The Player's Club: Finn (13 page)

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Wow. If her life were a movie, she’d probably hit the director for being so frickin’ obvious with the theme.

Just get through this.

She sat up, stretching out the kinks. Man, was she hungry. There was supposed to be some sort of barbecue—maybe she’d slept through it?

“Diana?” A tentative whisper.

It was Finn. Of course it was Finn. “What do you want?”

He opened her tent, popping his head inside. “Thought you might want some dinner.”

She shrugged, considered denying how hungry she was just to spite him. But not only was that petty, it was an outright and obvious lie. Her stomach started yowling plaintively. “All right, thanks.”

She stepped out of the tent, saw that he’d set up a little table for one, complete with lantern and candle. She was reluctantly charmed, but didn’t say anything as she sat down in the cloth camp chair. She’d eat quickly, acknowledge his effort, then go back to bed. They’d be on a plane soon enough, anyway…on to her next challenge.

Disneyland,
she thought.
What was I thinking?

“Where is everybody?” she asked instead, scanning the campsite. She’d set her tent up a bit farther away than the others had, as Finn had done…she wasn’t really the social type. Still, all the tents were closed up and quiet.

“They’re asleep,” Finn said, watching her as she bit into her hamburger. It was delicious.

“Really?” she asked, around a bite. “I thought they’d be partying it up all night.”

Did she always sound that bitter?

“Nah. The river wipes you out. I’ve seen this happen dozens of times.” He took a deep breath, grabbed a chair and sat down across from her. “Listen, I want to apologize.”

She’d just taken a big bite of burger, so she struggled, chewing. “Frr wha?”

He didn’t so much as smile. “For earlier. Actually, for hazing you at all,” he said. “I thought you said you liked the water.”

She managed to swallow. “I do,” she clarified, snagging some potato chips. “I like sitting by the ocean, sipping wine, or drinking a cup of coffee at a lakeside cabin. But almost drowning?” She grimaced as the flash-memory of water rushing around her came to mind, the sensation of suffocation hitting her. “Not really my cup of tea.”

“God, I’m such a jerk,” he muttered.

She stared at him, surprised at the sincerity in his voice. “You were hazing me. The whole point of hazing someone is breaking them down, isn’t it? To see if they can handle it…and if they can’t, you cut them loose. That makes sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” he said, looking appalled. “Hazing, for us, means…well, seeing if you can handle getting pushed out of your comfort zone, or if you’re going to cry and whine and bitch. It doesn’t mean torturing someone or terrifying them, or making them sick.”

“It wasn’t pleasant, but I’m not sick, and I certainly don’t bitch.” Although she had, she realized. “Not always, anyway.”

“You had every right,” Finn said, and for whatever reason, it was a small comfort to her. “So…my dad would’ve fired you if you didn’t come along, huh?”

She blanched.
No, he’s going to fire me if I don’t torpedo you.
“It’s not that big a deal. He’s asked me to do worse.”

Like what I’ll need to do when this month is over.

“You may be the toughest woman I know,” Finn said.

She discovered she liked having his respect. “Well, I didn’t mean to spout off like that. The water…shook me,” she admitted. “And I was resentful because it wasn’t my idea. I hate feeling like I’m being set up to fail.”

“You should’ve told me no when we started this,” he said. “But you don’t tell people you can’t or won’t do something that often, do you? You think that would make you appear weak. And I think you hate acknowledging you’re not good at something.”

He might have a point. That fact needled her, and she quickly cleaned off the table.

“At least your other challenges are a walk in the park. Literally,” Finn said, with a laugh. “Theme park, anyway. Are you looking forward to it?”

“A full day of kiddie rides. Oh, boy. Hold me back.”

“It’s not… Never mind. You know, I’ll just let you experience it yourself.”

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s just a job, Finn.” She wondered if he was disappointed by her response, and would the same hold true when they were at Disneyland.

Quietly they sat together. The sky wasn’t like it was in San Francisco, which seemed to glow orange with the reflection of city lights on cloud cover. It was a deep navy blue, like the kind of blue when light reflects on dark satin. It was littered with brilliant, diamond-twinkling stars. For a second, she felt awed, almost overwhelmed.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Finn’s voice was right near her ear—she’d been gazing up so intently, she hadn’t heard him coming so near her. She could now smell him, his masculine scent deliciously sexy, blending with the woods.

“I don’t get a lot of chances to look at the stars,” she stammered, knowing that if she turned her head, his face would be right there, next to hers.

And then what would you do?

“Ever made love under the stars?”

Her breasts tightened and her stomach twisted. Now that she knew what his body was capable of, her body sensed the opportunity for a repeat performance. It was lobbying hard for her to go for it.

“I’m still mad at you, Finn,” she tried.

“Pretend I’m somebody else, then.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “I’ve always wanted someone to call me Ramon.”

It surprised a laugh out of her, which she downshifted into a sigh. She forced herself out of the chair, and to step away from him. “That thing in the locker room…”

“Oh, yes,” he breathed, closing the distance, rubbing her arms lightly with his fingertips.

“It was a mistake, Finn, for both of us. I generally don’t sleep with men I don’t know, and I certainly don’t do it on the premises of Macalister corporate headquarters.”

“Breaking the rules sometimes can be fun, Diana,” he said, his whispering sending a thrill along her nerve endings. “The unexpected, the forbidden. Didn’t you like that?”

She bit her lip. Oh, he knew exactly how much she’d liked that.

He leaned forward, his lips brushing along hers, just enough to tease and taunt, not enough to satisfy.

“I thought you didn’t believe in torturing someone,” she said, against his mouth.

“Not during hazing, anyway.” And he pulled her into his arms.

WHEN SHE RELENTED to kissing him her body went pliant against his, and Finn sent up a silent shout of gratitude. He was finally getting to do what he’d been burning to do since he’d last tasted her. Then, it had been a long shot, a fluke, a deliciously forbidden surprise.

This…well, this time, it was a bit more calculated, admittedly. Even if she said it would never happen again, he’d felt the flash burn of desire between them. He’d felt the way her gaze always seemed to follow him, the way she was unable to stay away even though she was careful not to physically touch him if she could help it. As if she were afraid they’d combust with contact.

And boy, were they ever conbustible.

She was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and he reached down to cup her ass, pulling her taut against his rock-hard erection. Her grateful moan and the shimmy of her hips rubbing her pelvis against his hardness was enough to have him clutching at her like a drowning man. His tongue traced her lips before plunging between them, coaxing her tongue to play with his. He felt her pointed nipples as she tried to move higher against his chest. She was about five inches shorter than he was.

He solved that by picking her up, encouraging her legs around his waist. It reminded him of the locker room, of plunging into her hot, wet heat, and his knees almost buckled.

She pulled away. “We… I can’t… Out here in the open?”

Finn chuckled. He knew that despite Diana’s recent escapade, she’d still want privacy if he miraculously managed to convince her to sleep with him. He’d therefore prepared for this contingency. He nipped at her neck as he brought her to his tent.

He’d gotten an inflatable mattress, king-size and fairly bouncy. All right, it was extravagant for a camping trip, but so were the Egyptian cotton sheets and thick pillows. And his tent had a moon roof, and was even now open to the stars. He placed her on the mattress gently. She was panting, her perky breasts heaving enticingly. When she looked up at him, she smiled.

“I’ve never seen so many stars,” she breathed, leaning back against the mattress. Her eyes sparkled like the night sky. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Beautiful,” he murmured, but he wasn’t looking at anything but her.

Their gazes locked for what seemed like a long while. Then she reached for her shirt, slipping it off in one motion, revealing a purple bikini top underneath.

As she went for the fly of her shorts, he quickly peeled off his top, his mouth going dry at her look of hungry appreciation. He stripped out of the rest of his clothes as she took off the shorts, then shimmied out of the bikini bottoms and undid the strings to her top. When she was nude, he noticed she had no tan lines: just an even, deliciously creamy almond shade of skin, a stark contrast to the darkness of her hair, her eyes.

He slid down beside her. “I’ve wanted you,” he breathed, nipping at her shoulder, her neck, palming her breasts and kneading gently. She arched her back, filling his hands, reaching for him. He decided to tease her, replacing one of his hands with his mouth. She softly gasped as he suckled her. His hand now free, his fingertips touched the flat planes of her abdomen, then down to the curls between her thighs. Searching gently between the folds, he found the tight, wet passageway. His cock twitched eagerly.

She moaned, parting her legs to give him better access. He twirled his tongue around her nipple as his fingers flicked the tight button of her clit. Her head lolled on the pillow as he worked feverishly. He sucked, then licked and licked again.

He could feel her body pulsing. He shuddered, struggling for his own self-control.

She was breathing hard, her eyes molten bright in the darkness. “Finn,” she said, her voice ragged. “Inside me. I want you inside me.”

He didn’t need to be asked twice. He fished in his bag for a condom, his hands shaking with need. When he returned to her, ready, she rubbed her hands on his chest, rested them on his shoulders as he moved gently between her thighs. Slowly and surely, he pressed forward, until he was buried inside her.

She whispered his name, how good he felt, her nails raking down his back as she rocked her pelvis, urging him deeper. He withdrew, eliciting a protest, then smiled as he pressed forward again, trembling at the feel of her tight passage massaging his shaft.

She wouldn’t let him go slow, demanded that he be demanding. Their rhythm sped up. She was moving sinuously, the undulating actions of her body driving him wild. He plunged inside her, moving faster, harder, feeling her thighs squeeze against his hips, and her body shook beneath him.

She orgasmed, again and again. A seemingly endless set of waves crested over him until he thought he’d go crazy with it. His own orgasm hit him and he climaxed in time with her, the sensation overwhelming.

When it finally ended, he twisted so he wouldn’t collapse on top of her. Instead, he tugged her on top of him. She stared down at him, a look of sleepy wonder on her face.

“I really like you, Diana.”

“I…like you, too.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Enough to let me do that again? After I, you know, recover?”

She laughed, and it was a great sound.

“If you recover,” she said, dipping down to kiss his face, “sure. But I’m still mad at you.”

“Let’s see if I can’t do something about that.”

8

STRIDING OUT OF THE Orange County airport, Diana decided she was getting pretty good at this denial stuff. What happened in Colorado would stay in Colorado. And that interlude in the gym at Macalister headquarters? That had to be a stress dream. That never actually
happened
to anyone, outside of late-night porn movies, right?