The Matchmaker's Playbook (Wingmen Inc., #1)(35)

Damn it.

What? Suddenly he sees she actually has boobs and a guy that pays more attention to her and he wants to get ice cream? Like they’re ten?

I coughed again, this time really selling it. Bastard wanted to play? I’d play.

I hacked and then gently pushed Blake away. “He’s right. The last thing I want is to get you sick, and after . . . last night . . . you may already be coming down with something.” My voice rasped, heated, wrapped her up in its sexual innuendo, and promised to never let go.

Blake’s mouth dropped open. I gave a slight shake of my head.

“You’re right.” She sighed, defeated. “I’m probably already contagious.”

“Most likely,” I said and nodded, pretending to be sad. “I’m sorry, babe. If I had known, I wouldn’t have put my mouth all over you like that. Damn, I’m such an ass.”

David’s hands tightened around the bag he was holding.

“Sorry,” I mumbled toward him. “I forgot you were here.”

“Rain check?” Blake said in a hopeful voice to David. “I’d hate for you to get sick and miss the big game.”

Big game? What big game? I really needed to start paying better attention to his schedule.

But he was a basketball player.

Was he an athlete? Absolutely.

Did he get hit by three-hundred-pound men every few seconds? No.

So was he badass? Like me?

Not even close.

He dealt with sweaty men and balls.

I used to deal with testosterone-crazed linemen.

Used to.

Damn ache in my knee.

“You’re right.” David eyed me cautiously. “Well, you have my number now, so . . .”

“Yup.” Blake stood, her boobs bouncing. I watched like a cat who’d just been given his first ball of yarn.

Want. To. Touch.

“I’ll see ya around!” Bounce, bounce, bounce. Mother of— I looked away. I had to. Otherwise, I’d have had to explain to everyone in the room why the plague caused erections. And that just . . . didn’t seem like the best conversation to be having with a client.

A client. A client. A client.

Maybe if I kept repeating her status in my life, I wouldn’t be so damn ready to turn her over the table and— “Ian?” Blake was suddenly in front of me. Shit, had I said any of that out loud? I glanced to Gabi for help.

She was staring at the pillow, completely ignoring me.

Meaning she was pissed. She knew I wasn’t treating Blake like a normal client. I’d have to be more careful in the future.

I jolted to my feet and started firing off the usual. “Next time he invites you over, you say you’re busy. You’re always busy until I say you’re free, got it? Rule number three in the playbook clearly states this in painful detail.”

Blake took a step backward and nodded seriously.

“And you don’t let him call you or coerce you into hanging out, not when you’re technically with another dude. It makes you look easy and doesn’t make our relationship look real.”

Gabi’s eyes narrowed as she looked at us. “Is anything going on that I should—?”

“You’re sick, Gabs.” I shoved the pillow over her face. “You know what they say, ‘Sleep, sleep, sleep!’”

“She can’t breathe.” Blake pointed at the pillow.

“She breathes through her hair.” I nodded. “She’s fine.”

Gabi shoved both me and the pillow away and gasped.

“See? Totally fine.” I cleared my throat. “I, uh, I’ll see you guys later.”

I ran out of the house, sweating.

And not because I was sick, but because I had a feeling I was about to be. Things were moving way too fast with her and David. I had a sudden desire to look more deeply into their program.

I just hoped Lex was home to help.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Lex!” I shouted for him the minute I stepped over the threshold. “Emergency meeting. Now!”

Lex appeared a few seconds later, black-rimmed glasses sitting low on his nose, pen in his mouth. I was only slightly irritated that glasses made him look smarter than he already was.

“What up?”

And then he went and used phrases like “what up,” and I felt so much better about my place in the world.

“David. What’s his deal? She’s working through the steps really fast, and he seems to be falling for it, but something just feels off with him.” Actually, it was me, all me, but I’d die before admitting that. “Can you pull up his file?”

Lex’s eyes narrowed. “David’s file? You want to look at his file?”

“Why are you repeating what I just asked you?”

Lex leaned against the doorframe. “Oh, I don’t know. Because normally you just look at the summary I toss in the packet. What gives?”

“Curiosity,” I lied.

“Uh-huh.” Lex smirked, then moved into the living room where his laptop was sitting. “And would this curiosity have anything to do with your inability to keep yourself from wanting to bang the client?”

I rolled my eyes. “I don’t bang clients.”

“Yet.”

“The minute I have sex with a client is the minute this turns into a very lucrative prostitution ring, okay?”