Page 66 of Anatomy of a Player

“You mean when you’re trying to get lucky.”

“Sweetheart, I can get lucky without paying for dinner.”

The lightheartedness seeped out of the conversation on my end. I knew all too well that he didn’t need to do anything for girls to throw themselves at him. I’d seen it after the games, at the pool hall—basically everywhere he went.

“Hey,” he said, wrapping his hand around my thigh. “That was supposed to be a joke. The back and forth thing we do?”

I’d started the teasing, too, but it’d crept too close to the truth, where it felt remarkably less funny.

“I’m taking you out because I like being with you, even when we’re fully clothed and there’s no kissing going on.” He glanced across the cab. “I was serious about trying to impress you.”

I nodded and smiled, but I had to work for it. Maybe this was all a stupid, horrible idea.

The rest of the ride was too quiet, and I knew it was my fault. So after the hostess took down our names and told us it’d be about ten to fifteen minutes, I worked to get our conversation back on track. “I know you had your reasons for leaving, but do you ever miss New York?”

I was curious, but I’d also been thinking about my future more than usual the past few days, and whether it would involve New York City and the image I’d always had of living there, working for one of the big newspapers.

“Not really. Most people picture Time’s Square and fancy high rises when they think of New York. I lived in the roughest part of the Bronx, and you know enough to know that I don’t have a lot of warm cuddly memories.”

“I get that. But didn’t you ever go into the city?”

“Times Square’s a tourist trap—not a fan. But there are some cool areas, and of course there’s great food, every kind you could think of.” One corner of his mouth curved up. “There was also this time when Dane and I decided to cause a little trouble in Rockefeller Center—the other skaters on the ice that night had no idea what they were in for. It’s stupid expensive to skate there, so it’s mostly rich people and tourists. Dane and I skated onto the rink with our hockey gear and started playing a little one and one.”

I could see it in my mind now, all these couples in fuzzy sweaters and scarves, skating together and enjoying their romantic night on the famous rink, and then Dane and Hudson whizzing by them, hockey sticks slamming together.

“We went late so there wouldn’t be kids, and we were careful not to run into anyone, but they still set a police officer on us. He told us we could either go home or go in the back of his cop car.” Hudson chuckled. “Fuckin’ Dane asked for a refund, and I had to drag him off the ice before the cop followed through with his threat.”

I shook my head and laughed. If I’d heard that story before I knew the guys better, I would’ve probably sided with the appalled skaters, but there was something loveable about the way they lived their lives all out, unapologetically.

Or maybe I was blinded by the guy next to me. Hudson had his sleeves pushed up on his forearms, exposing a few inches of tattoos, and the dressy meeting with the black ink was giving me serious hormone surges.

Where were we? Oh yeah. Rockefeller Center.“I’ve always wanted to go skating there. When I was a teenager, I might’ve even had visions of being on a date, all bundled up against the cold. I’d slip, the guy would catch me, our faces would inevitably drift closer until we kissed… Oh, and the Christmas tree would be lit up, the perfect backdrop to it all. Was the tree up when you were there?”

Hudson drew me to him and wrapped his hands around the sides of my waist. “Yeah. The tree was somewhere in the background.”

“More than a half a million people pass by it every day—I saw this thing on it last Christmas, and I thought, someday, I’m going to be at the tree-lighting ceremony. Did you know the star is over ten feet tall and weighs over five hundred pounds? It’s made up of twenty-five thousand Swarovski crystals that are illuminated with over seven hundred energy-efficient LED bulbs. I can’t even imagine all that sparkle in real life.”

With every fact, the amusement filling Hudson’s features grew.

“What?” I asked, but then I remembered that the fact spewing was supposed to be for keeping guys away, not date talk.Oops.

“Your mouth says brainiac but your body says vixen.” Hudson slid his hands behind my back. One of his thumbs slipped underneath the hem of my shirt and brushed across my skin, sending a zip of electricity up my spine. “The combination is turning me on.”

I placed a hand on his chest. “Well,yourmouth says dirty talker, and your body says…” I cut myself off, once again wishing I could get better control of my mouth when I was around him.

“My body says what?” He wrapped his arms even tighter, until that body was flush against mine.

“That it can deliver,” I whispered.

“Oh, it can.” He kissed me, and I got so caught up in it that I barely registered the sound of a throat clearing.

“Your table’s ready,” the hostess said. “If you’ll just follow me.”

My cheeks flamed, but Hudson didn’t miss a beat. Keeping me tucked next to him, we wove our way around tables covered in thick white tablecloths and more dishes than I knew what to do with, to one in a back corner.

I picked up the menu the hostess had left and scanned the selection. If impressed was what he was going for, this place, with all of its tempting options and herbs and glazes definitely brought it.

“What about you?” Hudson asked. “Do you miss Kentucky?”

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