Casual Affair

She still took the bait.

“Puh-lease. You soccer players are the biggest wimps of all.” She started walking toward the group of guys without waiting on Zane.

He caught up and walked beside her, looking down with a challenging smirk. “Maybe your Yank football players are. But we Brits are real men,” he said, dramatically puffing out his chest and flexing his biceps.

She was pretty sure he wasn’t trying to impress her with that display, but nevertheless…mission accomplished.

“We’ll see about that,” she muttered.

His smile just got bigger. “Brilliant. You can be skins.”

Chapter Thirteen

How did she just keep getting sexier?

It pleased Zane that Bea was willing to play football at all. Most women would have been hesitant to be the only girl playing with a bunch of unruly men. But the fact that she was actually good at football?

Huge turn-on.

And apparently not just for him.

He had been joking about her being on the skins team, of course. She was already exposing enough skin in her spandex outfit. But the other blokes had been checking out her arse in those skimpy running shorts all afternoon. Or zoning in on her tits, which bounced with every move she made. He’d seen them looking.

And it pissed him the hell off.

Possessiveness snaked around him, making his blood boil every time he saw one of the bastards looking at her. She wasn’t officially his, but there was something between them. And he bloody well didn’t like other man fantasizing about her. In fact, it made him want to throw her over his shoulder like a caveman and lock her up in his flat so no man could ever lay eyes on her again. Anytime one of the other guys actually touched her, he wanted to stomp over and rip the blighter’s arms from his body.

Yes, he was aware of how mental that sounded.

But did he care?

No.

He had made sure everyone took extra care with Bea on the field—he hadn’t been lying when he said they could get a bit rough. He had made it quite clear to all of them that if she got bruised, they would get beaten. Though it didn’t surprise him a bit when she had knocked a few of the guys on their arses. Between seeing that and the way sweat was running down her chest into her cleavage, he had been dealing with a raging hard-on all afternoon.

Tough to run like that.

“Oi, Price!” Danny yelled over from a few feet way. “You going to stare after your lass all day, or are you going to play some defense?”

“Sod off!”

The guy just laughed at him. Wanker.

Zane’s team scored a goal on the other end of the field, causing cheers to break out and backs to be slapped.

And a female voice shouted, “Blimey bloody bollocks!” Bea was kicking at the grass with a scowl on her face.

Okay. They may have taught her a few curse words.

He burst into laughter with the rest of the guys at hearing British slang inflected with a southern twang. It sounded ridiculous. Bea tried to hide it, but the corners of her mouth tipped up, despite the fact that her team was down by two goals.

She’d warned him about her competitive side, saying it could get a little intense.

He loved that about her.

It meant she was passionate about what she was doing. He’d seen that same passion transfer to other areas of her life, and it was one of the things he admired most about her.

One thing among so many.

This afternoon had changed something within him, cementing his decision to try to take the next step with her. Sure, she was still jumpy and clearly relationship-phobic, but he had a plan.

Basically, he was going to trick her into dating him.

Fine. He didn’t say it was a good plan.

They had already proven they could have fun together without having sex. Paintballing, the night at the bar, the ice cream, soccer this afternoon were all evidence that they enjoyed spending time together. All he had to do was keep getting her to hang out with him like this…without calling them “dates.”

Yes, he’d throw in some sex, because they wouldn’t be able to control themselves.

And then he’d just pray she would develop the same feelings that were already stirring in him.

He didn’t know what those feelings were, exactly. Couldn’t define them. But he knew he just had to explore them. Had to find a way to keep her in his life, both inside and outside of work. The only alternative would be to let her go, to keep his distance from her.