The Player's Club: Lincoln (7 page)

Suddenly, it felt very much like the many trust-fund-kid parties she’d been to, or even back in boarding school…back when she was struggling to prove herself, to impress the kids around her. All without a clue as to what was expected of her.

The surfacing memory made her a tiny bit hostile. “Oh, you know me, Finn,” she drawled acidly. “I’d probably make a videotape of all my life’s lessons, how to live the Juliana Mayfield way.”

Finn cracked a grin, but she could tell that she had answered incorrectly. The group’s somber response backed that theory. She sighed.

Emotional, she thought, remembering Terrence’s girlfriend thing. “I’d tell my family how much they mean to me,” she said, and felt at least a slight thaw from the crowd. Of course, they were assuming she meant something deep and emotional, so at least that played. The truth was, she doubted her parents would care what she felt about them, as long as she wasn’t tacky and public about it.

Lincoln had removed his hand from her shoulder, though. When she looked at him, she saw him frowning, almost scowling.

What was he so unhappy about? She scowled back at him. What was she supposed to say?

“One last thing,” Finn persisted. “What’s the third thing you would do?”

She scrolled through fantasies, daydreams. What hadn’t she done? She thought of her favorite movies. Romantic comedies, mostly: funny, feisty women pulling off capers.

Then it hit her.

“You know what?” she said finally. “I’d steal something.”

LINCOLN CHOKED.

“Steal something?” Finn repeated, with a broad, stunned grin.

“Yeah.” Lincoln couldn’t see Juliana’s face since he was standing behind her chair, but he could hear the smirk in her voice. “I always loved those heist movies, you know.
The Italian Job, The Thomas Crown Affair, Ocean’s Eleven.
It seems like it’d be such a rush.” She laughed. “And I wouldn’t be worried about jail time if I screwed up.”

“So you would break into somewhere and steal something,” Finn clarified.

The crowd was electrified. Lincoln felt a sick knot in the pit of his stomach.

I knew this was going to be a bad idea,
he thought.
I just
knew
she was going to be trouble.

He closed his eyes and for a split second remembered the taste of her as she straddled him on her couch. He quickly thought of some equations and baseball scores. He was standing in front of the whole club—the last thing he wanted them to notice was him standing behind the gorgeous Juliana with a hard-on the size of Texas. They were probably already thinking he’d lost his mind, being her mentor.

Hell, he thought he’d lost his mind.

He glared at Finn. Finn simply shrugged back, mischief still dancing in his eyes.

Damn it. He knew Finn had been getting restless, but this was unconscionable!

“So, is that it with the questions?” Juliana murmured over her shoulder.

“Unfortunately,” Lincoln answered.

“On to the challenges portion of the program.” Finn was positively gleeful. “Which is actually really easy—you have one month to do all three things you’ve just described.”

“What?” Terrence asked, his mouth falling open.

“Wait, what?” Juliana echoed, getting up out of her chair.

Lincoln put a firm hand on her shoulder, trying to get her to sit down. Of course, she didn’t budge, merely shrugged off his hand with a glare of her own. Lincoln sighed.

“We obviously haven’t had an issue like this before,” Lincoln interrupted. “We’ve never had anybody say they were going to do something illegal. We can’t condone someone stealing something.”

“We’re not the law here,” Finn said reasonably. “And technically, unless Terrence owns that burned-out abandoned rattrap across the street from his company, he’s going to be breaking the law on that one, too.”

Lincoln gritted his teeth. “There’s a difference between defacing property and theft,” he pointed out, in a strained voice.

“Yeah, like five to seven years,” Scott, one of the newest members, called out from the crowd.

“So she’d better not get caught, then?” Finn said, a laugh creeping into his voice.

For a split second, Lincoln thought about clocking his best friend. Just one hard right, preferably in his grinning face. But he managed to rein in the impulse.

“We’re going to need to discuss this,” his friend Tucker said. “Huddle up, and you two pledges sit tight, okay?” With that, he gestured to the group, leading them to the far side of the room.

The rest of the group huddled as best they could—twenty-five people was hardly a discreet huddle, Lincoln thought—and they started to discuss it.

“This is insanity,” Lincoln said.

“It’s a charge,” Finn protested, “and a change. We’ve done fairly basic challenges up to this point. Traveling, stuff like that. Not to say it hasn’t been cool,” he hastily assured several of the new members who had chosen travel, “but I’m just saying this could be a blast for a lot of us players, as well as the pledges. And if they’re coming up with this just in the challenges, imagine what sort of player’s outings we could come up with…”

“Like what? Raiding Fort Knox?” Lincoln yelped.

“All right, knock this shit off,” Tucker insisted, clearly irritated. “I know you two started this club, but we’re a democracy. So let’s just vote on it and act over it. All those in favor of letting these two go for the challenges, say aye.”

A chorus of muted “ayes” echoed in the plant-strewn room.

“Okay. All those opposed?”

Lincoln’s “nay” was the loudest, but there weren’t very many of them. Lincoln grimaced.

“We’d all be accomplices,” Lincoln couldn’t help adding.

“Only if they caught us,” Finn said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He looked totally revved up. “Besides, nobody’s saying she has to break into Fort Knox. You worry too much.”

“I want to help out on the paint challenge,” Scott said, and his girlfriend Amanda nodded.

Lincoln blanched as he saw most of the players volunteering to help with either of the illegal challenges. He pulled Finn aside.

“If we get caught, the chief of police is going to kill us,” he said. “Ever since the article came out, you know he’s been pissed. You know he’s been just itching for one of us to slip up.”

“You worry too much.”

“You don’t get it,” Lincoln growled, glancing over at where Juliana was sitting in her chair, staring at him. “She’s up to something.”

Finn shrugged. “I’m only going to say this once, dude. Switch to decaf. Seriously.”

“She’s doing this for publicity,” Lincoln said, almost inaudibly. “I’m sure of it. She’s going to expose every one of us if it will help her stay famous.”

“Yeah?” Finn’s eyes narrowed. “Prove it.”

Lincoln clenched his teeth so hard he was surprised his molars didn’t crack. “If I can?”

“Then she’s out. And I’ll make sure she’s sorry she ever messed with us,” Finn added, with more seriousness than Lincoln had ever seen before in his friend. “But until then, I think you need to start getting a little less judgmental.”

“Judgmental?” Lincoln repeated, shocked.

“She’s not just a party girl,” Finn said quietly. “Damn it, she’s not some useless rich kid.”

Suddenly, Lincoln realized: Finn obviously identified with Juliana on some level. And was taking Lincoln’s attacks on her personally.

“Damn it, Finn.” Lincoln ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “I didn’t mean…”

“I know. But give her a chance, would you?” Finn smiled tiredly. “And drive her home. She looks wiped out.”

Lincoln saw that, indeed, she was starting to look a little tired—and a little annoyed. “Okay. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

He walked over to her. “All right. We’ve approved the challenges. You’ve got one month to complete all three things.”

“Wonderful. Swell.” She rubbed at her temples. He wondered if she got headaches a lot. “I need to produce a short video, talk to my parents and rob something.”

“In a nutshell,” he said. “Between your heist and Terrence’s mural, you’re probably going to be a pledge class they talk about for years to come.”

“Then I get to do something real, right? Something exciting, or dangerous or whatever?”

He stared at her. She was frustrated, he thought: not nervous, not excited. He immediately wondered why.

Don’t be so judgmental,
he reminded himself. “You won’t be able to participate in any player activities until you’re a full member, but the other players can help you with your challenges if you want.”

She sighed. “I’m sure I can manage on my own,” she said curtly. “Can you take me home now?”

He nodded, helping her put on her jacket. He escorted her back to his car, a sleek black Maybach. She climbed in without a word.

“Why are you so upset?” he asked, as he drove her back.

“I just…this wasn’t how I was expecting this would go,” she said, her voice muted.

“What did you think was going to happen?”

“I don’t know,” she snapped, then took a deep, calming breath. “Just…not this.”

“Then how…”

“Listen, it’s like three in the morning and I’m wiped out. Could we can the small talk?”

He pulled his lips in a tight line and stayed silent until he pulled up in front of her condo in the swanky South of Market area—aka the SoMa district. “I’ll be calling you,” he said.

“You will?” Now she turned to him, surprise evident in her beautiful violet eyes. “Why?”

“Because I agreed to be your mentor. I’ll monitor your progress.”

“That sounds suspiciously like ‘keep an eye on the loose cannon,’ Lincoln,” she said, but her voice was more tired than anything. Her expression tightened. “If you’re my mentor, I guess it’s up to you to decide whether I make it in or not.”

“Sort of.”

“Great.” She snapped off her seat belt viciously. “So I’m screwed.”

He glared at her. “I can be impartial. If you pull off the challenges, you’re in.”

“Well then, you’d better get my name tag ready,” she said, her chin notching up. “Because I can pull off anything.”

He leaned closer to her. “If I find out that this is some stupid prank with the club, or you’re using it to push yourself forward,” he said, in a low, dangerous voice, “I will personally destroy you.”

They were close, both angry, both breathing hard, staring into each other’s eyes. He wasn’t sure which one of them moved first. It didn’t matter. Between one second and the next, they went from completely furious at each other to mouth on mouth, the heat between them like a forest fire. He groaned against her pillow-soft lips, started to reach for her. Got yanked back by his own seat belt.

The motion seemed to bring her back to sanity, and she pulled away. “Good night, Lincoln,” she said shakily, opening the door and getting out. Before he could do anything, she was through the door of her lobby and gone.

He smacked his forehead down on the steering wheel. This woman was going to be the death of him. And apparently, he simply couldn’t help himself.

5

I REFUSE TO FEEL GUILTY about this.

Juliana was still thinking of the challenges—and her heated exchange with Lincoln—two days later, when she drove the few hours in traffic that it took to get from San Francisco down to Monterey. She didn’t know why she’d kissed him in the car, or why she’d let him kiss her.... However, it had happened.

All she knew was, he was a suspicious, prudish, judgmental watchdog who seemed to hit every single one of her turn-ons. She wanted to kill him and jump him, in the space of a heartbeat.

He was going to be a problem. She could already tell.

Right now, though, she thought as she pulled into the driving range and straightened her sexy violet sundress, she had bigger issues.