Page 8 of Playing for Love

Gabe

Even after I dropped her off, I felt Mia’s presence in the tension of my muscles, the vibrating anticipation of something that wouldn’t leave me. I had no business flirting with her even a little, no business appreciating her with an intensity bordering on possessive, no business being jealous of Fontanna before I even introduced them or feeling proprietarily protective of her against him.

I let myself inside, walked up the stairs, and headed straight for my room. It was way later than I’d planned to get to bed, but I called Denise anyway. Part guilty conscience, part hot need. Stripping down, I lay in bed, phone in hand, and tapped her number in. I hoped to God she’d be up for phone sex because I sure as hell needed the release.

Putting the phone to my ear, after a beat, no ring, I heard her message. Straight to voice mail. Fuck.

I don’t think I’d ever met a woman like Mia, who was so self-assured and vulnerable at the same time, so beautiful and so unaffected, so sassy and still gracious, so kind and giving. I had a sense of all these things about her and my dick got hard imagining her here, with me, now. Wondering what kind of lover she’d be, wondering exactly how giving. Fuck. I got out of bed and went to the shower.

Stepping onto the pebble tile, I cranked on the water to cold. “Fuck.” The spray hit me like a brick and I didn’t even bother moving. It was too close to game day for me to bother spilling my energy on an imaginary lover.

* * *

Standing at the door,I would be the last one to file out of the film room and I caught Fontanna by the arm, pulling him aside. When the room emptied, we walked together to the locker room to dress for a light walk-through.

“What’s up?” he said.

“How do you like Boston so far? Been out and about?”

He shrugged, looking wary as if I was about to spring something on him, which I was. His instincts were impressive, but I’d already liked him for that before now.

“You planning to show me around?” He smirked.

“I plan on introducing you to a lovely young lady so you won’t be alone in a strange city.”

He snorted. “What makes you think I need your help finding a woman?”

I stopped walking just outside the door. He stopped with me.

“Not any woman. A lady, someone you can get to know and bring home to your mother someday, not a woman to spend one night with.”

“Are you implying I’m a man-whore?”

“Shut up, Fontanna. I’m doing you a favor.”

He shook his head and went inside the locker room. I went with him and stopped him at my locker.

“Look, I know you don’t have anyone coming to the games, your family is far away, you’re unattached.” I paused. “I figure you could use the company of a good person.”

“Don’t tell me she has a great personality.”

“She does. She also happens to be a certifiable knockout.”

“Says you.”

“Mia could be a supermodel if she wanted to be.”

He snorted and stepped away. “What the hell are you trying to sell? What’s this could-be-a-supermodel bullshit? Is she your castoff? A groupie?”

“She’s my girl’s best friend and she’s the daughter of Michelle Day.”

“The supermodel?”

“The very one. The thing is, she’s hotter than her mother ever was.”

Tate laughed. “You sure you want to give this paragon up?”

“I’m taken. And don’t you forget it.”