Bring It On (The Exes #5)

  Bring It On

  Book Five in the Exes Series

  Cheryl Douglas

  Copyright © by Cheryl Douglas

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, including photocopying, graphic, electronic, mechanical, taping, recording, sharing, or by any information retrieval system without the express written permission of the author and / or publisher. Exceptions include brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Persons, places and other entities represented in this book are deemed to be fictitious. They are not intended to represent actual places or entities currently or previously in existence or any person living or dead. This work is the product of the author’s imagination.

  Any and all inquiries to the author of this book should be directed to: info@cheryldouglasbooks.com

  Bring It On © 2017 Cheryl Douglas

  Chapter One

  Jasmine

  “Here’s to revenge sex,” my best friends said in unison as they raised their glasses.

  I clinked my wine glass against theirs half-heartedly, but I wasn’t on board with their plan. Just because my ex-fiancé was a lying, cheating sack of shit didn’t mean I had to jump in bed with the first hot guy who turned my head. Did it?

  “You know the old saying,” Violet said, winking at me. “The best way to get over one man is to get under another one.”

  “I don’t think that’s a saying,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  “Fine,” she said, nudging Becca’s shoulder. “Call it sage advice.”

  Violet and Becca both worked for me, Becca in marketing and Violet in product development. They’d been with me every step of the way, helping me build the brand, picking me up when I stumbled, drying my tears when I cried, and jumping up and down with me when we hit a home run. I loved those girls like sisters and I knew I owed my success to them.

  Unfortunately, I also owed my success to Alex, my ex-fiancé. He had been my “angel” investor when I started my business three years ago. We became friends. He took on a more hands-on role as the business grew, and the next thing I knew, we were sleeping together. Stupid, I know. But I wouldn’t be the first woman to confuse love and gratitude.

  “I still can’t believe he slept with a stripper at his bachelor party,” Violet said, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “That’s just nasty.”

  “What I can’t believe,” Becca said, chuckling, “is that his best friend shot a video of it and sent it to our girl here.”

  I should be grateful to Seth for putting his friendship with Alex on the line when he saw him pull a douchebag move like that, but I wasn’t ready just yet to say, “Thanks for ruining my life.” I would be eventually, when the sting wore off. Because if not for Seth, I might have actually married that asshat.

  “Ugh! Can we not talk about this anymore? It’s bad enough I have to see Alex at work every day. I sure as hell don’t want to waste tonight talking about him.” Yeah, I’d given him more than a figurehead position in my company. He was the CFO, which meant I had to put up with him, like it or not.

  “Oh,” Becca said, exchanging a glance with Violet. “Look who just walked in.”

  Oh no. Hell no! Carter-frickin’-Wells. The professional hockey player I’d “dated” for eight months before I started my business. The star of my fantasies and sports royalty in a city that wanted a Cup so bad they could taste it—and they were counting on their star center to deliver the goods this year.

  “This cannot be a coincidence,” I said, treating my so-called best friends to the stink eye. “How did you know he’d be here?”

  They exchanged a guilty look before Becca confessed. “I follow him on social media, and fans are always posting selfies taken with him here after the games. I guess it’s their favorite post victory hangout.”

  Which explained why two women who didn’t know the difference between a field goal and a hat trick wanted to come to a sports bar for our girls’ night. Sneaky bitches. But I loved them and couldn’t stay mad at them, which they damn well knew when they’d set me up to see him again.

  “Damn, he looks hot,” Violet said, undressing Carter with her eyes.

  It was my own fault really, since I’d told my besties about all the freaky shit we used to do in the sack. “Can we not stare?” I said through clenched teeth. “I don’t want him to see me.”

  It wasn’t as if we’d ended things on bad terms. We’d never really ended it at all. It wasn’t that kind of relationship. We’d hit it whenever he was in town and had a little time to kill. No expectations, just hot sex. So when I had to start focusing on my business, I got too busy to answer his calls or return his texts… or thank him for those flowers he sent me on my birthday. Okay, in hindsight, maybe he had deserved a proper send-off.

  “Why wouldn’t you want him to see you?” Becca demanded. “Who better to help you forget your ex—”

  “I’m not going to use Carter.” Not that he’d see it that way. If he was anything like I remembered, he’d consider a night of toe-curling sex to help me forget my ex his civic duty.

  “Who says you’d be using him?” Vi asked, curling her hand around my forearm. “Come on, when are you gonna get another chance like this? He’s here. You’re here. You’re both single—”

  “How do you know he’s single?” I took a sip from my third glass of wine. If they’d expected to talk me into this, we should have been pounding them a lot harder and drinking something more potent than white wine.

  “Seriously?” they asked, exchanging a loaded look before they burst out laughing.

  Yeah, okay. I got the joke. Carter had always been a bit of a man-whore. But in his defense, those puck bunnies made it too easy for him. It was like throwing a bunch of twenties on the ground and telling a teenager not to pick them up. Too tempting. Especially for a guy who liked sex as much as Carter.

  “Oh God,” I muttered when I saw our waiter approaching our table with a tray of drinks we hadn’t ordered. “Please tell me those aren’t from him.” He hadn’t even looked our way, from what I could tell, but he had been credited with having eyes in the back of his head on the ice.

  “Hey, ladies,” the cute waiter said, winking at me. “Courtesy of the gentleman at the end of the bar wearing the leather jacket.”

  Oh, good. Not Carter.

  “Thank you,” Becca said, distributing the glasses before the waiter could do the honors. She lifted her hand, waving her fingers at Leather Jacket.

  He nodded, his lips curving into a smile as they traveled around the table before landing on me. Huh. He was cute. He didn’t look like a serial killer. But then, neither had Ted Bundy.

  There was a reason I didn’t pick up guys in bars and take them home. I was smart and careful, and okay, maybe a little on the conservative side. Until I’d been seeing someone for a while. Then I wasn’t afraid to get my freak on.

  I sneaked a peek at Carter, who was standing at the bar and laughing it up with a few of his teammates. My girls were right. He was still as hot as hell. And damn, seeing him again conjured up all kinds of memories. Shower sex. Morning sex. Drunk sex. The list went on… and on… and on.

  “Just go talk to him,” Becca said, nudging my arm with hers.

  “Who? Leather Jacket?”

  “No, dummy. Carter.”

  Like I didn’t know who she was talking about. “I’m not just going to go up and start talking to him.”

  What if he struggled to remember my name? Okay, that was unlikely, since we’d been seeing each other for months. But I didn’t know how many other girls he’d been seeing during that time. We’d had an understanding. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

  “Why the hell not?” Vi demanded. “I don’t under
stand you. You’re this kick-ass little dynamo in business, yet you’re afraid to go up and talk to a guy you were fucking for months?”

  Business was different. At work, I knew what I was doing and got to call the shots. In our relationship, if you could call it that, Carter had definitely liked to be in charge, and since most of the time that resulted in unspeakable pleasure for me, I let him.

  Before I could decide what to do, Leather Jacket approached, distracting me. At least temporarily. I knew it wouldn’t be long before I had to bite the bullet and face my past… in the form of one ripped hockey player, with hidden tats and caramel eyes, who knew secrets about how I liked it that even I hadn’t figured out ‘til he came along.

  ***

  Carter

  “Hey, that chick looks familiar, doesn’t she?” my line mate, Jesse Butler, asked, nudging me.

  My eyes followed his to the dance floor, and I forgot how to breathe. It couldn’t be her. I’d spent months looking for her in every crowd after she dumped me without notice. No way would fate drop her in my lap now, after all this time.

  Except she wasn’t in my lap—she was rubbing up on some dirtbag on the dance floor… and that pissed me off.

  “That’s Jasmine Stevens,” I said as I brought my beer bottle to my lips. “That girl I was seeing a few years back.”

  He snapped his fingers. “That’s right. We all went out together a couple of times. Jenna loved her,” he said, referring to his wife. “She thought you should quit fucking around and put a ring on that girl’s finger.”

  Not like I hadn’t thought about it. But before I’d gotten the chance, she bailed on me, and I wanted to know why.

  “Think I’ll ask her to dance,” I said, setting my bottle on the bar.

  “She’s already dancing.”

  “Think I give a shit?”

  When I saw something I wanted, I went for it. And I’d wanted Jasmine since the first time I laid eyes on her. We’d met in a bar a lot like this one, during the off-season. I’d been looking to kill a little time with a beautiful woman, and she’d been looking for a break from working on her master’s thesis. It had been a win-win. We both got what we wanted: hot sex and an unforgettable distraction.

  I made my way through the crowd, ignoring the comments from bar patrons who were starting to figure out who I was. Soon I’d be mobbed with people wanting autographs and selfies, so I had to make my move fast. Before Jas got away.

  I tapped her dance partner on the shoulder, gritting my teeth when I saw his hand wander to the swell of her ass. “Hey, man, you mind if I cut in?”

  He was practically snarling when he turned to face me, but that look quickly gave way to shock and awe when he realized who I was. “Shit, you’re Carters Wells, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah.” I winked at Jasmine and she shook her head, looking unimpressed by his fan-boy reaction. “You mind if I dance with the lady? We go way back, got a lot of catching up to do.”

  “Yeah, sure.” He stepped back before offering me his hand. “Great game tonight, by the way. Couldn’t believe Mitchell robbed you of that hat trick.”

  “It’s okay,” I said, shrugging. “We won. That’s all that matters.”

  I waited for her dance partner to leave before I took Jasmine in my arms. Damn. Holding her again stirred up all kinds of shit I thought I’d buried deep. She’d been the first woman to make me feel something, to make me think about… a commitment.

  She tipped her head back to look at me. I had a foot on her, but she was wearing sexy high heels, which brought the top of her head to my chin. “How’ve you been, Carter?”

  “How’ve I been?” My grip on her tightened. “That’s all you’ve got to say to me after dumping me without even telling me what I’d done to piss you off?” If I’d known, I would have found a way to fix it, but she hadn’t even given me the chance.

  She laughed, patting my chest. “I dumped you? How could I have dumped you when we were just… hooking up?”

  She may have seen it that way, but I didn’t. For the first time in my life, I’d stopped looking at other women. They’d hit on me and I’d think about Jasmine before turning them down. She was all I wanted, all I needed. Too bad she hadn’t felt the same way.

  “Why’d you just cut me off like that? I thought we had a good thing going.”

  “We did,” she said, looping her arms around my neck. “While it lasted. But you know what they say… all good things must come to an end, right?”

  I didn’t agree. My best friend and brothers had found the women they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with. Why couldn’t I? I was thirty-two, too old to be partying like a rock star. I’d been in the league ten years and had only a few more left, barring any injuries, and I was tired of living like a frat boy. I wanted to settle down, and the only woman who’d ever come close to locking me down was the one in my arms.

  “Tell me what you’ve up to,” I said, hoping she didn’t notice the fact my body remembered hers. I felt like a pre-teen at his first dance, holding the girl he liked while unable to keep the beast in his pants under control.

  She chuckled that smoky laugh that reminded me of sex and whiskey and… her. “Speaking of up, Wells… you happy to see me or what?”

  “You have no idea,” I whispered, brushing my lips across her temple. She sucked in a sharp breath, letting me know I wasn’t the only one with a good memory. “How ‘bout you? You happy to see me?”

  “Surprised,” she admitted. “Though my friends weren’t.”

  My gaze searched the bar and landed on her two best friends, Becca and Violet. “Ah good, you’re not here with the douche in the leather jacket.”

  A smile teased her lips, but she wouldn’t give in. “No, he just bought us drinks and asked me to dance.”

  I’d be buying her drinks and reserving her dances for the rest of the night, if I had my way. “You said your friends weren’t surprised I was here?” If they’d orchestrated this little meet-up, I’d buy each of them a car for their next birthday.

  “Apparently they follow you on social media. This is one your favorite post-game hangouts?”

  “When we win.” When we lost, we all went home and sulked. “But you didn’t answer my question. What have you been up to? How’ve you been? That business idea of yours ever amount to anything?”

  She’d been developing a line of personalized bath products in her spare time. They were supposed to be unique to each customer, thanks to using oils to create the perfect blend and self-designed packaging. And the fact I still remembered that shit said it all. I’d been hooked on this girl. All she’d had to do was reel me in. Instead she cut bait, and that sucked.

  “You could say that,” she said with a smug smile. “We just turned down an offer for twenty-five million dollars last week.”

  My jaw dropped. “No shit? Congratulations, Jas. That’s awesome.” I knew she was brilliant—Columbia didn’t hand out MBAs to just anyone—but the fact she’d been able to build a company that valuable in less than three years was impressive.

  “Thanks.” Her smile lit up her face, and it was obvious her business was her baby. “It’s been a whirlwind ride, but I wouldn’t have changed a single thing…” Her smile slipped. “That’s not true. There’re a couple of things I’d have done differently.”

  “Such as?”

  “I’d rather not talk about business tonight,” she said, running her hand down my chest. “Tell me about you. Anyone special in your life?”

  Not until ten minutes ago. “Uh no, still single. How ‘bout you?”

  “I was engaged.” Her gaze dipped to my chest as she bit her lip. “But it didn’t work out.”

  “Ah, that’s too bad.” Yes!

  She shook her head at my sarcasm, looking amused. “I see you’re still not shy about saying whatever’s on your mind.”

  My eyes traveled over her body. She was wearing black skinny jeans, a low-cut white tank that covered her perfect ass, and a cropped jean ja
cket. “You wanna know what’s on my mind right now? How could anyone be stupid enough to get a ring on your finger then do something to fuck it up?”

  She closed her eyes briefly, letting me know I’d hit a nerve.

  “Sorry. Sore subject?” I asked.

  “Let’s just say it’s a little raw.”

  “How long ago did you—”

  “Last week.” She heaved a sigh. “You might as well know the whole story. He fucked a stripper at his bachelor party. His best friend caught it on video, since they weren’t exactly behind closed doors, and sent it to me.”

  Stupid son of a bitch. Not that I was complaining. His loss was definitely my gain. “I’m sorry, baby.”

  “Are you really?”

  “No.”

  She laughed, dropping her head against my chest. “You’re such an ass, Wells.”

  I allowed my hand to drift much farther than Leather Jacket’s had, but I felt I had the right. I’d known this woman intimately, and now that I knew she was single, there was nothing stopping me. “What? You want me to lie and tell you I’m happy to hear you were engaged? Hell, no.”

  She looked startled. “Why would you even care?”

  “Because I cared about you,” I said when one slow song bled into another. “You think I like thinking about you with other guys? Especially one stupid enough to stick his dick in some…” I shook my head, cursing myself for picking the scab. “Sorry, I’m sure you don’t want to talk about that.”

  “No, I really don’t. But thank you for saying that.”

  “What?”

  “That Alex was stupid for cheating on me.”

  “He was.” If she was wearing my ring, there wouldn’t be another woman on the planet who could turn my head.

  It hadn’t taken me long to realize what I felt for Jas went way beyond physical attraction and genuine respect. The first day she didn’t return my call, I slept with my phone in my hand ‘cause I didn’t want to miss a call or text from her. The next day, I lost my appetite. The third day, I played like shit and my team lost. The fourth day, I got hammered and threw up in the lobby of my swanky condo building. And let’s just say it went downhill from there.