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BROKEN PLAY
Birmingham Rebels #1
Samantha Kane
Releasing Sept 1st, 2015
Perfect for fans of Shayla Black and Lexi Blake, the deeply sensual new Birmingham Rebels series introduces an unforgettable team of chiseled football gods—and the daring, provocative games they play behind closed doors.
Birmingham Rebels offensive linemen Beau Perez and Cass Zielinski are inseparable, on and off the field. Cass, the captain with the cowboy swagger, is a loose cannon. Beau, the veteran tight end, is cool under pressure. And ever since they were caught on tape in a steamy threesome, their exploits have fueled more than a few tabloid headlines—and naughty fantasies.
Marian Treadwell knows all about the video. And now that she’s the Rebels’ new assistant offensive coach, she can’t look at Beau and Cass without picturing their hard, naked bodies—with her
pressed in between. Marian would like nothing more than to indulge those impulses, but she knows better than to get too close to her players, a bunch of adrenaline-fueled alpha males who don’t always follow the rules.
pressed in between. Marian would like nothing more than to indulge those impulses, but she knows better than to get too close to her players, a bunch of adrenaline-fueled alpha males who don’t always follow the rules.
Just the thought of sharing the gorgeous yet guarded Marian drives Cass wild. At first, Beau isn’t sure she’s right for them . . . and lately, all he desires is a little alone time with Cass to explore their new intimacy. But it’s only a matter of time before Cass breaks through both of their defenses. Because when seduction is the game plan, he always plays to win.
Broken Play is intended for mature audiences.
Marian’s
brown eyes grew big and she stared at Cass as if she’d never heard
a man apologize before. Next to her, Mike turned his body abruptly in
his chair to face her and she jumped.
“Whoa,”
Mike said, his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to
startle you.”
She
laughed that tight laugh again. “No, I’m sorry. I get lost in my
head sometimes. Don’t bother about me.” She cleared her throat.
“Don’t forget we also snagged Kitt Doyle. When he went free agent
I thought he’d get more offers despite his age and injury record.”
She
successfully changed the subject as Mike and Beau began to discuss
how Doyle, a good veteran left tackle, would affect the offense. She
glanced up and when she caught Cass’s gaze, she tensed. After a
second or two, when her mouth grew tight and she looked like she
might say something, he looked away. There was definitely more to
Marian Treadwell than what met the eye.
He
was wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, for heaven’s sake,
Marian thought as she looked away from Cass Zielinski’s penetrating
stare. Did he think he was a Cowboy? Wrong team. The way the Rebels
played last year, nearly the wrong league. She was exasperated, but
it was with herself, not him. She was letting his sun-kissed good
looks get to her. All six feet four inches and 280 pounds of him.
That was a lot of good-looking. He had auburn hair and a beard to
match, both bleached a little redder by the sun. And the cowboy
thing? Yeah, a total button pusher. But she could resist it, because
damn it, that wasn’t why she was here. She didn’t want to screw
football players. She wanted to coach them. She had something to
offer this team. The head office saw it and so did Mike. Clearly the
players were going to be a harder sell. If she could get Cass
Zielinski on her side, that would go a long way to getting the others
to accept her. According to everything she’d read, and from what
Mike had told her, the whole team idolized Zielinski. He’d been
playing, and playing well, in the NFL for over ten years. Everyone
knew he’d accepted the Rebels deal because they’d promised him
front office when he retired, which wasn’t too far in the future.
He was thirty-one, old for an offensive lineman. And of course, the
deal had included Beau Perez.
She
stole a glance at Perez. He was a scary-looking son of a bitch.
Taller than the average player, he was more thug than Latin lover,
brooding and intense. The tattoo on his neck didn’t help. She’d
heard he was a real sweetheart in person, but she hadn’t seen it so
far. He obviously had Zielinski wrapped around his massive pinky
finger, the way he’d jumped to remove his hat when Perez frowned at
him. Somehow he’d ridden Zielinski’s coattails back into the NFL
after a suspension for drugs. His drug use and overdose were a red
flag for any coach. He’d spent months in rehab, and Zielinski had
been a constant visitor. That was the beginning of the rumors.
She
hated to admit she’d read every tabloid rumor about them. Most of
her information came from the Enquirer
and People
magazine. They’d been caught on tape having sex with the same
woman. At the same time. The sex tape had gone viral. You couldn’t
Google them without it turning up, despite all their efforts to get
it taken down. There was no sound, and there were some malfunctions
with the recorder, but you didn’t need to hear it to know they were
giving her a hard, rough fuck. Jesus, Marian had watched that video
about a hundred times and fantasized about them both. She wished
she’d known at the time that she’d be working with them. She
would have passed it by. She could hardly look at them without
picturing them naked and straining, as they slammed into the willing
woman in perfect synch. They had clearly done it many times before in
order to have that sort of synchronization. With Perez’s dark hair
and exotic looks, and Zielinski’s reddish hair and paler skin, they
had complemented one another perfectly. She began to sweat and squirm
in her seat as she tried to force her attention back to what Mike was
saying.
Before
long her gaze slid over to Perez again. He was a loose cannon, in her
opinion. For the last two years he’d walked the straight and
narrow, it was true. He played hard, stayed out of the limelight, and
he was clean. Regular drug tests made sure of it. But his hold on
Zielinski worried her. Cass clearly led the team, but Beau just as
clearly led Cass. They needed the center to make this team work. He
was the center in more ways than the position he played. The team
revolved around him. He made it work, made this group of losers and
misfits rise above their pasts and their reputations and play some
pretty decent ball. Could they be better? Yeah, they could. And
Marian was going to help make that happen. She’d hitched her wagon
to the Rebels’ star, and she wasn’t going down without a fight.
She
had something to prove. To herself and to her father. No one here but
Mike and head coach Shannon Ludwig knew her dad was Rufus Sedgeway,
one of the most successful coaches in Division I college-football
history. And that was how Marian wanted it. She didn’t want to talk
about her father to anyone; she didn’t even want to remember he
existed on most days. He’d silenced her. He’d chosen some sleazy
football players and his precious winning record over her. She’d
had to go crawling back to him to ask him to help her get this job,
but that was it. She knew he’d gotten her a job with the Rebels
because he wanted her to fail again. He wanted to control her again.
But she’d show him and everyone else. They hadn’t broken her, not
by a long shot.
I definitely wasn't expecting a MMF menage when I began reading
Broken Play. It was a surprise to expect something else in addition
to football, which was rather fun!
Marian Treadwell is an assistant coach wanting to break out of her
father's shadow and prove herself within the testosterone fuelled
world of NFL league. However, she's in Birmingham with a team that
needs as much help as it can to even get a wild card entry into the
play-offs. It has been a gamble moving here and her reputation is on
the line for recommending a player that is currently uncooperative,
which has effected the morale of the rest of the team. And then
there are her own personal issues which are holding her back too.
Can she turn her fortunes around?
Cass
Zielinski and his best friend Beau Perez
are team mates who have a controversial reputation. Both are in the
twilight of their playing careers and Cass hopes to impress enough to
gain a front office position on retirement. Both are physically
attracted to the new assistant coach as they regularly share a woman.
Will she want to be part of that scene? They both hope for that and
so much more.
Cass and Beau's mutual attraction for Marian acts as a catalyst for
both men to explore their own relationship which moves from platonic
to physical love, whilst both desire to include her in all aspects of
their life. She's open to a physical relationship but something is
holding her back to agree to a more permanent arrangement. The key
is the new un-cooperative player on the team and he knows her secret.
The award for the character with the most vivid imagination goes to
Cass Zielinksi, who comes up with a completely OTT proposal for
Marian to work through her fears and for Danny Smith to become
integrated into the team. It is kinky and HOT and oh so unexpected!
As a sports theme novel, I would have liked more “on the field”
action to at least justify the team's unique “bonding” session to
balance all the hot sexy scenes. But overall this was a fun and
entertaining and I've found a new author to follow in the process.
3.5 Stars.
***arc generously received courtesy of publisher Loveswept via
NetGalley***
Samantha Kane lives in North Carolina with her husband and three children, two boys and one girl. With a master’s degree in American history, she spent seven years as a high school history teacher before becoming a full-time writer and mom.
