His words held a hint of challenge. “From the stalker,” she bit out, “but if you keep pushing me, I can’t promise I won’t hurt you.”
His head fell back as he laughed. It was a deep, resonating sound that reached out and warmed her insides in a way that was sexy as hell and impossible to ignore. Damn him.
“That might be fun,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes.
2
LUKE STARED at Katie Lyons from across the bar, and the corners of his mind flickered with a unique response. What it was, he wasn’t quite sure, but damn if it wasn’t impossible to ignore. His body felt alive with her presence. His heart was beating at a crazy fast pace, and ridiculously, Luke had to force away the urge to put a fist over it. Despite his resolve to dislike Katie, the distinct thunder of attraction jolted his nerve endings.
Somehow, getting her to hate him now seemed far from appealing. But it was too late to turn back. Besides, the last damn thing he needed was a woman to screw him over with her own private agenda. He had no intention of expanding his emotional stamina, though as she smiled, sexy, all pride and defiance, he thought his physical stamina might be worth testing. Damn, he wanted her, and he cursed the irony of finding no one tempting for months, until this woman—the one he was trying to shake loose. Katie was hands-off. Yeah, right. Tell that to his cock. He was rock hard, his zipper stretched, his balls drawn up tight in discomfort.
“Drink?” Luke asked, watching her climb up on a bar stool as he tried to decide what his next action should be. What was it about this woman that did funny things to his insides?
Turned him on.
Beyond that even…
Interested him. No, that still wasn’t a strong enough word. Intrigued him was more like it. When was the last time a woman had gotten his attention the way this one did? He couldn’t remember. At some point they had all become users to him. The thought was so cynical, and so out of character, he made a mental note to revisit exactly what was going on in his head.
Katie’s voice, a sultry sound that wrapped around him like an enticing breeze on a hot day, drew him back into the present. “No, thank you,” she said with obviously forced politeness, which did nothing to douse the sexiness of her tone or the way it rippled along his nerve endings.
Despite the businesslike mask she wore, he could see a softer, and even hotter, Katie beneath. Her eyes were a warm green, like grass, with little specks of yellow. Her brown hair hung down her shoulders in soft waves, and he could just imagine burying his hands in it while he kissed her.
He could tell from the way she shifted slightly that she knew how intense his scrutiny was. She continued, “I’d like to get straight to the point. You have real trouble here.”
Luke leaned an elbow on the bar. “Ron is the one who thinks I have trouble. I don’t. As I have already stated, we are simply dealing with a fan who is a bit more aggressive than others.”
Katie quirked an eyebrow as she leaned forward and rested one palm on the bar. “Then what am I doing here?”
Luke’s eyes flicked to Ron. “Making him happy.”
Katie pushed off the bar as if preparing to leave. “Then I don’t see any point in staying. Unless I have your buy-in, Mr. Winter, my services are useless.”
Ron responded immediately. “Luke will cooperate fully. His coach wants this.”
That got Luke’s attention. “Since when?”
Ron’s voice had a hard edge. “Since the team’s water supply was tampered with.”
“When did this happen?” Katie asked immediately.
Luke spoke to Ron, ignoring her question. “That was a prank and you damn well know it,” he said hotly. “Salt. It was flipping salt.”
Ron’s expression was one of frustration. “It was a sign we need to be more cautious. Think of the rest of your team, Luke. This is serious business.”
“This is crazy, is what it is!” Luke said as he stiffened his spine. “A load of crap if ever I’ve heard one.”
Ron stood up. “You’ve had a great preseason, Luke. You’re good—you’re damn good—and you’d be a loss to the team. But both management and the league feel there’ve been too many incidents to let you go into the regular season without extra security. They won’t risk the liability of endangering players, fans and staff.”
Luke scoffed. “This isn’t about me, Ron, and we both know it. It’s about the guy who beat up an umpire last season, and the fight that broke out in the stands and the two players who got killed. Management is worried about liability over things I had nothing to do with.”