by Lori Ryan
When she thought of his reputation, she began to laugh out loud. The man was known for being able to sleep with any woman he wanted. He could sure as heck kiss any woman he wanted before his games.
As he scowled at her laughter, her mind skidded to a halt when she thought of another aspect of his reputation. Rafe was known for being exceptionally ... adventurous in bed. Ashlyn’s eyes flicked to the bookshelf in her living room, lined with the romance novels she ate up between classes and on the weekends. The ones that fed her fantasies and fueled her desire for a man that made her feel the way the women in her books felt.
Cherished, treasured, lusted after.
Flustered, Ashlyn decided it was time to end this conversation before she made a fool out of herself by proposing the idea that had just run through her head. She would not go there with Rafe. Uh-uh. No way.
“Come on, Ashlyn, there has to be something you want.”
She flushed again, sure her face was absolutely crimson by this point.
“Let me think about it,” she said and pushed the door shut, resting both of her hands against it, as though she could block out the images of Rafe in bed that were flashing through her mind. Damn him.
“The next game is tomorrow, Ashlyn,” he called through the door.
“Good night, Rafe,” she yelled and backed away, knowing she wouldn’t get any sleep for a long, long time.
Chapter Four
Ashlyn tracked down Elise during lunch time the following day, bringing her packed lunch to Elise’s classroom to trap her. She made it there just as her so-called friend was about to leave the room.
“No way, lady. Back it up,” she said, pushing Elise back into the room and raising her cooler bag up for Elise to see. “I packed lunch for both of us. Chicken salad and fresh strawberries. So, no excuses, you’re not leaving this room until you admit it was you who gave Rafe my address.”
Elise snatched the cooler bag and grinned, walking back to her desk and unpacking the food.
“You’re not even going to try to deny it, are you? You’re enjoying this!” Ashlyn sank into the chair next to Elise’s desk and stared at her friend.
“Nope, not going to deny it at all.” Elise handed her one of the chicken salad sandwiches and a container of strawberries before sitting in her own chair.
“You sent a stranger to my house in the middle of the night!”
Elise scoffed and rolled her eyes. “No, I gave him your phone number. He must have found your address some other way once he had your phone number. Besides, this is Rafe. A man you’ve met dozens of times. A man my husband would trust with his life. He needed to talk to you. And, judging by the way you were climbing him like a tree trunk in my kitchen the day before, I didn’t think it would be a bad idea for you guys to talk. You obviously have some unresolved business. So I gave him your number.”
Ashlyn scowled. “Then how did he get my address? My phone is a cell phone so it’s not like he could have done that reverse lookup thing.”
Elise shrugged. “He’s got money. He probably paid a private investigator or something. Who knows? The important thing is,” she leaned across the desk and smiled, “did he kiss you again?”
“No! But not for lack of trying. He’s convinced it was my kiss that turned his game around. He wants to pay me to kiss him before each game. Do you believe his nerve?”
Elise laughed. “Wait, let me get this straight. He wants to add you to his pregame superstition ritual? Like a sock?”
“More like a prostitute than a sock! He wants to pay me, Elise! Pay me!”
“Shoot, you should do it for free. You should let yourself go, just have fun with him.” Elise was grinning at her again and Ashlyn felt her cheeks heat.
“You did, didn’t you? Did you sleep with him?”
“No, I didn’t sleep with him!”
“But, you thought about it. You’re totally thinking about it,” Elise said, leaning back and popping a strawberry in her mouth with a very satisfied smile.
Now it was Ashlyn’s turn to shrug. “I thought about it for about two seconds, but that’s not me. You know that’s not me. I mean, what am I supposed to do, just sleep with the guy for however long he thinks I’m the key to winning his games and then move on?”
“Actually, yes. I think you should. You deserve to have a little fun. And, you can make a deal with him that you’re exclusive while it’s going on. Take advantage of this, Ashlyn.”
Ashlyn squirmed. That was too close to saying ‘take advantage of him,’ only who was she kidding? Rafe Wilson wouldn’t let anyone take advantage of him. They’d both be getting what they wanted out of the deal Elise was proposing, but it still seemed so wrong to Ashlyn. Almost clinical.
She was quiet as they finished up their lunch. Despite Elise’s encouragement, she just didn’t know if she could go there. She’d never slept with someone she wasn’t in a long-term relationship with. How do you just flip a switch and sleep with someone because you’d made a deal with them? A deal for sex?
The rest of the day, her mind wasn’t as focused on teaching as it should have been. Instead, she warred with the idea of allowing herself the freedom to simply ask for what she wanted with Rafe as opposed to having utterly unsatisfying sexual experiences with the type of men she usually dated. To experience the kind of sex life she knew was possible, if only because she could see it in Elise’s eyes when she told her how happy she was with Kane. Of course, what Elise and Kane had was so much more than just sex, but Ashlyn couldn’t deny, she wanted to know what else was out there. She also had a feeling her insistence on the possibility of a white picket fence from every relationship was keeping her from having what she wanted.
Ashlyn cut herself a deal. She’d leave it up to the fates, or whatever ruled all of those superstitions Rafe practiced so religiously. If the Strikers won the game tonight, he didn’t need her and she didn’t need him. If the team lost, she’d know this arrangement was meant to be. She would go for it.
After she watched Rafe’s game fall apart again on the screen, she dialed Elise’s number.
“Hey, it’s me. Can I have Rafe’s phone number?”
Chapter Five
Ashlyn didn’t know where to begin. Rafe sat on her couch, legs stretched out in front of him, waiting. He wasn’t relaxed. In fact, she knew there was no way he could relax after the game he’d played tonight. When she’d called and asked him to come over, he’d come straight from the ballpark. And, now he sat watching her, waiting calmly as though he knew it would take a lot for her to work up the nerve to tell him what she wanted.
Ashlyn twisted her fingers together, trying to decide how to explain that she wanted more than a pregame kiss from him. That she wanted pregame sex. That she wanted to experience the kind of sexual freedom she read about in her romance novels. Without any conscious thought, her eyes flitted to the bookshelves lining her living room wall.
Rafe’s eyes followed hers to the shelf and she felt the flush of red creep over her neck, her cheeks. Oh no. Before she could stop him, he was on his feet, glancing at the spines, all of which contained the names of nothing but romance novels. No textbooks left over from her time in college, no travel books or biographies of famous people.
Rafe grinned at her over one of those gorgeously tempting shoulders of his, and then turned silently back to the shelf before pulling out a book. Oh, he didn’t. Of course he did. He pulled a ménage book. On the cover, a woman was ravished by three men, one burying his head in her chest, another holding her from behind as a third knelt in front of her, hands on her thighs.
Rafe turned and raised a brow at her.
“Fantasy of yours?”
She held her chin high and looked at him with eyes that dared him to continue mocking her.
“Some things are only a fantasy, Rafe.”
He nodded slowly, as if he was thinking something through before turning and swapping that book out for another one. This one was a bit more tame. One book in a series fro
m one of her favorite authors. It was steamy and hot and racy, but a lot more sedate than the ménage book he’d first chosen. Rafe silently flipped through the pages, stopping to read a passage here and there.
“Now this I can help with,” he said, turning back to her, that wicked gaze seeming to melt her a little each time he turned it on her.
“Excuse me?”
“This,” Rafe gestured with the book and crossed back over to where she sat on the couch, “I can help you live out some of the dreams you’ve clearly been having.” He nodded to the shelf and then grinned at her. “I’m good at it. Very good.”
Laughter burst out again. “Well, you certainly don’t lack confidence, that’s for sure.”
Part of her was relieved he’d guessed about what she wanted without her having to broach the subject. Another part was just humiliated that he’d read her so easily, that he’d seen what she wanted so badly and hadn’t been able to explain. She was a grown woman, after all. Shouldn’t she be able to discuss her needs like an adult?
“Nope, confidence isn’t one of my issues,” he said with a small shake of his head. He turned the book toward her and pointed to a passage for her to read. “I can give you this, Ash. I can give you everything you’ve been wanting. If you help me before my games.”
Ashlyn forced her eyes to drop from his, down to the book, skimming the scene quickly. She was mortified to hear a small moan escape her lips before she bit down on them. Rafe had chosen a scene that involved blindfolds and silk ties on a four poster bed. Ashlyn was a confident woman in many ways. When she was teaching, she was confident. Dealing with her students’ parents? Confident. With friends? Confident.
But, she’d never felt comfortable asking any of the men she dated to experiment with her in the bedroom in this way. In fact, she hadn’t been comfortable simply expressing her most basic needs or wants in that department. And, she wasn’t stupid. She knew that was one of the reasons she was often left unsatisfied, but when it came to speaking up in bed, she just clammed up.
Talking about this kind of thing seemed to come a lot more easily to Rafe. Could she just let herself go with him? Just pretend she was someone she wasn’t? That she was someone brave and confident in bed? Could she let herself do this with him? For however long he wanted her to be a part of his ‘pregame routine’?
She glanced up to find Rafe watching her intently and the look in his eyes was shocking. It held wanting, lust, need—directed at her. Things she never thought she’d see in his eyes. Something she’d thought she would only find between the pages of her books. Of course, the wanting in her books eventually led to love, and she knew that wouldn’t happen here. But, maybe that was all right. Maybe Rafe could teach her how to get what she wanted in the bedroom. Maybe, before this ended and he walked away from her, she’d have found the confidence to tell her next lover what she wanted and needed. Then someday down the road, she could find love with the right man, someone who wanted the white picket fence and wanted her, passionately and intently.
“What if this messes with the pregame kiss?” she asked. “I mean the thing that worked was a kiss, not—you know.”
“Not sex?” he asked and she saw a hint of amusement in his eyes at her inability to even voice the word. She wanted to kick herself as the flush of heat hit her cheeks again. Why couldn’t she just say the word?
“I mean it’s always the same socks, or the same shirt, or whatever you have to do before each game. Won’t messing with what we did screw things up for your games?”
Rafe looked at her and she could tell he was analyzing what she said, and then he shook his head. “It won’t mess with anything. If a kiss is good, sex should be better. More is always better, right?” His grin was back and with it, the heat in his gaze.
She didn’t point out that his argument was flawed. More donuts? More ice cream? No. Not always better.
“Say yes,” Rafe whispered as he leaned close to her, his entire demeanor changed. He wasn’t begging any longer. He was demanding. Ordering. Seducing. And, oh, how her body wanted her to listen, to give in and let him have his way.
Ashlyn’s heart raced as he closed the space between them slowly, lowering his mouth to hers, his eyes never leaving her eyes. He let his hand trail down her arm and she felt her skin tingle at the light teasing touch. What would he be like when they were naked in bed together if he could do this to her fully clothed? He leaned in and nipped at her shoulder, just next to the thin strap of her camisole, and then brought his lips back to her ear, letting his breath tease and taunt her now.
“Say yes, Ashlyn,” he whispered again. She let herself believe, for just a split second, that at least a piece of him made that demand because he wanted her, not because he needed her as a good luck charm.
His mouth touched her lips, gently for a brief second, before the intensity and heat took over and his kiss became a demand. He possessed her so completely in that moment, slipping his tongue along her bottom lip, willing her to open for him. She did. Once there, his tongue tangled with hers, letting her know all the things he wanted to do with her. Her body arched toward him, her breath caught in her throat, and she was lost. Utterly lost to him. This might be the most foolish thing she had ever done, but she was doing it.
Rafe pulled back, looking into her eyes. “Deal?” he asked, voice husky and warm, sending ripples down her spine.
Ashlyn nodded, not trusting her voice.
He cupped her cheek and kissed her again, softly, tenderly this time. “Get some sleep, Ash. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Chapter Six
Elise laughed and Ashlyn was a little tempted to hang up on her.
“I think it’s great, Ashlyn. You need this. You need to let loose, just like I needed that when I met Kane. Heck, you might even need it more than I did.”
Ashlyn’s response was more of a grumble than actual words as she juggled the phone on one shoulder while digging in the fridge for something more exciting than apples to eat.
“Hey, you should be thanking me. If he needs to kiss you before his games, then that means he needs to take you to every game. You love baseball. Between the wild sex and the baseball games, you’ll have the summer of a lifetime.”
Ashlyn pulled a container of yogurt from the fridge and frowned down at it, thinking it wasn’t any more enticing than the apples. She put it back and opened the freezer. Ice cream.
“Summer break starts next week, but I still have to work. I’m tutoring all summer.”
Ashlyn heard a dismissive grunt from Elise. “Just move your tutoring schedule to match his home games and you’re free to travel with him to all the away games. Problem solved. What’s your next objection?”
Ashlyn sighed as she ate a spoon of ice cream. The person who invented ice cream really should have been given a more important place in history. He deserved a national holiday or a street named after him or her in every city, in every country across the world. Not fair.
“I don’t know. It just seems weird. I mean, what do we do, just jump in bed together after the game tonight? That’s just weird.”
“You’ll get over it the second his hands are on you,” Elise continued, undeterred. “Besides, I have my own bet this season going with Kane. I need Rafe’s numbers to be up the rest of the season if I’m going to win.”
Ashlyn almost choked on a bite of ice cream. She didn’t want to know what those two had bet. Most likely it involved something in the bedroom as the winning prize. Too much information.
“You’ve got to make sure he performs!” Elise said, sending Ashlyn into another fit of coughing. She didn’t know if Elise intended the play on words or not and she didn’t care. She wanted to bury her head in the sand and rewind the past forty-eight hours. Maybe.
Ashlyn’s cell buzzed, indicating an incoming call, and she glanced at the screen. Rafe. “Hang on a sec, Elise. I have to grab the other line.”
She hit the hold call and answer option on the screen and said hello.
<
br /> “Hey, Ash,” came Rafe’s deep voice, smooth as hot cocoa running down her spine, and waking her body up in an instant. He sounded so casual, like this was easy for him. Not awkward at all.
“Rafe ... hi,” she said and hated that she sounded a little breathless. Must have been the coughing fits.
“I have to head to the stadium at one thirty this afternoon. Can I send a car over to take you to the game later?”
Ashlyn laughed. “I can drive myself to the game, Rafe.”
He was quiet a minute and she could almost feel his heated gaze through the phone.
“I thought I’d have a driver come to get you and then I’d take you home,” he said.
There was promise in his voice. A promise that told her he’d be fulfilling his part of the deal for her starting tonight after the game.
“Oh,” she said quietly.
His low chuckle of laughter raked over her sensitive skin, teasing her further. How did he do that?
“Is that a yes, Ashlyn?”
“Um ... yes.”
“Great,” he said and she heard relief in his voice. She knew he was probably stressed about making sure he got his pregame kiss. She had to shake her head at him. She knew his routines were important to him, and she’d never argue with him about them, but she also knew he could play just as well without them as with them. They were simply a way to quell his nerves before the game, to steady him. She’d bet her ... well, she didn’t have anything of value to bet, but if she did, she’d bet it that he didn’t really need his routines. Rafe was a damned good baseball player who didn’t need good luck to perform. It was as simple as that.
“Your driver will have instructions for where to go when you get to the stadium. I'll come find you before the game.”