Game On (21 page)

“But you wanted more?”

“Yeah, I did. I do. A lot more.”

“Can’t say I blame you, boss. That is one
incredible lady.” Clint glanced at the wall that stood between them and the
woman in question. “I kinda thought she and I could have somethin’ special.”

“Just so we understand each other,” Ryan
said, leaning forward. “That’s never gonna happen.”

Clint held his hand up. “I get that now.”
He got to his feet. “Don’t worry, I won’t bother her again. I promise.”

“Glad to hear it,” Ryan said, rising to
walk Clint to the door.

“No hard feelings?” Clint asked, offering
Ryan his hand.

Ryan smiled as he accepted the gesture. “No
hard feelings.” He slapped Clint on the back as he passed through the door. “Be
at my office at nine in the mornin’. I wanna talk about your trip, see what we
need to do to get you back out there doin’ some more promotional stuff. You
know what they say about strikin’ while the iron’s hot.”

“Listen, Ryan, I really appreciate the fact
that you and your brother gave me a chance. I promise I won’t disappoint you.”

“I know you won’t.” Ryan grinned. “’Cause
I’m gonna ride your ass to keep this momentum goin’.”

Clint smiled as he tipped his cowboy hat.
He punched the button for the elevator and looked back at Ryan. “Tell Bri I
said good-night?”

“Sure.” Being magnanimous was easy when he
had everything he’d ever wanted.

“You’re a lucky man, Ryan,” Clint said,
sticking his hands into the pockets of his faded jean jacket. “Don’t ever
forget that.”

“I don’t intend to.”

***

Brianna came back into the room to find Ryan
sprawled out on the couch with the remote in his hand. “I thought I heard Clint
leave. Where’d he go?” she asked, setting the tray of cookies and coffee on the
small pine table in front of the sofa.

“I said what I had to say and he left,”
Ryan said, reaching for her wrist. He pulled her down on top of him. “He got
the message, loud and clear.”

“I hope you weren’t mean to him?” Brianna
asked, settling into his strong arms with a sigh of contentment.

“No, I didn’t have to be. He figured things
out when I told him you were
mine
.”

She slapped his chest and tried for
outrage, but part of her was turned on by this new side of Ryan: jealous,
possessive, and all hers. “You did not say that!”

“Sure I did.” He tightened his arms around
her and shifted slightly so she was lying in the crook of the deep sofa. He
trailed moist kisses up her neck, stopping only when he reached her ear. “You
don’t mind, do you?”

“I should,” she said, breathlessly. “I’m a
modern woman.” She was still trying to form a coherent thought as she watched
him pop the buttons on her shirt, kissing every inch of creamy flesh he
exposed. “I’m a lawyer for heaven’s sakes. I should object to a man, any man,
staking his claim to me.”

He popped the front closure on her bra and
traced her nipple with his tongue. “Hmmm,” he asked, moaning deep in his
throat. “Do you object, counselor?”

“I… uh…” Allowing a man like Ryan to step
too far out of line was a mistake, Brianna knew that, but with his talented
tongue focused solely on her pleasure, she couldn’t find the will to object to
his heavy-handed approach. Tipping her head back, she threaded her hands
through his hair, holding him firmly in place as he worked his magic. “Oh God,
Ry, that feels incredible.” She shamelessly rolled her hips, inviting him to
move his explorations south.

His chuckle was a strangled sound as his
fingers bit into her hips, trying to hold her in place. “Baby, you keep doin’
that, and I won’t be able to walk out of here tonight.”

“Who says I want you to?” she asked,
looking him in the eye. “Spend the night with me.”

He eased up her body, framing her face with
his hands. “I want our first time together to be everything you deserve. I want
it to be perfect.”

“It will be,” she said, sliding her hands
up his shirt and over his back. “Being with you will be amazing. It doesn’t
matter where we are.” She kissed his neck, trying to persuade him. “Come on…
stay.” She’d never propositioned a man in her life, but this was different.
This was Ryan, and suddenly the thought of falling asleep and waking up in his
arms was worth sacrificing her pride, if that’s what it took to convince him to
stay.

“I want to make love to you right now,” he
said, kissing her tenderly. “You have no idea how much, but I’ve waited for
this for so long, we both have, and for once, I want sex to be more than that.”

She loved learning Ryan had a romantic side
she’d never seen before, but at the moment, she’d gladly forgo romance to
experience a taste of his unrestrained hunger. She reached for the hem of his
long sleeve t-shirt, hoping he would feel differently without benefit of clothing.
“This weekend will still be incredible. Even if we do make love tonight, that
won’t make-”

Ryan kissed her to silence her protests. “I’m
borrowin’ my buddy Johnny’s place. You gotta see it. It’s incredible.”

“Johnny Lewis?”

“Don’t worry, he won’t be there,” Ryan
said, smirking.

“Thank God for small favors.”

“Anyways, his place is on the market, and
I’d like to buy it.”

“Really? As a vacation home or a primary
residence?”

“Vacation home. It’s a couple of hours from
here, on a nice little lake. Perfect for fishin’ and gettin’ away from it all.
I thought spendin’ a weekend there would give us a feel for the place before I
make an offer.” He kissed her cheek. “I want to know what you think of it, you
know, since I’m kind of hopin’ you’ll be spendin’ a lot of time there with me.”

She tried to ease out from under him, but
he had nearly a hundred pounds and eight inches on her, so she wasn’t getting
up until he decided to let her go. “I don’t want you to put too much stock in
what I think, Ry. I don’t know anything about the real estate market. Maybe you
should ask Sela to check it out with you.”

“I’m not interested in it because I want to
add to my portfolio. I want this to be somewhere we can go to just get away
from it all.” When she didn’t respond, he swung his legs over the side of the
sofa, sitting up.

Brianna scrambled into a sitting position
and repositioned her clothing. “Hey,” she said, reaching for his hand when she
saw the disappointed look in his eye. “What’s wrong?”

He released a shaky breath. “I know it
shouldn’t, but it bothers me that you don’t even seem to want to talk about the
future. I get that you want to take this slow, and I understand why, but I need
you to at least give me the benefit of the doubt here, Bri. Come on, meet me
half-way.”

“You don’t think I want to?” Her anger and
frustration was quickly bubbling to the surface and she could tell he felt the
same way. “You’re a player, Ryan. You’ve probably slept with more women in the
last two years than most men have in a decade.”

He reared back as though she’d slapped him.
“Is that how it’s gonna be?” he asked, jumping up. “Every chance you get,
you’re gonna remind me that I’m a man-whore who can’t be trusted?”

Brianna knew she had to tread carefully.
His feelings were at stake, and she didn’t want to hurt him, but for this to
work, they had to be honest with each other. “You know that’s not what I meant.
Believe me, no one wants to forget your colorful past more than I do.”

He glared at her before reaching for his
jacket. “You know what, if that’s the way you feel, maybe I’m not good enough
for you. Maybe I’ll never be good enough for you.”

“That’s not what I’m saying and you know
it,” she said, following him to the door. She reached for his arm, but he
pulled back. “I never said you weren’t good enough for me, but you can’t deny
your history with women would cause any woman to think twice about getting involved
with you, especially when there’s so much at stake.”

Brianna set her hand on his back, wishing
she could say or do something to ease his tension, but there were too many
unknown variables to start talking about forever so soon. She was a lawyer,
trained to be pragmatic. She had to weigh all of the evidence before she could
make a decision. As much as she hated to admit it, to Ryan or herself, the jury
was still out on whether he could really commit for the long haul, to her or
any woman.

“I guess that tells me all I need to know,
doesn’t it?” he said, throwing the door open.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She felt
the panic rising, making it difficult to breathe.

“You don’t trust me. You don’t believe I’m
the guy who’s gonna love you forever.”

She wanted to believe that, more than she’d
ever wanted anything, but giving her heart to a man like Ryan, who’d never had
a committed relationship in his life, was a terrifying proposition.

“You don’t have to say anything. I can see
it in your eyes.” He slipped his jacket on. “You’re still havin’ doubts, about
me, us, everything. Aren’t you?”

She wanted to tell him that she believed in
him, in them, as much as he seemed to, but she couldn’t. She’d never lied to
Ryan before and she wouldn’t start lying to him now. “I want this thing between
us to last forever, Ry. I do. It’s just…”

“You’re not sure it will?”

Brianna could see the bitterness in the
hard lines on his face. She would do anything to make things right, anything
except lie. He deserved better than that. They both did. “I want to tell you
what you want to hear, but-”

“But you can’t, right?” He gripped the door
knob until his knuckles turned white. “Why am I not surprised? I thought you
were different, Bri. I thought you got me in a way no one else does. I thought
you knew there was more to me than the hard drinking player the world sees.
I
thought you trusted me,
” he whispered.

She hated seeing that pain in his eyes,
hated even more that she was responsible for putting it there. “I’m sorry,” she
said, reaching for his hand. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“Let me ask you something. Do you think I’d
ever cheat on you?”

“What? No, never!” She knew Ryan wasn’t
that kind of guy. He may not have been a one-woman man, but the women in his
life always understood the ground rules before embarking on a casual
relationship with him. She knew dozens over the years had hoped to entice him
into wanting more than a casual fling, to no avail. “But I’m not going to be
one of those women who tries to turn you into someone you’re not.” She reached
for his jacket, pulling him closer, knowing she had to say or do something to
bridge the widening gap between them. “I love you exactly the way you are. I
don’t know whether you’re husband or father material yet, Ry, and quite
frankly, neither do you. But a year or two from now, we’ll know for sure where
we stand. I’m willing to invest the time and energy, to take the risk to figure
it out. Aren’t you?”

He took a step back, grabbing her wrists
and forcing her to release her grip on his jacket. “I guess that’s the
difference between you and me, Bri. I already know where we stand. I know what
I want. Hell, I’d drop to one knee and ask you to marry me right now if I
thought there was a chance in hell you’d say yes.” He started walking backwards
toward the elevator. “But there isn’t, is there?”

The hot burn of tears stung her eyes and
she tried in vain to blink them back. “Please don’t leave like this. Stay,
let’s talk.”

“I don’t know that we have anything left to
say. I love you. I want to be with you, only you. But you’re not sure that you
can trust me to be there for you five or ten years from now. Hell, I’m not so
sure you’re convinced I’ll still wanna be warming’ your bed six months from
now.” He punched the button on the elevator. “Without that kind of trust, we
really can’t build a relationship, can we?”

“Ryan,” she said, taking a step toward him.
“Wait…”

He stepped on the elevator without looking
back and the last sight she saw before the doors closed was the vacant look in
his eyes.

***

Ryan had driven around aimlessly, trying to
make sense of what happened, before he found himself sitting in the parking lot
of his friend’s upscale club. Regardless of whether Brianna wanted to be a part
of his life moving forward, he knew he wanted to buy Johnny’s vacation home.

He got out of the car and locked the doors.
Pocketing the keys, he headed toward the main entrance and nodded to the large,
bald man standing guard at the door. Up until a few months ago, he’d been a
regular at this place. That was before every beautiful woman he saw reminded
him of Brianna. He felt lost. He’d put everything on the line to earn her love
and trust, and still it hadn’t been enough to convince her.

“Hey,” Johnny said, opening his arms when
he saw him. “Look what the cat dragged in.” Pulling Ryan into a hug, he said,
“How’s it goin, man?”

“Okay,” Ryan said, barely glancing at the
stage at the front of the club where men were gathered to watch the feature
dancer. Waitresses in uniforms that may have been illegal outside of their workplace
meandered through tables, taking drink orders and warding off advances.