Out of Bounds(23)

Dani steps closer to the game and rests her hand on the back of the console. “So much ridicule. It would be the talk of the town,” she says with a playful shudder. I sneak a glance at her and my jaw drops. Hell, if she doesn’t look hot tonight. So hot, in fact, that I miss the next five whacks. Maybe ten. But the woman is wearing a goddamn red dress. It’s a tight sheath that hits above her knees, and she looks good enough to eat.

All I want to do is eat her.

“I thought you were a whack-a-mole pro,” she says, a teasing little lilt to her tone as she eyes the game board. The moles pop up and I miss nearly every one. I’d rather stare at her.

“I was, until Taylor gave me a good old-fashioned thrashing.”

“I saw that,” she says softly. “I was chatting with some of my colleagues by the Skee-Ball. And I love that you spent time with Taylor, and the other kids.”

“He’s a good kid. We had fun.”

“They adore you. All the kids here do. It’s great that you come out for this.”

A blush creeps across my cheeks, and I’m not a blushing guy. But I like hearing these sweet compliments from her. “Now, what kind of man would I be if I didn’t? It’s the right thing to do, and it’s also fun as hell.”

She smiles at me and all my appropriate thoughts fade away. My body says kiss her. My f*cking heart says to do that too. This woman just does something to me, and like an invisible thread connects us, I feel a pull. Desire gets the better of me. It blots out everything else—the game, the rules, the team’s image. It erases all the reasons, personal and professional, that I need to be cautious. Right now, I want to be the opposite.

I inch toward her, and her eyes widen to saucer size. I freeze as she raises her chin, and mouths “smile for the camera.”

Damn. She distracts me with her beauty. Knocks me off my cool, calm center because I want her so goddamn much. I’ve got to be more careful.

I turn and flash a grin at the photographer who’s been making the rounds. Dani smiles too, and the guy gives us a thumbs-up before he heads off to another group.

“Close call,” I say under my breath.

“Were you going to try to kiss me?”

I nod. “I would think that was obvious.”

“It was obvious.”

I lean a hip against the game. “I know I shouldn’t have, but seeing as I was a good boy and restrained myself, let me ask the question—what would you have done if I had kissed you?”

A sweet smile tugs at her lips. “Probably kissed you back. Against my better judgment.”

I wave a hand in the air dismissively. “Screw judgment,” I say playfully and she laughs.

But a few seconds later, good judgment returns in the form of Stuart. He swoops in and shakes my hand. “Great night. Great event. Couldn’t be more pleased. You?”

I nod. “Everything is fantastic.”

“Wonderful.” He takes a beat, glances from Dani to me and back. For a split second, something inquisitive passes in his eyes, and a flurry of nerves race down my spine. Almost like how I feel when I can’t find a receiver and I’m about to get sacked. But that’s foolish, I tell myself. I need to chill out. Especially since Stuart’s next question is nice and easy. “We’ve got a request from eight-year-old Hannah, who just had corrective surgery on her ankle, for a round of Skee-Ball with the quarterback.”

“Say no more. I’m there.”

“He’s great at Skee-Ball,” Dani chimes in, and Stuart cocks his head to the side, as if he’s curious how she knows this little tidbit. That feeling starts up again, but Dani’s a pro at handling Stuart.

She narrows her eyebrows, and holds out her hands. “Duh. He’s the quarterback. If he can’t win at Skee-Ball, we should kick him off the team.”

“Yes, we absolutely should.” The older man adopts a stern look, shakes his index finger at me, and says, “Son, you’re gone if you don’t beat Dani in Skee-Ball after your round with Hannah.”

I exhale, relieved as hell that he didn’t pick up on a vibe. Or worse, start sniffing out what we’ve been up to. But then, maybe it was curiosity I saw in his eyes?

I chase away the thoughts.

We head over to the games, and a little redhead with freckles across her nose hands me a ball. “You go first,” Hannah says with a serious tone.

“Got myself quite a competitor here,” I say, and then we play.

This time, I do win. By a landslide. And after I take on a few more kids, I play a round with Dani. She’s good, but I’m not the quarterback for nothing. I know how to aim. I know how to throw balls. I know how to hit targets. The skills carry over, and I beat her too.

Then, since most of the kids are gone, one of my receivers challenges me, and I obviously can’t turn that down, so I wind up playing Skee-Ball with Elkins for another twenty minutes.

By the time I’m done, Dani is gone. When I return home and check my phone, there’s a text message waiting for me.

Dani: Did you destroy Elkins?

I don’t text back. I call. Because that’s safe. That I can do. I can talk to her, and I won’t step across a line I need to maintain.

“It was a complete annihilation of my teammate,” I say. “All the more impressive considering I was distracted by this hot blonde most of the time.”