Page 26 of Vegas Heat

I clear my throat. “Would it help if I moved to Vegas?”

They break their gaze as both their heads whip in my direction.

“What?” Kaylee asks.

“This is on the down low, and I haven’t made a decision yet, but there’s a reason I’m in Vegas,” I begin.

“What is it?” Kaylee presses.

“Troy Bodine has been tapped to manage the expansion team the MLB is bringing to Vegas. He wants me back in the game.”

Ben lets out another low whistle.

“Oh jeez,” Kaylee murmurs. “And then you met the girl last night. All signs point to Vegas. What are you going to do?” She bounces a little excitedly in her seat.

“I think I’m gonna do it,” I admit. I blow out a breath. “Not because of her, to be clear, though I’m definitely interested in seeing where it can go with her. But before I even met her last night, I thought it through and knew it was time to get back into the game. Well, both games. Baseball and dating.”

Kaylee claps her hands together with excitement as she squeals. “Oh my God, you’re moving here?”

“Hey, Peaches,” Ben teases his wife. “Calm your tits. You’re married.”

She rolls her eyes. “I know I am. And so does he,” she says, jerking her thumb in my direction.

I nod. “The only romance between the two of us was for your benefit,” I say, referring to the brief time we teased the media when we first met.

Ben chuckles. “I’m just teasing you both. It’ll be great to have you in town, man. Another dude for golf and poker nights, another face for Tight Fit. Shit, the Daltons will want you at every Monday night family dinner.” He glances at Kaylee. “We’re all gonna need bigger dining tables.” He turns back to me. “Butyou won’t have time to help with SFK if you’re playing ball in between wrecking that chick’s pussy,” he points out.

“I’ve got five months of offseason,” I counter. “Plenty of time for both pussy-wrecking and helping out at SFK.”

“So this is really happening?” she asks.

I press my lips together and nod. “Yep. It’s really happening.”

Kaylee squeals as realization dawns.

It’s really happening.

CHAPTER 12: COOPER

A woman stands near the window when I open the door and walk into my hotel room, and the tightness I felt in my chest on the walk back to my room seems to dissipate at her presence.

I wondered whether she’d really show up.

She did.

“Hey,” I say when I walk in, and she blows out a breath when she spots me. I twist the ballcap I’m wearing down low over my eyes so the bill is in the back since I know I’m going to want to kiss her and the bill tends to get in the way of that.

She studies me a beat. “Did you get hotter in the time we were apart?”

I chuckle as I make my way across the room. “Yes. I worked hard on that.”

We stare at each other a beat, neither of us touching as we both take in the fact that we’re here in this place again and the fantasy we started twenty-four hours ago can continue.

I lean in and press a soft kiss to her neck just below her ear. “I missed you.” My voice is low and gravelly, and it forces a soft moan from her.

“I missed you, too,” she says, and then she loops her arms around me and my lips find hers.

Just like with everything between the two of us, the kiss intensifies to fire rather quickly, but she forces the end first. “My truck is down at valet if you’re ready for the thing I planned, but if you’d rather get naked, I’m down with that.”

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