Player (A Secret Baby Sports Romance)(42)

Austin laughs, shaking his head as he turns and grins at me. “And what about Vince.”

I arch a brow at him. “What about Vince?”

Austin shrugs. “That fall into the ‘dumb things in love’ rule?”

“I’ve never been in love.”

It just tumbles out, but I know it’s true the second I say it in the ticking darkness of that car in the Hollywood Hills. And for a moment, it feels like a knife to the heart, until I realize it doesn’t actually hurt to say out loud.

In fact, it’s freeing.

Austin whistles. “Well, damn.” He leans back against his door, nodding at me and looking me over in an appraising way. “I sort of had you pegged for the fairytale-princess ‘true love’ type shit.”

“Nope.” I flash a half-smile at him in the dark, brushing hair away from my face and tucking it behind my ear. “I’m not really sure I believe in it, to be honest.”

“That why you marry a guy like me for five hundred large?”

I grin. “Oh, totally. I just married you for your body.”

I’d meant it lightly, as a joke. But the whole car goes quiet as the weight of the sudden sexual tension shrouds the darkness. A full second ticks by, with me cringing at my Freudian slip of an awful joke before I suddenly shake my head and reach for the door.

“We should go inside.”

I all but run to the front door of the house, and I almost make it too, before I suddenly feel his hand on my arm.

“Hang on.”

I freeze, closing my eyes and raking my teeth across my bottom lip; not trusting myself to turn.

“Natalie.” That deep, honeysuckle voice sends a shiver down my spine as he says my name.

“Look at me.”

I want to shake my head. I want to say no, and push kick my way through the front door so I can run off and escape into my room.

But I don’t, and instead, I slowly turn to face him.

His look is lingering - hungry, and it’s the same hunger that I feel inside, as much as I’m trying to shove it aside or pretend it isn’t there.

Because I shouldn’t have thoughts like that for a man like this.

But the way he looked when he jumped up at the dinner table, and the ferocity of his defense of my honor, and the damn way he’s looking at me now has my heart skipping a beat and my blood stuttering in my veins as I meet his eyes.

I swallow thickly, feeling my pulse quicken.

He moves closer and I step back until my back is against the front door to his house. But he moves closer still, until his palm is flat against the door to my side, his body right in front of me.

God I want to kiss him.

The thought comes surging into my thoughts almost as powerfully and as primal as the hunger for him I felt before. And I know it’s silly, and I know that’s not what this is - paper-napkin contract or letter from the State of Nevada aside.

But those damn lips of his so close to mine are like this dare needling at me. And what’s worse is that I know what they feel like on mine. I know what his tongue tastes like as it slides against mine.

I know how his kiss makes my whole body sizzle and ache.

He leans in closer still, until those damn lips are almost brushing across mine.

“You know,” he growls, the sound of his southern-dipped voice making my knees weak as he breaths the words across my lips.

“Uh-huh?”

His tongue darts out, sliding quickly across his bottom lip as his eyes light a fire into mine.

“It’s getting harder and harder to come up with excuses not to kiss you, and damn if you’re not makin’ it even harder.”

The words I never meant to say come tumbling out anyway.

“Well then maybe you should stop making excuse-”

I don’t even finish before his lips sear fiercely against my own. I moan as he kisses me hard enough to bruise, growling into my mouth as he presses me up against the door behind me and smothers me with his hard body.

I’m melting into him, my hands instantly clutching at him and yanking him into me. His hand slides to my waist, pulling me against him as his other hand slides up to tangle in my hair.

I’m throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him back before I can even second-guess any of this. I’m moaning into his mouth as he pulls me into him, cupping my jaw with one hand as the other slides down my back to palm my ass and grind me against him.

His kisses are hungry and demanding - insistent and needing.

Needing me, and I know right then that whatever the hell this is, I need him back.

I kiss him hungrily, my hands sliding up and into his hair as our tongues swirl.

He’s growling into my mouth as he fumbles behind us. The door suddenly swings open behind us and we go tumbling inside, hardly breaking the kiss as we crash to the floor of his entryway. I gasp as his mouth pulls from my lips to trail down to the tender skin of my neck, his hands sliding over me as our bodies undulate together.