“No,” Jaye said. “You handle it. I’ll have a meeting with the coach.”
“But—”
“It’s his first game back.” Jaye gathered her things. “I’ll watch his stats for the next week. Make sure you’ve got eyes on him, Mooch. I want you reporting on him; not José or Pédro.”
“You know as well as I do he should not be pitching middle relief, not with speed like that.”
“I know, but we need to be sure of some things before I make a recommendation. I’m looking for consistency and signs that the ankle injury is healed.”
Her lead scout looked surprised by her behavior, but said, “Sure thing, Chief.”
“Get me word on his reliability. That’s the most important thing.”
“I will make it a priority.”
“Thanks, Mooch.” Jaye closed her computer bag. “I’ll talk to the coach, but then I need to get to the airport.” She held out a hand to her scout. “I’ll be in touch.” They shook, and Jaye left the press box.
Shit soup! What had she done? She should be meeting this player, not hiding from him. He was a hot prospect. The kind that could get her the promotion she’d been dreaming of if she could sign him.
What luck. She meets a guy, has a wild night of sex with him, and then has to do a scouting report on him the next day. What the hell?
She reached club level, but instead of going to the coach’s office, looked out at the field. Matt Ruiz was signing autographs, and Mooch waited nearby to speak with him. She’d have to make her meeting with the coach quick or risk running into him.
She walked through the locker room, eyes straight ahead and focused on the coach’s office, not the athletes in various states of undress. She could feel them watching her progress. Women in the locker room were more commonplace than they had been several years earlier, so her presence didn’t cause as big a stir as it once had.
She greeted the coach and let him know she appreciated his allowing her to use the facilities for the meeting with her Puerto Rican scouts. They chatted about a few players of interest, including Ruiz. She wanted to ask him more personal questions about Ruiz, but couldn’t risk staying long enough to have that kind of conversation. “I have a plane to catch, but I’d like to have a longer conversation with you about Ruiz. Can I call you tomorrow?”
“Sure.” The coach grabbed a card and wrote a number on the back. “That’s my cell. Late morning is best.”
“Thank you.” Jaye took the card and slid it into her bag. “I’ll be in touch.” They shook hands, and she turned to leave.
Matt Ruiz standing in the coach’s doorway brought her up short. His jersey was open revealing a form-fitting compression shirt underneath that hugged his body—a body she’d recently explored every inch of.
“Ruiz,” the coach said. “Have you met Jaye Baxter? She’s the Director of Latin American Scouting for the Cincinnati Reds.”
Jaye took a deep breath and a stepped forward, hand extended. “Ruiz. Good game today.”
“A female scout?”
“Director of Scouting,” Jaye corrected. Matt shook her hand, but Jaye didn’t miss the anger tightening his jaw and making his green eyes grow darker, like a stormy sea.
“I apologize,” he said. “You have taken me off-guard.” He released her hand. “Did you say your name is Jaye Baxter?”
A lump had formed in her throat, so she cleared it before speaking. “What can I say? My father wanted a boy.” She laughed. The coach joined in. Matt, however, was not amused.
“I just spoke with another scout. Mooch Marin.”
“Yes, I’m aware, so I won’t keep you. I have a plane to catch. Gentlemen,” she added glancing at both men before stepping around Matt to leave. He turned, allowing her to pass by him. She could feel the heat of his anger when she got closer to him. Outside the stadium, she all but ran to her car, hardly taking a breath until she was safely behind the wheel. She fumbled with the keys, hands shaking from the encounter with Matt. She dropped the keys. “Damn it!” Jaye bent to search, but couldn’t find them. She rested her head on the steering wheel and, eyes closed, tried not to hyperventilate.
The passenger door opening startled her upright. Matt slid into the passenger seat.
“What are you doing?” Jaye said, shocked, then checked to see if anyone had seen him get into her car.
“Drive. Unless you want someone to see us together.”
“I have a better idea,” she said, angry now. “Get out and forget we ever met.”
“Impossible.” Matt looked straight ahead as anger and relief warred inside him. Anger that the woman who had given him an unforgettable night of passion, the woman with whom he’d connected on a deep and profound level, had left his bed without a word or backward glance; relief because he’d found her in a most unbelievable way. A major league scout? How could this be?
“Drive,” he repeated, as more and more fans, players, and staff spilled out of the stadium.
“I’m on my way to the airport. I have a flight in a little over an hour.”
“Then drive to the airport.”
She moved her seat back and bent forward to search for her keys again. She found them, and hit her head on the steering wheel when she tried to sit up. “Damn it!” She rubbed the injury, grimacing, but rammed the key in the ignition and fired the engine.
As she slammed the car into gear and got them moving, Matt glanced over at her and couldn’t look away. After fearing he’d never see her again, he drank in the sight of her. She looked very different with her long golden hair gathered into a thick knot low on the back of her head. She wore masculine, dark slacks and a shapeless white shirt that hid her gorgeous curves.
Her whiskey-colored gaze tangled with his when she glanced his way before pulling out onto the highway. “What?” she demanded as she accelerated.
Where to begin? He wanted to call her out, but relief at being with her again made him softly say, “I thought I would never see you again.”
“That was the plan,” she admitted without apology.
His ego took a direct hit. She’d intended their encounter to be a one-night stand. He had intended the same thing: a night of passion and release with a beautiful, sexy woman before his first game back. He’d managed it before, but this time had been different. What they’d shared had gone beyond sex. He felt their connection even now, through the anger that simmered between them. Their experience had changed him. His life felt like it would now be forever divided into befores and afters.
“Shit.” He dragged a hand down his face and tried to rein in his emotions. So much was at stake, and their time was short. “What should I call you? Jade or Jaye?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Ms. Baxter. Our communication going forward will be strictly professional.”
Matt nodded. “It could be difficult to communicate in a professional manner after hearing you shout my name as you came, since that triggers a memory of how your body felt clinched around me as we clung to each other.”
“Stop,” she said, her voice shaky.
He smiled. “Ah. So you are not completely indifferent.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
He trailed the back of a finger down her arm because he had to touch her, but the long-sleeved cotton shirt she wore separated them.
She flinched and pulled away.
“It’s all that matters,” he said.
“You don’t get it, do you?”
“I get that right now I need you again like I need air to breathe,” he said softly.
“Don’t.”
The entreaty was soft and unconvincing because surely she knew what they’d shared had been more than sex. Matt grasped her arm and dislodged her grip from the steering wheel, then he pressed his mouth to the inside of her wrist. Her pulse pounded against his tongue as he inhaled her scent.
She turned onto a dirt road and parked on the shoulder near an outcropping of brush and palm trees. With her free hand, she put the car in park and turned to him.
/>
“Should I call you Matteo or Matt?”
He blew on her wrist then raised his eyes to hers. “I go by both names.” He pressed a kiss into the bend of her elbow and felt her shiver, but she leaned back against the driver’s door, putting as much space as possible between them. “So Jade is not your real name?”
She crossed her arms. “Last night, using another name made it easier for me to step outside my life and just be . . . someone else for a few hours.”
“And today?”
“Today, it’s Jaye and back to reality.” She clinched her fists. “You’re a baseball player.”
The way she said it turned her words into an accusation.
“Yes,” he confirmed quite unnecessarily.
“I work for the baseball team you used to play for in America. I’m on track to become the first female general manger in professional baseball.”
“Impressive.”
“These are facts,” she said succinctly, “that make anything more between us impossible, since the Reds could be interested in re-signing you. That puts me in charge of the deal,” she added.
He crowded into her space until their breath mingled. “It’s too late, mia.”
She put her hands on his chest to push him away, but he nuzzled the spot behind her ear because he couldn’t resist one more taste of her.
“Matt, stop. Listen to me.” He leaned back and looked into eyes softened by desire, but he didn’t move away. He felt some of the tension ease from her body. “I can’t think when you’re this close,” she admitted.
He still wore his baseball pants, cleats, and a dark compression shirt. He hadn’t had time to shower before he’d torn out of the locker room after her. “I smell?”
She touched the stubble on his cheek. “It’s not that.” A smile teased the corner of her very kissable mouth. “Trust me.” Her fingers flexed on him, and he felt her nails through the thin material of his shirt.
“Tell me quickly so I can do what we both need.” He leaned back, pulling her over the console with him.
“Don’t you see? My job makes anything other than a brief encounter between us impossible.”
The odd bandana she wore tied at her neck was in the way, so he removed it. He smiled when he found his love mark it had concealed. He pressed his lips to the spot. “Mmm . . . I marked you as mine.”
“In more than one place.”
He slid a hand down her back to the curve of her ass and positioned her on his lap.
“Quédate conmigo esta. Quiero hacerte el amor, mi angel.”
Stay so he could make love to her. “Oh, God . . .” She wedged her legs into the space on either side of his hips.
Matt reclined the seat then released two buttons on her shirt. “Te necesito.”
She needed him, too. But . . . “I’m going to miss my flight,” she said, leaning into him.
6
Every reason Jaye should leave had fled her sensible, business-thinking head the moment Matt had touched her. He was like really smooth, rich chocolate truffles and impossible to resist.
“Me vuelves loco,” he said, then translated, “You drive me crazy.” He took care of the remaining buttons on her shirt and went to work on her slacks while his mouth moved open and hot on her neck, to her shoulder, then went lower. He pulled her bra aside with his teeth and took her breast into his mouth. “What are these clothes you are wearing?” he said, and blew on her nipple. “They are so masculine and shapeless.”
Jaye dragged his shirt up and put her hands on him, moving them down to his hard abs and into his pants, popping the snaps on his waistband as she went. He must have removed the belt in the locker room. His erection strained against the tight, white baseball pants he wore. Jaye slid her hand down his length and squeezed his balls.
A string of Spanish curses preceded him finally getting her pants to her ankles. Out of patience, he ripped her panties off and surged up into her. Finally inside her, he pressed his head back against the seat and went eyes closed, his face strained. “Tell me you’re on birth control.”
“I am.”
“Gracias a Dios,” he mumbled, then speared his fingers into her hair and kissed her. The pins holding her hair in place scattered as it fell to her shoulders. She moved on him, but he stopped her. “Tell me you want me.”
“Matt, please—”
“The words,” he demanded, looking intense and sexy as hell. “So there is no misinterpretation.”
“I need you. Now.”
He lifted her, then slowly lowered her back down. His darkened green eyes locked on hers, biceps straining, his dark skin flushed with pleasure. Jaye cupped the back of his head and gripped his arm. He lifted her again and finding the spot he wanted, pressed against it. Holding the backs of her legs, he spread them wider and tilted her so the pleasure intensified.
“Oh God,” Jaye squeaked. “Matt . . .” She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, moaning.
“We are magic together,” he said against her breast. He lifted her, then surged up into her as he lowered her. He pressed against her G-spot again, and Jaye cried out. When her thighs tightened, Jaye felt Matt’s mouth, hot and wet on her shoulder. Every inch of her body screamed for release, but he didn’t move inside her.
“Now,” Jaye demanded. She tried to move her hips, but he lifted her again, frustrating her further.
“Not yet,” he said.
Jaye wanted to cry. “Please,” she pleaded, helpless against her body’s need for him. “I can’t—”
He kissed her, stopping the words, soothing her, making her wait. She whimpered as he slowly lowered her again, his hard length deliciously filling her. His strokes made her instantly wild with need, but he knew how far to take her and still make her wait to come.
To hell with that.
Jaye shrugged out of her shirt and bra, arched her back and shook out her hair as Matt watched, fire lighting his eyes. Bracing her hands behind her on his knees, she stared at him as she increased the pace. His gaze raked down her body and locked on the sight of him moving in and out of her. Jaye ran a hand over her breast and continued down until she could stroke her clit. Matt growled when her nails scraped his shaft before finding her clit again.
He pushed into her, pressing her fingers hard against herself. “Mine.” He moved part of the way out, grabbed her wrist, and pushed into her again as he sucked the moisture from her fingertips. “Mine,” he repeated. And she exploded, clinching and pulling him in so deep she couldn’t tell where he ended and she began. She rode the orgasm as spasm after spasm shook her. Stars exploded behind her eyes as she kept coming and coming. Matt’s long groan of satisfaction gave her a feeling she rarely experienced—that of a soft and purely feminine woman.
Matt’s mouth found hers, and he kissed her tenderly. He caressed her cheek and said, “You are crying,” he said softly.
“No,” Jaye denied, but blew it by sniffing.
He stroked her back. “You cannot deny what is evident, mia.”
Jaye slid off him and reached for her shirt. She hit her head on the dash and then the roof of the car. “Damn it.” She opened the door and shimmied into her pants as she got out. Problem was, she stumbled because her legs were weak from what she’d just experienced.
She finished buttoning her shirt, sans bra, because underwear disappeared around this man, then she tried to tame her thick hair with a finger combing. Shit. What had she done? Again. She checked her watch. If she left now, she might still make her flight. But when she turned, Matt stood there, big and built, with his pants undone, looking uncertain. And she knew she was going to have to do something with which she had no experience. She was going to have to hurt him.
“I have to go,” she said, feeling her heart split inside her chest.
“I understand.”
Surprised, but not arguing, Jaye said. “Good,” and got back into the car. Matt did the same. Jaye started the car and did a U-turn to get back onto the highway. The car smelled l
ike sex and Matt’s cologne. Jaye twisted her hair around an index finger, a nervous “tell” for her. Neither of them spoke until she exited towards the airport.
“When can I see you again?” Matt asked, his voice soft.
Jaye cut her eyes to his, then refocused on the signage and moved into the rental car return lane. “I’m not sure what you mean. Mooch will send me reports on your progress. The Reds are interested in re-signing you if you’re back, uninjured, and committed this time.”
“That’s not what I mean. Give me your cell number, Jaye.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
She parked then turned to him, stilling herself against the soft look in his eyes. “This was sex, Matt. A causal encounter. It’s over.”
He laughed—a full-bodied, deep sound that revealed a dimple in his cheek she hadn’t noticed before. “You cannot believe what you say.” He continued to laugh, shaking his head. “What we have shared is not casual, mia.”
“I’m sorry,” Jaye said and turned away because looking at him hurt too much.
“Is this the way you have your men? Briefly and on your terms?”
He said the words like she had some kind of vast experience. Nothing could be further from the truth, but she played the part and said, “Yes.”
Matt leaned in and held her motionless with nothing more than a look. “Then you have been dealing with the wrong men, chica. Only weak and insecure men would settle for only one taste of you.” He touched her face and added. “You won’t forget me so easily.”
He opened the door, got out, and walked away without looking back.
7
Two Years Later
Jaye stood in her office at the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the pristine baseball field. She had been the general manager of the Jacksonville Rays for almost three months. She’d left the Reds organization after signing Matt Ruiz to a multi-million dollar deal. The offer to be a general manager for the Miami Marlins’ Double-A team had been too good an opportunity to pass up, and the move to Florida had gotten her closer to her father. Given what had transpired between her and Matt, the move also had eliminated any possible interactions with Matt in Cincinnati or during spring training. For a time, she’d hoped Matt might contact her, but he hadn’t.
Played: Scandalous Moves Series Page 4