Nailing Heat (The Forbidden Heat #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

~AMELIA~

“Ugh,” I grumble as I switch poses and do a terrible job of making it smooth.

“What’s the matter?” Cassie asks from beside me.

“I hate yoga, “I whine.

“But there’s cute little goats,” she says, nudging towards the front of the room.

“Yeah, well, we only got to play for a hot minute and then it was this torture.”

Cassie laughs at me. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m enjoying getting all stretched out.”

“Does it help with the running?” I whisper, almost losing my balance as I thread my legs together in a pose that I’m sure I’m doing all wrong. I fall off balance and land on my side. The commotion causes a few of my teammates to turn and glare at me. “Sorry,” I whisper to them.

“You are so graceful,” she quietly teases me again. “The yoga can be good for the running but also for the sore muscles that I have.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.

“Ooh, it’s a sex injury, huh? Or whatever it is his side of the world calls it; shagging or something?”

“Ha ha. Very funny. Not injury, got a little too bendy last night,” Cassie giggles. “Jealous that I’m getting some action and you are not? You’re only reading about it in those romance novels that you devour.”

“Me and BOB do just fine.” I assure her. “Besides, no one is going to live up to the hype so why bother.”

“Yeah, that’s the attitude. Your battery-operated boyfriend can’t keep you content forever.” Cassie shakes her head at me and expertly executes the next pose while I just lie there on my mat. “You should get up and try some more. Mac was so excited to set this up for us.”

I nod. I’m sure she was. Mac is doing whatever she can to show that she’s a great leader and captain.

Ever since she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Dating the man who was writing a story on you was probably not her smartest play.

Considering that the owner, Maxwell Cromwell, was not too pleased with the optics and the team felt that she was getting special treatment.

Danny ended up losing his job, granted he now has a job he really loves, as a college swim coach.

But it caused the Blaze a lot of unwanted attention and we were already overcoming being the brand new NWSL team.

I had to give the girl props. She had balls.

It could have cost her the career she worked so hard for, but it all worked out in the end.

Mac gets to continue to play the game she loves and keep Danny.

After some of the girls got over being pissed off at her for it.

Frankly, I didn’t care but some of the girls thought she got special treatment already, and shacking up with the man writing an article sure didn’t help her.

But it faded as all gossip eventually tends to do.

“I know she did and most of the time, I appreciate it. I can’t handle yoga.

I like things a bit quicker and with more challenge.

What if we did some burpees?” I roll onto my side, propping my head up on my elbow.

Looking into the amused eyes of my friends, I know I’ve lost. I roll my eyes and attempt to complete another yoga pose.

Cassie laughs. “No, we don’t want to do high impact, we need to rest the sore muscles, not cause more.”

“Whatever,” I grumble as I’m trying to figure out how to get into the next pose.

I believe she said chair pose. Either way, it’s not happening; the way we have to bend our knees, keeping them over our feet and tucking my pelvis, never seems to end well for me.

I always end up with back pain. I want to go back to when we were doing child’s pose, there’s no balancing and it really helps to stretch my hips.

That is one I can do and can get on board with.

I want to tell Cassie that the poses are difficult because I’m super not skinny.

But that’s not the case. We’re all athletically built.

We have to be. As players of the newest National Women’s Soccer League team, it’s a requirement of the job to be fit and muscular.

And with all the conditioning and lower body workouts that the Tampa Bay Blaze trainers have us doing, it’s no wonder that I’m a pear-shaped athlete.

I’m not on the taller side like Mac. Cassie and I are both short, but I’m the shortest.

“Just try the pose,” I hear Cassie grit out as she tries to execute the chair pose and ends up slipping.

I giggle and do as I’m told. My short, muscular legs should make this easier, but they don’t.

I pull my toned abs in tightly praying, it helps.

It doesn’t. I hit the ground; again, my long blonde braid smacking me on the side of the face.

I throw it over my shoulder and let out a huff.

“You going to make it through this?” Hendrix, our starting goalkeeper, asks me from my other side.

I look over at her and sigh, “No, are you?”

She shakes her head. “Do you see me doing any of those super bendy poses?” Before I can answer, she speaks for me. “No, you do not. I love Mac and all, but this is something that I can’t do.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Cassie teases her.

“Let’s not tell Jase that I wasn’t working hard in yoga today, That man may just make me repeat the class as a lesson.”

Cassie shocked us all recently by dating the Blaze’s goalie coach, Jase Ford.

She was kicked off the team, but one of our owners and friend, August Cromwell, decided that she could stay.

After some careful persuading by Hendrix and Jase, she was rehired.

I commend the way she came back with her head up high and how she still acts like the little digs that get thrown around by the other girls don’t bother her. It would bug the shit out of me.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Cassie assures Hendrix. “He thought this would be a good workout though. Tell him you made the best of it or something. Not a total lie.”

I catch Hendrix nodding out of the corner of my eye.

I grumble under my breath as I try to understand the next pose. Mac, however, is doing great at this. I watch as she moves effortlessly through each pose. I go back to trying to make the most of it, as Cassie suggested, and somehow make it to the end of class with my limbs intact.

“Thank you all for being such great students.” Our instructor is standing in the front of the room smiling brightly, her hands clasped in front of her.

“Namaste day, friends.” She bows slightly and I watch as the rest of the team follows.

I do my best to mimic the expression. I’ve never been so happy for a team bonding activity to wrap up.

“Thank god,” Hendrix replies, standing up and rolling out her neck and shoulders. “I thought that might have loosened me up a bit, but nope. Still tense.”

“Well, you would have had to actually do the poses, Henny,” Cassie reminds her with a smirk.

“You did the best you could,” I tell her. “We both did.”

“Sure, you did,” Cassie teases us as Mac approaches.

“So, what did you all think?” Mac is bouncing on her toes, full of excitement from the class. Clearly, she enjoyed it.

“Yeah, it was great. A great activity for us all,” Cassie replies, mimicking her excitement.

“Totally,” Hendrix and I reply at the same time. I’m sure she can see right through us. But if she can, Mac doesn’t call us out.

Fortunately for us, August Cromwell comes barreling into the room. “Ladies, if I could have a moment of your time, please.”

The instructor shoots him a glare for interrupting the silence of the calm environment she created with his loud, booming voice. She went over the importance of the calm before class even began, so I know she’s pissed.

August is, of course, oblivious to any of this. Standing there, khaki pants well pressed, wearing a Tampa Bay Blaze blue polo, with his perfectly styled brown hair. His eyes study us all as he motions for us to join him at the front of the room.

“Ladies, I only need a minute of your time and then I can let you get on with your day,” he tells us, clapping his hands for emphasis.

I snicker as the instructor rolls her eyes hard before gathering her stuff and leaving.

“I have just come from a meeting with legal. And they are telling me that we are making so many adjustments and expectations to the fraternization policy that it needs to be dropped.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Cassie tense. She’s the most recent breaker of this rule, so I’m sure she believes this has something to do with her. Hell, I think it might too. And if I do, that means so do the rest of the girls on the team.

“We have all decided that we will not prevent these relationships from occurring. Instead, I need you all to be adults and disclose them. Just come to me or HR and let us know that you are in a relationship with a member of the Blaze organization, and as long as it does not interfere with practices, games or any other work that is being done here, we will not have a problem. But step out of line and cause scenes and issues for staff, coaches or another player, and it will result in consequence that will be decided by HR and legal.” He looks around the room, surveying the team before asking, “Does anyone have any questions?”

I notice a few glances in Cassie’s direction, but no one says a word.

“Great,” he announces as he claps his hands again. “You are all dismissed. However, I need to speak with Amelia.”

My eyes widen. It feels a bit like being called to the principal’s office.

I wait for crowd to part before I start making my way over to him.

He turns to me as I approach when Hendrix suddenly appears next to me.

She looks pissed. Great, I think to myself.

They have a checkered past from what I’ve been told, and the wall of a goalie really enjoys pushing her limits when it comes to him.

So far it has not caused any backlash, but I swear, one of these days, her luck is going to run out.

“What the fuck was that?” Hendrix asks him, hands planted firmly on her hips.