The Player's Club: Finn (14 page)

Absolutely, she convinced herself, as she picked up her light overnight bag and laptop case. It was all a dream. Or it didn’t count. Or didn’t matter.

That was her story, and she was sticking to it.

Finn was walking next to her, too close, as he brushed against her. “Sorry,” he said. The laughter in his eyes was clear.

She bit her lip so she wouldn’t smile back. Then the two of them climbed into a limo, winding their way toward Anaheim. It had comfy seats and air-conditioning, so she didn’t mind the crawl of L.A. traffic.

Opening her laptop bag, she pulled out her computer and plugged in the adapter. He stared at her setup, amused. “You’re going to work? Really?”

She glanced up at him. “Are you kidding? I’m behind as it is.” She frowned. “How long do we need to stay at Disneyland for me to fulfill that challenge anyway?”

Finn just shook his head, avoiding her question. Before she could pester him, he started to put up the divider between the driver and the backseat.

“Don’t get any wise ideas, funny boy.” She scooted farther away from him before her body could hijack her common sense again. “This stupid standard operating manual isn’t going to write itself, you know.”

He scooted closer to her, his thigh pressing against hers as he glanced at her computer screen. “How’s that coming?” he asked, his tone deceptively innocent.

“It’s fine,” she muttered, elbowing him until he gave her some room. “It’s almost halfway done.” It really hadn’t been as hard as she thought, in some ways. The day to day of her job wasn’t that difficult. It was the unexpected weird crap—
like going to Disneyland
—that made her job so much more challenging. No pun intended.

“You’re still in your first week, and you’ve got a full month to finish your challenges…and you’ve already got your hazing in the bag.” He dodged her, hauled away her laptop and closed it. She growled at him. “Diana, part of the point of this is to actually enjoy the challenges, not just cross them off your checklist. It’s the journey, not the destination that counts.”

“How Zen,” she said, sneering. “Do you make this up as you go along, or is there some voluminous tome of Player’s Club codes that I ought to be studying?”

He laughed, and it made her stomach jitter pleasantly. “It’s all up here, baby.”

“Not all,” she murmured, then clenched her teeth shut to prevent any more dumb innuendos from popping out.
Settle down, you,
she chastised.
Wasn’t three times last night enough?

Of course, the blaring answer
NO
was quick and ruthless. She’d better lock it down—they were going to a children’s amusement park, for pity’s sake.

Finn was grinning, but he was gentlemanly enough not to take advantage of her slip—which she had mixed feelings about. “The Player’s Club has a set of guidelines, rather than laws. We have the rules we read in the beginning of the meeting you went to, but that’s about it. It’s pretty flexible.”

So are you,
she thought, then closed her eyes. Her libido was apparently trying out for a comedy festival. “How did a guy like you get involved in a thing like this, anyway?”

“What do you mean, a guy like me?” His tone was light, but his expression was irritated. She quickly felt the cold where his warmth had once been. “The lazy, shiftless, useless trust-fund-brat type?”

“I wouldn’t have put it exactly like that.”

His smile was feral. “Actually, I think you’ve put it exactly like that.”

She’d hurt him, and that was worse than any embarrassment. “I didn’t know you,” she said quietly. “That’s no excuse, though. And now that I know you, I know it isn’t true at all.”

She gave him an impromptu and apologetic kiss. He looked mollified…and slightly mischievous. Next thing she knew, he’d tugged her onto his lap.

“Hey! No hanky-panky,” she said, trying to scramble off him and failing. “Besides, I didn’t say you were shiftless, lazy or useless. I don’t remember calling you a brat specifically, and you
do
have a trust fund.”

“Semantics,” he said, nibbling at her earlobe. She let out a sigh before she could catch herself.

“You spend an awful lot of time with the Player’s Club,” she said, her eyes crossing as he worked more intently. “It’s like you run the place.”

“I started it,” he replied, surprising her through the sensual haze he was creating. “Well, Linc and I did, anyway. Nine years ago.”

Shocked, she pulled back enough to search his face. “Really?”

He looked as if she’d goosed him. “What?”

“You started the Player’s Club?” she asked. “That’s amazing! Why? How?”

He stared at her, obviously baffled. “I totally did not mean to tell you that,” he marveled, then smirked. “You’ve been seducing secrets out of me, lady.”

“But…” Before she could ask any more questions, he was kissing her, hard, and pressing her against the cushions of the limo. Her body responded instantly, wanting more.

You are not going to be so cliché as to have sex in a limo,
she scolded herself…then gasped.
Maybe one quick…

There was a knocking on the partition. “We’re here, sir.”

She shoved Finn off her, desperate to straighten her clothes. “What
is
it with you?”

“You started it,” he said, winking at her, and her jaw dropped.

“I did not!”

Finn opened the door, and she followed, still protesting…until she saw that they weren’t at the park. “We’re checking into the resort?”

He nodded. “You can’t do a few hours at Disneyland, honey. I got four day passes to both parks. You’ll have a blast.”

She was going to protest when she turned and saw a mountain. And a big tower. And a…good grief, that was a roller coaster in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head.

“Oh, okay,” she huffed, suddenly feeling unsure. It looked…well, sort of cool. Probably ridiculous, but it also looked intriguing. “It’s your Club. I’ll follow the rules.”

“Big of you.” He grabbed her bags and they checked in to the hotel. Then they took the monorail. She felt an unfamiliar feeling, a sort of tingling rush that she’d only equated with Finn. As they entered the park, her eyes went wide.

“It’s like…some old-fashioned little town,” she remarked, awestruck. There were teeming crowds of people, and lots of kids, but lots of adults, too. There was a barbershop quartet singing in striped jackets and flat-brimmed straw hats. There were horse-drawn trolleys. She glimpsed a map posted nearby.

“This is
all
here?” she said, suddenly overwhelmed. And it had been here all this time, without her knowing about it?

Another flash memory.
Don’t worry, baby, someday I’ll take you to Disneyland. Now let Mommy sleep, okay?

Diana closed her eyes, fighting unexpected tears.

Finn noticed. She knew he noticed. She could only be grateful when he didn’t comment on them. Instead, he surprised her, taking her by the hand.

“What do you want to see first?”

All of it,
she thought, but squeezed his hand.

“Surprise me,” she said, smiling. It shouldn’t be a problem: he surprised her all the time.

IT WAS AROUND MIDNIGHT when Finn and Diana returned to the hotel. He’d requested a suite. Diana had all but skipped into her room, saying something about being “too wired to sleep,” and he wasn’t sure if that was code for “I want to make mad, crazy love to you” or what, but he sort of hoped he could get in a catnap before that happened.

How far the mighty have fallen.
Lincoln would be laughing his ass off if he could see Finn right now.

But hell, Finn thought as he kicked off his shoes and collapsed on his bed. They’d done practically everything in the park. Diana had been like a six-year-old. She’d screamed her way through Space Mountain and Star Tours and the Matterhorn. She’d watched the kids playing at the giant water fountains; she’d dragged him through Sleeping Beauty’s tower and even on the carousel. He’d bought her a hat with ears, and a princess T-shirt. She was glowing, almost speechless with happiness.

He smiled to himself. It might not have been an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride, but he felt happier, and strangely more alive, than he had in a very long time. He’d been enchanted, and it had nothing to do with the fairy-tale kingdom.

Before he could think about that for too long, his phone rang. He expected it to be Lincoln. “Yeah?” he grunted.

“Dude, it’s Ben!” The kid sounded excited, as he always did. “What happened to you, man? Been trying to reach you for two days! You fell off the face of the earth?”

“Stuff came up,” replied Finn, rolling his eyes, but then immediately feeling guilty. “How’s the cannonball stuff coming?”

“Oh, that’s covered. Next week, Vegas.” Ben sounded bored. “That’ll be a snap. I was really pretty bummed that they don’t actually, you know…”

“Shoot you out of a cannon,” Finn said. “Yeah, I can see how that’d be a letdown.”

“But Everest is going to be
epic,
” Ben said enthusiastically. “I’ve got the sherpas, the travel stuff, the equipment. Everything’s going according to plan. Just a few more weeks, and we’ll be
there,
man!”

“Everest. Epic,” he repeated, wondering why he wasn’t feeling more enthusiastic about the trip. Why he wasn’t feeling much of anything.

He was used to feeling pretty numb most of the time. But when even Everest couldn’t get his blood pumping…come on, what was left?

“So anyway, I thought you could come by tomorrow, look over the stuff. Just to make sure I’m on the right track. And do you think we could get any of the other Players to go?”

“Um, Ben, I’m out of town,” Finn interrupted, before Ben could plow forward. “But as soon as I get back in San Francisco, we’ll take care of it.”

“Oh.” Ben sounded disappointed, and Finn grimaced.

“I’m sorry. This… I’ve got some personal family stuff that’s come up. And, er…” He glanced at the bedroom door, hearing Diana humming “It’s a Small World,” charmingly off-key. “Woman stuff, actually.”

“Really?” Ben sounded surprised, then asked, “Is she hot?”

“Hell, yeah,” Finn blurted, before shaking his head. “It’s a long story. When were you doing Vegas and the cannon?”

“Next week.”

Finn thought of Diana’s challenges. “Maybe we can swing by,” he mused, speculating about what Diana’s impression of Vegas would be. Then he grinned. “Okay. Text me the details. I’ll get in touch with you soon.”

“Great. But I want to nail this Everest plan down soonest,” Ben said, impatiently. “Man. I’d go
tomorrow
if I could!”

Finn said goodbye and hung up. He looked at his phone, pensive.

Diana was at the doorway. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said, shutting the phone off. “Just feeling a little…old.”

She stared at him, then laughed. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“Oh, yeah. You’re ancient.” She twirled next to the bed. “I, on the other hand, am thirty-five. And I feel about…three, I think.”

He smiled at her. “And you look really happy.” He felt some of the numbness recede.

“I don’t think I can sleep,” she said, bouncing on her toes. “I never would have thought…never would have
guessed
… I’m sorry. I’m incoherent. I feel drunk or something.” She laughed gloriously. “Hyper!”

“Well,” he drawled, reaching for her. “The park doesn’t open till morning, sweetie. What are we going to do with all that energy?”

She smiled wickedly. Then she reached down. She was wearing a pink T-shirt. When she peeled it off, she was a wearing a petal-pink lace bra, with a matching thong and garter belt, complete with a white satin rose in the front.