Stealing Home(63)

My hand floated to the bend of his neck, trying to calm the anger I could see in his eyes. “Because nothing says charity auction like someone’s throat getting ripped out, right?”

“He told you those other women were only on the team to warm my bed? That that was the reason you’d been brought on this season?”

My silence answered him.

“Anything else?” he asked.

I thought about everything Shepherd had said that night—everything I’d believed. Not anymore. “Not much. Just a few other stupid lies.”

“God, Allie.” Archer tucked me closer to him, tossing the bat away so his arms could hold me instead. “I wish you would have told me sooner. That night.”

“I wish I would have too.” My arms wound around his back, and I let him hold me so there was nothing between us.

“I wish you wouldn’t have believed it.”

My eyes closed as I turned my head into his chest. His heartbeat was thudding against my ear, so strong and sure. “Me believing that has very little to do with you, Luke, and more to do with me. I believed it because of my shortcomings, not because of yours.”

Kissing the top of my head, his chin tucked over it afterward. “I’m sorry. So damn sorry. I’m going to make this right though. Shepherd’s going to remember the day he went after the woman I love. He’s going to be lucky if anyone lets him inside the gates of a baseball park as a spectator when I’m done with his lying ass.”

Luke kept going, but I drowned out most of it after that first part. I’d read it on the screen of a phone, but it was entirely different hearing it from his mouth.

“I love you, Luke.” My head lifted from his chest so I could look up at him. “You were right. You are more. We are more.”

His hand left me just long enough to turn his ball cap around. “No,” he said, then his hand molded onto my cheek as his face angled toward mine. “You’re everything.”





“SO HOW DID you get in here? Jump the fences with your bat and bucket of balls? Find the power switch to the stadium lights?” Looking up at Luke where we were still straddling the third base line, I waited.

His eyes roamed the empty stadium, looking sheepish. “I might have had someone let me in. The same someone who knows how to turn on the lights.”

“Because this big, prestigious university is so generous to do that for any guy who shows up in the middle of the night wanting to hit a few balls on their pristine field?”

He sighed, knowing what I was hinting at. “The night guard might have season tickets to the Shock games.” When my eyebrow stayed lifted, his shoulders slumped. “Box seat season tickets.”

“Ah, so Luke Archer is not above bribery.”

“Hey, for your information, he started letting me onto the field before the season tickets came into the equation. That was just my way of saying thanks.”

“And no doubt that plays no factor in his willingness to continue breaking the rules for you.” I blinked at him, my arms still tied around his back.

“Oh, please. The university doesn’t mind.”

“They said that?”

His arms tightened around me despite me giving him a hard time. “It’s implied in the thank you note they send me every year for my considerable alumni donation.”

“So you are above bribery?”

The corners of his mouth started to lift. “Bribery, yeah. But threats, not so much.”

“For example?”

“For example, I’d threaten you.”

My eyebrow lifted. “With what?”

“What do you think?”

“Then threaten me.” Stepping out of his arms, my arms crossed in front of me and my fingers pulled at the hem of my shirt.

Luke wet his lips, glancing into the stands. After giving them a cursory check, his gaze moved back to me. “Take off your shirt or else . . .” His brows came together. “Or else . . .” He scrubbed his face, searching. “Or else something.”

“Good enough for me,” I laughed, pulling my shirt up and over my head. I tossed it at his face.

His hazel eyes went darker when they explored my body. “Take off your shorts.”

When my fingers dropped to my button, I waited.

“Or else something.”

Biting back a smile, I worked the button and zipper free, then wiggled out of them until they were around my ankles.

“I like this game,” Luke breathed, a grin stretching from one ear to the other. “I like this game a lot.”

“Of course you do. We’re playing it on a baseball field.”

Like he was reminded of our environment, his eyes wandered back to the stands. They were empty. “Take off the rest,” he ordered when his search was done.

My arms wound behind my back, waiting.

“Or else I’ll tear them off myself.”

“As tempting as that is, this is my favorite, and one of my only matching, bra and underwear, so I’ll take care of the removal to keep things civilized.”

“That’s the only civilized thing you’ll be having from here on,” he growled, adjusting himself as I let my bra fall down my arms and onto the grass.

“Looking forward to it.” I worked my underwear down as I kept moving toward him.