Hero (Hero 1)

“You know I’m going to start taking your comments about my kid seriously one of these days.”

“I wish you would.”

Rachel snorted. “Ted is our puppy.”

My eyes widened in horror. “You gave the kid a puppy?”

“He loves her. It’s so adorable.”

I was one hundred percent sure that poor puppy did not love Maisy. I was certain that poor puppy was terrified of Maisy. “What was she doing to him? And be careful what you say, because I am not afraid to call Animal Protection on your ass.”

“Oh, stop it. She was just cuddling him a little too hard. I was there. I’m keeping an eye on her. Don’t you trust me?”

Um … “I’ve seen what you’ve let that kid do to your husband.”

“But that’s just Jeff. I would never let Maisy hurt an animal. Not that she would mean to … She’s just overly exuberant. I’ve got my eye on Ted, though. Don’t you worr—hey, you changed the subject,” Rachel snapped. “Ditch the loser boss.”

My silence made her sigh heavily.

“Rach—”

“Okay, whatever, but at least promise me you’ll keep Saturday night free, because I have an extra ticket to the Red Sox game and these tickets are fucking awesome. Jeff got them from work. Get this, field box forty-three, row four, behind home freaking plate.”

I chewed my bottom lip in thought. Those were great seats, but there was every chance Caine would be at that game. He couldn’t make it to every one, but he did try and with Saturday’s game set against the Yankees, there was a more than huge chance he would be there.

“I didn’t hear the ‘hell yeah’ I was expecting. Come on,” Rachel pleaded. “We haven’t hung out in ages and yeah, Jeff will be there, but we’ve got a babysitter, so Maisy won’t be.”

That did sweeten the idea a little more.

And even if Caine was there he would be up on EMC level and no way would he spot me in a crowd of thousands.

Wait.

If he did, so what? I was allowed to go to a game. He didn’t have a say in what I did in my free time. “Do not go down that path,” I warned myself.

“What path? What path am I going down?”

“Not you, Rach. And yes, I will go to the game.”

“Yay! Okay, Jeff and I will meet you at the entrance at six thirty. Do not eat before the game. I intend to buy copious amounts of junk food and beer and you will join me so I don’t feel so bad about it.”

I grinned, suddenly feeling a whole lot better now that I had concrete plans for the weekend that didn’t involve Caine. “Hot dogs are on me.”

There was a mixture of guilt and mischievousness in Rachel’s eyes as I walked toward her and Jeff. They stood outside the busy entrance to Fenway Park and they were not alone.

Crushing my irritation with them, I managed a smile of hello as I approached.

Rachel’s eyes bugged out and I caught her silent Please don’t kill me message.

But I wanted to. I really, really wanted to.

They’d brought another guy with them.

A date.

For me.

I hadn’t bothered to tell Caine what my plans were for the weekend because he hadn’t asked. After I’d gotten off the phone with Rachel, Caine returned from lunch and perched his ass on the corner of my desk.

“How’s it going?” he said, seeming genuinely interested

“Fine.” I tilted my head to the side and smiled. “You?”

His eyes warmed for the first time in days. “I’m fine.” He looked away. “I’ve been really busy and I know we haven’t …”

I put my hand on his thigh. “Don’t worry about it. I knew going into this that you’re a busy guy.”

“Right.” His fingertips brushed over the hand that rested intimately on him. “I don’t know when I’ll be free. Perhaps Sunday?”

I shrugged, like it didn’t hurt me that I was that far down on his list of priorities. “Call me when you’re free and we’ll see if I am and then we’ll go from there.”

Caine smirked. “You’re being very amenable.”

I squeezed his thigh. “I’m just giving you what you want.”

He frowned at that, suggesting he didn’t like my response, but eventually he nodded. He shot a look over his shoulder to make sure the coast was clear and then he leaned in to press a soft kiss to my lips. His soft kiss suddenly turned hard and he gripped the nape of my neck as his tongue slipped into my mouth. The kiss ignited into something hungry and arousing, and it took me a moment to remember where we were. I pulled back, panting.

Running a hand through his hair, looking consternated by the kiss, Caine stood up, gave me a disconcerted half smile, and disappeared into his office.

I stared at his closed door, wondering when I had become such a good actress.

The reality was I shouldn’t feel bad that I’d allowed myself to be duped into a blind date, but as I shook the hand of Jeff’s work colleague, Charlie, I felt like I was doing something wrong by allowing this to play out. Caine and I had agreed to be exclusive.

Charlie was tall and he was attractive in a guy-next-door kind of way that was really appealing. He had a great smile and if I hadn’t been currently trying to win over Caine Carraway’s heart, I would have been happy to be set up with Charlie.

The guys went through Security first and Rachel clung to my arm as we followed after them. “Please don’t be mad at me,” she whispered. “Charlie saw your picture in the wedding photo on Jeff’s desk and asked about you. Jeff doesn’t know anything about Crazy Boss Guy, and when he suggested it I thought it might be good for you.”