Hot Number (Hot Zone 2)

Yank scowled. "Difference is even if I know what I'm missing, there's not a damn thing I can do to make you happy. You think you waited on me hand and foot before? What do you have to look forward to if I try to win you back now?"

Yank was a proud man and these truths hurt, but they had to be said, at least to himself. Talking back to himself was the only way he'd keep himself from picking up the phone, calling Lola and begging her to come home.

DAMIAN SLUNG A TOWEL LOW on his hips and made for the steam room attached to the team's workout area. He stepped into the moist heat, sat on a bench, leaned back and groaned.

His muscles ached from a good workout and his head hurt thinking about the meeting he had planned for this afternoon. Carole had called. She was in New York and had said she needed to talk to him. Not a good sign.

"God, I'm beat."

"Join the club," Roper said.

Damian shut his eyes and breathed in deeply, taking in the familiar smells that had always relaxed him in the past.

"How're the workouts going?" Roper asked.

Damian appreciated the small talk that would take him out of his own head. "Pretty good." He'd begun a slow routine of getting into shape with his trainer and the wrist was feeling surprisingly limber.

He'd be back on the field in a couple of days. Not a minute top soon considering that ass Carter had been playing with all the heart and soul Damian had possessed in his younger years. If he'd just lose the prick like attitude, he had potential.

And it galled Damian to admit it.

“I’m sure the time off on the island helped," Roper said.

"It didn't hurt."

Roper's stare bored into him, making him uneasy. Micki's name had never passed the other man's lips but it hung between them anyway. Everyone knew Roper and Micki were close and it came as no shock that Roper would make his way around to discussing the island. They both knew Micki had everything to do with Damian's last trip down there.

"You did a decent thing, taking care of Micki," Roper said.

Bingo. Damian rolled his head to one side, his shoulders suddenly tense. "Just how tight are you two?"

Roper chuckled. "If I was Carter, I'd torture the hell out of you making you think there's more between us than there is, but you're my captain so I'll let you down fast and easy. She's like a sister to me."

"Okay then." Damian exhaled hard. He'd been home from the island ten days and not an hour went by that he didn't think of her. "How's she doing?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Roper asked, making Damian feel completely juvenile.

He let out a laugh. "I've regressed."

"Nah. You're just sca

red shitless because she's more than capable of handling you."

"She's probably the only woman who can." The words were out before he could censor them.

"And to think Micki was convinced she couldn't possibly interest a real jock because she's too much like one. Too much of a challenge, in other words."

"One of the guys." Damian repeated Micki's expression as if he and Roper shared equal insight into Micki's psyche. In reality, the other guy had much more knowledge and information than Damian had.

"Exactly." Roper nodded. "I'm guessing you showed her she was wrong?" His voice held typical innuendo but Damian knew Roper cared too much for Micki to indulge in locker room trashing. He wasn't prying, rather he was testing Damian's intentions.

"For a while." And then he'd given her the kiss-off at the airport, probably reinforcing her insecurities. No matter how unintentional, Damian had screwed Micki big-time.

"So why don't you call her and make it for a while longer?" Roper asked.

"Can't." Damian eased his legs out in front of him. He'd begun to sweat and though normally at this point in the routine he'd be feeling mellow and relaxed, with Micki front and center in his mind, he was still wound tight. "I need to focus on rehab and playing."

"And that and Micki are mutually exclusive?" Roper asked, but before Damian could reply, the other man continued. "I'd guess so considering you have your hands full keeping Carter off your back."