Page 5 of Lawless in Leather

“There.” He passed the phone back to her and his fingers brushed hers. Brushed and lingered. Just for a second or two. Then she pulled her hand back, resisting the urge to shake it to get rid of the tingle in her skin.

“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll send you that schedule.”

“Good. And I’ll send you where you’ll be practicing.”

“What do you mean where?”

“You can’t use the main field every time.”

She sat up a little straighter. “Why not? It’s best for the girls to be familiar with where they’re going to be performing.”

“Sometimes it’s not available. The ground staff will be doing things to the field or the team might need to use it. They’ll be back from Florida this week. Which reminds me, I’d appreciate it if you’d tell your dancers that the players are off limits.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“How about you tell your baseball players that the dancers are off limits?” she said. “In my experience it’s more likely to be the guys hitting on the girls, rather than the other way around.”

Mal shrugged. “Well, in my experience when the guy comes with a nice fat bank account, that’s less likely to be true.”

“You did not just say that,” she said. “You think that my dancers will be panting after your baseballers?” She had to admit it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility; a couple of the girls on the squad were single. Still, in her experience, professional dancers were just that. Professional. They wanted to dance. And they wanted the paycheck.

“This is Major League Baseball. Girls are always after the players.”

“Poor things. Obviously they’re incapable of resisting the wiles of evil women?”

Mal shook his head. “I didn’t mean that. I just meant it’s not unheard of for women to go after rich athletes for their money.”

Raina narrowed her eyes. “This is New York. There are two other baseball teams in town where the guys are a lot better paid than the Saints players.” The Saints were just about the worst team in the league. She knew that much. Her mom’s dad had been a Saints fan.

“True. But our guys are still earning more money than a lot of people. Things will be simpler for everyone if everyone just keeps their distance.”

“Which brings me back to how about you give this speech to your guys. They can keep it zipped.” She was starting to think that she’d been right in her initial assessment. He was tall, dark, and grumpy. Which was a good thing, she told herself. It would make his exterior much easier to ignore if he was going to be cranky all the time.

“Trust me, I will be,” Mal said.

“Good,” Raina said. “I’ll tell the squad, too.” Her phone buzzed in her hand and she glanced down at the screen. Message from Luis. Damn. That meant something was going on at the club.

“Something wrong?” Mal asked.

She shook her head. “No. Just business.” She stood. “Was there anything else? I’m sure you have a lot on your plate.”

He studied her a moment, dark eyes inscrutable. She wondered, because she was clearly an idiot, if she’d see any other colors in that very dark brown if she got up close. Which she wasn’t going to do. Ever. Though even as she thought it she felt the first tiny move of her muscles swaying toward him.

Not going to happen. Dancer’s instinct saved her and she froze before she could make the movement for real. Feeling heat rise in her face, she took a step back, then bent to grab her bag again to disguise both the retreat and the blush.

“Nothing else. For now.”

There was a world of interpretation that could be made of those last two words and the deep rumble of the voice saying them. Her cheeks went hotter, and she forced herself to hang on to the most sensible version. That he really did have nothing more to say.

She made herself smile as she straightened. Tried to look like she wasn’t thinking illicit thoughts. Professional—that was what it was all about. He’d made his views on dancers mixing with his team pretty clear, and no doubt those views extended to himself. No mixing business with pleasure.

Apparently he didn’t take after his partner. Alex Winters was dating Maggie Jameson, the daughter of the former owner of the Saints. She still worked for the team. And, having met Alex a few times, Raina was damned certain it wasn’t his money that Maggie found irresistible. The man had charm by the bucketload. After all, he’d talked her into taking on this crazy job after he’d seen her at Madame R at a friend’s stag night. Convincing her that she was just what he needed to train a squad of baseball cheerleaders had taken a lot of charm.

Maybe he should lend some of it to his partner. Then again, maybe not. The man had way too much dangerous charm of his own even when he was being cranky. Which meant the only sensible thing to do was to stay out of his way.

Chapter Two

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