Seduced by the Game (65 page)

To Kelly’s
credit, she ignored the barb and spoke to Tansy. “Nah, I don’t think so. We’ve
just spoken a couple of times. He does have a killer ass though.”

“Well, looks
like you’re going to speak again. He’s coming right for you.” Tansy turned and
shooed the girls away, leaving Kelly there alone.

“You want to
go play some volleyball with me?” Keith pointed to the net, thankful he’d
finally gotten his wits back. “It looks like they’re getting a game together.
Let’s go see if we can get in on it.”

“Sure. Why
not?” Kelly let him lead her over by the hand. Half-naked bodies were already
lining up on both sides of the court. It was a girl’s dream.

“You have room
for two more?” Keith directed his question to Ace, who seemed to have taken
charge of setting up the teams.

“Sure. You two
play over here, and we’ll put another chick on the other side to even things
up.”

Kelly squeezed
Keith’s arm. “He is such an asshole. And this is only the second time I’ve been
around him. Want to know about the first time?”

“I can only
imagine. What did he do?”

“A group of us
girls went to the pub after tryouts for dinner. The guys hang out there a lot.
Anyway, he comes over to our table and says to me, ‘You know, if I were you,
I’d have sex with me.’ And then he held out his hand, like I was going to leave
with him. And when I didn’t get up, he simply turned to Holly and lifted his
eyebrow. Guess what happened then?”

“I’m gonna say
she got up and went with him.”

“Yup. The
funny thing is that Holly sees everything as a contest. She brags about
sleeping with him to me every chance she gets. Doesn’t she see how
counterproductive that is? I didn’t want him in the first place.”

The volleyball
came flying through the air, landing on Kelly’s toe, causing her to jump. “What
the hell?” She bent down and picked it up, looking for the culprit. Of course
it was Ace.

“Sorry, doll.
You ready to play now? You can serve first. We’ll let you girls have two
tries.” Ace walked over and slapped her ass before taking his spot on the other
side of the net.

“You’re going
down, Hawthorn.”

Ace was all
too happy with her comment—she should have known better. “It’ll be my pleasure,
sweetheart. Anytime. You just say the word.”

“You pig!
That’s not what I meant. Oh, forget it.” His laughter only pissed her off more,
and the ball hit the net on her first serve.
Shit.
Her second serve was
much better, flying over in a nice arc, and the volleying began.

The end of the
game was getting close. Ace’s team only needed one more point to win. When the
ball came over to their side, Keith and Kelly both called for it and wound up
colliding, falling to the ground. Keith crashed down on top of her, and they
were lying nose to nose.

“Oops. Sorry
about that.” But he didn’t get up.

“Um, are you
going to let me up?”

“Do I have to?
I kind of like it here.”
Yes! That was kind of smooth.

“Yes, you do.
If I don’t get this sand off of me, I’m going to freak out. Here’s a little
secret about me. I hate being dirty. And I can’t stand getting sand on me. I’m
not a very good beach person.” She pushed on his chest and he let her up.
Grabbing her hands, he hauled them both to their feet.

“Come on then,
princess. Let’s go wash off.”

The water was
more refreshing than she could recall it ever being. The feeling of the cool
waves washing over her hot body was pure bliss, with the added benefit of
getting clean again.

Keith stood
back and watched her, enjoying the view. Her pink bottoms rode up when she bent
low to splash water on her arms. He wasn’t sure which view he’d rather have,
the front or the back. She had a fan-fucking-tastic ass.

Hunger drove
them out of the ocean and over to the buffet table that was set up under the
tent. Keith put together a plate of food, piled high with ribs, corn, and
salads. He took her hand again and led her over to the jetty to eat. They
talked about where they grew up, their childhoods, parents, anything, and
everything. Before they knew it, the sun was setting.

Kelly let out
a gasp as she realized how late it was. “Oh my God. I need to go.”

“What’s
wrong?”

“I have to let
my dog out. I was going to bring her, but she doesn’t like being around a lot
of people. She’s a rescue dog and came from an abusive home.”

“Good thing
you left her home then.”

“Do you like
animals?” Kelly didn’t trust people who didn’t like animals.

“I love them.
I’ve actually been thinking about getting a dog. I miss having an animal around.
I just wonder if it’s fair to get one when I travel so much.”

He could tell
he’d said the right thing. Not that he didn’t mean it, he did. “There are
plenty of us to take care of the team’s pets. I volunteer at the animal
orphanage on Saturday mornings. You should stop down. I’ll help you pick out a
companion. But now I have to go. Thanks for spending the day with me.”

Keith walked
her out to her car. “It was my pleasure, Kelly.” He threw caution to the wind
and gave her just a quick kiss on the cheek before she got in her car.

“What was that
for?”

“I just wanted
to.”

Her smile made
his insides warm. “Oh, um, okay. Night, Keith.” She got into her car but
quickly jumped back out of the seat. “That kiss was pathetic.”

She pushed up
on her tiptoes and fused her mouth to his. He quickly took control and pushed
her back against the car as his hands reached out to squeeze her sweet hips.
They went from zero to sixty in no time at all.

“Jesus, you
can kiss,” Keith mumbled against her lips. He broke away to nibble a path to
that sensitive spot girls had right beneath her ear. Her low moan was all the
further encouragement he needed. Letting his hands roam up her ribs, he softly
brushed the underside of her breasts as his thigh nestled between her legs,
applying gentle pressure, drawing a surprised gasp from her.

Kelly put her
hands on Keith’s chest and pushed against him slightly, but when he started to
pull away, she moved her hands to wrap them around his neck. When his hands
wandered downward to cup her bottom, she hoisted herself up against him and
wrapped her legs around his waist.

“Oh my God,”
Kelly said as she tilted her head back, her heart beating erratically. Keith
took advantage of her position and trailed kisses along the column of her
throat.

“Fuck yeah!
Somebody’s getting laid right in the parking lot! Do it to her, Lambert. Guess
I was wrong about her being cold, eh?”

Keith pulled
back from Kelly and turned to find Ace standing entirely too close to them.
“Ace, get lost. Seriously, man, not now.” Keith was the captain of the team. He
couldn’t make a scene.
Don’t hit him. Don’t hit him.

“Know what I
would do? I’d put her on her hands and knees. See that ass bounce as I was
fucking her.” Ace provided visual effects which had Keith seeing red.

“Too far, Ace.
Too far.” As he reached out to grab Ace’s shirt, he felt a tug on his arm.

Kelly had seen
enough. “Stop, Keith. Please. He’s drunk. Don’t listen to him.”

Brandon and
Vlad caught sight of Ace’s drunken behavior and hastened over to get him. Keith
gladly gave him into their keeping. “Never talk about her again. In fact, don’t
even look at her. You won’t like the consequences if I ever find out you’ve
disrespected her again, do you understand?”

“We’ll take
care of him, Keith.” As they dragged him away, he was still making crude
motions with his hips.

“What an
asshole.” It was all Keith could do to keep himself from going after them and
planting his fist in Ace’s face.

The mood was
most definitely broken, but maybe that was for the best. Keith had been getting
carried away. He probably would have had sex with her right there in the public
parking lot at that point. “You better get going. Your pup is waiting for you.”
He tried to give her a smile, but he knew it fell short.

“Thanks for
defending my honor, Keith. And for one hell of a kiss, but...”

“No. No
‘buts.’”

“I have to say
this, Keith. I like you, and I know I’m the one who jumped on you. I’m sorry, I
shouldn’t have done that, but I’m not looking for a relationship right now.
Look, I have to go. See you tomorrow?”

“You don’t
want a relationship, but you’re asking to see me tomorrow? What’s that mean,
Kel? Are you asking me out or what?”

“Um, no. We
have a game, remember?”

“Oh, right.”
He closed her door for her and stepped back. “See you then.” A
wkwardddddd.

Chapter 6

Preseason
passed by in a blur, with the Scorpions splitting their wins and losses right
down the middle. Keith didn’t see much of Kelly in that week and a half, and he
wondered if she was avoiding him altogether. What he did see of her though, he
liked very much. She was by far the hottest ice girl they had.

To blow off
some steam before the intensity began in earnest, the team got together the day
before their home opener to play games, swim, eat, and drink—nonalcoholic
beverages. Henry hosted the event at his monstrous house in the hills. It was a
tradition he started over ten years ago when he’d bought the place, shortly
after being named the Scorpions’ general manager.

With the
privacy the house afforded came a long, steep, winding driveway. Keith could
only imagine what the view would be like at the top of the hill, and he wasn’t
disappointed.

The two-story,
yellow stucco house sat majestically at the end of the driveway, surrounded by
mature trees. A large infinity pool, complete with a waterfall and two hot tubs
took up a portion of the backyard, but left plenty of room for the barbeque and
sitting area. He even spied a horseshoe pit and volleyball net set up on the
side of the house as he walked around to join the others already there.

He showed up
by himself and immediately looked for Kelly. It didn’t take him long to find
her. She was already in the pool in a different swimsuit than the one she wore
to the beach.

She looked
fantastic. The suit was electric blue with a thick, white trim that made it
slightly retro looking. It was a two-piece, but wasn’t any more revealing than
her ice girl outfit. The bottoms were boy shorts that showcased her rounded
hips to perfection. The halter-style top dipped low, but wasn’t so skimpy that
she was in danger of falling out of it, so it left a bit to the imagination.
Keith approved wholeheartedly, and was having a hard time not staring at her.
It didn’t go unnoticed.

“Why do you
waste your time on Big Belly Kelly? You could have one of the hot girls, you
know.”

Will this
guy ever learn?
Again, Keith had to fight the urge to haul off and plant his fist
smack-dab in the middle of Ace’s face. “Big Belly Kelly? We can’t be looking at
the same girl. And did you forget what I said about talking disrespectfully
about her?”

“Huh? Oh, you
mean at the beach. I don’t really remember a lot of that.”

Keith decided
to let that go. Since Ace was a teammate, he didn’t have a lot of choice. “Is
this all because she turned you down, Landry?” Keith purposefully used Landry’s
real name for two reasons. Number one, Landry hated it, and number two, Landry
hated it.

“Come on, man.
You can’t seriously believe that I couldn’t tap that if I wanted to.”

“Oh, I
absolutely believe it. From what I heard, you were only able to land Holly. Of
course everyone lands Holly.” Landry had nothing to say to that and Keith
walked away, leaving him to stand there alone.

Kelly swam up
to the edge of the pool as Keith was slipping off his shoes. “Hey. How’s it
going?”

“Okay. Haven’t
seen you in a while.” He was surprised to feel the jolt of anger that rose up
in him at her casual greeting. By the look on her face, she could hear the
coldness in his voice.

“Yeah. Look, I
think we need to talk. Are you coming in here or do you want to go take a walk
on the beach?”

“I’m coming in
there.” He pulled off his shirt and slipped into the water. “Let’s go over to
the waterfall.” There were a couple of people in the area, but the noise from
the water splashing down from the rock wall would give them some privacy.
“What’s up?”

Kelly looked
shy all of a sudden. Or nervous, he wasn’t sure which, but she wouldn’t quite
meet his eyes. To his own disgust, he found it quite endearing. He had decided
just last night that if she didn’t want him, that was fine. But it wasn’t fine.
He still wanted her.

“So?”

“Geez, give me
a second, will you? I’m trying to apologize and explain here, Keith.” She was
holding something important back, he just knew it. “Let me just say all of this
without you interrupting, okay? No pity looks, nothing.”