Drive You Wild: A Love Between the Bases Novel

by Jennifer Bernard

  Once inside the smelly, towel-strewn locker room, he spun her against the wall and braced his hands on either side of her head. “This,” he ground out, “is a bad idea.”

  She stared at him with a bewildered expression. He seized the opportunity to gaze his fill of her in the daylight, up close. Close enough to notice the outer rim of purple surrounding the sparkling blue of her eyes and the light spray of freckles across her cheekbones. A long strand of honey-brown hair clung to her neck. Fresh and alive, her apple fragrance lured him closer; he sensed the racing of her heart.

  He eased off, in case it was fear causing her heart to beat so fast. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

  A crease appeared between her eyebrows. He clenched his hands to keep from smoothing it away. “I told you my name.”

  “Part of your name.”

  “We didn’t exactly meet at a formal tea party,” she said. “I don’t remember how I introduced myself.”

  “I do. Paige, you said.”

  “Well, it’s Paige Mattingly Austin Taylor, since you seem to require the whole thing.”

  “The only part I’m worried about is the ‘Taylor.’ Your father despises me.”

  She held his gaze. “He doesn’t like seeing talented players waste their gifts.”

  As if she’d suddenly caught fire, he released her. He wasn’t wasting his gift, he was using it to protect his sister the best way he could. He paced away from her, rubbing his hand across the back of his neck.

  “So you were in the parking lot waiting for Crush?”

  “Yes. But I must have missed him, and then I saw you. And that man.”

  “Does he know that was you on the security tape?”

  Her eyes widened in alarm. “No. And please don’t tell him. He’d kill me. Or you. Maybe both.”

  “I won’t tell him as long as you promise not to put yourself in danger like that again.”

  She pushed away from the wall and sauntered toward him. “Um, I’m alone in an empty clubhouse with Big Bad Trevor Stark.” On that word, she tilted her head back and swept past him. “Apparently danger is my middle name.”

  He followed her as she advanced farther into the clubhouse, peering curiously into the lockers. “I’ve never been in here before. It was always off-limits.”

  “Is that why you turned me down? No sleeping with the players?”

  Outside Ramirez’s locker, she turned to face him, folding her arms over her chest. With a mighty effort, he fought to keep his gaze away from the pretty curves of her breasts under her T-shirt. “I turned you down because our acquaintance consisted of about ten minutes of conversation while fleeing a man with a BB gun. Also because I was headed to see my father. Not only that, I’m not in the habit of sleeping with men I’ve only met once. I can probably come up with a few more good reasons. Is it really so strange?”

  “In my life, it’s unusual,” he said simply. What the hell, it was the truth. Girls came on to him all the time.

  A distant thumping sound told him the pregame ceremony had finished and the Catfish were taking the field. Normally, he’d be pissed as hell that he wasn’t out there with them. Not this time. Talking to Paige in the empty quiet of the clubhouse, he didn’t miss the baseball field. Strange.

  Paige had scrunched up her face at his mention of his love life. “I think we can both agree that it’s a good thing I turned you down, given who my father is. I hope your feelings aren’t still wounded.”

  He shot her a sharp glance. “You know, suddenly I see the Taylor family resemblance. Crush always irritates the hell out of me too.”

  She bit her lip, amusement filling those big blue eyes. “I picked up on that.”

  “My feelings don’t get wounded, so you can just put that worry out of your mind.”

  “Just like that, huh?” She flicked her fingers in the air. “What are you, some kind of emotionless robot?”

  “Not at all. I have emotions. I get horny.”

  He used crudeness deliberately, to get a rise out of her. But it only made one corner of her wide mouth lift, as if he’d issued a challenge. “Could have fooled me. We’ve been alone all this time and you haven’t once made a move.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he closed the space between them. “Your taunts won’t work. You rejected me, remember? That ship has sailed.”

  “Really? Where’s the ship going?” She stepped forward. Olimpia Milano, that’s what her shirt said, and damn him for not being able to keep his eyes off her. Those curves made the palms of his hands twitch, so he closed them into fists.

  “Nowhere,” he said firmly. This girl was trouble with a capital T—for Taylor.

  “Are you afraid of the mighty Crush Taylor?” She took another step closer. “He’s not as bad as he seems, you know.”

  “I’m not afraid of him.” He placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her from coming any closer. Her warmth carried into his skin, into his being, as if it was igniting him from within.

  “And I’m not afraid of you.” She ducked underneath his hands in a quick move right out of the NBA. He took a step back and his calves hit the bench situated next to the lockers. She reached out in apology and suddenly they were right smack against each other, chest-to-chest.

  Fire flashed down his spine, hot and urgent. He hauled her against him—oh, sweet Jesus, she felt good. Soft and firm and shapely and alive and fresh and . . . then her mouth was under his, her lips parting, her breath warm against his mouth, her flesh lush and sweet. It wasn’t a kiss so much as a head rush.

  Her breasts pressed against him, soft and enticing. He growled and walked her backward, pinned her against a locker. Lifted her legs to wrap around his waist. Pressed his sudden, extreme erection into the warm space between her thighs. His lack of pants meant the bare skin of her legs slid against his, a smooth friction that sent more blood to his groin.

  She trembled in his arms and grabbed the back of his jersey. “Touch me,” she whispered wildly. “Just touch me.”

  Her urgency threw fuel on the fire driving him. He adjusted her on his thighs and slid his hands under the edge of her shorts, her skin like warm silk against his palms. She pushed against him, grinding her pelvis against his seeking fingers. Wild. Fierce. He reached for her heat, for wetness, for glory. Just as his fingers found the first outer petals of her intimate flesh, he froze.

  Crush Taylor’s daughter.

  He pulled his hand out of her shorts and released her so she slid to the floor. She would have stumbled if he hadn’t held her steady. Eyes huge, mouth moist from his kiss, she stared up at him.

  “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.” Closing his eyes against the temptation of her, he swiped his arm across his forehead. His face was damp with sweat. Holy fuck. How had a simple kiss gotten him to this state?

  “No, it was my fault,” she whispered. “I wanted you to. Oh God. I’m sorry. I guess it’s . . . I’m so embarrassed.” She covered her face with both hands. Her ponytail fell forward and he pushed it gently behind her shoulder.

  “Embarrassed?”

  “I’ve been going through a divorce, and it’s been awful, and sex became this loaded thing, it was never just fun or pleasurable. I guess I forgot what it felt like when . . . I shouldn’t have gotten carried away like that, and just so you know, I tend to babble during awkward situations. Can we mutually block this out? Make a pact of denial?”

  “Pact of denial,” he repeated dumbly. He was still stuck on the divorce part. She looked much too young to be married.

  “Yes. This never happened.” Her eyes clung to his, color flooding her face.

  That didn’t sit well with him. He wasn’t about to forget something like this. Even now his hands pulsed with the memory of her touch. But if that’s how she wanted it . . .

  “Do we have to shake on it? Because I’m not sure I can touch you without wanting to throw you down on the floor and—” He broke off as her eyes went the starry violet of a Texas twilight.

 
; “That’s okay, we can make it a verbal agreement,” she said in a slightly choked voice.

  He looked down at the still-hard erection distending the front of his jersey. “I’ll have to have a talk with my nonverbal side, straighten a few things out.”

  She let out a bubble of laughter. “I’ll leave that in your hands,” she said, then turned scarlet. “I mean . . . I’d . . . uh . . . better get to the owner’s box before my father comes looking. Pact of denial?”

  “Can we add in a pact of stay the hell away from each other?”

  “That might be hard. I’m going to be working here. Mission ‘Win the Championship’ is now my life.”

  Just his luck, to share the hottest kiss of his life with a woman he couldn’t go near. He ran his hand across the back of his neck. “You’d better go. There’s a cold shower calling my name.”

  She hurried toward the exit. Damn those long legs. How would he ever forget the way they’d felt wrapped around his waist? “One question,” he called after her. “Going through a divorce. Does that mean . . . ?”

  “It means I’m divorced.” Her face was the bright red of a St. Louis Cardinals cap. “I’ll see you around, Trevor Stark.”

  “See you, Paige Mattingly Austin Taylor.”

  With a fleeting smile, she whisked herself out of the clubhouse.

  Chapter 5

  IT TOOK PAIGE the entire trip to the owner’s box to recover her poise. Good golly, even in the early days with Hudson she hadn’t gone up in flames like that. As soon as Trevor touched her, she’d felt electricity sizzle across her skin. That kiss, hot and deep and demanding. Addictive. She still felt the aftereffects, her body tingling like the echoes of a bell still rippling through the atmosphere. Trevor Stark was dynamite wrapped in the body of a Viking angel.

  Nothing in her sexual history had prepared her for that chemical explosion. On the surface, Trevor wasn’t even her type. He was so controlled, so intense, so mysterious. He was the “bad boy” type that had never appealed to her. She was more of a “one of the boys” sort. For her, things usually started casually, with a hike in the hills or a few pizza-and-beer dates with a group of friends.

  Of course, her entire dating experience came from college, so maybe she was just uninformed. She and Hudson had lived in the same dorm. She’d gotten to know him over ice cream in the dining hall and working on an anthropology project together. They clicked, the sex was fun, they’d had an easy, drama-free relationship from the start. When he graduated and signed a contract with Virtus Roma, he proposed. They’d gotten married, moved to Italy, and voilà. End of dating experience.

  Trevor Stark, on the other hand? Oh my God. The way he’d held her, so she felt the force of his strength, the control of his grip. The way his kiss had absolutely consumed her, lighting her up like a torch. The way her inhibitions had melted away in the face of her primitive, embarrassing lust.

  What was wrong with her? Was she just sex-starved, as she’d told Trevor, scrambling to explain her mortifying behavior?

  She knew one thing for certain. It wasn’t his fallen-angel face. It wasn’t his ripped body. It was something else, something deeper. On the surface he was all ice and control, but underneath there was molten magma, intense and fierce. She’d felt it. It had surged from his body into hers, electric and dangerous and irresistible.

  What fueled Trevor Stark?

  Reaching the door to the owner’s box, she slipped in and went to the seat next to her father. Trevor was right, they couldn’t do that again. They might burn down the freaking stadium. And cause Crush’s head to explode.

  Sorry, Paige, she told herself. No hot sex with the ballplayer, no matter how sex-deprived you are.

  But maybe there was something else she could do with Trevor Stark. She’d always been curious about people. One of her favorite courses in college had been psychology, even though Crush had mocked her for it. Maybe she could put some of her curiosity to work on the enigmatic ballplayer. Could she figure out what made Trevor tick? Why he was throwing away his talent? Why he was still playing Triple A in Kilby when he ought to be with the Friars?

  She stole a glance at her dad, who was firing eye bullets across the stadium. Following his gaze, she saw a gray-haired man in a bolo tie and cowboy hat. Roy Wade. Her father’s longtime nemesis.

  “Still feuding with the Wades?”

  “You don’t feud with people like that. You squash them under your boot like gnats. They’re trying to steal the team.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “They want to buy the Catfish, and they have the commissioner convinced they’d be better for the league.”

  All the pieces fell into place. “That’s why you vowed to win the championship? Because of the Wades?”

  “Everyone loves a winner. If we win under my watch, they’ll have a hard time making the argument that I’m an embarrassment to the league.” His gaze moved sideways, across the crowd, then settled on a blond woman coming down the aisle. “Well, look who deigned to visit the Catfish.”

  Paige lifted the binoculars from the counter that ran the length of the owner’s box. The woman had the classic Texas big hair and a curvaceous build. She wore blue jeans but didn’t look comfortable in them, as if she usually dressed less casually. “I don’t recognize her.”

  “That’s the mayor of Kilby, Wendy Trent.”

  His tone, somewhere between intrigue and suspicion, made her look more closely. “Is that her husband?”

  Crush snatched the binoculars away to check out the man following the mayor down the aisle. “Don’t know.”

  Interesting. Something was definitely going on there. Paige sat back and switched her focus to the players on the field. A bunch of young, attractive, physically fit men in tight baseball pants and blue caps. Well, maybe baseball wasn’t so bad. She could probably put up with it for a few weeks.

  “With slugger Trevor Stark on the injured list for the moment, the Catfish are going to have a hard time gaining any ground in the standings. And that’s bad news for Crush Taylor and his vow to win the championship.” Trevor rarely listened to the local sports radio shows, but right now it was his only baseball fix. He had the morning off from the ballpark, and had finally gotten the tires replaced on his Escalade. He’d duct-taped the mirror into place, and so far it was holding.

  “Duke Ellington hasn’t said much about the nature of Stark’s injury. Bar brawl? Jealous husband? Or something actually baseball-related? With Stark, you never know.”

  “He is the biggest mystery on the team. All the talent in the world, but he just can’t seem to put it together into a cohesive package.”

  “You’re right, Bob, that’s about the size of it. Some say he could be the next Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire, without any rumors of steroids, ha ha. He’s got power, speed, and smarts. Never seen the guy play stupid. On the field, he’s got it together. Off the field, he’s definitely not ready for prime time.”

  “Sometimes it seems like he doesn’t want to leave Kilby.”

  “Well, it is a pretty good place to live.” They both chuckled, though every listener knew the absurdity of that theory. Triple A players, by their nature, wanted to move to the big leagues. “We’ve got a caller on line three. Billy, you’re up. What do you think of Crush Taylor’s determination to win the Triple A championship?”

  Trevor punched the button to shut off the commentators who thought they knew him. He couldn’t avoid the Friars forever, he knew that. But the more time passed, the more the danger would subside. His one true talent had always been baseball, but he couldn’t fully develop it in juvie. After he’d gotten out, he figured he’d get a job in construction or something equally low profile. But Nina had thrown a fit. “You belong in baseball,” she kept saying. “Don’t you dare quit playing. Promise me, Trevor.” So he’d joined a local independent league team. He’d worked his ass off, listened, learned, built his strength, worked on his power, refined his swing. After a couple years of that, he’d gone to a tryout a
nd caught the eye of a scout for the Mexican Leagues.

  More work, more training. He’d set records, then broken those records. Finally, he’d gone to a major league tryout and impressed a famous sports agent. The agent had gotten him into the draft, where he went in the third round. Big contract . . . bingo. He’d put a bucketload of money into an account for Nina and arranged for her to move to Tucson. If he was going to have a baseball career, he wanted her somewhere unconnected with their previous life.

  The fact that his sister was now far away from Detroit took a huge load off his mind. But the danger was still too great. The Wachowskis had destroyed his father with their drugs and threats. They’d gotten him sent to juvie. No way in hell were they going to touch Nina.

  He parked in his usual spot at the Kilby Boys and Girls Club and loped inside, his duffel bag full of signed balls slung over his shoulder.

  “Hi Trevor.” The counselor on shift waved him in. “They’re waiting for you.”

  He went into the common area, where teenage boys of all races and ethnicities filled every available spot on the sagging hand-me-down couches. He recognized a few from previous visits. Piercings, tattoos, strange eye makeup, all par for the course. Didn’t bother him. He’d seen all that and much more during his time in the system.

  “For those who don’t know me, I’m Trevor Stark from the Kilby Catfish. Anyone here like baseball?”

  A general rumble of indifference answered that question. He set down the duffel and pulled out a couple of signed baseballs, displaying them to the kids. “That’s all right. You don’t have to like baseball. But do you know how much these are worth on eBay?”

  Now he’d gotten their attention. They tossed out guesses. “Million dollars? . . . Two million . . . About twenty bucks?”

  “They’re worth a lot more than that.” Trevor scanned the room, meeting every boy’s eyes, making sure they knew that when he said things, he meant them. These boys were on the edge. Fall one way, they might end up in juvie like him. The other way, maybe they had a chance. He couldn’t tell them his story—couldn’t risk it getting out. But he could give them some motivation.