Page 9 of Pregame

“Me too, please,” Tessa chimes in.

“I’ll go with you.”Luke gets to his feet, and I close my eyes against the bright Nevada sun.

“What do you think you’re doing?”The sound of the stern masculine voice with the slightly gravelly rasp to it has me opening my eyes in confusion.I look up into the hard and unsmiling face of possibly the most magnificently gorgeous man I’ve ever seen.He definitely falls into the tall, dark, and dangerous category; he’s well over six feet tall with short, slightly tousled dark hair, piercing blue-gray eyes under thick dark brows that are knit together in a frown, and a strong unyielding jaw.He’s wearing more clothes than anyone else at the pool, but I can see the hard lines of his broad shoulders and lean muscular body beneath the expensively cut suit as clearly as if he were wearing a swimsuit.There’s an undeniable air of authority about him that has me squirming in my lounge chair.

“Excuse me?”I say.

His gaze travels insolently over the length of my body, and despite the fact that I’m wearing a two-piece swimsuit, I have to fight the urge to cover myself.I feel like I’m completely naked under his intense scrutiny.

“What are you doing?”he snaps.“This is Nevada.With your fair skin, you shouldn’t be lying in the sun like this.Your skin is already turning pink.You’re going to be burned to a crisp in another five minutes.”

I blink at him in surprise.Who the hell does he think he is?Temper wars with some strange but instinctive urge to please him.There’s something about him that is both commanding and intimidating, and I find myself stammering to explain myself.

“I put sunscreen on.”

“When?”

“Um ...what time is it?”

“Time to put more on,” he says gruffly.“Give it to me.”

He holds his hand out, and somehow I’m reaching into my bag and pulling out the bottle of sunscreen and handing it to him.Our fingers brush, and I feel a jolt of electricity.

“Roll over,” he orders.

I wordlessly roll onto my stomach and close my eyes as strong, capable fingers rub the lotion into my sun-warmed skin.Although there’s nothing sexual about it, in fact the way he’s efficiently rubbing the lotion onto my back feels almost businesslike, I feel a quiver of something unfamiliar deep in my belly.

“On your back now.”His tone is brusque, and I roll back onto my back.

“I can get it,” I protest, but he ignores me as he firmly rubs more sunscreen over every inch of my exposed skin.This time it doesn’t feel so businesslike.He massages the lotion carefully over my shoulders and across my upper chest, moving seamlessly to the exposed skin between my breasts and down over the flat expanse of my stomach.I close my eyes against the disconcertingly intimacy of his hands on my body.It feels wrong; I shouldn’t let a stranger be touching me like this, but for the life of me I can’t find my tongue to stop him.His warm hand slips just under the band of my bikini bottom and my stomach tightens at the stab of heat that goes straight through my core.

“What are you doing?”Emmett’s voice is even but firm above me.

I open my eyes to see the two men sizing each other up.

“Thanks for the drink, Em,” I say nonchalantly, trying to let him know I’m okay before he punches the guy.I hold my hand out, and he hands me the plastic cup, but his eyes don’t leave the other man’s face.

“Is this your sub?”the man asks, his face like granite.

“Yes,” Emmett answers curtly.

The man gets to his feet and tosses the tube of sunscreen to Emmett.“Then take care of her.”

“Who was that?”Tessa asks breathlessly as we watch him stalk back into the hotel.

“I have no idea,” I answer.“But I don’t think he’s one of the contestants.He wasn’t there last night.”I would have remembered those intense eyes and that imposing demeanor that makes every other man in the vicinity fade away.

“Good,” she says with relief.“He scares the crap out of me.”

“Me too,” I say honestly.But there’s something about him that’s oddly fascinating.

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