Page 59 of Play for Keeps

Ty scowled, displeased by her answer. “You sure?”

She nodded, then treated him to her slyest smile. “While you’re getting all hot and sweaty in a not-so-fun way, I may take a bubble bath and read my naughty book.”

His eyes narrowed to slits. “You know, you have a cruel streak a mile wide.”

“I know.” She rolled over as he rose, immediately claiming the spot warmed by his body heat. “It’s one of the things you like about me.”

Completely unselfconscious, he strolled to his dresser and pulled out a pair of boxer briefs. “You know, I thought you were making the story thing up.”

“Nope.” She chuckled to cover the low internal purr the sight of his taut ass spurred. “Maybe one day I’ll loan you my book.”

He cocked an eyebrow as he stepped into the adjoining bath. “I like it better when you read to me.”

“Okay, but next time, no going off the rails,” she called after him.

He leaned back enough to poke his head around the doorframe and flashed a wicked grin “Going off the rails is the best part.”

Seconds later, she heard the rush of water spraying from the shower jets and fell back against the flattened pillows. He had a practice to run. The last Saturday practice before the tournaments leading into the regular season began. The one and only Saturday morning Millie might get to spend with him. And it had been perfect. Damn him.

He wasn’t going to go for the phone sex thing anymore. She got that. She admitted it was a little weird, considering they weren’t thousands of miles apart now. But maybe he’d go for sexting. Fun and flirty, and sexting wouldn’t cost any condoms.

As if sensing the direction of her thoughts, his cell began to vibrate. Millie watched the phone skitter along the top of the nightstand but made no move to answer the call. Ty had silenced more than one since he’d kidnapped her the night before. This one could wait as well. She wasn’t his secretary.

Sighing, Millie fixated on a spot on the ceiling and let her vision grow fuzzy as she tried to make heads or tails of her situation. They’d had too much time and distance at first, and now she couldn’t get enough. Ty was pushing, and he was pushing hard. Admittedly, a part of her liked his persistence. But the other part, the one she relied on more than her mutinous heart, was wary.

He’d swooped before she could escape the previous night and blown right through her token resistance. She’d managed to buy a little time when Danny McMillan caught them in the hall and invited them to join him and Kate for dinner. All Millie could do was smother her smile as she watched Ty weigh the pros and cons of declining the invitation. In the end, he accepted on their behalf but made up for lost time when he got her alone. In truth, she hadn’t been any better than he was at hiding his impatience. The second they were ensconced in his car, she practically climbed into his lap.

Millie was still mentally recapping some of the highlights of the previous evening when he appeared a scant few minutes later.

“So I figure I’ll come by about six to pick you up,” he announced, strolling into the room in boxer briefs molded to every contour of his narrow ass and thick thighs. “I’m in the mood for a steak. All this strenuous activity makes me crave red meat.”

His presumptuousness inflamed her. It also made her stomach do a squiggly dance that left her feeling weak and vaguely ashamed. She wanted a steak too, but if she didn’t hold out at least enough to make him ask her properly, she’d be hearing Avery’s lecture on feminine self-determination in her head for the rest of the night.

“I don’t recall agreeing to have dinner tonight.”

“You’ll probably get hungry at some point. I’m good with toast, but buttered bread isn’t going to hold you.”

“I don’t recall agreeing to have dinner withyoutonight,” she reiterated.

He shrugged and pulled a pair of dark-green nylon track pants from a hanger. “I think we should have dinner together tonight. If steak doesn’t appeal to you, I’m open to negotiation.” Undeterred, he carried his fistfuls of clothing back to the bed. “Maybe we can rent a movie or something. I see the kids getting DVDs out of those box things all the time.”

His phone began to buzz again, but he paid it no mind as he patiently waited for her response.

She glanced at the screen, saw Mari’s face, then eyeballed him. He stood in the middle of the room wearing nothing but briefs that left little to the imagination, holding the pants as if he needed her say-so to put them on. Looking past him, she spotted a dozen pairs exactly like them hanging in an orderly row in the closet. A flash flood of feminine resentment rose in her.

Life seemed so easy for them.I’m a man. I don’t have to think about what to wear, but I do think I want a steak. I’m picking you up at six. We’ll have dinner, then sex. Lots of sex. So much sex you won’t be able to walk right or think right or keep a decent stash of rubbers on hand.

He might as well have said,I’m going to pick you up, fill you up, use you up, and then I’ll shrug and hike up my pants and go on home to my freaking McMansion and watch sports and drink scotch.

Then I’ll make you fall in love with me.

And in the end, I’ll leave you when someone shinier comes along.

“No, thanks,” she answered tersely, barely aware the last bit of conversation had taken place entirely in her head. Swinging her legs over the edge of the bed, she started to gather the clothes she’d discarded with such fervor the night before.

Like an animal scenting danger, Ty stood stock-still before starting a cautious approach. “No thanks to the steak?”

“To all of it. I’m busy tonight,” she said, stepping into the pale-peach panties he hadn’t even bothered to admire.

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