Page 56 of Puck You Very Much

“Oh, come on! I recognize verbal foreplay, Lucy!” he snapped.

She blinked in surprise. “Verbal…what? God, Dax! You’ve lost your mind. It was fun. Besides, I can talk to Jack however I want.” She raised her chin defiantly. “I don’t have to explain myself!”

Oh, he saw it differently.

“Shit. This isn’t working,” he replied, annoyed and pacing.

“What’s not working?” Lucy asked, confused.

“This!” he snapped, waving his hand between them. “Being normal when it comes to you! You can’t break into my loft and then flirt with Jack. You can’t close your eyes when I walk by you naked—and then blush when Jack takes off his shirt!That’s fucking uncalled for!”

He hoped Lucy wouldn’t askwhyagain because he had absolutely no answer for her.

Thankfully, she didn’t bother.

“What’s going on with you, Dax?” she replied, annoyed. “Why are you suddenly acting this way? You only kissed me because you wanted to make a point! You flirt with me to annoy me. You provoke me because you enjoy it! And now you’re jealous when I look at someone else’s nice six-pack?”

“I’m not jealous,” he said derisively. What a ridiculous thought. “It bugs me that you two are plotting against me!”

“What?” She snorted loudly, rolling her eyes before leaning against the strange desk with her hands clasped. “We were joking around. What’s so awful about that?”

Heat swirled in his chest, burning his skin from the inside, and he opened his mouth…only to close it again a second later.

Lucy sighed heavily and rubbed her forehead with her palm. “I don’t understand you, Dax. Your loft looks like you’re all grown up, but you act like an angry teenager, leaving me to think, no, I only imagined he could be reasonable and responsible! The fact that you’re so angry now has nothing to do with me and everything to do with Jack. If I had flirted with Matt or Fox, you wouldn’t have cared at all.”

His jaw cracked. Why the hell would she mention Matt or Fox?Did she want them?

“I have no desire to be caught in the crossfire,” Lucy continued unperturbed, staring at him firmly. “You have to get your act together. Either you talk to Jack or you forget what happened. Because if you carry on this way, you’ll not only destroy his and your career but probably mine as well. Not to mention you are driving me crazy!” Shaking her head, she ran her hand over her hair. Then she laughed dryly. “Do you know that I used to be a fan of yours?”

Confused, he blinked. “What?” He couldn’t keep up. Her brain jumped from one irrelevant point to the next, and the only thing he could do was stare at her lips.

“Yes. Before I met you, you were my favorite player.” He blinked again and took a few steps forward, because he must not be hearing her correctly. He couldn’t explain what just came out of her mouth any other way.

“Not because of your six-pack or because you’re so incredibly handsome, but because you have the best backhand shot in the league,” she murmured. “Because you always seemed funny and down-to-earth during interviews. Because you so obviously loved the game! Because you always seemed so nice. But that’s ridiculous, right?” Skeptically, she looked up at him. “You’re not nice, you’re merely a good actor, aren’t you?”

The question landed like a punch to his stomach.

His gaze slid over her face. Over her perky chin, her pink cheeks, her questioning brown eyes…to her slightly parted lips.

“I can be nice,” he whispered hoarsely.

She raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Really?”

He nodded—and kissed her.

Chapter 17

As Dax’s lips touched hers, Lucy promptly forgot what she’d been thinking. The words she’d been aiming to say were lost in Dax’s gentle breath and the tingling sensation his kiss sent through her body.

She hadn’t expected him to kiss her. At the same time, she felt as if she’d been waiting for it.

Light as a feather, he placed his hand on her upper back, ran his fingertips over her neck, and deepened the kiss without becoming overbearing. He gently pushed his tongue against her lips but never slid between them. He brushed them with his teeth without so much as a nibble.

The kiss was one warm, cautious temptation—a promise of more.

Did she want more?

“See?” Dax whispered, pulling away and gently stroking her cheek with his thumb, tracing the line of her jaw, his gaze following his touch. “That was nice.”

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