Get Your Kicks

By Matilda Martel

Dasher Grant needs to focus on his game---on and off the field.
He’s six months from retirement and trying to go out with a bang, but an eighteen-year-old upstart is giving him a run for his money. He needs to keep his eyes on the ball, devote himself to the game and stop fooling around with his best friend’s baby sister. But that’s never going to happen.
Athena Swift isn’t a conquest any sane man discards.
The attacking midfielder is one year into his sexual siege with fading hope of advancing their sordid trysts into the lifetime commitment he craves. She swears they’re just getting their kicks, but he knows she’s the one. And he’s never walked away from a challenge.
Athena Swift traded her youth for Olympic gold. She surrendered time with loved ones and friends in exchange for Six World Championships and two Olympic gold medals. At twenty-three, she walked away to focus on living her best life and winning the man of her dreams---Dash Grant.
No one owns her heart like her big brother’s best friend---the Barcelona talisman who’s fast as lightning on the field and hot as sin in her bed. He’s tall, powerful, utterly gorgeous, and an unrepentant grump---sheer perfection in her eyes.
Ever since she became his agent, they’ve been doing the horizontal mambo every chance they get. But there’s a problem---he won’t stop asking for more.
For years, Dash ran from women who threw themselves at his feet, and she won’t let that happen to her. She needs to hold firm, play hard to get, and make him keep up the chase.
She may not know much about the game of love---but she knows it’s the ultimate contact sport.
May the best athlete win.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Matilda Martel
• Release date: Sep 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215531044

Matilda Martel

Matilda loves many things---her husband, dachshunds, cats, the two terrible Chihuahuas who live with her, Paris, New York, a few select friends and family, Nutella, books, lots and lots of books, and writing sweet, steamy romance for nerdy girls-- because that's who I am.If you like your romances steamy but sweet. Sexy, but on the shorter side. With smart and sassy heroines who fall for soulful Alphas- then you might like my books.I write A LOT of OMYW, cause that's just my bag. But no matter what kind of story it is, my ladies are always adored and my endings are always HEA.Please head to my blog: www.matildamartel.com, to learn what's in the final stages and will be coming out soon!Want a free Ebook? Join my mailing list to get my monthly newsletter at : www.matildamartel.com/mailinglist/

Book preview

Chapter 1

Athena

Sunday, early morning- Paris

No one expected me to win gold. Americans don't win gold in pair skating. Do you know the last time an American stood on that medal stand? It was 1988---ten years before I was born, and that team won bronze. Four years earlier, Americans won silver, which was the first time we'd medaled in twenty years.  

American pair skaters never win gold---but I did. Days before my eighteenth birthday, I stood on a podium with the stars and stripes overhead, tears in my eyes and a loudspeaker blaring the national anthem. My partner, Jordan, and I nailed our compulsories. We brought the stadium to its knees with not one, not two, but three triple jumps. It nearly killed me but hot damn, did it work. Jordan and I shocked the world, broke records, and made history. 

And then we did it again four years later.  

Nobody writes me off. The more people said I couldn't do it, the more I wanted it. It cost me my childhood, time with family, and the everyday life I still crave, but we made our country proud and got a ticker-tape parade on our return.

So, how the hell do you follow something like that? 

You don't. You sneak away like Greta Garbo and let people remember you the way you were. I've devoted my life to my sport and sacrificed more than I care to mention. Was it worth it? Everyone expects me to say yes, so I'll say yes. But honestly, that remains to be seen. I'll know it's worth it when I get what I truly want in life---and medals have nothing to do with that.

I want Dasher Grant, my brother's best friend. I need him, love him, worship every hair on his ripped, furry body, and I'll do whatever it takes to make him fall in love with me.

I sound crazy. Of course, I sound insane. I'm madly in love, obsessed, and downright consumed night and day by a man who hasn't decided once and for all what we mean to one another.

He claims to love me---he never tires from saying it. And I want to believe him. My life would be so much simpler if I could take him at his word. But something keeps me from surrendering my heart for good.

Why do you look pissed? Dash returns to my bedroom with a steaming cup of tea and places it on my nightstand. I shake my head, unsure of what to say, then point to the window. It looks like rain. Did the forecast say anything about rain?

He frowns with suspicion, then struts bare ass around the front of the bed, making my mouth water with every bounce of his erect sex. I'm a sucker for his naked body. It's art in its purest form---like Michaelangelo's David with heftier equipment. I release an audible sigh and wait for him to crawl back under the covers. 

Why do you lie? You know I can tell when you're lying. He curls me into his arms and bundles the blanket around us. There's a chill in the air, but I'm not sure if it's the weather or me.  

This weekend has gone all wrong. I was supposed to hold out. I promised myself I'd withhold sex until Dash pleaded his case with a solid chain of events for our future. No more empty promises. But just as I expected, I caved within the first hour. It's hard to be firm with someone like him. Players like Dasher Grant know how to peel the panties right off your legs with nothing more than a smoldering look. In my case, I typically hand them over as soon as he says hello.

You don't always know when I'm lying. Stop exaggerating, I mutter and wiggle free from his tight grasp. Loosen that gorilla grip, mister. I'd like a sip of tea.

He doubles down, holding me tighter and sinking his teeth into my shoulder until I squeal for mercy. Surely, he's frustrated with my indecision, but it's hard for me to sympathize when he drives me up the freaking wall.

Are you implying you regularly lie, little girl? He pinches my side and makes me spill chamomile tea down my chin. I brush him away, rolling my eyes