Warriors,Winners & Wicked Lies: 13 Book Excite Spice Military, Sports & Secret Baby Mega Bundle (Excite Spice Boxed Sets)

by Selena Kitt

She laughed.

  He took a long swallow of water to chase the pill down and bit into the granola bar she handed to him. “What do you normally do when you go camping? You always go by yourself?”

  “Almost always by myself, yeah. If I’m worried about safety, sometimes I’ll talk a friend into going along with me, but for venues like Camp Out, there are so many people around and good security, and it’s hard not to feel safe.”

  “But, what do you do?”

  She shrugged. “I just…take time to commune with myself, I guess. My job is pretty high-stress, because at its very heart, it’s a sales gig. That requires a lot of talking, a lot of hustling and wheeling-dealing. I’m good at it, but it’s not well-suited to my personality, you know?”

  “I get ya.” He crumpled the wrapper from the granola bar and she took it from him. “I guess I do home improvement work the same way.”

  “But that’s not relaxing, is it? While you’re doing that, you don’t get to just be still if that’s what you want to do. Do you ever want to be still?”

  “All the damn time, but the way I figure it, I should do things when I have energy to do them. We’re not promised tomorrow.”

  “That’s true, but do you want to look back on your life and feel like you did it all for nothing? And to be so tired in the middle of your life that there’s no undoing it?”

  He furrowed his brow. “I hope I never get to that point.”

  “You’re burning the candles at both ends. Lie to me and tell me you’re not.”

  He let out a slow breath and then draped his forearm across his eyes. “I guess I am. I would have thought you’d see that as a good thing, with me being a shiftless athlete and whatnot.”

  “I never said that.”

  “You didn’t have to. You do a good enough job of implying it.”

  She sighed. He was probably right. Making assumptions was always easier than learning the truth, especially when the subject at hand was so easy to box into a tidy stereotype.

  “I’m sorry, okay?” She gave his good leg a squeeze. “You work hard. I know that, but I also know that not all of you do.”

  “You can’t paint us all with the same broad swath, Edy.”

  “Can you blame me for trying?”

  “Nah, I don’t blame you. You’re entitled to make the judgments you need to based on the experiences you’ve had.” He let his arm fall away and fixed his tired gaze on her. “So, tell me what you do when you go camping.”

  “Why are you so curious?”

  “Because I don’t know what I would do with myself if I were my only company and I didn’t have all my usual vices around me.”

  She was dying to know what those vices were, but he’d asked a question first. “Let’s see.” She smoothed her hands down her thighs and studied the rainbow straps of her flip-flops. “I’m usually only gone for two or three days. You know, long weekends whenever I can steal them and I feel like doing the driving. I hoard paperbacks and don’t let myself read them until it’s time for me to take a trip. Mostly series, so I can finish one book and go right to the next. So, I read when the natural light is good. I go for long walks and hikes when the light isn’t quite as good. At night, if there’s a wireless signal, sometimes I’ll binge-watch television shows I didn’t get to see when they first aired. If there isn’t one, I find something easy to do in low light like listening to podcasts I have saved on my phone or listening to music—you know actually paying attention to the lyrics because there’s nothing else to do but that.”

  “And you’re okay with that—with just…being on your own? You don’t get lonely?”

  “Would you?”

  He shrugged noncommittally.

  “Never had a chance to find out?”

  “I guess I haven’t. I mean, I live alone, obviously, but I’m so rarely home to do anything but sleep and fix stuff.”

  “You should try it.”

  “I don’t know.” He skimmed the pad of his thumb along the edge of her jaw and let his fingers linger against the sensitive hollow beneath her ear. He tucked her hair back and pulled in some air. “I don’t know if loneliness suits me.”

  “Because you’re a social creature.”

  He slipped his hand around to the back of her neck and pulled her down to him. “No,” he whispered. “I could take most folks or leave them. I don’t need to be in crowds. I don’t need a bunch of folks paying attention to me all the time.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Nuh-uh.”

  Her lips touched his and her nervous body sent a prickle of awareness down her skin and coalesced beneath her belly.

  “One person at a time is enough,” he whispered, and as soon as she parted her lips to make a rebuttal, he pressed a finger over them, and said, “Shhh. It’s okay to not have a comeback for everything. You don’t know me, do you Edy? Don’t know what I’m like and how I spend my time, and yet you insist on believing that I’m anything but a normal guy with typical urges. Believe it or not, the testosterone doesn’t atrophy my brain.”

  “You’re right,” she conceded quietly. “I don’t know you.”

  She didn’t know much about him at all, really, and that was entirely her fault. She hadn’t wanted to know anything about him. She thought she knew everything worth knowing, and even that had been colored by her growing up a baseball kid.

  “Why’s it so hard to believe that maybe I don’t see you as a potential conquest, but instead, maybe someone I want to get to know a little better?” he asked.

  “Why?”

  “Why not? Helps that you’re pretty.”

  “You’re full of shit.”

  “Don’t pull the coy act, Edy. You know you are. Players wouldn’t talk so much shit about you if you weren’t—if they didn’t want to get into your pants.”

  “That’s not exactly an endorsement. I have it on good authority that many of the Roosters aren’t so selective when it comes to bedmates. After all, they’re just temporary, right? What’s a night or two when you’ve got your whole life ahead of you?”

  “Stop.” He pulled her a little closer and dragged his tongue across her bottom lip.

  Her mouth opened for him, but he didn’t seem interested in exploring within. He kept lashing the tip of his tongue slowly and teasingly across her lips and then pulled her bottom one between his teeth only to let free with a snap.

  “Why do you find it so hard to believe that a guy would want to be with you simply because he’s attracted to you?”

  “More like certain parts of me.”

  He let out another of his long, ragged breaths and rolled onto his back. “I’m sorry if you think that’s true.”

  “I don’t think it, Al. I know it. Some guys have types, and I certainly understand that. I have a type, too, after all. Some guys just aren’t picky. Some guys like a challenge or they pursue a woman because they’ve got some space to fill on their man-ho Bingo card.”

  “I don’t have a type.”

  “Don’t you?”

  “No. I’m not always attracted to the same things about a woman.”

  Well, that’s evident. “What about me are you attracted to, then?”

  “That’s a long list, Edy.”

  “Give me the top three things, then. I’ll make it easy for you.”

  He laughed. “You, make something easy? I would have never expected it.”

  “Shush. Stop stalling.”

  “Okay. And I’m not stalling. I’ve got painkiller brain and it makes me little stupid.”

  “Are you saying you’re more honest when you’re hurting? I’ll remember that for later.”

  He laughed and pulled his lips back into a dashing grin he rarely ever showed in entirety.

  And why is that?

  Maybe it was because he knew how alluring it was. His joy reached every corner of his face and was not only incredibly attractive, but infectious.

  She grinned, too.

  “No, I’m always honest—as far as I
know,” he said. “I can’t be held responsible for the shit I don’t remember saying.”

  “Top three, Al.” She held up three fingers.

  He chuckled and rubbed his eyes. “Hard to sort them, but I think number one would be your eyes.”

  “My eyes?”

  “Mm-hmm. The shape of ’em, and how expressive they are, especially when you’re annoyed. You look like you’re always paying attention to things. Nothing slips past you.”

  “Huh. And number two?”

  “Two. Hmm.” He narrowed his eyes knavishly and tapped his index finger against his chin. “Your hair, I think. It’s so dark. Reminds me of a certain warrior princess I drooled over a lot as a kid.”

  “Xena? Really?”

  “Mm-hmm. Not that anyone should ever hand you a sword. That’d be scary.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

  “Just sayin’. If there were a zombie apocalypse, I’d stand right behind you swinging my bat. Assuming my leg was healed.”

  “You’re just being mean now.”

  “No, I’m not. That’s a huge turn-on, but maybe I’m weird that way.” He grinned again. “I don’t think any man ever complained about being forced onto his back by Xena the Warrior Princess.”

  “I wish I had her body.”

  “Close enough. All the right curves are there.”

  “Plus some extra ones.”

  “All the better to hypnotize your foes with, huh?” He looped some of her hair around his fingers, and his smile was soft—not teasing or mocking.

  She just let him play. The action seemed to soothe him, and since it didn’t bother her, she didn’t see a reason to complain. Normally, she might have because she preferred for people to ask before touching her, but for once, she wanted to just see where things went if she let herself relax.

  Allowing casual touch was hard, sometimes.

  His twirling slowed and eyelids went heavy.

  She cleared her throat, and hated herself for it. Maybe he needed rest, but she wanted desperately to keep him talking. She liked where the conversation was going. “Number three?”

  “Three. Hmm.” He started twirling her hair again and opened his eyes. “This it where it gets harder because there are so many things, and I feel like not listing them all would make you think I didn’t notice them.”

  “Pick one thing anyway.”

  “Okay. It’s really a tie.”

  “Nope. Pick one.”

  “The one I’m leaning toward is probably going to get me punched in the nose, but I can’t help it. I’m a red-blooded man in the prime of my life.”

  “What is it?”

  “You sure you don’t want to hear both?”

  “Nope. Slippery slope. Just one.”

  “All right.” He put his hand over his nose as if to preempt a strike. “Your breasts.”

  She looked down at them. At that angle, they weren’t anything special—especially since she was lying on her side and they were hanging badly.

  “Really?” The incredulity in his tone was as glaring as the white of his cast. “That surprises you?”

  “No, I guess not. You did stick your hand into my cleavage when we were leaving the ranch.”

  He jolted upright. “I did not.”

  “Yeah, you did.”

  “I don’t remember that.”

  “Yeah, after a while, I figured you didn’t.”

  “And what’d you do? Smack me?”

  “Nah. That would have been like kicking a man when he was down. I more or less ignored it.”

  “I’m sorry. I usually ask first if I can diddle a lady.”

  She snorted. “Good to know. I’m starting to grasp that you and painkillers aren’t exactly BFFs.”

  He lay down again and turned onto his side, propping the side of his face up on his fist. “Some throw me for a loop more than others. I had to take what the hospital had. Small place. They didn’t have much. I’ve got a prescription to get something that’ll make me a little less stupid when I get home. I don’t know if plain-ol’ Advil is gonna cut it.”

  “I forgive you for it.”

  He arched a brow. “Do you?”

  “Mm-hmm. If I ever do something stupid while under the influence, maybe you’ll do me the courtesy of ignoring me.”

  “You’re hard to ignore, Edy.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Mm-hmm. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to touch you.” He started twirling her hair again, and the side of his hand occasionally caressed her cheek.

  She found herself leaning into his touch, moving closer to him.

  And then her lips were on his, somehow, and her hand moving his to her breasts.

  “Touch me, then,” she whispered against his lips, and he sucked in some air.

  “You mean it?”

  “Mm-hmm.” She slipped his hand beneath the bottom of her shirt and worked it up to her bra.

  His fingers curled into the cup and he yanked it down, then crushed her breast beneath his palm, rough but tender. Eager, but careful.

  She rolled him onto his back and straddled his hips, carefully avoiding jostling his busted leg.

  She tugged off her shirt for him. Unfastened her bra for him. Set her aching nipple into his mouth for him and bid him to suck.

  He pulled and plucked at her other nipple as his lips and tongue worked that sensitive peak, and she ground brazenly against his crotch, not caring if it was an awful tease, because she was strung too tight and needed some friction. Some release.

  “God, I want you.” He scraped the edges of his teeth along the tip of her breast.

  So good.

  And he would have probably felt better inside her if she could figure out the maneuvers to make it happen. She was wearing too many clothes. If she’d worn a skirt, she could have ridden him without undressing. He could just yank the crotch of her wet panties aside and thrust into her. Take her hard and dirty, just the way she liked.

  “Come and get it, folks!” Startled by the sudden booming voice from a loudspeaker outside, Edy pulled away. “God.”

  “We’ve got burgers, hot dogs, and ribs,” the voice said. “First come, first served with the ribs. We don’t have too many of those today. Try not to trample each other.”

  Voices chattered nearby, and there was movement all around and doors slamming.

  “Fuck,” she whispered.

  Al sighed.

  “We could…” She tried to come up with some delicate way of saying, “Keep fooling around,” but her mind was a hormonal muddle and she couldn’t think clearly.

  “Nah, we gotta eat.” Al tucked some of her loose hair behind her ears and looked up at her with some expression akin to awe.

  Reverence? At me?

  “Pill’s probably gonna eat away the lining of my stomach. Granola ain’t enough.”

  “Oh. I’ll be right back,” she said. “You want ribs?”

  He laughed. “Sure, if you can get ’em. Throw a few elbows if you have to. That’s what I would do.”

  “I’ll take care of you.” She scooted toward the door, and paused at his murmured statement of, “I wish you would.”

  Chapter 8

  “I think your father is going to have a stroke by the end of the summer.” Al wiped his hands clean on the wet towelettes Edy had swiped along with his double serving of ribs, and nudged his phone closer to his thigh.

  “If he does, it’ll probably be of his own making,” she said. “He’d have a lot less stress in his life if he were a better human being.”

  “I dunno. Managing a baseball team—especially one with the small budget the Roosters organization has—is a bit like herding cats. Not enough staff.”

  “Horny tomcats.”

  Al cringed. He wasn’t going to waste his breath on arguing that.

  Wallace had called while Edy had been out swinging elbows, and gave Al one of those guilt-tripping earfuls about how he needed to take care of himself and not “do anything stupid.
” Al knew what “anything stupid” meant—he shouldn’t bail on the team the next season. Al was going to do what he had to do. He was spread too thin, and if his financial situation changed for the better over the next few months, he wouldn’t play baseball anymore. He wanted some stability in his life for a change, and something had to give.