Page 2 of Out of Bounds

“No one,” he bit back. “What can I do for you?”

“I have the roommate assignments for the training camp next week. You were supposed to come pick them up from my office. But instead you’re out here talkin’ to yourself,” she answered, giving him a pointed look. Her accent wasn’t quite as heavy as her brother’s, but it was still more than prominent. It was also a hell of a lot sexier on her than it was on Dalton.

“I was planning on picking it up on my way to the meeting. I didn’t realize it required a song and dance.”

Felicity let out a huff, and Gunnar half expected to see little tufts of smoke come from her nostrils, like she was a dragon in a cartoon. “I had thought you would want to review them, make sure there are no conflicts. I do not want any problems while we are in Florida.”

“My players aren’t going to be throwing any ragers. They are professionals. And if there are personality conflicts, we’ll figure it out and move guys around. Don’t get your panties in a wad.” He grabbed the piece of paper she was holding out and turned toward the door.

“Professionals, right…” she said, that sneer returning to her face. “That’s exactly what they are. Not at all a group of horny, oversexed man-children. After all, they have such a great role model in you, with how well you kept it in your pants during the ‘98 World Cup.”

Gunnar stopped in his tracks at her words. Swallowing hard, he forced himself not to retaliate. Felicity was known for her off-putting demeanor and her poison tongue. On any other day he would have enjoyed throwing it right back in her face, but not today. He had too much else on his mind.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to.”

“That makes two of us.”

* * *

Felicity Sutherland regretted the words the second they left her mouth. One of these days she was going to stop herself. This, however, was apparently not that moment.

So much for letting Gunnar see that you are actually a nice person, she thought. Maybe someday you’ll let someone in on that secret…

Keeping her distance as she followed Gunnar into the meeting room, she could feel her cheeks flush slightly at the sight of his well-toned backside in his jeans. The man was tall—with at least two inches on her own six-foot frame—dark, and gorgeous, and it didn’t seem to matter what he was doing, just the sight of him made her pulse race. Which is exactly what she didn’t need. She was an educated, professional woman who was here to prove that she had it in her to be the president of the Atlanta Rising Football Club. She was not here to bat her eyelashes and flirt with the hot coach.

So what if she was a bit thorny and cold in her approach to some things? No one would ever call a man names for taking a hard stance on things. She was just as capable as any of the men in this company, if not more so—and this was her opportunity to prove it. Their father, Big D, had recently stepped down as CEO of Southland Holdings and handed the company to her brother, which while not fair, since Dalton had spent the last three years wasting away in the Virgin Islands, was not wholly unexpected. But with him stepping into that role, it left a vacancy for president of the Rising, and it was hers for the taking.

“Flick,” Jonah Davenport, Southland Holdings Director of Corporate Initiatives, greeted her as he stepped into the hallway from his office. She had to stop herself from flinching at his sudden presence, the arrogance radiating off him almost too much to handle.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Dalton does.”

“Doesn’t make it any less annoying. Also, he’s family,” she reminded the weasel now walking beside her. Despite what people might think about her, there were very few people on this earth she really, truly hated. Jonah, however, was at the very top of that list, and Felicity couldn’t imagine a world where anyone ever dethroned him.

“My sister is married to your father. Pretty sure that makes us family,” he said, a sly smile on his face.

Coming to a halt just outside the meeting room, Felicity tempered the desire to lunge at him, instead plastering a smile on her face. She didn’t need the reminder of who her stepmother was. There wasn’t a day that went by that she didn’t think about how everything in her life had been derailed when her father had chosen to take up with the nanny, a woman twenty-six years his junior, as her mother was dying from cancer. The fact that the woman had also been the older sister to Dalton’s then best friend Jonah had only made the matter that much more complicated.

“No, it doesn’t,” she snapped, coming to a halt just outside the meeting room. “Did you want something?”

“Nope, just heading into the same meeting you are.”

“Fine,” she huffed, opening the door and entering the room.

The space was large and posh, as was everything on this campus. The brand-new, state-of-the-art training center sat on just over thirty acres of land and was home to a thirty thousand square foot building and six full size training fields, complete with a “show pitch” that featured a three-thousand-seat stand and open pavilion for the team to host fans to watch the team. The main building was host to part of the team’s staff offices on the upper level, while the downstairs had a full-service kitchen and dining room, locker rooms for both the first team as well as the academy they hoped to have one day, and a sport science facility that included two gyms, three hydrotherapy pools, and state-of-the-art sports med rooms. This meeting room, which was set up to look more like a movie theatre than a board room, had wide leather chairs with the team’s electric blue phoenix logo stitched into them for the players to sit in, looking toward the front of the room, that currently had a podium set up in front of the large projection screen.

Gunnar stood at the podium, talking quietly with Dalton and Britt, who was insisting everyone call him “Cowboy,” a nickname he’d picked up as a player. It was a nickname she didn’t understand, since he was more biker with all his tattoos and the actual motorcycles he rode to work every day, but she didn’t question it. The desire to go apologize for her snarkiness coursed through her, but then she thought better of the idea. They didn’t need to be friends.

Dalton looked up from his conversation and motioned for her to join them. Walking over to them, she felt Jonah at her heels and said a silent little prayer that he would simply disappear.

“What are you doing here?” Dalton asked, looking past her at Jonah.

“I just thought I would sit in and see what everything was about. I’m the Director of Corporate Initiatives, so I should know what the team is up to.”

“But you weren’t invited,” Felicity commented, unable to hold back. This was her turf, and if he thought for one second he was going to come in and take over, he had something else coming.

“Flick, the morning got away from me so I haven’t checked my email. Was there anything you needed announced during this meeting?” Dalton asked, turning his attention to her.