by KB Winters
She made a noise like a steaming tea kettle and moved to push off of her bar stool. “I’m done here.”
“Hey, hey, come on, I’m just playing with you.”
She ignored me and went around me to break up the happy couple. “Paris. Keys.”
I smirked as Paris’ eyes fluttered open and Robby pulled away from whatever he’d been whispering in her ear. She looked genuinely startled by her surroundings. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen someone so lost in their own world they legit forgot where they were. It was hilarious. Even more so because it pissed the hell out of Chelsea.
“Keys!” she demanded, all but stomping her foot.
I glanced down. Flats. Damn, this girl needs to loosen up.
The black pager on the counter started buzzing, soft red LED lights flashing.
“That’s our table!” Paris said, hopping off of Robby’s lap.
Chelsea grit her teeth. “I’m not staying. Paris, please just let me take your car so I can go home.”
I leaned back against the bar and watched like it was a reality show. Paris untangled herself from Robby and wrapped her arm around Chelsea’s shoulders. “Come on, babe. Stay for dinner. It’ll be fun and you know you want some California Rolls.”
Chelsea shook her head. “I’ll grab something on my way home. I don’t want to stay here…” she flicked a dark glance at me and Robby and Paris both followed her gaze.
Robby slapped my back. “Come on, Chels, cheer my buddy up. He’s had a rough night.”
Chelsea looked from Robby to Paris and then back to me. When our eyes met she froze and I saw her suck in a sharp breath. She wanted me. It was obvious. I flashed a smile. “I promise to behave myself, Chelsea. Come on, let’s have a nice dinner.”
She sighed. “Fine. But don’t even talk to me!”
We all filed out of the bar and then followed the hostess to a table in the middle of the restaurant. I would have preferred a seat somewhere in a corner to keep from another scene breaking out like the one in the bar, but no one even glanced our way as we got situated and I relaxed.
Chelsea let me pull out her chair and took her seat beside me. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” I handed her a menu and soon enough the four of us got to talking about a movie we’d all seen, and beside me, Chelsea’s edge wore off.
She was a helluva lot more fun with a couple of drinks in her.
“So, tell me about the two of you. How’d you snag this hottie?” I asked Robby, knowing full well that his bank account had probably done most of the convincing. Sure, Robby was a good looking dude, but if I was a betting man, I’d have said that Paris wouldn’t have given him a second night if he weren’t a major league ball player. No way.
Robby laughed, his smile good-natured. “We met at a New Year’s Eve party. We spent all night eye fuckin’ each other across the room and when the ball dropped, we beelined for each other to get that midnight kiss—”
“And we haven’t stopped since,” Paris concluded, stopping to plant another one on her man. “Then, this year, for New Year’s he took me away and dropped this baby on me right in the middle of Times Square.”
She flashed a massive diamond ring, wiggling her fingers to set off the sparkle.
“Impressive.”
Chelsea smiled but I could tell from her expression that she’d heard this story one too many times.
“What about you, sugar? You’re not into sports. So what is it that rocks your world? You got some cubicle dwelling boy toy who talks nerdy to you all night long?”
Paris stifled a giggle in her linen napkin.
“Har har,” Chelsea said, rolling those beautiful, fuck-me-eyes back my way. “You’re such a comedian, Mr. Wright.” She gawked a little and I wondered if it was the first time she realized the double play of my last name. I’d been many a ladies Mr. Right…for a night…
“Just trying to figure you out.”
She glared at me. “Well don’t try too hard. We wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself. That’d be bad for the team. Or…maybe not.”
“Ouch!” Robby said, chuckling. “She got you there, Wright.”
I laughed it off. “I’ve met my match for sure.”
My statement had just the reaction I wanted. Chelsea sucked down the rest of her drink and was careful to not let her eyes wander back to my side of the table.
The server came to our table and handed over the check.
“I got it,” I announced, reaching for the black folder.
Robby started to argue.
“Hey, man, you just bought the whole damn bar a round on my behalf. Let me pick this up.”
Robby held up his hands, surrendering, and I took care of it with the server. I might be new with the league, but I’d come in with a healthy initial offer and had plenty of cash to flash. A sushi dinner for four wasn’t gonna put a dent in my walking around money.
“Chels, we can drop you home if you’re not good to drive,” Robby said, shrugging into his jacket.
Chelsea glanced down at the second hurricane she’d polished off.
“I’ll take you home. After all, it’s my fault you don’t have a car tonight,” I said, swooping in. Chelsea looked at Robby and then back at me. “Come on, it’s the least I can do.”
She sighed and gave me a small nod. “Okay, but don’t get the wrong idea. It’s just a ride.”
Damn right I wanted to take her for a ride.
I smirked at her and stood up from the stool. I reached for her hand. “Of course not, sugar.”
Chapter Five
Chelsea
Against my better judgments, I let Paris ply me into having another drink over the course of dinner. Even after my second—technically third—hurricane, I found myself losing grip on my annoyance with Cody and instead getting sucked into his charm. The labels that I’d originally applied to him started to soften. Arrogant, Player, Asshat, Douchebag with his King-of-the-World Complex and infuriating little cleft started falling away. And by the time he offered to drive me home, I agreed without a lot of fuss.
Which is how I found myself tucked into the passenger seat of his big, obnoxious jacked up truck. The sights from the freeway whizzed by as he cruised up the road, clocking a good ten miles over the speed limit. The light-headed feeling wore off quickly but was instantly replaced with a frantic pulse and sweaty palms from being in such close quarters with the striking man who, probably against my better judgment, had captured my interest and commanded my attention.
“Why do you live so far out here?”
I glanced over at him. “I like the peace and quiet of the suburbs. The city is too busy for my taste.”
“Hmm.” He peered out the windshield at the highway markers. When we’d started out, I gave him the exit number. We were still a few miles away.
“If you didn’t want to drive, then you shouldn’t have volunteered—or was it insisted—on taking me home.”
Cody laughed. “Did I say I didn’t want to drive? I don’t mind driving. I was merely curious.”
Something about his answer made my skin flush with embarrassment for my smart mouthed reply. I was trying too hard to be acidic and it was coming across all wrong. And not very effective to boot. He was like Teflon. Nothing rattled him.
“Let me guess, you have some big mansion up in the hills?” I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat. I needed to contain myself from getting too carried away. Too lost in this man. He wasn’t for me.
“Wrong again, sugar. I don’t have a home here. I’m crashing at the Hilton.”
“Oh. Nice.”
Cody turned to glance at me and I hurried to direct my eyes elsewhere. “If you wanted to see it, you should have said so. We could be there now…getting into all sorts of trouble.”
“You wish.” I scoffed.
“You do too, sugar. You’re trying real hard to play it cool but I can see right through that. Your acting skills are a little out of practice it would appear.”
/>
“How dare you!” I twisted in my seat to face him. He pulled his eyes from the road and winked at me. “Ugh! You’re just such a…such a creep!”
Cody laughed. “Still not convincing me, darlin’.”
“I don’t care.” I squeezed my arms tighter around my chest and turned my glower back out the front windows.
Cody shrugged. “Why are you trying so hard? I’m not going to do anything unless you ask for it.”
“Good. Then nothing is going to happen.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that…”
I threw my hands into the air. “What makes you think I want you? Are you just so used to women throwing themselves at you that you think all women are that way? ’Cause I got news for you bucko, that’s not the case. I’m very happily single and not looking to mingle with you or anyone else right now.”
“Damn, baby. I wasn’t talking diamond rings and getting a timeshare together. No one’s trying to take your single status.”
“Oh, well that’s a relief. How charming to know you just want me for a quick night of fun.”
“Who said anything about quick?” Cody glanced over at me and our eyes met in the dark. He raked them down my body slowly, my heart racing at the way he was looking at me like he could see through my clothes. “With a body like that, there’d be nothing quick about it. I would insist on taking my time.”
I shivered and blew out another scoff to cover my reaction to his sultry words and the flood of images that splashed through my mind. My nails dug into my upper arms. “Quick, slow, whatever. It doesn’t matter, Cody. I’m not interested.”
Cody laughed. “All right, sugar. Whatever you say. This the exit?”
I glanced up and nodded. “Yes. Take a left and get in the far right lane whenever you can. But be careful, this place is littered with cops this time of night.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I took a deep breath as we waited at the light. Cody draped his long, powerful arm over the back of the seat while we sat there under the glow of red. His fingertips were a fraction of an inch away from me and I swore I could feel the heat from his skin pouring off of him. I wondered what would happen if I shifted my weight to the side and brushed against the tips…
No. Chelsea, it’s not worth it. You’re not the type of girl to play with fire.
The light turned green before I could do something stupid. Supremely stupid.
Cody turned and eased over to the lane that I’d indicated and for a few minutes we were silent. The only words exchanged in regards to getting to my home. A tension welled inside me the closer we got and I bit my lip, unable to hold back the images of what might happen if I asked him in for a cup of coffee before he had to drive the twenty-five minutes back into the city to his hotel.
“This street,” I said, sitting forward, pointing to my street. I clenched my thighs together at the heat built between them. “That row of townhouses.”
Cody turned onto the street and I fixed my gaze on my home. There were twelve townhouses all together on one side of the street. Six clustered together, a small bike path that led to a city park, and then the next six. They were all owned by some big shot developer and worth a mint. They were a few years old and fully loaded with all the modern amenities. Slab granite countertops in the kitchen, solid wood floors, coffered ceilings, a gas fireplace with a slate surround, travertine floors in the master bath, French doors and picture windows throughout, and a large covered back patio with carefully tended vines creeping up the sides of the covering.
“Nice,” Cody said, pulling up in front of the one I indicated as mine. The second from the left on the first block of homes. “How long have you been here?”
“About a year.” I just resigned another year long lease the month before. “Another perk to suburbia. This place would cost three times as much in the city.”
Cody laughed. “Very true.”
“But you’re a big shot baller now, right? You don’t have to worry about such pedestrian things like price tags, huh?”
“Very true.”
I snorted, having expected him to retort my comment.
“Come on. I’ll walk you up.”
I sighed and pushed open the passenger door. I almost argued, but swallowed it down. There would be no point in trying. Cody clearly played by his own rules. He could get to the front door and not one inch farther.
He waited for me on the curb and walked in step with me up to the door. I smiled at the way he kept my pace, considering his long legs could probably go twice the distance as mine. He had to be nearly a foot taller than me. I liked it though. My neighborhood was safe but I still tended to get skittish when I walked around in the dark. Normally I would pull in the garage and wait until the door was closed behind me before getting out and going inside. But with Cody by my side, I hardly even thought about the late hour and the thick darkness.
A set of wooden steps led up to the front door. In the light of day, they were a creamy, off-white color that matched the trim of the house and offset against the navy blue houses. Cody let me go first and I made it three steps before I realized he wasn’t being polite.
He was staring at my ass.
I turned my head to look back over my shoulder and sure enough, he remained at the bottom, his full lips pursed, his head cocked to one side. “You’re a pig. You know that, right?”
He laughed and shrugged off my comment. “I just know what I like.”
I huffed and continued up the stairs, trying hard to control the swing of my hips. I didn’t need to give him any more ideas. Heaven knows his mind was probably already packed full of degrading things he wanted to do to me.
And damn that tingle that went down my spine every single time I thought about him—thinking about me.
Cody’s footsteps joined mine on the steps and he reached the top a second after I did. “You gonna invite me inside?”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I retorted, glowering up at him with my best bitch face.
It didn’t deter him in the slightest.
“That’s too bad, Chelsea. I thought we were starting to hit it off.”
I laughed, the sound hollow in the night. “Is that so? What part of tonight made you think we were quote, unquote hitting it off? Did you mistake me calling you a pig as some kind of mating call?” I folded my arms. “’Cause I hate to break it to you but that wasn’t a flattering comment.”
He grinned and my knees buckled a little at the lines around his mouth and the amused look in his eyes as he sized me up. “You want me. You’re trying so hard not to. It’s actually quite adorable. But baby, I will get to you. I’m already inside your head.”
I rolled my eyes. “You are not.”
“So you’re always so fidgety in the car? Don’t you think I noticed you squirming around over there? What were you thinking about? My big hands on the wheel and what they might feel like all over your spectacular ass?” He leaned closer and I stopped breathing. The smell of his cologne was warm and musky and made it even harder to think straight. Or, at least to think about anything that didn’t involve his mouth on mine.
Cody lifted a finger and traced it down my cheek, the soft touch setting off sparks of electricity and desire across my skin. “We could be great together,” he said, his voice thick and husky.
His lips lowered and my eyes fluttered halfway closed before I remembered I was not going to let him get to me. I reared back and took as big of a step backward as I could without crashing over the banister of the railing around the porch. That’d be a nasty fall.
“I don’t know about that,” I said, folding my arms again, needing to put some kind of barrier between us. I glanced over at his truck. “I think all this bravado and ego might be a Napoleon thing.”
“Is that so? If you haven’t noticed, I’m tall…” he said, flashing me a dark grin.
“Maybe I wasn’t talking about height. You know what they say about men with big, jacked up trucks…is this some kind of co
mpensation thing?” I flicked my gaze to his truck, the hulking piece of metal and power parked at the curb below.
Cody dropped his head back and roared with laughter. “Wow.” He brought his eyes back to mine and they were full of light in the soft glow of the lamps hanging on either side of my front door. “You’re really into me.”
I rolled my eyes and dropped my arms. “Enough. I don’t want to play this game anymore. Good night, Cody. Thank you for the ride.” I dug through my purse and found my keys. Cody was still standing there, his hands shoved in his pockets.
“I’ll wait till you get in safely.”
I turned my back to my front door and looked around the quiet neighborhood. “Why? Are you convinced the Boogeyman is lurking in my boxwood hedges?” I asked, pointing to the line of shrubs that bordered the manicured yard. The street light at the sidewalk illuminated them.
“It could happen.”
“I think the only danger I’m in is assault on a MLB player if you don’t get off my porch right now.”
Cody grinned wider. “Sounds fun. Come on. Show me whatcha got.”
“You’re infuriating. You know that, right?”
“You like it.”
I sighed and leaned against the door. “Goodbye, Cody.”
He reached out and braced a palm against the door, dropping his face too close to mine. All the oxygen left my lungs again. He had that effect on me all too easily. “It’s not goodbye, sugar. I fully intend on seeing you again. So let’s say see you later.”
My lips parted before my mind had fully landed on a smart assed comeback and the heat from his breath hitting my wet lips erased any hope of finding something to say.
He pushed off the door and sauntered down the stairs. He waved when he reached the bottom. “See you later, Chelsea!”
Damn it!
Chapter Six
Chelsea
“Damn him!” I bellowed to myself after I shut the door and snapped the deadbolt into place. I got tangled in my purse as I tried to get it off over my head and the struggle to get free only pissed me off all the more. When I got it off, I threw it onto the bench seat under the front window and then stalked down the dark hallway, not bothering to turn on the lights until I got into the kitchen. I flicked on the light over the island and went to the fridge. The door crashed open so hard that the condiments in the door rattled, the glass bottles bouncing off each other. The cool air from the fridge brought my body temperature down from boiling to flushed.