Page 3 of Midnight Player

“Wait, really?” Intrigued, she leaned forward, catching a whiff of his spicy cologne. She caught a hint of bergamot and sandalwood with some darker notes. Willa found it deeply sexy, making her want to rub her face in his manly, muscled chest and simply inhale him. But his job explained all his sexy beast muscles. Jake was a professional athlete. He’d gotten his muscles through hard work.

Willa respected the hell out of him for that. It was much the same with her writing career. She’d spent oodles of time alone with nothing but her computer, imagination, and grit to get where she was today.

“Yep. I’ve been in the big leagues for over a decade.”

“And you’re really not here with anyone?” She hated how skeptical she sounded. But things like thisneverhappened to her. Not even when she attendedThe Eros Pitback home. She wasn’t the first choice for the Doms. They weren’t bad men or anything, but she was one of many and tended to be overlooked for slimmer submissives.

It was fine. She was used to it. Not that it made it any easier. But at this juncture, she was resigned to the fact.

“I am now.” He smiled. And Willa’s brain melted down. This man grinned, and her system went haywire. Her palms were sweating. Her nipples were hard enough to cut glass. And her sex pulsed, and all because of a damn smile.

Her lips curled. He was dashing, and definitely a player. But to be honest, she didn’t care. She wasn’t here looking to find her forever. However, she might enjoy a night with him. It would only be for a night. And it had been ages since she’d gotten any with all her back-to-back deadlines.

“Is that a fact?” Look at her, flirting with the player like she actually knew what she was doing.

“It is.” Jake stared like he had already undressed her in his mind and loved what he saw.

She dug her nails into her palm just to ensure she wasn’t in bed dreaming this. It happened to her before, and she needed to be sure. Because she doubted she could withstand the disappointment if that were the case.

The sexual tension between them grew palpable now that they both knew the other was single. And she hoped she was headed for a hookup with the sexy hunk, because she adored his attention—a bit too much. If this was an act on his part, where he’d ghost her or decide that she wasn’t what he was looking for, it might crush her.

But she couldn’t worry about the what-ifs right now. Her anxiety liked to play this game, where she thought up everything that could possibly go wrong. And as an author with a wild imagination, she went to places most normal people never went.

Here she was in Houston, staying at a luxury hotel. And for a reason she couldn’t explain, Jake, a professional athlete, was hitting on her hardcore. It made her want to know everything about him. What made him tick? What could he possibly see in her? Was she an easy mark? “Do you like it? Playing professional baseball, I mean.”

Jake signaled the waiter, pointing out that she needed a drink before he responded. “I do. It can be a dog fight most days. We lost tonight. The championship series is tied. Tomorrow’s game is winner take all. One team will walk away champions, and the other will just walk away. But it’s how the game is played. Some days the other team outmaneuvers and outplays you. I’ve got a few years left before retirement, and I plan on playing until my body and my ability to produce on the field wane.”

The bartender stopped by and took their drink order—another draft beer for him and a Cosmo for her.

“What do you like about it? I’m so curious about what you do. It’s the writer’s curse. The need to research how everything works. We were the kids who always asked why about everything and never grew out of it.”

He cocked his head to the side. A smile teased the corners of his mouth. “Is that a fact? I love the game. I love being on a team and working to build a powerhouse that can obliterate the competition. I started playing tee ball as a toddler and never stopped playing. While I had a natural affinity for the sport, I still had to practice and sacrifice portions of my life to hone my body and reflexes into the player I am today.”

Willa understood his sentiments. “It was much the same with writing. It took me years to develop my craft. All the hours I spent alone that I sacrificed and can never get back. And you’re the catcher? That means you’re on your knees a lot.” She glanced down at the knees in question. Even through his slacks, she noticed they were exceptional knees.

Oh my god!Kill her now. Had she really talked about his knees?

God, she was an idiot. She shouldn’t be allowed in public without adult supervision. She was convinced she was the reason her guardian angel drank.

“I am. Perhaps you’ll find out just how good I am on my knees.” He bit his bottom lip flirtatiously.

Her ovaries fucking fainted.

3

Oh, this could be bad. But in a good way. Willa’s entire body quivered at his lust-filled gaze. Jake gave her all sorts of bad thoughts about what he could do on his knees. Like lift the hem of her skirt up and part her thighs to—oh god, stop!

“You’re a romance writer? And you’re published?” He tilted his head to the right, those hot eyes full of dark deeds.

“Yeah, I am. Last month my twenty-fourth book released.” It still made her pinch herself that so many readers loved her stories.

“Twenty-four, really? So you’re beautiful and smart. Do you write straight romance, or is it more specific than that?”

Willa blushed at his offhanded compliments. Because he meant them. There was an earnestness in his eyes. He wasn’t bullshitting her to get into her pants. Her stupid heart sighed while her girly bits puckered up and blew him kisses. Those little bastards were ready to climb him like a tree. “No. Well, sort of. My genre is contemporary erotic romance.”

Jake’s eyes went black with incendiary heat. He leaned in and murmured in her ear. “So you write about sex? Is that it?”

“Yes. No. Um . . .” Damn, he flustered her. Enough she had a hard time gathering her thoughts together to form a response that didn’t make her seem crazy. “I write romance, but the loves scenes are written with what we call the door wide open. Meaning there’s a play-by-play description of the sexual situations while focusing more on the romance aspect than the sex. If it was all sex, that would be erotica, which is basically porn. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s not what I write.”

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