fortune he dealt with on a daily basis, and not her.
And wasn’t that just the crux.
Oh, he wanted her again. She knew it. It was there in the heat of his eyes as he once again turned and from twenty-five yards away met her gaze. A gaze which happened to melt her bones every time she found it leveled on her.
But it was lust. Nothing more. Because Wade didn’t do more.
And she didn’t do less.
After the game, the players signed autographs for an hour, during which time Sam stayed on scene as she always did, helping out with both crowd control and merchandise give-aways.
Wade was sitting at the table with the other players, signing autographs, completely oblivious to the fact that she’d just had security drag Tia-the woman who’d sent pictures of her and Wade to the press-off the premises and to the police station since she’d violated the restraining order.
It was Sam’s job to shield the players where she could, and she did a good job, but she’d had to remind herself this time that it wasn’t her job to want to punch a stalker for trying to get close to Wade.
It’d gotten personal,
Wade had people in front of him but he was watching Sam with a little knowing look that heated her from the inside out. Could he read her inappropriate jealousy?
Halfway through the signing, three women tried to climb the table to get to him. With a sigh, she moved through the crowd and around the table, beating security there by two seconds, but not quite fast enough to stop one of the women from writing her phone number on Wade’s hand. Sam leaned over Wade and put her face between his and the women’s. “You ladies need to back up.”
“Aw, we just want to give him a kiss,” one of them said with a pout.
“No,” Sam said.
“Why not?”
“Sorry.” This from a grinning Wade. “She’s not much on sharing.” He turned his head, which was now only a few inches from Sam’s, and gave her a warm, just-for-her smile that for a moment cut off the oxygen to her brain.
The women obligingly backed off.
Mouth curved, eyes warm, Wade tugged on a strand of her hair. “Makes me hot seeing you get all possessive like that.”
Yeah, he read her. Like a well-thumbed book. She rolled her eyes and he caught her wrist, tugging her in so their mouths were close.
“Are you going to kiss me?” she whispered, half panicked and yet half hopeful at the same time.
“Only if you say please.”
She tugged free and moved back to her real duties, which absolutely did not include falling for his effortless charm.
Afterwards, at the team meeting, Wade came up to her. “Thanks for protecting me out there.”
She just gave him a long look, which crumpled completely when he slung an arm around her neck and pulled her in, pressing a lingering but friendly kiss on her temple. Her heart fluttered. “What are you doing?”
“Being your boyfriend.”
“The signing’s over, Wade. There’s no need to pretend back here.”
“Huh. Guess you’re right.” But it took him an extra long beat to remove his hands from her.
And another even longer beat for her to step back from him.
When the meeting was over, the team scattered, everyone off to celebrate. Sam turned to get the hell out of there before she did something stupid. Like offer to be Wade’s celebration.
“Sam.”
And slammed into the warm, hard wall of Wade’s chest.
His hands came up to her arms to steady her. “In a hurry?” he asked in that same voice that had urged her to orgasm only yesterday.
Not releasing her, he nodded, nothing more than a shadow in the doorway. “Avoiding anyone in particular?”
“You.”
He laughed softly, his breath ruffling the hair at her temple, which meant he was entirely too close. She stepped back into her dark office, but he merely followed her in.
“Oh, no,” she said. “I’m not getting into another room alone with you.”
He hit the light switch. He was fresh from the shower he’d grabbed before the meeting, his hair wet and wavy, falling over his forehead and curling around his ears, hitting the collar of his black polo shirt, which was untucked over a pair of cargoes. She had no idea how he looked so damn fine all the time but he did, and she met his gaze, knowing hers was filled with frustration to his amusement. “My clothes are staying on,” she said firmly.
“You trying to convince me, or yourself?”
She refused to answer on the grounds she might incriminate herself. He smelled good, all warm and sexy, and that frustrated her because she wanted to go up on her tiptoes and press her face into his throat and just breathe him in. She wanted to have him inside her again, but she also wanted more. She wanted to be with him, just be… and that terrified her because she was alone in that. “No one’s here. We’re offline.”
“Sam-”
“I mean it, Wade.” She put her hand to her heart but she couldn’t rub the ache away. “You can’t just waltz in here with that low, husky voice and those bedroom eyes, okay? We don’t have to play until the next public outing, and as I’ve already told you, we’re not going to play like we did this weekend.”
“Sam-”
“No. Listen, Wade, please? We had our fun,
His eyes were dark, and had gone serious. “I understand.”
His easy acceptance derailed her. “You do?”
“Yeah. Actually, I just wanted to give you something.” He held out his hand, fisted. Slowly he turned it over and opened his fingers, revealing what he held on his palm.
Wade shook his head. “Definitely not mean. And definitely not an idiot either.”
And as he walked off, he actually left her with a laugh. Because he was right. She
Chapter 13
Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.
Wade walked away from Sam’s office, through the Heat’s huge facility, telling himself to just go home and hit the sack and sleep off this odd sense of restlessness.
