RHINO: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (With FREE Bonus Novel OFFSIDE!) Read Online Free PDF

asshole, you’re going in the wrong direction.”
    “ So, deny it.”
    “ I’m not playing this game.”
    “ That’s not an adequate response.”
    “ I’m not the one with inadequate intentions.”
    “ I’m just being honest.”
    “ You brought me here because you intended to fuck me?”
    “ I brought you here so you’d write an article about me, I can’t help it if women find me irresistible.”
    “ If this was a date I’d leave right now.”
    “ Don’t be like that.”
    “ Are you even aware how arrogant you sound?”
    “ Sorry, I’m a little rusty with the outside world.”
    “ Conceited.”
    “ I didn’t mean to offend you.”
    “ I’m not here because I want to fuck you.”
    “ Then I guess you’ll be famous as the one who managed to refuse.”
    “ It’s not easy to refuse if you’re paying them.”
    “ Ouch.”
    “ I don’t find you attractive anyway.”
    “ You don’t like big men?”
    Lucy gives me a look she disguises as dismissive.
    “ I like big men, but I wouldn’t describe you that way.”
    She’s had her eyes all over me since she got here.
    “ How would you describe me?”
    “ Lost. Immature. Rude.”
    “ That’s no way to treat your host.”
    “ I’m just being honest.”
    “ Well hopefully we can change your opinion of me.”
    “ That might be hard if you continue trying to hit on me.”
    “ You’d know if I was hitting on you, this is just us having a conversation.”
    “ This is how you conduct all of your conversations? You’ve been on your own way too long.”
    “ That’s why you’re here.”
    “ I told you, I’m not your therapist.”
    “ I didn’t mean it like that.”
    “ I’m not your date either.”
    I let that statement hang in the air while I refill her glass with wine.
    “ I’m going to make a bet with you”, I say.
    “ Reporters don’t make much money. Nowhere near as much as football players.”
    “ I make less than I did now that my sponsors have pulled out.”
    “ And whose fault is that?”
    “ You’d understand if they were camped outside of your house every day.”
    “ You know I’m one of those people.”
    I smile. “Scum of the earth.”
    “ Someone’s got to do it.”
    “ By the end of this week, your opinion of me will have changed.”
    “ That’s it?”
    I shrug. “That’s it.”
    “ We’ll see.”
    “ You know, I can’t change a closed mind.”
    “ You’ve got a hell of a lot of work to do to convince me.”
    “ What did I ever do in the first place to make you feel so strongly one way or the other?”
    Lucy leans back in her chair. “Oh, you mean beyond the threats to colleagues in my profession?”
    “ You can’t hold yourself accountable for the protection of journalists worldwide, as though they're a protected species under your sole care. You know, like rhinos.”
    I get rolled eyes at that before she ignores me and continues anyway.
    “ You’ve never endeared yourself to me.”
    “ You’ve never made an attempt to get to know me.”
    Lucy’s eyes go wide and she leans towards me over the table. “You haven’t exactly made access easy.”
    Two glasses of wine and I’m feeling ready to break the ice here. I was going to leave it a little longer, but now feels like the right moment to do it. She might be pleading to go home tomorrow after all.
    “ You have never been that interested.”
    “ Please.”
    Now I’m the one leaning. “You don’t remember me do you?”
    “ Remember you?”
    Lucy gives a stifled laugh, looks away and then back again and her eyes tell a story of a million words.
    “ What’s there to remember? An asshole jock so self-involved he pushed everyone else away.”
    She does remember me. Fucking hell. I’m not the only one with a secret here. I lean back in my chair and let the truth manifest itself between us. I’m a little shocked. Quite a lot shocked actually. This could be good, or it could be very bad indeed.
    “ That’s not how I remember it.”
    “