Unexpected Rush (Play-By-Play #11)(74)

After he left, she kicked off her heels and sat on the bed, then called down to room service and asked for ice cream. When they asked her what flavor, she realized she hadn’t asked Barrett what kind he liked, so she ordered several different kinds, from vanilla to chocolate to strawberry with all the fixings. And a couple hot fudge sundaes with whipped cream, along with a bottle of champagne.

Because champagne went well with ice cream. At least that was her thought process right now.

There was a knock at the door and she went to open it. It was Barrett, with her bag.

He laid the bag down. She opened it and grabbed her pajamas. She turned to Barrett.

“Unzip, please.”

“Gladly.” The brush of his hands along her bare skin as he pulled her zipper down brought about an awareness that she didn’t think she’d feel in her present mood. Though it shouldn’t surprise her that his touch could evoke sensations of desire in her. He’d always had that effect.

She dashed into the bathroom, washed the makeup off her face, changed into the blue cotton shorts and white tank top and put the dress on the hanger, then came out of the bathroom and hung her dress in his closet.

Barrett had changed out of his suit and into a pair of gray sweats and a white T-shirt. He was on the sofa, remote in his hand.

He patted the spot next to him on the sofa. “Come on.”

She came over and sat, pulling her legs up on the sofa.

He handed her the remote. “Pick something to watch.”

“What if I want to watch a girl movie?”

He arched a brow. “What’s a girl movie?”

“Something romantic.”

“You think guys don’t like romance?”

She shrugged, staring at the TV as she flipped through channels. “Right now I don’t think I know anything about men.”

“I don’t know about other guys, but I can tell you about me. I like sports, of course. Hot women, like you. Good food, good conversation and honesty.”

“Oh, you like honesty?”

“Okay, you really want to get into this thing with Drake tonight?”

“No. I don’t. I already told you I get why you don’t want to tell him about us. My brother is an overprotective pain in my ass. And the fact that he’s your best friend just makes what you and I have together . . .”

She didn’t finish. She couldn’t.

“Complicated?”

She let out a huff, still scrolling through channels without even looking at them. “Understatement.”

He took the remote from her hands and muted the sound. “Look at me.”

She did.

“I know what we have is complicated. It’s complicated as hell and I’m sorry about that. I wish it could be easy for us, but right now it isn’t. Your brother is a hothead and he’s protective about you. In some ways that’s a good thing. I’ll talk to him about us.”

This was new. “You will?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Soon. Let’s get through training camp and I’ll . . . find the right moment. You need to trust me to know when that right moment will be.”

“Okay.”

There was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get that,” Barrett said.

The room service waiter came in bearing a tray filled with all kinds of ice creams and toppings, not to mention the hot fudge sundaes and the champagne. When he left, Barrett slid a look in her direction.

She shrugged. “I might have gotten carried away. The ice cream mind is a dangerous thing.”

One side of his mouth pulled up in a half smile. “So it seems. Let’s dig in and see what kind of damage we can do.”

She went for the hot fudge sundae first, while Barrett mixed scoops of chocolate and vanilla ice cream in a bowl, then sprinkled in some M&M’s.

Harmony picked up the remote and found something they might both like—an action movie mixed in with a little romance.

Barrett leaned back with his bowl. “This looks like a good one.”

They ate and watched the movie. After Barrett finished his ice cream, he popped open the champagne and poured it into two glasses. Harmony was cold after eating the ice cream, so she grabbed a blanket from the bedroom and laid it over both of them.

They sipped champagne and argued about the movie.

“This is ridiculous,” she said. “She has to know he’s only using her to get the information he needs.”

“But you can tell he cares about her and he feels really guilty about it.”

“Oh, and that makes it okay?”

“In the movie world, yes. Plus, you know she’ll make him pay for it in the end. They’ll end up married and he’ll spend the next forty years apologizing for lying to her about being a spy and not coming clean about who he was in the first place.”

She laughed. “Probably.”

At the end, there was a happily ever after—with a twist. It turned out the heroine was also a spy, and she’d been playing the hero as well.

“Okay, that surprised me,” Barrett said. “Did you pick up on her being a spy?”

Harmony shook her head. “Not at all. So maybe she’ll be the one continuing to apologize for the next forty years.”

He laughed. “Or maybe they’ll end up even.”