Hot Number (Hot Zone 2)

"Want to spend the night at my place?" Ronnie asked. The guest room's yours if you want it. Dave'll keep the girls out of your hair," she said as added incentive.

He shook his head. "Much as I appreciate the offer, I think I’ll just go home."

"How long are you out for?" she asked, correctly reading the source of his mood.

"Fifteen days. Longer if the tendinitis doesn't clear up."

She didn't turn his way. "Not so bad."

"Oh really?" He snorted. "It's July, we're in first by three and a half games. Atlanta's breathing down our necks and Carter's aiming for my position on the field and in the lineup. Now he's got a solid two weeks to make an impression. You're right. It's not so bad."

"I'm sorry."

He flexed and unflexed his good hand. "Don't be. It's my headache." Just like his age was his headache, as was the way his body didn't always cooperate the way it used to.

All he'd done was catch a damn fly ball and he'd overextended his wrist. He supposed there was a lesson to be learned here but he wasn't ready to heed it. Damian was convinced he still had a few good years left and he wasn't about to quit.

"Are you going with the team on your next road trip?" Ronnie asked.

"Yep." He had to keep an eye on Carter and an ear out for his big mouth. Besides, he never missed a game unless he had no choice. "This Tampa trip is the one where Gordon sponsors the one-day camp for autistic children. The kids spend a day with their favorite player," he said of the Renegades owner's pet cause.

Because Joe Gordon's son had been diagnosed with the disease, he did all he could to brighten the lives of kids with the same ailment. All players were required to show up, but none minded. Beginning with his nieces and nephews, Damian loved kids, and each year he participated in the camp, he learned something from the determination and guts of the children involved.

"Maybe the publicity and PR will help take your mind off not being able to play" Ronnie said, as his Gramercy Park building came into view.

Publicity and PR immediately brought his thoughts to the one person he'd been unsuccessfully trying to avoid thinking about since he'd last seen her.

Micki Jordan. Before his injury, she'd definitely been his biggest problem

-a woman who invaded his thoughts when he ought to be focusing solely on the game. Even in clothes that covered up her curves, she stood out in a crowd, never mind a locker room. Pretending not to notice her took more energy than ignoring Carter and his big mouth.

With those unruly blond curls, baby-blue eyes and soft skin, Micki had an innocence that made her an unmistakable contrast to the women who came in and out of his personal life. Women who knew the score. Women who wanted a fast lay and who wouldn't get hurt when he walked out later that same night. But most importantly, women who didn't linger in his mind after he'd taken them to bed.

One drunken kiss wasn't supposed to have knocked him on his ass, Damian thought. He clearly remembered her dragging him outside, insisting he needed to sober up before his agent or the media noticed his condition. One minute he'd been insisting he wasn't drunk, defending himself to the one niece of Yank's wearing pants not a skirt, and the next he was kissing her senseless.

Micki had aroused more than just desire and left him wondering if alcohol had heightened his perception of the night or if she was really the hot little number he remembered.

Every time he'd seen her since, she'd piqued his interest more and more. And the last time he'd spoken with her on the phone, he'd realized he was talking to the woman he remembered-a husky-voiced Micki who teased him and made him want to get his hands on her again. Which wouldn't and couldn't happen with a woman who distracted him so strongly. At this stage of his life and career, he couldn't let anything or anyone distract him from the game.

"Hello?" Ronnie said, waving her hand in front of his face. "We're here. Are you sure you're okay? I can come in if you need me."

He leaned over and kissed his worrywart sister on the cheek. "I'm fine."

"You wouldn't tell me if you weren't," she grumbled.

"Go home to the kids before poor Dave is taken away in a straitjacket." He forced a grin to relieve her anxiety and let himself out of the van.

"I'll call and check on you later," Ronnie yelled as he shut the door.

To prove she didn't have to worry, he waved with his injured, braced hand before heading inside, Micki Jordan still on his mind, Nothing about Yank's niece should appeal to him and yet everything did, which was why he had no choice but to continue to ignore the attraction and deny her appeal. The distraction was too dangerous. In exchange for keeping his focus, he knew he came across as a first-class, womanizing jackass, which at times he probably was. As long as Micki kept that negative view of him, it'd make it easier for him to keep his distance. Thank God, her sister Annabelle was the publicist in charge of Joe Gordon's camp next week.

Yank paced his office, a room he'd learned by sense of feel and touch. He knew how many paces from the door to his desk and where the sunlight hit during the day. For now, he could see most things just fine. It was the peripheral that did him in. But he knew his days of complete independence were numbered, no matter what Sophie or those so-called specialists claimed.

While he still had his vision, he intended to make sure his girls' futures were taken care of. It was the least he could do for the little women who'd come in and changed his life. All for the better, though he couldn't have known it back then.

Annabelle was settled down with Vaughn, who'd turned into a decent man despite his uppity folks. As for the baby, Yank knew it'd be fine. He refused to think any other way. By rights Sophie should come next but she didn't want to focus on anything except his eyesight, so he'd decided it was Micki's turn at bat.

Perfect analogy since Yank had the right man lined up already, He'd seen her watching Fuller at the New Year's party and when the man had begun flirting with every woman in sight, Yank had stepped in. Damian was a damn fine man who didn't know when it was time to quit. He needed a decent woman to show him what he could have after his career on the field ended. Yank would get him all the broadcasting and commercials his good-looking mug could handle, but first the man needed to realize he was through playing the field.