“Really? How interested should I have acted? Especially since you want me to take him on as a client?” Narrowing her eyes, she leveled TS with her best don’t-mess-with-me glare. “I wouldn’t be able to do my job if I threw myself at the feet of your star player, my new client, now would I?” she answered.
“Guess I stepped into it, huh?”
“You could say so. Wouldn’t have expected it from you, though. You know me better than that. Assuming I’m going to act like a fawning ball girl, a groupie no less, just because a handsome, mega-star athlete walks into the room and smiles at me is not going to win you my agreement to your job offer.”
“Okay. Then what will?”
Kelsey thought about it and looked over to where Maverick, the Bad Boy of Baseball, and jeez, who came up with that nickname, was now standing next to the buffet. Plate in hand, listening to the mayor and a member of the city council discuss something baseball related, no doubt.
Even though she was across the room from him, another surge of warmth traveled down to her belly, then lower. Damn, these reactions to him were not a good sign.
And wasn’t it just her luck that he looked over at her again, but instead of a smile, he gave her a slight nod before turning back to the men arguing next to him. Double damn. He’d caught her looking—again. Not good, and neither were the naughty thoughts his blue-eyed stare stirred within her.
Kelsey needed some fresh air and quick.
She turned her attention back to TS and named an astronomical figure—one even a billionaire would laugh at.
“Done.”
Choking on her wine, she blurted out, “Are you insane?”
TS reached out and patted her on the back. “Are you all right?”
Nodding, she swatted his hand away. People didn’t often catch her off guard. Not in her line of work. She took a long, hard look into TS’s eyes and saw how stone cold serious he was. “You’re crazy, my friend. No one is worth that, not even me.”
“Never say that again, Kelsey. You’re worth every penny and I’m getting a bargain here, especially if we come to a deal and you take on the VP position. I’m not sure why I didn’t consider you for it before now, but that’ll be our little secret.” TS grinned.
Even with the crazy figure she’d just named, Kelsey wasn’t letting TS get his way that easily. There was one more thing she required.
“All right, I accept. But on two conditions. One, if he is totally against this and refuses to do the work needed in the next two weeks, I still receive twenty percent of the figure I quoted.”
“Agreed. But he won’t. And what’s two?”
“Season tickets,” Kelsey said.
“Okay, but that was going to be part of the deal anyway and--”
“For life.” She set down her wineglass and walked toward the hallway leading to the ladies’ room. She looked over her shoulder, grinned, and said, “To the Seattle Authority. They’re my favorite team.”
“Hey, Mav. Glad to see you made it. Wasn’t sure—” Brock Cameron, their star designated hitter and backup catcher, spoke to Maverick as he joined their teammates already at the charity event.
“You wish,” Maverick interrupted. “Someone’s got to keep the ball girls happy.” Mav held up two fingers to the bartender. “Whiskey, straight up.”
Downing the drink, his thoughts went back to the memory that he couldn’t shake, no matter how much he tried. Losing his kid brother, then losing the division championship. Shaking off the darkness those thoughts always produced, he looked over at the new owner and the woman who’d captured his attention.
TS, who, unlike the team’s previous owner, and in spite of his harebrained idea to set up the team in Pineville, Idaho, Mav had started to think he was the best thing to happen to the team in years.
Rumor was, TS had played college ball but never made it to the big leagues. Maverick had to hand it to the guy. His love for the game had shone through at the players’ meeting when he’d introduced himself. Of course, that was before he dropped the bomb that he gained the league’s okay to move the club. After meeting, the players were split on whether the new owner was a step up from the former owner, crazy Billy Jack McGraw, or a fucking genius.
But right now, it seemed TS was working hard on impressing the knockout Maverick had slammed eyes with moments ago. Her obvious disinterest nagged him. But he also saw a flash of challenge in her eyes. Or maybe it was interest. Hell, maybe he was hoping it was.
He wasn’t used to being shot down by women. He’d perfected his approach in college and found a slow smile and leisurely body check were the key to an instant introduction. Not this one, though. Glancing again at the woman who was occupying all of his thoughts, he wondered if she realized how her disinterest was a turn-on.
Damn, he loved a challenge, and it had been a long time since he’d had this immediate physical reaction to a woman.
But now was a hell of a time to be battling a hard-on in the midst of a charity function full of the town’s politicos. He shifted a bit, adjusting himself. Scanning the room, he caught Luke’s date, Syndi, checking him out. Turning away, he could still sense the heat of her stare. Shit. He was so tired of these groupies. And he didn’t want anything to come between him and Luke.
There had been a time he reveled in the nonstop attention of women, at least until the fiasco in Vegas with the stripper he hooked up with while trying to resurrect his libido. Embarrassed was too tame a word for what followed. She’d snapped a picture of him after he passed out, before he even got his pants off, and sold it to TMZ.
His sex life and his pitching hadn’t been the same since losing the championship, but maybe one of them was showing signs of life again. He tried catching the dark-haired beauty’s eye again as he strolled through the room. Her dark auburn hair was swept to one side. His palms itched at the thought of wrapping his hands up in its thick mass. Her curvy body gave him all sorts of ideas. He rarely went for the waif look that others favored, and this woman conjured nothing but thoughts of tangled sheets and heated kisses.
Locked onto her, he found it difficult to break his gaze as she raised her wineglass, then gestured to the door with her free hand as she spoke to TS. Damn, he wanted to be on the receiving end of all that passion. Her curves, encased in a dark green business suit, were more of a turn-on to him than the other women in the room wearing tight-fitting minis and blinged-out halter tops.
He thought better of pursuing her, for now. In the past, he’d act before thinking, and the video he currently starred in proved how much he needed to start thinking before he acted, ending up on the wrong side of public opinion—again.
Mav set down his untouched food then disengaged himself from the argument the mayor and some other guy were having about the new fifteen second pitch rule and made his way to the windows overlooking the lake, needing a moment to himself.
But he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Who was she to TS? Was she an acquaintance, girlfriend, or maybe a member of the city council here to schmooze him and the players? Whichever, he had to find out before the evening ended.
Laughter from across the crowded space had him turning back toward the main room. Somehow, he knew it was her. A siren-like sexy sound he couldn’t ignore. It grabbed him around his cock and held on. And just like that, he was hard—again.