Play Me

Way to be subtle.

Hunter: Are you drunk?

I scoffed at the text.

Me: It’s seven in the morning! No, I’m not drunk. Maybe a little overcaffeinated. But certainly not drunk.

Hunter: Are you high?

Me: NO! I have never done recreational drugs nor do I ever plan to do them. Are you avoiding my questions?

Maybe he was with someone.

Hunter: You want to know if I’m with someone?

Me: Yes. Why are you being difficult?

Hunter: I’m not being difficult.

Me: You are being very difficult.

Hunter: Welcome to my life.

Me: What does that mean?

Hunter: You’re in my driveway, texting me, and being weird. Look up difficult in the dictionary. It’ll have your picture beside it.

I gasped and looked up at the house. Hunter was standing on the front porch, looking at me. Unsure what to do, I ducked down to hide. Good grief. I’d lost my mind.

Me: Maybe you’re delusional.

The dots appeared and then disappeared. They didn’t return. Where are the damn dots? Has Hunter had enough and gone back inside? I peeked up over the steering wheel to find Hunter staring at me from two feet away.

I yelped in surprised, and he jumped.

Through the window, I yelled. “You scared me. That’s not nice.”

He tilted his head without responding and just stared at me. I saw that familiar glint in his eyes.

I asked, “So what are you doing?”

“The better question is: what are you doing at my ranch at seven in the morning?”

His voice was muffled since we were still speaking through the window. “Umm… well… I figured I would let you know I was back in town?”

Why did that come out like a question? This had gone so wrong. Terribly wrong. I sighed and got out of the car.

Hunter stared at me with those dark, stormy eyes. I wanted to run into his arms, but I stayed put. The silence was killing me.

“I—”

“Why—”

We both started at the same time. I motioned to him. “You first.”

“Why are you here? No games, Kendall.”

That was fair. I wasn’t one to play games, but this was hard. It was time to put my big-girl panties on. “I wanted to apologize for what I did.”

“And what was that?”

“I left.” When Hunter raised an eyebrow, I added, “Actually, I ran.”

Hunter dragged a hand down his face. “We were just scratching an itch, Kendall.”

The words hurt more than they should have, and I dropped my head and took a step back. I started to pace, beyond nervous at that point. “Yes… yes… that was what I said. I… uh… it was an itch. And the uh… it’s been scratched. Totally scratched.”

When I turned back his way, Hunter grabbed me by the shoulders and stopped me. “I never figured you for a coward.”

I reared my head back and narrowed my eyes at him for throwing the words I’d said to him back at me. “I am not a coward.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You ran. You got scared because we both know that night was more than a fuck.”

I swallowed hard. It had been. Memories of his touch swirled through my head. In a whisper, I asked, “What do you want from me?”

“To be honest with me and with yourself.”

I closed my eyes, forcing myself to say the words. “It was more than a fuck. I admit it. And I am terrified.”

“Why?”

I opened my eyes to find Hunter still watching me intently. He didn’t appear mad, his expression was more concerned than anything else. That made it easier to open up to him. “Because this isn’t part of the plan. Having a relationship wasn’t supposed to happen yet—or maybe ever. You weren’t supposed to happen, Hunter.”

“Hell, Kendall, there’s no script. Life isn’t some damn movie you play a part in. There are no guarantees. None. Do you think I wanted this to happen? Trust me. This…”—he gestured between the two of us—“complicates the hell out of things.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. What if the complications lead to a fallout, and we hurt more than just ourselves? What if I hurt you? Or you hurt me? What if I fail?”

He took a step forward. “And what if it leads to something we never imagined? The question you have to ask yourself is if it’s worth the risk. Only you can answer that.”

“Is it worth the risk to you?”

I waited for him to respond, and he reached out to cradle my face. “Yeah, baby, it is. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head.” He brushed a stray hair out of my face. “What do you want to do, Kendall? It’s your turn to call the play.”

I laid my palm on his chest and spread out my fingers over his heart. “I want to try whatever this is, but I also want to make sure we aren’t so consumed with each other that we bring down the team. If we don’t handle this right, it’ll doom us from the start.”

I felt his heartbeat speed up. “I would never put your career at risk, you have to know that, Kendall. I feel something between us, and I don’t want to ignore that. We’ll make sure we handle this right.”

“I’ve never tried to balance the two. And I’m terrified.”

Without another word, he grabbed my hand.

I asked, “What are we doing? Where are you taking me?”

“We’re going to spend the day getting to know each other. No plans. No structure. Just you and me.”

20

Hunter

I’d doubted my own eyes when I saw Kendall parked outside in my driveway. The fact that my body felt alive for the first time in two weeks hadn’t gone unnoticed, either. This woman had a way of both getting under my skin and making me want her at the same damn time.

“Hunter?” she asked with a girlish giggle. “Where are you taking me?”

“To the barn,” I said.

“Oh.”

Her voice was laced with disappointment, and I knew she probably would have preferred for me to take her to my bedroom. In truth, it was hard to not throw her over my shoulder and take her to bed. But after the way she’d run away, I knew I needed to take things in a different direction. Focus on the us part rather than the sex part.

“I don’t have the right shoes on to go to the barn, Hunter.”

I stopped, turning to face her. She was wearing jeans that fit her body perfectly and a long-sleeved blue T-shirt that had the Carolina Lions plastered on the front. I’d have to admonish her later for her taste in NFL teams. When my gaze landed on the stylish boots, I rolled my eyes.

“Did you bring any other shoes in your bag?”

“Um… my bag?”

I lifted a brow. “Your overnight bag. You did pack one, right?”

She kicked at something on the ground and lifted one shoulder in a half shrug before mumbling something that sounded like no.

“I’m sorry, what was that?”

Her blue eyes lifted to meet my gaze. “I didn’t pack a bag.”

With a sigh, I dropped my head back and looked up at the sky. “Did I not teach you anything on our little road trip?”

“I hadn’t planned on staying the weekend. I hadn’t actually planned anything. The only thing I knew was that I needed to talk to you.”

The corner of my mouth turned up and my chest tightened when she gave me the most adorable smile. Does she have any idea how beautiful she is? Add in her intelligence, mix it with the strong stubborn Boardroom Kendall, and you had one sexy-as-hell woman.

“Tell me you’ll stay with me all weekend.”

As she pulled her lip between her teeth, her sweet and adorable smile turned into something more sinful. There was no denying the connection between the two of us. I’d felt it the very first time she’d approached me.

“All weekend?” she asked with a purr. “I don’t have any clothes, remember. What will I wear?”

My dick instantly went hard, and it took ev

erything I had to push away the thought of her walking around my house naked.

“I would say you could go naked, but that might give my mom and dad the wrong first impression of you.”

Her smile dropped, and she stepped back. “What? Your parents? Here? Now? Oh. My. Gosh.”