to play ball in the NFL, but my future is imploding right before my eyes after I unwittingly dump America’s sweetheart for the world to see. Now, I’m the most hated man in sports.
Desperate to get my name off of the social media gossip grinder, I return to my hometown to attend my best friend’s wedding, hoping to find some respite.
But the moment I see her again, my breath catches in my throat.
The girl next door.
The woman I can never have.
The goddess I crave.
My best friend’s little sister.
Prologue
Kaya
Ten Years Ago
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I’m standing in front of an outdated and ornate floor-length mirror in my bedroom, remnants of the childhood bedroom set I grew up with. As I twirl the same tendril of hair and stare at an awful zit covered in toothpaste on my forehead, I’m still hopeful about the future. High school can’t be any worse than junior high was. It’s a new building, more students, and a chance to start fresh.
“I can’t believe my baby is all grown up,” my mother says, as she studies my face. “How was the first day of school?”
“It was cool,” I offer tentatively.
“Give it some time, babe. You’re going to find your people and then I know you’re going to love it. High school is a special time in a person’s life. Your father would have been so proud of you.”
“Proud of what? I have done nothing.”
“You don’t have to do anything in particular, Kaya. Just the fact that you’re growing into a wonderful young lady is enough. That’s all we ever wanted.”
I’m fourteen-years-old and not much excites me, but I’m hoping my mom’s words about high school being a memorable moment in time are truthful. I haven’t told her much about how difficult it’s been for me to make friends over the years, but I think it’s painfully obvious by how much time I spend gaming online and not with actual people.
I’m seeking to change all of that this year, though. My plan of attack is to attend all the extracurricular activities I can, starting with a pep rally in the gym for the school’s football team tonight. Football is a huge deal at my school and in this house, too. My brother plays on the team and has dreams of heading to the NFL.
“Have fun tonight,” she tells me, then turns back around before exiting my room. “And make sure your brother doesn’t drink tonight. He’s got your dad’s car.”
“I’m not his keeper, Ma.”
“Just look out for each other,” she huffs.
“Okay,” I say, agreeing to almost anything to get her out of my room. This tender mother daughter moment is only making me more anxious about tonight.
I’m nervous as I enter the gym. The large room feels completely different at night, filled with students seated on the bleachers, and the school band playing loud upbeat music to build enthusiasm. I find myself scanning the large space looking for any familiar face I can, even my brother, but I don’t see him, so I take a seat and pretend to text someone on my cell phone to appear busy.
After a moment, a popular boy I’ve grown up seeing around the neighborhood, John Dixon, sits next to me on one bleacher. He’s one of the coolest boys in the senior class with his flawless brown skin and million-dollar smile, so when he cracks a friendly smile and says, “Hey, beautiful, I’m John. What’s your name?”
I almost pee in my pants.
All I manage to do is offer him a goofy grin in response, and before I can get myself together to say something remotely sensible, I feel my face flush as I hear the laughter erupt from the crowd of students behind me. I tentatively turn around and see my brother’s best friend, Brick, standing there with his arm wrapped around a girl, and a cocky smirk on his face, as if he’d just orchestrated a grand performance for the benefit of his audience.
My heart sinks for a moment as he glances at me and says, “What do you think you’re doing, freshman?” He gestures widely towards me, taking in the blue iridescent shadow on my eyelids and the homemade off-the-shoulder sweatshirt I’m wearing. “Are you trying to give Dixon your number or give him something else tonight?”
Angry tears stream down my face as I stomp my way out of the gym and into the night. I have nowhere to go because my brother is my ride home, but I need to escape. I was just humiliated by the most arrogant boy in the school. A boy who once taught me how to first ride a bike grew into a jerk who takes some sort of sick pleasure in tormenting me.
I’m so enraged that I don’t notice when someone creeps behind me and swings me around by my arm in the middle of the road.
“Aaah!” I yelp in surprise.
“Are you crying?” he asks incredulously but still with that annoying smirk of his, like he thinks he’s so above everyone else.
I wipe my eyes quickly with the backs of my hands.
“What do you want, Brick?”
“You just took off. Where are you going?”
“What did you expect me to do when the entire school was back there laughing at me?”
“Are you having a Carrie movie moment or something? That was not the entire school laughing. It literally was five people.”
“And you’re missing the point!”
“And you were making a fool of yourself, Kaya.”
Brick never usually refers to me by my actual name, and his authoritarian tone pisses me off even more.
“By sitting on the bleachers and minding my own business?”
“You were flirting with John fucking Dixon.”
“I was not!”
“The heavy makeup. The half shirt you’re wearing. This isn’t you. If Kyle had been there, he would have done the same thing. Probably worse.”
“Then leave those types of decisions for my brother to make.”
“Excuse me for looking out for you, because as long as it’s breathing and has two tits, John Dixon will try to fuck anything.”
“Oh, so I’m just anything?”
Maple street is empty, except for the lingering echoes of laughter in the air. I felt humiliated and laughed at, a feeling that only served to make me feel more self-conscious and ashamed. My palms are slippery with sweat and my face is burning with embarrassment as the two of us are so close up in each other’s faces that I can practically smell what Brick had for dinner.
As usual, he looks so sure of himself, so confident in his own skin, and as angry as I am, I can’t help but be drawn in.
He leans in, close enough so that our noses are almost touching, and when he speaks his voice differs from what I’ve ever heard before. It’s soft and low.
“No, you’re better than what you did back there,” he whispers, and then suddenly he kisses me.
It’s a gentle kiss, hesitant and unsure, as if he’s waiting for me to pull away. But I don’t. I want this. I want the warmth of his lips against mine, want the feeling of his hands on either side of my face. Even after everything he’s done, I won’t mind that my first kiss is going to be in the middle of the street, with my brother’s best friend. So I close my eyes and savor the moment.
When Brick pulls away, I feel a little lost, a little sad that the moment has gone so quickly. Then he stares into my eyes as if he’s confused by something and an odd moment transpires between us. The moment is fleeting, though, and finally he takes a step back.
That’s when I notice it.
Regret.
He thinks that he’s made the biggest mistake of his life.
I am the biggest mistake of his life.
“Let me call your brother to come get you,” he says, as if he can’t get away from me fast enough.
I want to cry, but I’m determined to hold back the tears.
“I can get home on my own.”
He shifts nervously between feet.
“So… we don’t need to really tell Kyle about this, right?”
The nerve of this boy embarrassing me in front of the entire school, stealing my first kiss from me, and now he wants me to protect him from my brother?
Arrogant.
Beautiful.
Coward.
I raise my middle finger up right between Brick’s two eyes, like Kyle taught me to do when I was being bullied at ten-years-old.
“You don’t have to ever worry about me telling my brother diddly squat about you because as of now, it’s like you don’t even exist.”
And just like that, from that moment on, Brick wasn’t just my brother’s annoying best friend, he became my arch enemy.
Brick
I sit rigidly in my chair, the weight of guilt pressing hard on my chest. I’ve been coming to this coffee shop at the same time, every day after practice, for the last week, trying to find the strength to confront her. With a deep breath, I glance across the small cafe table, and trace my gaze over her lithe frame, her delicate features, and the way her eyes glimmer when she smiles.
Anyone would be happy to have a girlfriend like Lisa Adams. She’s pleasant, gorgeous, and more accomplished than most women her age. With the down-to-earth charm of a woman who’s Oklahoma born and bred, she’s a self-made celebrity and millions of people tune in to her cooking show to watch her create her famous low carb recipes with down home flavor.
One of the great things about our relationship is that she understands my life as a pro ballplayer. She totally gets fandom and hectic schedules and didn’t mind any of that. Hell, I’ve been kind of happy with her for the past few months and hoped it would last, but deep down I knew this moment was inevitable.
Gathering my courage, I take a deep breath and say, “I don’t know how to say this…” My voice is barely audible and when she looks up in surprise, noting my expression, her frown deepens.
“What’s wrong, Brick? Is your stomach bothering you again?”
“It’s… it’s not going to work,” I say, my voice cracking slightly. It’s funny how I can play one of the most violent sports ever created, but am the biggest chicken when it comes to breaking up with women. I should be used to it by now.
Things were much easier in high school and definitely in college. I could hook up with girls and then ghost them, but I’m supposed to be more mature now, and this is what mature motherfuckers do. They deal with conflict.
Lisa gapes at me in understandable confusion. There’s no way she saw this coming, and I can literally feel guilt tighten my chest.
“What do you mean?” she asks after a few moments of awkward silence. “What’s not going to work?”
“We have to end this,” I say as I watch the look of realization dawn on her face.
She looks away for a moment, her eyes filled with what appears to be pain, as I feel my throat tighten. I’d expected her to be surprised, but I didn’t realize just how deeply it would affect her. She seems hurt.
“I’m sorry,” I say again, not knowing what else to say to smooth this over, and she nods, her eyes still downcast.
