Playing for Keeps/Body Check (Rules of the Game) (11 page)

Mia frowned. Trying to get through to Quinn was like attempting to get through brick with a feather.

"We've been through this a hundred times, Q," she said. "We shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. It's just the way it is.
 
And we're friends, good friends aren't we?" She heard herself ask the question, but wasn’t sure if she believed her own words.

But she could see there was no getting one over on Quinn.
 
Instead of taking rejection graciously, he slid closer to her, lowering his voice so no one around would hear.
 
"Look, we've known each other for the better part of two seasons. You've got to know that you've been driving me crazy for a long time. And I know what you've been through with that asshole, Andre. But he's gone and I want you to know I'm still here, waiting, wanting to touch you, kiss you."

Quinn's words touched her more than he would ever know. She swallowed hard, her heart aching from his closeness. For months Quinn's attempts for them to be together had failed miserably. Mia cared about him a lot, but she wasn’t about to break her own rule of dating a hockey player. And in her case, another hockey player. Been there, done that.

"Please Quinn, I'm not ready."

"Can you really say that to me after knowing me for nearly two years? Just say the word and we'll go to my place and change our 'friendship' status, and let me point out, you're the one who put the label on our so called friendship.
 
I don’t have a problem being friends and lovers." He shrugged. "Come with me to the dinner dance, and we can see where this all goes. I'm not going away, Mia, mine. What do you say?"

He called her 'Mia, mine' when he poured on the charm, and it was dripping now like maple syrup. She couldn’t help but laugh at his blatant persuasiveness. "Does the word 'no' even exist in your vocabulary?"

Quinn took a long pull of beer, then shook his head. "That's not the word, or the answer, I was looking for." He sat there looking smug and cover athlete model handsome in Hugo Boss. Lifting her hand, he pressed his lips to her warm flesh. She had to admit that Quinn sparked something inside her, and it wasn’t the alcohol in her drink.

She attempted to gently extract her hand from his, but it only served to make him more determined. He squeezed tighter, and brought both hands under his suit jacket, over his chest, where his heart pounded against her palms.

"Feel that?" he leaned in to whisper, his warm mouth touching her ear, his breath moving tiny strands of her hair.
 

"That's what you do to me, day in and day out. Don’t look at me like that," he breathed. "It makes me want to kiss the hell out of you in front of everyone."

Her body trembled at his words as she slipped her hands from his, immediately missing his touch. She cared for Quinn but would never admit it, her bed was off limits. Her breasts swelled when he talked about kissing her. She secretly loved his game of pursuit, and adored the way his killer dimples flashed when those blue eyes of his darkened with desire and focused on her. Yet her heart deeply conflicted with common sense.

"Stop pushing me, Quinn. In case you haven’t noticed, I work for the team, namely my father, and I've just gotten out of a pretty tough relationship. I'm not ready, so please, give me some room, ok?"

But the brick wall didn’t give an inch. "Come home with me, Mia. I know you want to. You know you want to."

Mia was amazed at how well Quinn knew her. All her denials didn’t faze him in the least. He
knew
she liked him. But even if she wanted to go home with him, it wasn’t going to happen now. Was he just playing with her?
 
Quinn was a champion jokester and perennial fun loving guy.
 
Mia couldn’t help but smile at his persuasive abilities, but before she could answer him, she felt a tingle run up her spine.

Her heart fell to the floor when she looked across at the entrance to the bar, at the suddenly silent room, and saw her father enter the crowded establishment.

Players looked up from the pool table, others turned from watching the television, and still others ceased conversation in mid-sentence. The boss was here.

CHAPTER two

Mia automatically straightened as her father's dark eyes focused, searching the room as if looking for someone. That someone was her.

J. P. Sinclair's dark, almost hawk-like gaze zeroed in on her and Quinn as though he'd found the enemy in his sights, and was about to fire some imaginary weapon right through their eyes.

Quinn merely returned the old man's gaze, as if challenging him. Oh shit, Mia thought, it's going to hit the fan now.

Before Mia could shift her position so her father wouldn’t see her sitting so close to Quinn, he brought his arm across the back of her chair, essentially trapping her. Quinn didn’t seem fazed in the least by the old man's intimidating manner and 'if looks could kill' gaze.

It really didn’t amaze Mia that Quinn was so cocky.
 
One, he was a goaltender. Hell, you had to be either crazy or fearless to be a goaltender. Maybe Quinn was a little bit of both.
 
Quinn may have appeared ‘devil may care’, and at times a little too involved in his fun loving ways, but after knowing him for a while, she knew the strength within his heart.
 
She knew what he strode for and what he wanted.

And she should have realized after knowing him all this time, that eventually, especially after her broken engagement and newfound freedom, that he would want more from her, with her.

"Evening, J. P." Quinn rose and offered his hand to the formidable, rather large wall of a man that was James Preston Sinclair.
 
Mia's eyes went back and forth between them, measuring each to see who would outstare who.

When her father acknowledged Quinn's presence with a curt nod instead of a handshake, Mia was appalled.

"Rafferty," Sinclair greeted, then turned his attention toward her. "Mia, don’t you have an early morning conference call with St. Louis tomorrow?"

Mia cleared her throat and tried not to utter a nasty comeback. Under the table, she welcomed the firm squeeze of Quinn's hand in solidarity. "Yes, Dad, I do. Just having a drink with the team to celebrate Quinn's shutout tonight. Why don’t you join us?"

Her father only showed up at the team's favorite watering hole to check up on the players, making sure they were behaving themselves and adhering to the oncoming team curfew.

Sinclair nodded, but ignored Mia's request.
 
He instead turned his attention back to Quinn.

"Ah, good game, Rafferty. I'd like to see you play that kind of shutout hockey against the teams in the league that have a winning record.
 
We all know that Toronto has the last spot in the standings, but a good effort, none the less."

Mia watched a smile curve on Quinn's lips that never quite reached his eyes.
 
She knew her father was goading the handsome goalie, but Quinn didn’t rise to the bait.
 
He smiled that sexy smile of his and nodded. "Thanks, J. P., coming from you, that’s high praise, indeed."

Some of the other players hid a cough behind their palms, including Adam Piersson, captain of the team and Quinn's close friend, realizing, as Mia did, that Quinn was once again, pushing the envelope when it came to the suits.

"Early practice tomorrow. We have several big games coming up in the next couple of weeks."

Quinn again took his seat and moved so close to Mia, his heat and male presence played havoc with her senses. He once again slid his arm across the back of her chair and met the frowning face of Sinclair, almost daring the old man to comment on his actions.

"I'll drive her home, Sir."

Ignoring her father's presence, Mia couldn’t help but look at Quinn, attempting not to drown in those deep blue depths.
 
Her mind warred with her heart. She'd been attracted to Quinn for some time now, but she dared not fall for him.

One of them would get hurt, and she didn’t want it to be Quinn.

***

The majority of the team began to shrug into their coats and leave the bar, cuffing Quinn on the back, and again praising his shutout victory tonight.

Taking a last sip of his beer, Quinn rose, then took Mia's hand and pulled her up.
 
Helping her into her coat, he teased. "Wouldn’t want you to miss that all important call to St. Louis in the morning, right?"

He gave her a wink, telling her silently that he knew she was nervous in the company of the old man. Not giving J.P. Sinclair the satisfaction of getting in the last word, Quinn waved to the remaining players, shook hands with Adam, and led Mia from the table.

Mia nodded to her father, and allowed Quinn's strong arm to embrace her shoulders as they exited the bar and were hit by the cold bite of winter.

When they were settled in his Mercedes sport car moments later, Mia turned and faced a smiling, cocky Quinn.

"Why do you insist on pissing him off?
 
Does it give you some weird satisfaction to have him target you? Do you have a death wish?"

Quinn started up the car, blasted the heat, and turned to Mia.
 
"Because I can, yes, and no. Any more questions?"
 
 
 

"Ugh," she shook her head. "You drive me crazy, Q.
 
Are you afraid of anything?"

"You want to know what I'm afraid of?"

She nodded as he slid closer to her, wrapping her scarf around her shoulders to push away the cold.
 
His breath expelled in short white puffs as he caressed her cheek with his large calloused hand.
 
"I'm afraid that you don’t want me as much as I want you. I'm afraid that I can't control myself around you." His gaze was anything but fearful and his smiling playfulness was nowhere to be found.

Mia locked eyes with him.
 
"I know he's tough and big and formidable, Quinn, but he's still my Dad and only wants the best for me. I'm all he's got.
 
Surely, you can understand that."

Quinn lifted her hand, slid her glove off, and planted a warm kiss on her cool palm. Ribbons of arousal circled her body, her heart drummed, her center throbbed. All because of a kiss on her hand.

His voice lowered to a raspy tone. "I don’t care, Mia, I want to see you. He knows it, you know it and now, what are we going to do about it?"

He leaned in slowly, and Mia closed her eyes, giving in to her wild attraction to him. She responded to him as his cool lips rested on her mouth, then pressed against her lips, and experienced the power in his kiss.

Without thinking, she gave into her emotions, reveling in the warmth of his body close to hers.
 
His cheek stubble lightly scratched against her face, and she loved the feel of him. Whether she liked it or not, she surrendered to his touch when Quinn's fingers found their way inside her coat and slid across her breasts, causing her nipples to harden and ache. She threw her head back and moaned in response.

"Ah, Mia," he whispered, his voice sending ripples of pleasure and heat through her.

His hands were large, fingers long and calloused, an athlete's hands, goaltender's hands, yet the tenderness in them made Mia sigh. What could this man do to her if she let him? She knew there was a good chance that Quinn would settle for nothing less than bringing her endless nights of ecstasy and pleasure.

But fear soon warred against desire.
 
A little voice warned Mia to stop now or there would be complications. She wanted him, but it wasn’t a good idea. Or was it?

Reluctantly breaking their heated kiss, Mia gently pushed him away, although she already missed his hands on her, his lips, and his blue eyed heated gaze. "Quinn…."

His eyes widened, those dark blue orbs filled with confusion and arousal all at the same time. He stared at her.
 
"What's wrong? I felt you respond to me. You kissed me back. I want to share myself with you. Stop thinking about other things and think of us for a change, would you? When are you going to realize that this is what we both want? You know I'm right."

Mia settled in the car, and Quinn pulled away from her to drive from the curb. She'd been so focused on his kisses that she hadn’t realized they were still parked outside the bar.

"It's more than that, Q. I like you, I really do. I enjoy being with you, but can we take this slow?"

She placed her hand over his and squeezed. "I need time, Quinn, and I don’t want to hurt you."

Heading downtown toward Mia's apartment, Quinn took her hand and lifted it to his mouth, kissing it, then holding it tight. "I'm not giving up on you, Mia, you understand?"
 
At the red light, he turned toward her, a tiny smile curving his mouth.