Covering Kendall(25)

“Why is that?”

“I kept bandaging up my dolls. Being a nurse went out the window, though, when I figured out I couldn’t stand the sight of blood.”

“That might be a problem.” He leaned closer to her. “I’ll save you from it.”

“You will?”

“Of course,” he said. “I specialize in rescuing women.”

He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and dropped her hand to cup her cheek in his palm. She reached up to touch the tendrils of hair that escaped the elastic band he’d pulled it into to keep it out of his face.

“It’s so soft,” she whispered.

Her lips were trembling a bit with emotion. She moved a little closer to him\ and looked into his eyes as she touched and explored. Growing his hair out was now the best decision ever. He pulled in a breath and savored the tart, clean scent of green apples.

“I want to run my fingers through it. Is that weird?” she said.

He reached back and pulled the elastic band out of his ponytail. His hair spilled down his back and over his shoulder. He looped the elastic over his wrist.

“Hell, no,” he said. “It’s all yours.”

She bit her lower lip and reached out for him with both hands. Her fingers stroked his sun-warmed hair. It was thick, fine, and the length slid through her hands like liquid silk. His response was to pull her closer. By now, she was settled in his lap, and she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Has everyone you’ve dated wanted to play with your hair?”

“My ex-girlfriend didn’t like it when it wasn’t tied back. It got in her lip gloss.”

“Maybe she should stop wearing lip gloss,” Kendall blurted out.

He grinned at her. “I like how you think.”

“No offense, but she’s crazy.” The laughter rolled out of him. She twirled a thick lock around her finger. “I can’t stop touching it.”

He passed one big, gentle hand over her hair. “Your hair’s soft, and it smells like green apples.”

“Long hair looks terrible on me.”

“I don’t believe that,” he said. “Has anyone ever told you you look like Snow White?”

“I tried out to be Snow White at Disneyland one summer. I couldn’t make it work with my current job,” she joked. She ran her fingertips over the stubble on his cheeks and chin. “Maybe another time.”

“You know, the same thing happened when I auditioned for that movie—what was it? Thor?” he said. “They told me I worked out too much and they were going to have to pick some actor instead.” He pretended to let out a sigh, and she had to laugh. “Their loss. I guess I’ll just have to play football instead.”

“Thor probably wants your job,” she said.

“He has stunt people. I don’t.”



HE MOVED CLOSER. He was going to kiss her, and she was going to let him. She was going to take him upstairs too. She was going to spend all night touching his hair because she couldn’t get enough. Tomorrow morning, she was going to watch him walk out of her house, and she was going to spend the next few years counting the minutes until he retired from the league.

Talk about playing with fire. This was all kinds of stupid, but she couldn’t let go of him right now. She couldn’t have stopped if she tried. She was going to have to keep tonight a secret. And do her best to forget it when it was over to protect her heart.





Chapter Seven



* * *





DREW CUPPED KENDALL’S face in his hands. Every time he looked at her, he was struck anew by the changeable gray of her eyes. Right now, they were the silver-gray of a winter’s dawn in Seattle. She’d probably laugh if he told her that, but he couldn’t think of anything else he’d ever seen that compared to the color.

She was still holding strands of his hair and rubbing them between her fingertips. He’d grown his hair out for the hell of it when he was in college, and it was now part of his identity—that guy with the long hair that wasn’t the other guy in the dandruff shampoo commercials. He’d never met a woman who wanted to touch his hair like Kendall did, though, or run her fingers through it.

“I want to kiss you,” he said.

She looked up at him from beneath her eyelashes. She said she didn’t want to date him, they couldn’t get involved, but she was currently sitting in his lap with her fingers in his hair. He’d better ask a few more questions before they got physically involved. They were a little carried away already, but he wanted to make sure this was what she wanted to happen.

“I want you to kiss me too,” she said.

“You still don’t want to date me.”