Page 3 of Playing for Love

Boom. Recognition slammed me. All my senses stood up and jumped. She was the one—the girl from college I couldn’t touch because she’d been seeing someone else. And because I’d been seeing Denise.

I’d put her ruthlessly out of my head, like I always did, because of my rule about cheating. Though Denise never gave me credit for it, I had never cheated on any woman I was with.

Mia Lane, the forgotten idol from afar, with that laugh I could live for, walked to my car and got inside. And she was still off-limits. Way outside out-of-bounds. She smiled at me and my gut knotted with the need to turn her smile into a laugh. The perfect row of her teeth and her sparkling almond-shaped eyes under dark lashes taunted me. Her dark hair bounced around her shoulders in glossy waves, tempting me to push my hands through them.

Damn it to hell.

Of all the girlfriends in all the cities, why did Denise send this one to watch me?

Pulling myself together, I recovered from the initial shock of seeing her after four years. I might not have remembered her name, but I had no trouble remembering that face, those eyes. And that laugh. Now I knew why I hadn’t remembered her name. It had been very purposefully purged.

She had to stay purged. While I showed her around.

“I should have no problem fixing you up with someone else—someone, I mean.” Damn, were those really the first words out of my mouth?

Amusement twinkled in her eyes.

“Nice to see you again, Gabe. Is that what Denise told you to do?”

“Sorry. What I meant to say is, it’s great to see you again, Mia. You’re as beautiful as I remember. I should have no trouble fixing you up. Yeah—per Denise’s orders. If that’s okay with you?”

She sighed, “I suppose. Since you’re already taken, I may as well get fixed up with someone else.” She was mocking me. It was clear as day. But my heart stuttered for a beat.

“Seriously, I don’t mean to be presumptuous. We don’t know each other.”

“We’ve met before.” She looked surprised and disappointed. “You don’t remember? We—Paul and I double-dated with you and Denise. I enjoyed it. You were funny.” She paused, “Although it was only that one time.”

I remembered. I knew why it was only that one time. Because I’d flat- out refused to double-date or do anything that involved seeing Mia again. I’d only seen her around campus a few times from afar after that, and turned and headed the other way each time. Everything about her flooded back, the sensual awareness, the feeling of sharing some private joke every time we spoke to each other that night. The sparks of excitement that gave me that feeling that I’d been with the wrong girl.

If I was being honest with myself, I knew that the reason I’d literally wiped her from my memory wasn’t only about not wanting to cheat. I could have broken off with Denise. Our relationship was young then, in our senior year at Auburn. Mia could have broken it off with Paul.

But I’d been on the brink of my football career back then and concentrating hard, burning with the taste of the NFL career I’d dreamed of. There was no way I wanted to start up a relationship with the likes of Mia.

So I let her go. Shoved aside her pretty face, her grace, her thoughtful intelligence, and her damn laugh that made my balls tighten. Purged. And I went to the NFL.

Now with a few more years of life experience, I wasn’t so easily influenced by a pretty face and a tantalizing laugh, but I still wanted no part of her. There was Denise. And there was my first love. Football.

And even if there wasn’t Denise, there was no way in hell I was going to cheat on football.