Page 9 of Play for Keeps

Not that she didn’t want to be. On the contrary. She wanted to be near enough to him to feel his warm, damp breath on her cheek. What she wouldn’t give to feel those big, broad palms slide down her back and cup her ass again. Would he pull her close and hold her so tight she might forget where he started and she ended? Or would he be more reserved in the cold, sober light of day?

This was exactly why she didn’t care for the unexpected. When she was prepared, she could pretend their kiss was nothing more than impulse on the part of a friendly coworker. She could control the compulsion to stare at his mouth and make sure she spoke in a normal voice rather than the sex-kitten purr his intense gaze all but demanded she use. With a little advance notice, she could school her racing pulse and do that whole inner pep talk thing Kate was so fond of invoking. She wasn’t opposed to all forms of combustion, only the spontaneous type.

“Ty.” She managed to spit his name out with a cordial head bob perilously close to a curtsy. Or maybe she was feeling a bit weak in the knees. “I thought you had meetings today.”

She tried to keep the observation light and casual, but the lift of his dark eyebrows told her he’d heard the hint of accusation at the edges. A glance at Mike proved he’d caught the sharpness in her tone too, so Millie did what she did best. She spun the situation to her advantage.

“I mean, you had me clear the schedule for today because you said you were booked solid.” Activating the touchscreen on her tablet, she swiped the wallpaper away and punched in her security code. “If you’re free now, I have a couple of bloggers I can line up for a webchat.”

He rose from the chair, slowly unfolding all eighty inches of his lean, muscular frame with the grace of a man who was certain of the gifts God had given him. Ty Ransom was one of those people who appeared to be moving in slow motion, even when he was flying past in a blur. Everything he did seemed purposeful and deliberate. His wariness was one of the things she liked about him. Also the main reason the clinch they’d shared one dark, scotch-soaked night was still headlining in her dreams. She never thought he’d actually kiss her.

Like his magnificent body, his smile was slow to bloom, but when it reached its peak, the damn thing was devastating. “You know, Mike, I’ve gone almost twenty-four hours without being bossed around by a woman half my size. I have to admit, I was feeling sort of lost.”

Mike chuckled and pulled a file off the stack on his desk. “We all live to be managed by Millie.” He flipped open the folder, pulled the top sheet off the stack, and waved the paper at her. “I’m approving the trip to New York for the NSN interview, but I’m not putting you up for a week so you can make the morning show rounds.” He placed the page back in order, closed the cover, and held the dossier out to her. “Your travel arrangements are in the folder. Ty’s leaving from New York to head straight to Reno.”

“Reno?” Her head whirled as she accepted the folder. First, she had to wrap her mind around the prospect of being alone on a trip to New York with the man, then the realization he wasn’t coming back with her. “Already?”

“Takes six weeks’ residency.” Ty lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “If I go now, I can have the divorce finalized and be back before fall practices are in full swing.”

“Right.”

Six weeks in Nevada, and his divorce would be final. The plan was logical. Reasonable. And for some reason, slightly more disturbing than the prospect of Ty being free from his wife once and for all.

Ever since the night he’d bottomed out in a bottle, he’d been as calm and placid as a pond in the heat of high summer. Cool too. Not to her in particular, but to everyone and about everything. The man had his game face on, for sure. The problem was, Millie wasn’t entirely certain if she was supposed to be playing offense or defense whenever she was around him.

“My lawyer and I met with Mari’s. I was with my attorney all morning making sure the bases were covered. We have the plan worked out. She doesn’t want to leave lover boy alone for long, so I’m going to Reno to establish residency,” he explained. “The divorce will be final by Labor Day, and I can get on with things.”

Something about the gleam in his eyes struck her as odd. He was wary, and his steady gaze was more than a little speculative. As if he were expecting her to react in a certain way but not quite sure she wouldn’t disappoint him. Feeling as if she were tiptoeing through a field filled with land mines and all too aware of their audience, Millie gave him a small, sympathetic smile. “I see.”

He laughed and took a step toward the door. Sucking in a sharp breath, Millie stood her ground as he passed too close for comfort. The little smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth told her he’d brushed past her on purpose. But she wasn’t the type to be intimidated by big men. On the contrary. The bigger, the better, as far as she was concerned. The move came off as a bit adolescent, in truth. And finally, the reason why pinged on her radar. He was as off-kilter as she was. Maybe even more.

A rush of power pulsed through her veins. She tipped her chin and upped the ante with a full-on sassy-pants grin. “Well, good luck. I hope everything works out for you.”

He stopped, standing way too near for either of them to be completely unaffected. “I’m going to see you later, aren’t I?”

The husky, intimate timbre of his voice short-circuited her brain. “What?”

She darted a meaningful glance at Mike, seated behind his desk with his hands resting on the blotter. He studied them with narrowed eyes, like they were a couple of amoebas trapped under a microscope slide. Or worse, as if they were hooligans and he was trying to figure out which one had thrown a baseball through his window.

Clearing her throat, she arched her brows as she tried to deflect with some good old-fashioned professional detachment. “What’s scheduled for later?”

Ty tapped the travel documents in her hand with one long finger. “You, me, flying to the Big Apple.” He flattened his hand and mimed an airplane taking off. “You wanted a front-row seat for my beheading, remember?”

She blinked, then scrambled to recover as she threw up mental barriers in front of every naughty thought the prospect of jetting off to New York with this man spawned. “I’d never wish for any such thing,” she said, pressing her hand to her heart and aiming for an accent reminiscent of a scandalized Southern belle. “The dry-cleaning bill would be horrendous.”

Mike barked a laugh as he pushed his chair back. “Our Millie, the soul of sympathy.” He came around the desk and extended his hand to Ty. “Be good. Do everything the boss lady tells you to do,” he added with a nod in her direction.

“Yes, sir,” Ty answered, his smirk growing into a smile so wide, it upgraded his face from merely handsome to breathtaking. “I always do whatever Ms. Jensen thinks is best.”

“Good luck.” Mike gave Ty a slap on the back, then ushered them both toward the outer office. “We’ll be watching.”

Before she could get another word in edgewise, the door closed behind them, and she and Ty were left facing each other. At last, Ty glanced over at the solid mahogany door. “If I didn’t know he’d played football, I’d swear the guy was a point guard.”

Millie nodded. “I guess there’s a good reason they call them directors.”

The athletic director’s assistant didn’t look up or even break rhythm in her typing. “I emailed copies of your itineraries to your university and personal emails as well.”

Millie recovered first. Pulling the mantle of brisk efficiency around her like a cloak, she plastered a big smile onto her face and started toward the open doorway to the hall. “You’re the best, SaraAnn,” she called over her shoulder.

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