Page 93 of Love Game

Admiring Kate’s ability to look so damn beautiful and composed as she launched grenade after grenade into the conversation, Danny gave his head a shake and held up both hands in mock surrender. “I’m not touching the money thing.”

Brittany’s preternaturally thick eyelashes fluttered as she tried to grab hold of the interview again. Age and experience gave them an edge. Unfortunately, she was too young and ambitious to realize that she was outmatched on both sides.

“Just as well, seeing as how you have no salary now.” Kate arched one eyebrow at her new husband. “But you agree that our salaries don’t accurately represent our contributions to Wolcott Athletics.”

“I’m not agreeing to anything without a bomb squad present.”

“Oh, you were pretty agreeable earlier today.”

“Kate,” he growled.

Kate turned to Brittany with a sweet smile. “He’ll land something pretty quickly, no matter how hard you guys try to tear him down. He’s very dedicated. Watches game film instead of Netflix. Knows just when to blow his whistle.”

Danny narrowed his eyes, knowing damn well it wasn’t his whistle she was thinking about. Poor Brittany looked completely lost. And miserable. This interview was her big break, and he and Kate’s antics were ruining it for her.

Feeling an unprecedented benevolence for Brittany and more than ready to launch a little shock and awe of his own, he readied his ammunition. He lounged in his seat as if he hadn’t a care in the world, then he craned his neck until he could look Kate square in the eye. “I don’t see how it matters. What’s yours is mine now, right?”

He had to give her credit. She didn’t even flinch. Instead, she picked up the live round and tossed it right back at him. “I knew I should have insisted on an ironclad prenup covering those glass cases lining the halls.” She leaned closer to Brittany and spoke in a low, confiding tone, but her eyes never left his. “You know he’s only after me for my…trophies.”

Danny laughed again. Out loud. On camera. Damn, but this woman did things to him. Awesome, wonderful things. Tearing his attention from her, he fixed Brittany with an unwavering stare, willing her to catch on. “She drives me crazy. In every possible way. That’s why I’m keeping her.”

The reporter searched his face for clues. “Is this… Are you… What’s going on here? Is this some kind of joke?”

Sometimes there was nothing sweeter than toying with a newbie who thought they had game. Then there were the times you had to cut them a little slack and let them in the game. The fear and uncertainty he saw in those wide, blue eyes told him they’d played keep-away long enough.

“No joke. You just snagged the headline of the week.” Slipping out of his chair, Danny came around to Kate and kissed her full on the mouth. “You’re stubborn and mouthy and totally wrong about the designated hitter.”

Tears filled her green-gold eyes. One tangled in her dark lashes, but she didn’t try to dash it away. “Spoken like a man who never had to play defense in his life.”

He stared at that glistening tear, enthralled by its tenuous hold. “Oh, but you’re wrong. I’ve been playing defense too much lately. I’m ready to score.” He pulled her hand to his mouth and gently kissed her knuckles, then looked straight into the camera. “That’s why I married her.”

“Nice,” she hissed, throwing an elbow.

Danny flashed his cockiest grin. “Seemed like a good idea at the time. I need a big, strapping girl like you to guard my flank.”

“Wuss.”

“Wait. You’re saying the two of you got married?” Brittany asked, practically falling out of her chair to get closer to them.

Kate lifted her right hand to reveal the sparkling ring on her left. She grinned when Brittany gasped, and waggled her fingers. “We did. Just this afternoon.”

Danny gave the perky blond gaping at them an “aw shucks” smile. “I need someone to coach me through the next thirty or forty years, and I hear she’s the best.”

Kate started to nod, then stopped abruptly. Her fingers tightened on his. “I told him I couldn’t take him to the next level unless he was willing to commit one hundred percent.”

“I promised a hundred and ten.”

Crew members whooped and clapped as he snatched his amazing Amazon woman from her seat as if she were barely more than a feather. Kate wound her arms around him. Her toes grazed the laces of his shoes. At last, their lips met. He kissed her sweet but deep. The muscles in her thighs tensed, and he could tell she was fighting the urge to wrap her legs around him. God, he wanted her to.

They’d exchanged vows that afternoon, but the day had been too jam-packed to spare the wedding night more than a passing thought. He angled his head and slid his hand into her hair, taking everything he wanted from the kiss, cameras be damned. He was thinking about the wedding night now.

Kate crushed two of his toes when she turned back toward the cameras but thankfully retained enough presence of mind to place herself between the lens and the insistent erection now pressed into the soft cheek of her ass.

“That’s the only way he can ever win an argument,” she said, giving her head a pitying shake.

Her silky hair teased his nose as she cast an affectionate glance over her shoulder. She covered the hand he’d placed over her stomach and wove her fingers through his. All around him, signs and insignia proclaimed pride in a school he used to think of as a joke, but standing there with Kate secure in his arms, he finally discovered exactly how a warrior felt after winning the battle of his lifetime.

“I’ve already won everything I need to win,” he said.

---