Line of Scrimmage (9 page)

The damn chemistry between them just threw her out of whack even more than everything else. That kind of electricity had gotten her in trouble with him before, and she didn’t intend for it to happen again. Absolutely not. Uh-uh. No way. If she didn’t hear from that rat Ivy by the time the home health care person came tomorrow, she’d get in her car, storm her friend’s office, and make her take care of business. Getting involved with Jake in any way could only end in disaster.

But wait. That meant she’d be spending the night under the same roof. In one of his bedrooms. In his house. The thought of being in such close proximity to him sent little tremors to her sex and made her breasts ache for the touch of his hands. Her nipples longed for the hot wetness of his mouth.

Holy shit!

What a hot mess she was turning into. She gulped down the rest of her wine and rose to get a refill. Maybe ice water would be a better idea. She might think that Jake and all the men like him were dangerous to her emotional health, but she had been totally unable to wipe the memories of that one night from her mind.

Wine. More wine.

She carried the glass to the room where she’d put her things and decided she’d at least unpack what she needed for the night. She had just picked up her cosmetics bag to carry it into the bathroom when the intercom on her nightstand squawked.

“Erin?” The word blasted out at full volume.

She jumped, nearly dropping the bag in her hands, and hurried back to the nightstand. Turning the volume button down first, she pressed Talk.

“Yes?” She worked to keep her voice low and well modulated. “Did you need something?”

“Yes.” This came out much lower. “I need you to come in here.” He paused. “I mean please.”

If Erin hadn’t been so incredibly pissed over the whole situation, she might have laughed.

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“How many minutes is a few?” he asked.

“More than you’d like if you don’t shut up and let me finish what I’m doing.”

She waited a few seconds but the intercom remained silent. Dampening her irritation, she took a few things out of one of her suitcases and put them on the little side chair for the next day. She had no intention of unpacking everything. Tomorrow she was out of here if she had to have Ivy arrested and brought to her in handcuffs.

After taking one last fortifying swallow of wine, she headed toward the master suite, detouring on the way to get fresh water for Jake for the night.

He was lying in the same place she’d left him when she picked up his dinner tray, back against the pillows, leg elevated. The big television was on but the sound was muted. The covers on the bed were partially thrown back, but thank goodness they covered him from the waist down.

“I thought as long as I was coming into the room I’d make sure you took these.” She used the most neutral tone she could manage.

“Yeah, okay,” he growled.

She dropped his sleeping pill into his hand plus the antibiotic, uncapped the water, and handed it to him. He drank almost half of the bottle before recapping it, and she wondered what she’d do if he had to get up in the middle of the night.

“Do you need a pain pill? You look pretty uncomfortable.”

He shook his head. “I told you, I want off of them as soon as possible. I can handle pain.”

“Just make sure you aren’t being foolish about it. Sometimes when your body is trying to fight off pain it can’t heal as well.” She put her hands on her hips. “Okay, Mr. Russell. What was it you wanted?”

His eyes widened. “Mr. Russell? How about Jake?”

“We have a formal relationship,” she said in her primmest voice. “We should maintain it.”

He scowled. “Well, aren’t you just the prissiest thing. Okay,
Miss Bass.
I hate to disturb you but I wondered if you had any luck getting hold of my suspiciously absent sister?”

“You could have asked me that over the intercom,” she pointed out.

“But I wanted to ask you in person.” He used his elbows to hitch himself up a little higher. “Well?”

For a moment she couldn’t speak, mesmerized again by that strong muscular body, the dusting of golden curls on the planes of his chest, his sexily rumpled hair. And oh, hell. There it was again, that very obvious woody, his swollen cock highlighted by the soft fabric covering it. Her mouth actually watered.

“Well what?” she finally managed to say, hoping the drumbeat in the walls of her pussy didn’t sound as loud as it felt.

“Have you managed to get in touch with Ivy?” He shoved the sentence out through gritted teeth.

Okay, that shocked her back to common sense. Ivy. Damn Ivy. She was going to wring her neck.

“If I had,” she snapped, “she’d be standing right here explaining this situation to both of us and fixing it. So, no. I have yet to talk to her.”

“Me either.” He watched her through slightly hooded eyes, his gaze so penetrating it stabbed clear through her, making her feel almost naked.

She wet her lips. “Was there anything else?”

He just kept staring at her. Was she just imagining it or was the sexual tension in the room so intense it was like a living thing she could almost reach out and touch? Her palms were sweating, and she rubbed them on her slacks.

“Jake?” she prompted. “Did you want anything else?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “I want to talk to you.”

“Talk?” She cocked an eyebrow. “About what? I’m really tired. Besides…” She waved at the giant flat screen on the wall opposite the bed. “You’ve got plenty of entertainment available.”

“I don’t want to be entertained.” His features were set in a fierce look. “I want to talk to you.”

“Oh, so I’m not entertaining?” Holy crap! What was with this guy? He was just as insufferable as she’d figured. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“No. Jesus.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “That didn’t come out right.” He reached for the half-filled bottle of water she’d left him and knocked it onto the floor.

Sighing, something she suddenly seemed to be doing a lot of, she picked up the water, uncapped it again, and handed it to him.

“Can you drink it by yourself or shall I hold it for you?”

He pinched his eyebrows together and got ready to make what she was sure was some smart remark, but when he shifted his body on the bed she saw pain cut lines into his face like the ones she’d seen earlier. When Erin was ten, she’d fallen and broken a finger and she still remembered how much it had hurt. She was sure Jake’s pain was magnified a thousand times more than that, although he was well past surgery. She’d have to work at toning down the snark in acknowledgment of his situation. At least until tomorrow when she was sure as hell out of here. She forced a smile.

“Sorry. That was uncalled for.”

“An apology?” He snorted a laugh. “I might need those pain pills after all to counteract the shock.”

Bite your tongue, Erin. Just bite your tongue.

“I’ve been known to give one now and then,” she told him.

He patted the bed next to him. “How about if you sit down and talk to me for a minute.”

Really? “Damn. Are you that bored?”

“Maybe I just want to get to know you better.” He watched her, obviously gauging her reaction.

Everything in her stilled. “I think we went over this the last time we were together,” she reminded him.

“The
only
time.” His eyes burned into hers. “If I remember correctly, you were the one who killed it. Right?”

“For very good reasons.”

“Yeah? Well, I still don’t know the real reason, but I’m damn sure it isn’t me.”

Her stomach knotted. He was right. He hadn’t been the underlying reason, but she didn’t want to go into that.

“Pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”

“So I’ve been told.”

“If that’s what you want to talk about, I’m going back to my room. My
temporary
room.”

“Fine. Then just talk to me for a few minutes about anything at all. You pick the topic.” He gave her the same penetrating stare. “Maybe I just want to know more about you. About who you are as a person.”

And that way lies its own dangerous path.

She shoved her hands into her pockets. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Besides, you need to get your sleep. To heal.”

“Twenty-four hours a day isn’t going to help me heal any faster.” He spat the words out, each one edged with bitterness. “I feel like a damn cripple. Half a game and my damn season is over. I can’t wait to get this fucking cast off and get back on the field. It’s killing me lying here like this.”

Lord. The man changed with the wind. One minute he was trying to be charming, the next he was grumpy, and the next angry and resentful as hell. Erin was glad she would only be here until tomorrow. She wasn’t sure how she’d deal with all his personality changes on a daily basis.

“Jake,” she began slowly, “other football players have had serious injuries and survived. You will, too.”

“Other players have been injured and it killed their damn careers. Look at me. I’m thirty-two years old. I’m a key player, but I’ve got maybe two or three more years left before my speed begins to diminish and I get cut back to second string. Coach sends me in for fewer plays. Some games maybe I’m only in for one or two snaps. Then I’m cut altogether. But fuck. I want those last few years.”

He picked up the empty water bottle and threw it across the room.

“Temper tantrum much?” She picked up the container. Easy enough to toss it in the kitchen on the way back to her room.

“My broken leg, my house, my right to a tantrum.” His tone of voice was far from pleasant.

“Are you always this pleasant?” She shook her head. “Did you ever think this was a sign that you needed to expand your world beyond football?”

“No.” He nearly shouted the word, then scraped his hand over the stubble on his face. “This is my life and I’m not apologizing for it.”

She tried to weigh her words carefully. As irritated, angry, and frustrated as he was, anything could set him off, as it just had. “I can’t begin to know how you feel, and I’m not going to try and argue with you about this—”

“Good,” he interrupted. “Because it is what it is. Go back to your room. I was delusional to think we could have a decent conversation here. I just thought as long as you were stuck here, maybe we could clear the air about a few things.”

As if this was really the best time to do that. Not with his frustration level so high.

“I think you’re right. I should go back to my room. Tomorrow I’ll be out of your hair, and you can yell at the person who takes my place.”

She turned and walked out of the room as pulled together as she could be, then closed the door firmly behind her. She stopped in the kitchen to toss the empty water bottle before reaching her room and throwing herself on the bed. Holy mother. Just being in the same house with Jake had her mind imagining forbidden things. What was up with that? It wasn’t as if she were fulfilling a crush or something. And besides, she’d had plenty of sex before she met him.

But not as good as it was with him.

That was a thought she needed to wipe from her mind. Tomorrow she’d find Ivy if she had to get the cops to track her down. She’d get out of here, back to her own life, and concentrate again on finding a job. She allowed herself one moment of regret. On the surface, this job should have been a real plum. High dollar salary, a beautiful house to camp out in, nobody but one grumpy patient to bother her. If only that patient hadn’t turned out to be Jake.

Finally she pushed herself off the bed, washed off her makeup, brushed her teeth, and pulled on her favorite sleep shirt. She lugged in her cell phone charger, hooked up the phone, and sent one last message to Ivy.

Call me ASAP, you rat, or I’m calling the police.

Then she crawled in between the covers and pulled them up to her chin. Burrowing her way into the pillows, she closed her eyes and prayed for sleep.

* * * *

He was waiting for her when she came into the bedroom, lying naked on the bed, pillows propped behind him, legs outspread. He was like a golden god, all toned muscles and carved features. His sun-streaked blond hair was sexily mussed, brushing his forehead and his ears. His face sported a darker scruff, just enough to make her mouth water. She wanted to rub her cheeks all over it, like a cat. Flat abs that she wanted to slide her hand over beckoned her along with the sculpted muscles of his strong legs, the sweep of his lean hips, and a cock that was magnificent in its majesty. It stood out from the deeper gold, thick nest of curls at his groin, its head a magnificent purple. One tiny drop of fluid sat exactly in the center of the slit.

Lying back on the bed, Jake wrapped his fingers around it and stroked very slowly up and down, his eyes glued to Erin. She drew in a long breath and slid her tongue over her bottom lip as if already tasting him. She couldn’t stop drinking in the sight of his magnificent athlete’s body, the restrained power evident in every cut of muscle. Standing at the foot of the bed, still fully clothed, she practically drooled at the sight of him. The urge to lick him all over, to taste every inch of that magnificence was so strong she had to restrain herself.

The look simmering in his eyes sent moisture flooding her panties and every pulse point throbbed with anticipation. Her breasts ached for the touch of his hands and she wondered how his mouth would feel on her nipples. She had to shove her hands into her pockets to keep from palming her own breasts and squeezing them. Just looking at Jake aroused her more than other men had done with all their talents and tricks.

The sight of his hand very slowly moving up and down his engorged shaft fascinated her so much she couldn’t draw her eyes away from it. Her own fingers itched to replace his and stroke him, feeling the hot steel beneath what she knew was velvety skin. Everything they’d done that one night together, the way they had explored each other’s bodies, the kisses on erogenous zones, the glide of tongue and stroke of fingers set the pulse in her womb to pounding as hard as a jungle drum.

“Are you just going to stand there looking at me?” he asked. His voice was like warm melted chocolate sliding over her like a sensuous cloak. “Take off your clothes. I want to feast my eyes on your gorgeous body. God, it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.”