The Player (14 page)

J
AMIE FELT AUDREY’S ARMS
tighten around him and he clung to her, sapping up her strength just like every other selfish bastard who’d come before him. God, he was pathetic. But he couldn’t seem to help himself. She’d just kept on and on, and then when she’d told him that she could feel it too—that
his
pain was hurting
her
—that was just the last damned straw.

“Oh, Jamie,” she said. She tugged him toward the cottage. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

Jamie allowed her to guide him, numb from the cold, from arguing, from the grief he’d been carrying for so long. He should be taking care of her, not the other way around, and yet he wasn’t strong enough to deny himself her comfort. Selfishly, he needed it. No, it was more than that—
he needed her.

Audrey grabbed the bottle of Jameson from the
kitchen counter, then led him toward the bathroom. She quickly adjusted the tap and started the shower. One quick guzzle of whiskey later and they were both naked and under the spray. The hot water beat down like little needles of fire, warming his skin back up. She lathered him up, washing his hair in a way that was gentle but not overtly sexual. It was nice, Jamie thought, to be able to be with a naked woman—one he admittedly wanted more than any other on the planet—and yet be content not to act on that desire. He supposed that’s what happened when you found the right one.

In short order, she had them both clean, warm, dressed and situated in front of a small fire. She’d tossed a couple of easy-start logs into the grate and a cozy warmth soon permeated the room.

Her hair still wet, she sat down beside him wearing one of his shirts, and offered him her hand. A simple gesture, but one that had a singularly profound effect on his heart. His throat clogged.

Okay, he thought, blowing out an uneasy breath. She wanted to know about Danny. Where to start? “You were right,” Jamie told her. “Danny was in my unit. I’m assuming your grandfather
told you a little bit about him and—” he cleared his throat “—what happened?”

She nodded once. “Some. He mentioned that you’d lost a good friend recently.”

“That’s the watered-down version.” He traced a finger over her palm. Then he swallowed again. “Danny was more than a good friend. He was more like a brother. Our unit was like that. Tight. We met in college, the four of us. Me, Danny, Guy and Payne.” Jamie smiled, remembering. Young and dumb, he thought, hell-bent on changing the world. “Guy and Payne are my business partners in Ranger Security,” he added as an aside. The silence yawned between them, then he shook his head. “When Danny died, we…We all wanted out.”

“That’s certainly understandable,” Audrey told him. “Surely you don’t fault yourself for that?”

“No, not for that,” Jamie said. “I fault myself for not saving him.”

“Oh, Jamie,” she sighed, smoothing the hair above his ear. “You can’t fault yourself for that either.”

He could and he did. Tears burned the backs of his lids, his chest ached with the pressure of guilt. Jamie swore, wiped his eyes. “I was supposed to
have his back,” he said, his voice cracking. “Not Payne. Not Guy.
Me.
I was the one who was supposed to make sure nothing happened to him.”

In an instant, Audrey was in his lap. She straddled him, framed his face with her hands, forcing him to look her in the eye. “Jamie, your intentions were good, but we both know you were setting yourself up to do the impossible.”

“But—”

She shushed him. “Let me ask you something. Did you follow procedure?”

“Of course.”

“Didn’t vary from what you were supposed to do and took every precautionary measure?”

“Yes, but—”

“Were you operating on good intelligence?”

She was definitely the Colonel’s granddaughter, Jamie thought. He’d asked many of these same questions. “Yes.”

“Then what went wrong?”

A cold chill slid down his back. “We were ambushed.”

Her thumbs gently swept his cheeks. “Then how were you supposed to have his back?”

Jamie started to reply, but found he couldn’t answer.

“You would have had to have been psychic to know what was going to happen,” she said softly. She bent forward and kissed him, causing the flow he’d been holding back for eight months to come rushing forward in a cleansing torrent he didn’t have a prayer of stopping. He cried for Danny, he cried for himself, he cried for his friends.

“Let it go,” she said, hugging him tightly. She rocked him back and forth, the movement soothing and tender and heartbreakingly sweet. “I’ve got you,” she murmured. “Just let it all go. If he was the kind of friend worthy of this grief, then he wouldn’t want you holding on to it like this, would he?”

No, he wouldn’t, Jamie thought. Odd how he’d never looked at it that way. It was sobering. He felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off his chest.

Audrey drew back, showered his face with healing kisses, sprinkled them along his jaw, lingered around the corner of his mouth. Jamie turned his head and caught her lips, fitted his hands on the small of her back. God, she tasted wonderful, he thought, savoring the flavor of her against his tongue. What had he ever done without her?

Knowing what he wanted—what he needed—she upped the intensity of the kiss, slid her hands down his chest, then back up again, over his neck and into his hair. An arrow of heat landed in his groin, stirring his dick beneath her.

Audrey groaned into his mouth—the sound desperate and erotic—and wriggled on top of him, rocking her hips forward to catch the ridge of his arousal. A sweet sigh stuttered out of her mouth and into his. He cupped her rump and smiled against her lips as he made a pleasant discovery—no panties. They were piled on the bathroom floor with the rest of their wet clothing.

Jamie found the hem of the shirt and tugged it up over her head, then cast it aside. Full creamy breasts crowned with rosy budded nipples. Tiny waist. A thatch of dark brown curls.

Heaven.

He bent his head forward and drew one perfect nipple into his mouth, and a commingled sigh of pleasure leaked from both his and Audrey’s lungs. “I love it when you do that,” Audrey told him. “I can feel it all the way down
here,
” she said, rubbing herself against him. “It makes my belly all hot and muddled.”

Jamie growled low in his throat as his dick
jerked beneath her. The only thing that separated him from her was a pair of boxer shorts. She leaned forward and licked a hot path up his neck, sighed into his ear, causing a wave of gooseflesh to break out over his skin. He felt a single bead of moisture leak from his dick.

She rocked against him once more, gasped as the pleasure barbed through her. “I need you,” she said, her voice throaty and broken and every bit as desperate as he was.

Jamie shifted beneath her, freeing himself from his shorts and felt her warm juices slide over the swollen head of his penis.

He set his jaw and gritted his teeth.

Audrey’s mouth opened in a silent O of pleasure and she moved against him once more, bumping the head of him against her clit. “God, that feels good,” she told him, arching her neck back.

Jamie pushed against her, deliberately coating the length of him with her wet heat. “It can feel even better.”

A sexy chuckle rattled up her throat. “Oh, I know it can,” she said confidently. Then she arched herself up, positioned him at her entrance and impaled herself upon him.

A smile of sublime satisfaction transformed
her gorgeous face to something almost painfully beautiful. Her lids drooped and a gasp of sheer erotic delight slipped past her lips.

Hot, wet, tight,
Jamie thought, struggling to keep from coming right then. He’d never been one to detonate upon entry, but nothing had ever felt so fabulous as the feel of Audrey’s sweet little body hovering over his, balancing on his dick. He grasped her hips, thrust up, pushing himself even farther into her.

Her mouth found his once more, desperate, frantic, but confident and sure. She wasn’t just making love to him, he realized, she was laying siege. For every parlay of her tongue, she rocked against him, tightened her feminine muscles. The combination made every one of his senses soar, made him buck frantically beneath her. She was everywhere. On top of his body, inside his mouth, inside his head…inside his heart.

“Oh, Jamie,” she groaned, the throaty purr the sexiest thing he’d ever heard. “I’m going to—I think—”

The seed of climax had taken root, Jamie knew, upping his thrusts. He reached down between their joined bodies, found the bud nestled in the peak of her curls and stroked her.

Predictably, she went wild.

Her breath came in short broken gasps, she tightened around him, making his balls shrink and his dick threaten to explode. Jamie set his jaw and stroked her even harder.
Come on, baby,
he thought.
Give it to me so I can let it go.

A second later, she went rigid with release, a long scream tore from her throat, and she convulsed around him. What she looked like in that instant would forever be burned into his heart. She was…amazing. A goddess.

Jamie’s own release followed hers. The orgasm shot so hard from his loins, it would have blasted paint off the wall. He went weak—literally weak. His vision blackened around the edges, his breath came in ragged gasps and his legs felt like they were going to fall off.

Sweet mother.

Audrey sagged against his chest, rested her head against his shoulder and pressed a breathless kiss against his neck. “Can I tell you something?” she asked.

It took effort, but he managed to find his voice. “Sure.”

“I think I’m in love with you.”

Emotion clogged his throat, preventing him from immediately returning the sentiment. Danny may have died in his arms…but he’d just been reborn in hers.

A
RMED WITH THE REMOTE
and a bowl of popcorn, Audrey settled in next to Jamie on her couch. “You aren’t a talker are you?”

Jamie’s beer paused halfway to his mouth and he glanced at her. “What do you mean a ‘talker’?”

“I mean, you aren’t one of those people who has to inject commentary throughout the whole movie, right?” She faked a wince. “‘Cause if you are, that’s just going to ruin it for me.”

He chuckled. “What? Are you going to dump me if I am?”

No, Audrey thought, shaking her head. Dumping one person today was enough, thank you very much. Rather than leave Derrick in the lurch, Audrey had taken the opportunity to call him this afternoon while Jamie had been at the camp’s library selecting their movie. He’d nixed a chick flick and she’d vetoed blood and
gore, so they’re reached a compromise with a nice comedy.

At any rate, Derrick had been surprised by her answer to his proposal and even more shocked that she hadn’t put up an argument when he’d told her that they’d simply have to break up. Thankfully, Derrick’s ego was substantial enough that her refusal didn’t seem to have affected him that deeply.

Still, she just felt better knowing that she’d ended that chapter in her life and started a new one with Jamie. There was nothing quite so thrilling as the blush of new romance, she thought, snuggling in next to him as the previews rolled.

Ah, Audrey thought happily. Another similarity. He didn’t want to fast-forward through them.

She cast a glance at him from the corner of her eye and felt her chest squeeze with secret joy. Honestly, she could just look at him all day. Her gaze was perpetually drawn to the masculine line of his jaw, the curiously vulnerable patch of soft skin next to those amazing eyes. He just did it for her, Audrey thought. Was he perfect? No. What person was? She was suddenly reminded of a quote by Sam Keen. “You come to love not by
finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.” That fit, Audrey thought, smiling softly.

And Jamie had turned a corner today. This afternoon when he’d finally broken down and shared his tragedy with her…Her own chest had ached so much it had brought tears to her eyes. He’d been grieving for so long, and worse, blaming himself. She wasn’t altogether sure that he’d let himself completely off the hook in that regard, but she knew she’d argued a significant enough point to make him doubt. That was a start, at least. Baby steps, Audrey told herself, and wondered if asking him to stay with her indefinitely was more along the lines of taking a giant leap.

Technically he was supposed to go home tomorrow and yet the idea of him leaving now, after everything they’d been through this week, made her belly tip in a nauseated roll. She missed him and he hadn’t even left yet. That couldn’t be good, considering he was based in Atlanta and she in the wilds of Maine. Logistics, she knew, but she couldn’t keep from jumping ahead.

He was it. Jamie Flanagan was The One.

“Can I ask you something?” Audrey said,
wanting to make sure they were on the same page. Or at the very least in the same chapter.

He tugged playfully on a lock of her hair. “I thought you said you didn’t like to talk during the movie.”

“Previews don’t count.”

“Ah,” he sighed, inclining his head. “That’s a handy piece of knowledge right there. Sure,” he said in answer to her question. “Ask away.”

Audrey hesitated. “Do you have to go home tomorrow?”

A slow smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and those golden green eyes softened. “Are you issuing an invitation?”

Audrey nodded. “An open one,” she said, putting it all out there. In for a penny, in for a pound, she supposed.

Impossibly, those gorgeous eyes softened even more and he leaned over and brushed his lips across hers in a tender kiss that stole her breath. “I like the sound of that.”

“I’m not scaring you, am I?” she asked, suddenly uncertain. She knew he cared about her—one of the only perks of this empathy thing, but…“I just—”

Jamie pressed a single finger against her mouth
and his gaze searched hers. The emotion—the unadulterated feeling he allowed her to see—made her pulse leap. “I’d only be scared if you didn’t want me here.”

“No worries then,” Audrey told him. She leaned over and pressed her lips to his, sighed with pleasure as the innocent gesture quickly morphed into something a lot more potent. A movie? she mentally scoffed. Why watch a movie when there were other, more satisfying ways, to pass an evening.

Especially with him.

In the process of trying to crawl into his lap without upending her popcorn, Audrey jumped when a loud knock came at the door. Seconds later, it abruptly burst open.

Moses leaped off the recliner, 150 pounds of pissed-off growling canine, and barreled for the door.

“Moses, heel!”
Audrey shouted at precisely the same instant she recognized her grandfather. There were two grim-faced men behind him whom she couldn’t identify, but she could hardly think about them at the moment. She was more concerned with keeping her dog from ripping the Colonel’s throat out.
“Heel,”
she ordered again, jumping up after the dog.

Her grandfather scowled. “Moses,” he scolded. “It’s only me.” He glared at Jamie. “It’s him you should maul.”

Confused, Audrey grabbed Moses by the collar and tugged him back. “Sit,” she told him, patting him on the head. Her dog issued another warning growl, but did as she commanded.

Jamie had left the couch and had come to stand behind her. “Colonel,” he acknowledged. His gaze darted to the men standing behind her grandfather and he gave them an up-nod, one of those male gestures of acknowledgment which seemed to indicate that he knew them.

Baffled, Audrey tucked her hair behind her ear. “Gramps, I didn’t know you were coming,” she said, for lack of anything better. She hadn’t called with updates the way he’d asked her to—she’d been too busy sleeping with his friend, she thought, squirming—but surely that wouldn’t warrant a personal visit.

He continued to bore a hole through Jamie. “That’s because I wanted the element of surprise.” He paused. “When you didn’t return any of my phone calls, I began to get suspicious.” His brows lowered even further. “Then Tewanda made an ominous comment about ‘my plan working out
even better than I anticipated’ and I knew that I’d created a problem.”

His plan? Audrey wondered, completely confused. What plan? “Gramps, I don’t under—”

“I made the mistake of contacting your friends, here, Flanagan. As you can see they leaped to the same conclusion I did and have rushed here on your behalf to try and save you. Touching, but pointless.” Unbelievably, his frown grew ever darker. “Because if you have done what I think you’ve done—if you have rounded any of the bases I warned you about—then no one will be able to save you. I want answers,” he thundered.
“Now.”

He wasn’t the only one, Audrey thought, growing increasingly worried. What the hell was going on? To hell with it. She didn’t have to wonder. This was her house, dammit. “Gramps, what are you talking about? Plan? Bases? Why are you threatening a guest in my home?” Granted he was her grandfather, but this was uncalled for.

For the first time since he’d barged into her home, her grandfather paused to look at her. A flash of discomfort and oddly, contrition, momentarily claimed his features. “I have a confession to
make, Audie. Do you remember last week when I told you that I would always have your best interests at heart, and to always remember it?”

A cold chill settled in her belly. She looked from a grim faced Jamie back to her grandfather. “I do,” she replied cautiously.

He grimaced. “Well, remember it now because what I’m about to confess is most likely going to make you angry.”

“Sir,” Jamie butted in, speaking for the first time since this weird scenario had begun only minutes ago. “Let me tell her. Please,” he added as an afterthought.

A throb started above her left eye and a sickening sensation swept through her midsection. Tell her what? What the hell was going on?

“You lost that option, Flanagan, and you’re going to lose a lot more. I trusted you with someone I love, and you betrayed that trust. You’ve betrayed her. You were supposed to flirt with her, dammit!” He gestured wildly. “Not treat her like all those other tramps you whore around with.”

The sickening sensation worsened, pushing panic into her throat. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut.
“Gramps, what are you talking about?”

“Flanagan owed me a favor, Audrey, and I called it in on your behalf.” He shifted uncomfortably. “You see, Tewanda had told me that Derrick had proposed and I was afraid that you would say yes.” He jerked his head in Jamie’s direction. “He was supposed to change your mind.”

Floored, Audrey didn’t know what to address first, her grandfather’s manipulation or Jamie’s part in it. The former pissed her off and the latter…Well, the latter felt like a well-placed punch straight to her heart. “You sent a man here to seduce me?” she asked, thunderstruck. Her eyes narrowed into angry slits. “How dare—”

“Not seduce,” the Colonel corrected swiftly. “He was supposed to flirt with you,” he explained a bit sheepishly, unable to hold her gaze. “He was supposed to instill doubt.” Her grandfather’s wrath turned upon Jamie once more. “He was never supposed to touch you. Period.”

Audrey went numb inside, absorbing what her grandfather had just said. She crossed her arms over her chest, chilled, and cleared her throat. “Is this true?” she asked, turning to Jamie.

“The simple answer is yes,” Jamie admitted. “But I’m hoping you’ll give me a chance to explain.”

Audrey nodded, felt icicles lick through her
veins. Any second now she’d be frozen completely, then simply shatter. She swallowed. “I, uh…” She winced, shook her head. “I just want to be clear on something. You were supposed to change my mind about marrying Derrick and then report back to my grandfather, right? Is that the gist of it?”

Jamie nodded. “But—”

“And yet you’ve known the answer to that for a while, haven’t you, Jamie?” He’d seduced her, knowing that she’d never intended to marry Derrick. You knew, Audrey thought. She’d pegged Jamie Flanagan as many things—fierce, loyal, competent, hers, even, and yet an opportunistic player had never been one of them. He’d used her…and she’d made it easy for him.

Evidently reading her line of thinking, Jamie stepped toward her. “Audrey, I know that you’re angry and you have every right to be, but if you’ll just give me a chance to explain—”

She smirked, walked between his two friends—Payne and McCann, if she remembered correctly—and opened her door. “You’ve had plenty of opportunities to explain, Jamie, and no one is more disappointed, or feels more foolish right
now than I do.” She lowered her head to hide her watering eyes. “Please go.”

“Audrey,” he repeated softly, a say-you-don’t-mean-it tone.

She merely opened the door wider.

“W
E’VE BEEN TRYING
to call you,” Payne told him. “To warn you. When that didn’t work…” He shrugged, not stating the obvious. They’d come to his rescue. Jamie was thankful, but couldn’t find the words at the moment.

“You know this isn’t over with Garrett,” Guy pointed out. He jerked his head toward Audrey’s cottage. “Once he gets finished covering his own ass up there, he’ll be down here on yours.”

Jamie tossed back another shot of whiskey, hoping like hell it would warm him up inside. Seeing the look on Audrey’s face when she’d realized that he’d made love to her
after
she’d given him the information he’d needed had practically flash-frozen his insides. The duplicity had been bad enough, but this…This was an even bigger betrayal.

You’ve had plenty of opportunities to explain, Jamie, and no one is more disappointed that you didn’t or feels more foolish right now than I do.

Anger was so much easier to accept than disappointment, he thought, remembering the look of complete regret on her hauntingly beautiful face.

“Let him come,” Jamie said, spoiling for a fight. Everything about this damned favor had been wrong. It was Garrett’s fault. Jamie hadn’t wanted to trick her to start with. He’d known then that it was wrong, that it could only end in disaster.
His.
“I’ve got a few things I’d like to say to him.”

Guy and Payne shared a look.

“I think you’d better start figuring out a way to keep Garrett from separating your stones from your shaft, if you know what I mean,” Guy suggested. “This was his
granddaughter,
Jamie.” He chuckled darkly. “This wasn’t just some three-date disposable girl you messed around with.”

Annoyed, Jamie looked up, glared menacingly at his friend and laced his voice with unmistakable lead. “She’s not disposable.”

Payne’s gaze sharpened. “What are you saying?”

Guy stilled, studied him for a moment. Any trace of humor vanished from his gaze. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

Jamie nodded. “She’s…it,” he finally finished, releasing a pent-up breath. And he’d blown the hell
out of any chance with her. “I’ve screwed up. I should have told her and I didn’t. And she was right. I’ve had plenty of time, I just…” He laughed bitterly.

“You just thought she’d never have to know,” Payne finished.

“Stupid bastard,” Guy chimed in. “Granted I am not the authority on women that you are, but even I know they don’t like being lied to.”

Payne peered out the window. “Or made a fool of. She thinks she fell for an act, and the longer she ruminates on that, the harder it’s going to be to change her mind.”

He was right, Jamie realized. Whether she’d wanted him to leave or not, by walking away he’d just made himself look all the more guilty. What the hell had he been thinking? Had he lost his freaking mind? He didn’t retreat, dammit. He’d been a Ranger, for chrissakes. He didn’t back down. He’d never walked away from a fight in his life and wasn’t about to start now. Not when he had so much to lose.

Namely her.

Jamie sprang up from his chair and headed toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Guy asked, startled.

“I’m taking that hill,” Jamie said, referencing the old military adage. And he was prepared to die on it if need be. His lips quirked with bitter humor.