Slap Shot(11)

Chatting excitedly, Carly showed me around the opulent home she shared with her fiancé. It had eight bedrooms, a gym, a formal living room and dining room and a pool big enough to moor several yachts in. It was incredibly tidy and ordered, and in the upper hallway I paused to admire Carly’s impressive collection of cycling medals, including the gold medal she’d won at the Beijing Olympics.

“Have you seen enough?” Carly asked as I headed toward the front door rather than going back into the kitchen. Fight-or-flight instinct had kicked in and flight had definitely won.

“Oh, yes, great, thanks.” I clutched my bag, file and case. “One last thing though, how many people are you thinking of inviting?”

“Probably about seventy or eighty,” Brick said, stepping into the hallway.

Carly looked up at him and her eyes softened. When he moved up tight to her side, she visibly melted against him.

“I’d like the whole team here,” he said, wrapping an arm around his fiancée and dropping a kiss to her head.

Carly looked like the cat who’d gotten the cream. “Not many on my side to invite,” she said. “But the team will all bring their wives and girlfriends so it will be a good excuse for us girls to get together.”

“Sounds great.” I stretched a smile across my face. My feet were twitching to get out of there, away from the one man who could make me forget my own name. Away from the man who was every bit as tempting as a bowl of cream. “I’ll be in touch over the next couple of days, once I’ve got the first arrangements in order.”

“Perfect, and again, thanks so much for taking the job on at such short notice,” Carly said. “We want to celebrate with everyone while we’re still so excited about it.”

“I understand.” I stepped out of the air-conditioning into the sunshine. “Goodbye, it was lovely to meet you both.”

The door shut behind me and I tottered across the deep gravel as fast as I could. The sun was hot but my body felt hotter. I scrabbled in my handbag, found my car keys, beeped the car to life and swung open the door.

“Why are you running?”

I gasped and spun around. Standing right behind me, looking too damn gorgeous for his own good, was Rick. He reached out and curled huge fingers over the car door, his body effectively trapping me between it and the interior.

“I’m not running,” I said stiffly.

“I’ve never seen anyone race that quickly across gravel in heels before in my life.”

“I’m in a rush.” I tugged at the door. It didn’t move. “Please, I have to go.”

“I want to know why you didn’t say hi back there?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I asked you first.”

“I-I wasn’t sure if you’d want me to, after, you know…”

“After I made you scream my name just like I’d predicted.” His mouth twitched into a cocky grin but his eyes held a hint of irritation.

“Don’t be so vulgar.”

“As vulgar as scarring me for life,” he huffed and his grin dropped. “The guys gave me seven shades of shit for those damn scratch marks when they spotted them in the locker room. They were desperate to know what wild thing had attacked me.”

Wild thing? Well, I guess that was how I’d behaved, I deserved that one. “I said I was sorry. But you really shouldn’t have pushed me.”

“I pushed you?” His brows rose. “I think it was the other way around, it was you who kissed me first.”

I studied his mouth, so damn kissable, so sensuous. Bad Dana reared her head and wondered just what else he could do with that clever tongue and those soft lips. Bad Dana reckoned he’d be wickedly ruthless and disgracefully talented at doing sinful things with that mouth.

“So when are you going to call me?” he asked, his other hand resting on the roof of my car and his wide body hedging me in all the more. He appeared to be in no rush to let me go any time soon.

“Rick, I was honest with you.” My heart was thudding so fast I feared for its ability to sustain the rate. “I said it had been a mistake and that’s still how I view it. Nothing has changed.”

“I think it will.”

“No, it won’t, so go find some other woman to stalk.”

He flinched, as if I’d slapped him, hard. His eyes narrowed and he let go of the car, took a step back.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “but please. I have to go.” I dropped into the driver’s seat with my file, laptop and purse balanced on my lap. As I grasped for the door, my purse slipped and the contents slid out across my lap and onto the gravel.