Page 8 of Power Play Pursuit

After another unbearable minute, he finally unhooks the panties, keeping them in one piece by some magic.

Standing up, he hands me the scrap of clothing and traps me with his gaze, his grin still wide.

“Aren’t you going to make some kind of gross comment?” I ask, matching his stare. How am I looking him in the eye right now? No idea. Maybe having my intimate clothing displayed like my own personal art gallery gave me a few bravery points.

“Why? Are you craving it?” he teases.

I just shake my head.

“And for the record, I wasn’t going to make a gross comment. Only that these panties,” he says, dropping his gaze to the balled-up pink lace pair still burning in my hand, “are particularly cute.”

I swallow hard. How can James Adler manage to light my entire body on fire with the word “cute”? Inhaling a sharp breath, I push a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Oh.”

He arches an eyebrow. “Not the comment you were expecting?”

I open my mouth to reply, but he stalks closer and rumbles, “Are you disappointed I didn’t tell you those are incredibly sexy, and I’m dying tosee you in them? Because that was definitely at the top of my mind. But I decided to be a gentleman instead.”

“Good,” I breathe out. There’s nothing gentlemanly about James Adler, or the fire roaring in his eyes, but I keep that thought to myself. No need to stoke those flames even more. “Well, now that we’ve settled that, I’m going back upstairs.”

The corner of his lips tilt into a smile. “See you tonight, Elizabeth.”

Rolling my eyes again, I carefully sidestep to avoid colliding with him again, then walk into the elevator.

“Oh, by the way,” he says, and I turn around.

His eyebrows furrow. “What are you doing here with a bag of underwear?”

It’s my turn to smile, knowing I’m about to drop a bomb on him. “You haven’t heard? I’m moving into the building.”

His lips part slightly, and that’s the last image I see of him before the door closes.

4

"In my defense, it’s hard to resist smiling at James Adler."

James Adler

We’re all gathered in the locker room, ready to kick some Carolina butt tonight. The only problem is, all I can think about is Elizabeth and her myriad of sexy underwear that now live two floors down from me. When she first told me the news, a surge of relief washed over me as I realized that meant she’d finally left that douchebag. Of course, that doesn’t mean she’ll ever be interested in me, just like Aaron said. But I’m just happy she’s not with that loser anymore.

“Are you all right, Adler?” Hawthorne asks, his concerned-dad look activated. Granted, I’m not usually sitting around,thinking,before a game.

I bump my fist on his thigh. “All good, Cap. Just getting my head in the game. Ready?”

“You know it.” He winks.

Miles leans toward me, hitting me with his glove. “Are you still ruminating over the fact that Beth moved in with us?”

My pulse accelerates at the sound of her name. “Nope.”

“Oh, Beth moved in with you?” asks Beaumont, who has big ears, as he saunters over. What is this? Gossip hour?

“Yeah,” Miles says. “She broke up with Rogers and needed a place to stay for a while.”

“And here I thought Adler would be the first to volunteer,” Beaumont says with a smirk.

“He didn’t know about it,” Miles replies, as if I’m not sitting right next to them.

“Oh,” Hawthorne says. “Makes sense.”

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