Game On (22 page)

Nineteen

The house was dark. Rummaging around trying
to find her purse, Carly swore as she stubbed her toe on one of the overstuffed chairs in the great room. She’d been getting ready for bed when she heard her cell phone ring. Finding a light switch proved almost as impossible as finding her phone. Relief flooded her body, however, when, after finding her purse behind a cushion, she listened to the voicemail message Donovan had left.

“The police scored a lucky break and arrested Joel during a random drug sting tonight. I guess this is one time his being a junkie works in our favor,” Donovan said. “He’s in custody and his arraignment is scheduled for the morning. The DA says it’s likely he wouldn’t see the outside of a jail cell until his trial begins and that could easily take months. I’ll call you from the courthouse tomorrow. You can sleep tight now, Carly. It’s over.”

Carly released a relieved sigh and it felt like she’d taken her first normal breath in twenty-four hours. Turning to return to her room, she collided with Shane as he came up behind her. A nearly naked Shane.

He gripped her elbows as she laid her palms on his bare chest. His warm body was still hard with the tension that had seemed to consume him the entire day. He didn’t want her there, she knew that. Yet he’d brought her along anyway. It seemed he was once again her knight in shining armor. Carly gave herself a mental shake. Shane wasn’t happily-ever-after material, she reminded herself. He’d just been in the right place at the right time. Again. Try as they both might, they seemed powerless to resist the strong attraction pulling them together.

“I’m sorry if my phone woke you,” she said. It was dark in the room, with only a shaft of light from the moon shining in through the high windows illuminating the shadows of Shane’s face. His face was hard, showing no reaction to her apology. “The police finally arrested Joel. He’s in custody.”

He released a heavy sigh. “Good,” he said, pulling her body in contact with his. Two things became immediately apparent to Carly: Shane was potently aroused and she didn’t stand a chance of sleeping alone tonight.

“I can go back to Baltimore now,” she said as his lips found that spot on her neck that always turned her knees to Jell-O.

“I’m pretty sure the rental car place is closed,” he mumbled against her skin.

“Tomorrow then,” she breathed as her hands trailed along the taut muscles of his back. “I shouldn’t be here distracting you.”

“It’s a little late for that,” he said as he placed an openmouthed kiss beneath her ear. Carly moaned softly before he shushed her.

“Little ears,” he said, motioning to Troy’s room.

Somehow he managed to get them to his bedroom where they both quickly shed their clothes. His hands and mouth were not gentle on her body. But Carly didn’t care. Much like that first night they’d slept together, she knew he was using her body to deal with emotions he couldn’t deal with on his own. And she was using him, too. Despite the fact that Joel was finally in custody, she needed to feel safe again. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Shane’s strong body possessing her gave her that feeling—and something more.

Lying next to his slumbering body, Carly stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow she would leave. First thing in the morning she would call the rental car company. Maybe she’d head to the beach. Or to New York to wait for Julianne to come home. Either way, she needed to get as far away from Shane Devlin as she could. Something happened when she was around him. Obviously, she couldn’t control it. They needed to stick to the original agreement of a brief fling. Things were getting too complicated. She was becoming way too attached to the feeling of security being with Shane somehow provided her. And she was really scared of the “something more” she felt.

The decision before her was simple. All she needed to do was execute it. She fell asleep, her plans firmly made.

* * *

The rental car had arrived the next morning, but
it was already late afternoon and she was still trouncing around the woods outside the cabin with Beckett and Troy.
So much for her plans to hightail it out of there as soon as possible.
She told herself she’d stayed because of Troy. The sight of the rental car brought tears to his eyes and a tremor to his mouth. He was still grieving the loss of his parents. A fact his older brother seemed oblivious to. Shane’s moodiness may have eased as a result of their marathon in his bed the night before, but his attitude toward his brother hadn’t softened one bit. Someone needed to serve as a human buffer between the Devlin brothers. She’d grown attached to Troy, and the boy was still too fragile to leave alone with his brother. She was staying to make sure he got the love and attention he needed.

It was only a half-truth, of course. And she knew it. Carly could no more step away from the sexual pull that was Shane Devlin than she could give up breathing. Despite knowing nothing was ever going to come of their relationship, she remained at the cabin.

She wasn’t sure how Shane spent his day, but he’d done his best to avoid her and Troy. When they arrived back at the cabin, he was standing at the island in the center of the huge kitchen, chopping vegetables. His hair was damp from a recent shower and he was dressed in a pair of cutoff jeans and a worn Dave Matthew’s Band T-shirt, his feet bare. He looked up when they entered, but remained silent. If he was annoyed about her staying, he was careful not to let it show.

“Whacha’ makin’?” Troy asked, he and Beckett making a beeline for the counter.

“Salsa,” Shane said. “We’re having Mexican for dinner.”

Carly glanced at the three place settings on the table. Unlike Troy, Shane hadn’t acknowledged the arrival of the rental car that morning. Not that she expected him to wave her out the front door, but he’d been pretty adamant about her distracting him from whatever preseason rituals he meant to go through at the cabin. It seemed he’d changed his mind—at least for tonight. She wasn’t delusional enough to think he wanted her there for any reason other than to keep Troy entertained and out of the way. Fine with her. Keeping an eye on the boy was Carly’s main reason for staying, also. Or so she kept telling herself.

“Can I help?” Troy asked.

Shane didn’t look up from the tomatoes he was chopping, but his hand on the knife hesitated a second before he spoke. “Wash up first.”

Troy scampered over to the sink.

“And the dog needs to be fed,” Shane said.

“I’ll do it,” Carly said. Shane arched an eyebrow at her before she disappeared into the pantry to scoop some food for Beckett. Yep, it was a good thing she’d stayed, she congratulated herself. Things between Troy and Shane were already working themselves out.

“What have I told you about holding the knife?” Shane yelled.

Then again, maybe not.

* * *

“Why are you still here?” Shane’s breathing was
ragged as he stilled himself inside her. Carly released a deep sigh, opening her eyes. They were inches from his and he could just make out their vibrant blue color. Passion shimmered there. And something else he chose to ignore.

It was midnight and they were naked in his bed. Her rental car had arrived promptly at ten that morning, but she hadn’t left. Tompkins was in custody and there was no need for her to hide up in the Allegheny Mountains with him anymore. Not that he was complaining. She’d kept the kid occupied all day, and now, well, now he was enjoying the other major benefit to having her here.

“Because,” she said, forcing a groan from him by clenching her muscles.

But he was stronger and wanted answers even though he had a feeling he wouldn’t like them. Burying himself deeper, he leaned down to take a nipple in his mouth. “Because, why?” he asked, blowing on the sensitive skin and causing her to squirm beneath him. She gasped softly as he toyed with the nipple and repeated his question. “Why?”

“Because you’re mean to Troy,” she whispered.

“I am not! I’m being nice to him.”

Obviously, Carly disagreed. She sighed—this time not with pleasure—and gave him a haphazard roll of her eyes. He wanted to argue with her, but the more she squirmed beneath him, the more desperate he was to finish. He picked up his rhythm again and her expression went from incredulous to blissful in ten seconds flat.

“So what you’re saying,” he said with a satisfied grin as he moved over her, “is that you are here for the kid and not for this.”

“Yes!” she nearly screamed as he drove into her, making her come. “Oh, God, yes!”

He wasn’t sure whether it was in answer to his question or not. But it didn’t matter. With a groan, he followed her over the edge. “Liar,” he mumbled against her ear as he collapsed over her.

It took several minutes for their breathing to return to normal. Rolling onto his back, he gently tucked her into the crook of his arm. She was quiet, but he knew she wasn’t asleep yet. Her fingers glided over his chest, finally stopping over his heart.

“This was only supposed to be a one-night fling,” she finally said, her breath softly caressing his skin.

He tucked a hand beneath his head and stared at the ceiling. “Uh-huh.” Suddenly, he was regretting bringing up the subject. It had just been his ego talking earlier, wanting affirmation that he was more important to her than a twelve-year-old boy. He’d left the door wide open for “the relationship discussion” and he had no one to blame but himself. The thing was, his theory about getting over his sexual attraction to Carly in one night was a bunch of crap. Hadn’t he figured that out the first night he’d had her?

Instead, sex with her was addictive. And not just the sex. Everything about Carly made him want more. More of her unguarded smiles. More of her casual caresses. More of her laughter. More of her. But in return, she’d want more of him. More than he was capable of giving.

He played with her hair and tried to defuse the situation by turning on his Devil-of-the-NFL charm. “We could always renegotiate our original agreement to cover the rest of the off-season.” That way, they could continue as they were, but he’d have an out in two weeks when training camp started.

She rolled onto his chest, leveling her face with his. “Oh no you don’t,” she said. “If you want me to stay and help with Troy, you just have to ask. You don’t get to use sex to sweeten the deal. I told you when he arrived I’d help him. But not because I want to sleep with you. That’s insulting.”

Something flickered within his sternum as she spoke. He wasn’t sure if it was triumph or panic. Theirs was only a temporary relationship, the only kind Shane did. When the season started, he needed to focus all his energy on playing. It was the only way he knew to be successful. Yet the thought of not having Carly around made him break out into a sweat.

“This,” she said, waving a hand between them, “this . . . is amazing.”

The flickering in his chest became a drumbeat.

“But,” she continued, her soft voice sad, “it isn’t going to be more than it is right now. You’re a total commitment phobe, I get that, Shane. And I’ve already survived a relationship with a superstar athlete. One which I have no desire to repeat.”

The thing in his chest became a rock now as he watched tears fill Carly’s eyes. He hated what her ex-fiancé had done to her. Almost as much as he hated her putting them both in the same category—the one labeled
jackass
.

“What I don’t get,” she said, “is why you can’t try to have a relationship with the only family you have in the world. It’s not like you can’t relate to what he’s going through.”

Shane had no trouble identifying the feeling in his chest now. It was anger. He was really getting sick of everyone assuming he was the best person to care for the kid just because they’d had similar life stories. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“No!” she cried, slapping a hand on his chest. “You don’t get to be mad, either. You’ve fooled the rest of the world into believing you’re some independent, tough guy, but not me. Don’t sell yourself short. I know you’re capable of having a relationship with your brother.”

He closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look into her stormy ones. She thought he was capable of a relationship? Was she crazy? Carly had no idea how wrong she was. His mother had been so distraught that her husband no longer loved her, she hadn’t bothered to fight her cancer. She hadn’t bothered to stick around for the one person who did love her—her son. His father had been no better. He’d gone on to have a happier life with the son he’d actually wanted.

Carly’s warm tears fell onto his skin, making him tremble. She had it wrong. He wasn’t incapable of relationships; he was just incapable of being loved. Raising Bruce’s kid would only prove that. The kid would abandon him for someone else eventually. Hell, if given the choice, he’d probably pick Carly as his guardian. Not that Shane could blame him. And not that it wouldn’t hurt just a little.

She gave a frustrated huff at his silence before rolling off and putting her back to him. Shane opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. Carly certainly made it sound as though their relationship was casual, but that didn’t matter. She had hopes and aspirations about him forging a bond with the kid. He knew he was going to get hurt in the end no matter what.

* * *

Carly refused to let Shane’s ambivalence about
Troy dampen the boy’s adjustment to life without his parents, even though her heart was telling her she was entering dangerous territory. Her feelings for the Devlin brothers were complicated. She wanted to protect them—both of them. From each other and from the hard knocks life had dealt them. Something inside Carly couldn’t let either of them go until they’d forged a relationship together. The problem was, the more committed she became to that idea, the more committed she became to them.

As the days passed, Shane seemed to relax, spending more and more time with her and Troy. Each day fell into a familiar pattern. In the mornings, he and Troy would argue about something they’d seen on
SportsCenter
as they prepared breakfast in the kitchen. Shane allowed Troy to help more and more with the cooking, unaware that the action only fueled the boy’s hero worship. While Shane worked out after breakfast, Troy cheerfully cleaned up, chattering to Carly about what he and Shane were cooking for dinner or the game films they were going to analyze later. In the afternoons the three of them took Beckett and hiked through the hills surrounding the cabin. At night, they all played cards or made s’mores in the fire pit.