Page 18 of A Different Kind of Hooker

We won, and everyone was feeling the victory, only I just wanted to see Eliza. When I’d given her the details of her tickets, seats, and whatnot, I had also given her permission to come onto the field if we won. Only family or girlfriends were allowed to do that, but she had still agreed to do it, even knowing that her friends weren’t going to be able to join us, and that had given me hope.

With congratulations still happening everywhere around us, before Eliza, I would have immediately begun making my way to the locker room with the rest of the single guys. However, as soon as I spotted her making her way across the field, I jogged over to her, way too happy to see her walking towards me.

The second that I was within arm’s reach of the woman, I grabbed her hips, then lifted her until her arms were wrapped around my neck and her legs were wrapped around my waist. It felt good and right.Shefelt good and right, and it was going to be a bitch to set her back down.

“So, what did you think of your first rugby match?” I asked, grinning at the beautiful girl.

“I think you guys are insane,” she chuckled softly.

“But did you like the game?” I asked, ignoring the obvious.

“I did,” she answered, still grinning and making no effort to get down. “Coops and Ranger had a good time, too.”

“Good.” I dropped a quick kiss on her nose. “Maybe you guys can make the rest of the games, though the season is almost over.”

“Can we skip the jumbotron?”

I laughed. “That was Sean’s doing. Do you want to meet the guys?”

She shook her head shyly. “Not yet.”

That had me scowling a bit. “No?” If she wasn’t willing to meet my teammates, then that wasn’t a good sign.

“Can we go somewhere to talk?” she asked hesitantly, and that really had my heart dropping to my knees.

“Sure, baby.”

Setting her down, I grabbed her hand, then led her towards the tunnel. I waved and acknowledged fans and some of my teammates as we searched for some privacy, but I didn’t stop to talk to anyone. Eliza had sounded serious about wanting to talk, and I didn’t think that I could wait until later to hear her out. I could only pray that she wasn’t trying to end things already.

When we reached one of the storage closets, I checked to see if it was open, and when the doorknob turned with no effort, I walked us inside what was clearly the laundry room, what with all the towels and extra jerseys piled neatly on the shelves.

I shut the door behind me, making sure to lock it. “Is everything okay?”

“I just…after seeing my face on the jumbotron, I thought I should ask you what…what is this?” she answered, still sounding a bit unsure. “I mean…what’s…uhm…”

“What are my intentions?” I asked, my brows raised, trying to understand the woman’s babbling.

Eliza nodded. “Is this casual, serious, or a satisfying-your-curiosity kind of thing?”

That had my head rearing back a bit. “What’s a satisfying-your-curiosity kind of thing?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. You saw a chick that can’t bake with a baking channel, so you just want to see if the crazy ones really are great in bed.”

I just stared at her.

What in the hell?

After a few seconds, I asked, “Are you serious?”

Eliza looked at me likeIwas the crazy one. “It’s a valid question.”

“If I just wanted a one-night stand or to satisfy a curiosity, then I wouldn’t have invited you and your friends to one of my matches, Eliza,” I informed her. “Same thing goes for if I was only looking for something casual with you. My teammates are like family to me, so I don’t introduce them to just anyone.”

Unimpressed with my statement, she asked. “So…you want to date?”

Christ, the woman was maddening. “Yeah, I thought…I thought I’d been pretty clear about that.”

Still unimpressed, she asked, “So, what all does dating imply for you?”

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