Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (193 page)

The question seemed to make her a little
uncomfortable, and he saw her swallow.
 
Then she shrugged.
 
“Business
trip,” she said.

“Oh, really?
 
What kind of business?”
 
He was just making conversation, trying
to get to know her a little bit, and trying to keep himself from thinking about
reaching over and kissing her full lips.
 
But she seemed to take the question as a challenge.

“Fine,” she said.
 
“I wasn’t on a business trip.”

“You weren’t?”

“No.
 
I got fired on Friday, and I had a slight breakdown about it.
 
So I used what was in my savings account
for a ticket to Florida.”

“So you lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie to you.”

“Yes, you did,” he said.
 
“You said you were here for a business
trip.”
 
He didn’t care that she
lied.
  
It amused him to think
that she wanted to impress him, at least on some level.
 
And the fact that she was unemployed
made what he was about to propose that much better.

“How far away is this place anyway?” she asked,
sounding cranky.
 

“It’s right up here,” Chad said, as the car
turned onto a tree-lined suburban street.
 

“This is where your house is?” Kenley asked.

“You sound surprised.”

“Well, yeah.”
 
She watched out the window as the houses
went by.
 
The street was cute and
lined with palm trees and white sidewalks.
 
Small, ranch style houses dotted each side of the block, most of them
with stucco trim and long driveways.
 
“This doesn’t seem like the kind of neighborhood a professional athlete
would live in.
 
And why do you have
a house in Florida?
 
Is it like a
vacation home?”

The limo pulled up in front of one of the
houses.

“It is a vacation home,” Chad said.
 
“And it’s funny, I never pegged you for
a snob.”

“I’m not a snob!”

“Then why would you think that I wouldn’t want
to live here?”

“I think it’s a gorgeous neighborhood.”
 
She peered out the window.
 
“And the house is adorable.
 
But after last night, with your fancy
penthouse, I didn’t think this was your style.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot you don’t know about
me.”
 
He winked at her, then got out
of the car and walked around to the passenger side.
 
He opened her door and gave her his most
charming smile.
 
“You ready?”

***

Kenley’s senses had been heightened ever since
she’d gotten into the limo.
 
Throughout the whole car ride, Chad’s leg had been touching hers, and it
had been sending waves of heat through her body.
 
She couldn’t believe she’d gotten into a
car with him, couldn’t believe that she was now at his house.
 
This was so not like her.
 
She never did things like this.
 
In college, when all her friends were
hooking up with guys and ending up in strangers’ beds, she would refuse to go
home with anyone, preferring to meet them in a public place the next
morning.
 
Of course, most guys
didn’t really want to do that.
 
Which was probably the reason she hadn’t hooked up much in college.

“I have a confession,” Chad was saying as he
unlocked the front door.
 

“I knew it,” Kenley said.

“You did not.”

“Yes, I did.”
 
She crossed her arms over her
chest.
 
“Okay, so out with it.
 
What is it?
 
This is really your drug den?
 
You used to run a prostitution ring out
of here?
 
What?”
 
She tried to sound suspicious, but the thing
was, she was
 
actually kind of
amused.
 
Even though she’d been
acting like she thought he was a crazy stalker she actually felt safe with him
for some reason.
 
Even though he was
obviously a total jerk, she didn’t get the sense that he was out to be
malicious.
 

“No.”
 
He shook his head, turned the key in the lock, and opened the door.
 
“This isn’t my house.”

He stepped inside, but she stayed on the
porch.
 
“What do you mean this isn’t
your house?”
 
She peered inside,
looking for any signs of cameras, just in case she was on some kind of prank reality
show. Maybe her sister was behind this whole thing.
 
That would be just like Melissa, setting
up some prank with a famous baseball player to try and cheer her up, not
realizing that it would be the last thing that would make her happy.

“It’s my mom’s.”

“Oh.”
 
She stepped inside.
 
The
foyer was amazing, with bright white crown molding, and a cream-colored
travertine floor.
 
She peeked down
the hall into a beautiful kitchen, with cherry cabinets and dark granite
countertops.
 
“It’s gorgeous.”

“Thanks.”
 
He shut the door behind her, and as he did, his chest brushed against
her arm.
 
Her breathing accelerated
a little, and she felt her face get red.

“So where’s your mom?”
 
she asked, trying to keep her voice
even.

“I don’t know.”
 
He shrugged, walking down the hall
toward the kitchen.
 

She followed him.
 
“So you don’t know when she’s coming
back?”

He opened the refrigerator, and pulled out a
bottle of flavored sparking water.
 
He set it on the breakfast bar, and Kenley sat down in one of the stools
in front of it.
 
She opened the
bottle and took a sip.

“You hungry?” he asked, moving to the refrigerator
and pulling out a carton of eggs.

“Kind of,” she admitted.
 
“You did interrupt my lunch.”

He nodded.
 
“French toast?”
 
He was
already breaking eggs into a bowl, just assuming that she was going to want
French toast, so Kenley decided to mess with him a little bit.

“Depends,” she said.

“On what?”
 
He paused, but then kept cracking eggs.

“Are you going to make guy French toast?”

“Guy French toast?”

“Yeah,” she said, swinging around in her stool
to get a better look at what he was doing.
 
“Guy French toast is where you grab some white bread, dunk it in a few
eggs, then burn it because you forgot to grease the pan.”

He turned around and looked at her.
 
“This will not,” he said, sounding
insulted. “be guy French toast.”

“Okay,” she said.
 
“Then I’ll have some.”
 
He grinned at her, and she was struck
again at how absolutely gorgeous he was.
 
Curly dark hair, a perfect smile, dark brown eyes.
 
There was no word to describe him other
than smoldering.
 
“So your mom
doesn’t mind that you’re just using her house?
 
What if she comes home?”
 
She glanced behind her, toward the front
door, half expecting his mom to come waltzing in.
 
That would be totally awkward.
 
What would she say she was doing
here?
 
How would Chad explain
it?
 
Unless, of course, he brought women
here all the time.
 
The thought
disappointed her, and she took another sip of her drink.

“She won’t be coming home,” Chad said.
 
His back was to her as he added vanilla
to the eggs in the bowl in front of him.
 
“She doesn’t live here.”

Kenley frowned.
 
“But I thought you said this was her
house.”

“It is her house.
 
But she doesn’t live here.”
 

She shook her head.
 
“That makes no sense.”

He turned around, wiping his hands on a
dishtowel.
 
“I bought this house for
my mom when I signed my first major league deal.
 
But she didn’t want it.”

“Are you kidding?” Kenley asked.
 
“Why wouldn’t she want it?”

“Because.”
 
Chad shrugged.
 
“My mom left
when I was seven, and she was never really around.
 
I bought the house because she always
wanted to live near the beach, and I figured she’d want it.
 
Siesta Key supposedly has the best
beaches in the whole country.”
 
He
was trying to sound like it was no big deal, but Kenley could see the hurt in
his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s not a big deal.”
 
He shrugged again.
 
She nodded, not knowing what to
say.
 
She looked around.
 
The house was meticulously clean and the
refrigerator was obviously well stocked.
 
Chad must have been paying someone to stock the fridge, to clean the
house and keep it up.
 
The cleaning
made sense.
 
The house would fall
into disrepair without any kind of upkeep.
 
But keeping the refrigerator stocked could only mean one thing –
he was hoping his mom would someday decide to take him up on his offer of
living here.

She felt a lump in her throat, thinking about
the rejection he must have been feeling.
 
“So why did you bring me here?” she asked.

“I told you, I wanted to talk to you.”

“Yeah, but we could have talked anywhere.
 
Back at the hotel, anywhere.”

He grinned then, all traces of sadness about his
mom gone. He crossed the kitchen and sat down at the breakfast bar across from
her, turning her stool toward him so that their knees were touching.
 
It was the same move he’d used last
night at the hotel, and her body was filled with longing, wanting to go back to
that moment.
 
“I wanted to impress
you,” he said,
 
“Give you the star
treatment.”

He was teasing her, she could tell.
 
God, he was hot.
 
And his lips were right there, just
inches from hers now.
 
It was all she
could do to keep herself from kissing him.
 
She tried to turn her chair back around, but just like last night, he
held her legs, not letting her move.
 
He touched her chin, pulling it, tilting it toward his.

“Bullshit,” she said, and pulled away from
him.
 
“You wanted me on your turf,
somewhere where you were comfortable.”
 
Her heart was beating fast, so fast she could hear it, and she worried
that he could hear it, too.

“Your heart is beating fast,” he said, and put
his hand over her heart.
 
“Are you
nervous?”

“Why would I be nervous?”

“Because,” he said, and grinned.
 
“You’re alone with me.”

“So?”
 

“So last time you were alone with me, you lost
control of yourself.”
 

“No, I didn’t.”
 
She turned away again and tried to move
her chair away from his, but he was still holding her tight.

“You didn’t?”
 
He reached out and slid the tip of his
index finger across her lip.
 
Heat
exploded through her body.

“No,” she said,
 
“I didn’t.
 
Not even close.”
 
It was a lie, of course.
 
She’d wanted him so badly that she’d
almost completely lost control of herself.
 
But almost didn’t count.

“Okay,” he said easily, and just like that, the
spell was broken.
 
He stood up and
moved back over to the stove, pulling out a frying pan and setting it down on
one of the burners.

Kenley took a sip of her water and tried to
calm herself down.
 
Damn.
 
She hated that it seemed like he was
always getting the upper hand with her.
 
But he was just so damn hot.
 
And it wasn’t just his looks, either, although he was sexy as hell.
 
It was his whole being, his whole
vibe.
 
He had this confidence about
him that was such a turn on she almost couldn’t stand it.