Intercepting Love (Second Chances #5)(4)

“Don’t leave, Kate,” he begged. “Stay.”

Before I could give in to the temptation of his touch, my phone began to ring in my bag.

“Ignore it,” he whispered, trailing his lips down my neck.

Groaning, I moved back and reached for my bag, which was sitting on the table beside us. “Luke, you know I can’t. It could be an emergency with the team.” Reluctantly, he nodded and stepped back to give me my space, his gaze heated.

Luckily, it was just my brother when I pulled out my phone. Breathing a sigh of relief, I sat down on the arm rest of Luke’s black leather couch and answered it.

“Evan, what’s up?” I asked.

“Hey, where are you? Have you left Luke’s yet?”

Trying to sound as innocent as I could, I looked up at Luke and replied, “No, I haven’t left yet. We just finished the last of his … therapy session.” Grinning from ear to ear, Luke winked and bit his lip, squeezing my ass as he pulled me back to him.

“Okay, good. Coach Harris wanted me to call and see if you could come to the stadium in the next hour or so.”

Trying to hold in my snicker, I looked over at the clock on Luke’s wall and cleared my throat. “Yeah, of course. Is everything all right? I thought he didn’t need me until tomorrow.”

“That was the plan,” he replied. “It seems our new quarterback is coming in early, and Coach wants you to look him over before practice starts tomorrow.”

Inwardly, I groaned. When I found out our team had taken on Cooper Davis as our new quarterback, I just knew they had made the worst mistake ever. He used to be the best quarterback out there, and I had to admit I was impressed with him when I read a ten page spread on him in the Physique Sports and Fitness Magazine. He definitely went downhill after injuring his shoulder.

Our team needed guidance, but bringing in someone who clearly needed help of his own definitely wasn’t going to facilitate a win for us. Not only had he been injured and traded to our team, but the guy had serious issues with being reckless, even getting into trouble for misusing drugs. I wasn’t looking forward to working with him.

“Okay,” I grumbled into the phone. “I’ll be there in about thirty minutes. Will you be there, too?”

“No, I just left, but I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Oh yeah, and tell Luke there’s a party this Saturday night with the team and that I want him there.”

Glancing up at Luke, I held the phone away from my ear and said quickly, “There’s a party my brother wants you to go to on Saturday night.”

Luke nodded and grinned. “Okay, but he’s going to have to wait until after my date. Unless you want to go with me to the party as well.”

Jaw dropping, I glared at him as my brother cleared his throat, choking in surprise. “I heard that! Please tell me he’s joking, Kate.”

I groaned and hung my head. “No, it’s no joke, and it’s not that big of a deal, Evan.”

“Yeah, for him,” he scoffed. “I don’t think I like this, Kate. He’s my friend, but the guy’s a serious player. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

He didn’t have to worry about that. Having fun with Luke was one thing, but I knew how to control my feelings. I wouldn’t get hurt unless I wanted to, and that wasn’t going to happen.

“Believe me, Evan, you have nothing to worry about. You have to trust me on this,” I told him.

Evan groaned. “Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Duly noted. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

As soon as the call ended, Luke pursed his lips and followed me toward the front door. I had a little less than an hour to get to the stadium and I wanted to get there early so I could look over Cooper Davis’ file again.

“What does your brother need you to do?” Luke asked.

When we got to the door, I stopped and turned to face him, exasperated. “Our new quarterback, Cooper Davis, is coming into town today and Coach wants me to evaluate him. I’m really not looking forward to having this guy on the team. Do you know who he is?”

Leaning against the wall with his arms crossed at the chest, he scoffed and curled his lip in disgust. “Yeah, who doesn’t know him? The guy seriously went to shit after his shoulder gave out. I’m surprised he hasn’t been kicked out of the league with all of the problems he’s been causing. I wish you luck though. He’s a time bomb waiting to explode.”

“Great … thanks,” I remarked sarcastically. We had a couple of problem players on the team, but nothing like Cooper. We deserved to win, and I was afraid that wasn’t ever going to happen if we couldn’t get reliable players.

Luke walked me to my Jeep and opened my door for me before leaning his arms inside my window. “So … Saturday you’ll go on a date with me, right? Then afterwards we can go to the party together?”

Reaching for my sunglasses, I slipped them on and smiled. “Sounds like a plan. Give me a call sometime this week and we’ll figure everything out.”

Slowly, he leaned forward, keeping his gaze on my lips before gently touching his to mine. “I look forward to it. I just hope you’re ready for me.”

“Please,” I scoffed incredulously.

Kissing me once more, he winked and sauntered back to his front door while I started up my Jeep. Tomorrow all hell would break loose, and I had a feeling this season was going to be the most memorable one yet … and not in a good way.