you be here, damn it. How long?”
That sexy laugh rumbled out again. “Ready to toss me out so soon?”
She fisted her hands. “I just want to know when you plan to leave.”
He shrugged. “When I finish my business. Hank said no rush.”
“Argh!” She stamped her foot, then immediately regretted it. He’d never see her as a woman if she kept acting like a child. Oh, wait. He’d never see her that way at all. She let out a calming breath. “So? When?”
The grin disappeared from his face.
“Shay, is there some reason you don’t want me here? I thought we were friends.”
“Friends?” she squeaked. “What makes you say that? You never treated me as anything but Hank’s pain-in-the-ass little sister. We were never friends. And it’s too late to start now. Trust me.”
The look he gave her ignited every space in her body. The air around them crackled with sudden, unexpected sexual energy and the heat that flared in his eyes shocked her. Holy hell. She swallowed hard and sent a silent message to her body to behave. Now, after so long, was not the time to respond to Joe’s masculine sexuality. Actually, for her sanity, the time would be—never.
“So what’s the answer?” she persisted, ignoring the hungry look Joe suddenly gave her.
“The answer,” he drawled, “is I don’t know. Preseason’s not for a couple more months. That gives me time before I have to be back to get ready for the show. I have some things to take care of here.” His gaze seemed to bore into her. “Maybe as long as I’m around we can try to be…friends.”
“Friends.”
His gaze took a leisurely tour of her body again, as if mentally cataloging each of her assets. It took every bit of self-control to tear her eyes away, but the new Shay wasn’t going to be tempted.
“I don’t think so.” She frowned. “Let’s just try to stay out of each other’s way. Oh. And one more thing. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t bring any of your women here.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “My women?”
“Yeah. You know. Your usual harem. By the way, if your phone still has Bad Company’s Feel Like Makin’ Love as a ringtone, put it on mute.”
A smile threatened again. “You don’t like the song?”
“Well, it’s certainly appropriate for your lifestyle, I’ll say that.”
His face sobered. “Shay—”
“I’m sure your salary’s plenty big,” she interrupted. “You can spring for a hotel room when the need arises.” Under her breath she muttered, “Which will probably be about every night.”
“What did you say?” he demanded.
“I said you probably won’t be sleeping here much.”
“That’s a low blow.” She heard the edge of anger in his voice. “Is that how you think of me? Really?”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?”
Before he could say anything else, she headed back to her room and slammed the door again. She knew she was being childish. Juvenile. But holy hell. Joe Reilly in her space for a whole week. Maybe more. How was she supposed to handle that?
* * * *
Joe stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, now clear of the earlier steam from his shower. Not bad-looking, he told himself. A few more lines in his face and just a hint of gray in the hair. The thing bothering him, however, was the lust flaring in his eyes, lust put there by the little go-round with Shay Beckham.
The image he’d carried with him from the last time he’d seen her, however brief the contact, was spot-on. Something he’d wanted to chalk up to an aberration on his part. An overactive imagination.
Hank had been in New York, staying with his sister for a couple of days, and Joe drove into the city to have dinner with him. When Shay opened the door and he’d looked at her, his system had gone into full-blown shock. Gone was the skinny kid and the developing teenager. In their place was a ripe, mature woman who made the spit dry up in his mouth and his cock try to urge him to do things strictly off-limits.
Then he saw her today and bam! The vision slammed into him again. Even tired and cranky, with no makeup and dressed down in jeans and a sweatshirt, she made his body sit up and take notice. His cock was already sending him a message and his balls ached like crazy.
This was Shay. Hank’s baby sister. The skinny little kid who used to stick to them like gum to a shoe. She wore a big Keep Away sign.
As a teenager, having a little kid hero-worship him stroked his ego. It tickled him to have his best friend’s sister hang out with him and Hank and talk football, unless of course there were females around. Then he’d made sure to let her know she was a pain in the ass.
He cringed now as thoughts from the past bounced around in his brain, memories of the dismissive way he’d always treated her. There was no dismissing her now. This Shay was a luscious, desirable woman and the way his body responded to her froze every nerve with shock. If she were anyone else, he’d already be figuring out a way to get her out of her clothes and horizontal.
“I said you probably won’t be sleeping here much.”
Her barbed words cut deeply. To think Shay still saw him the same way.
He’d always thought of himself as a man who loved women. Who was lucky women loved him. He enjoyed the hell out of them. For a lot of years he’d been jazzed by the dating game. It was heady stuff to be envied by others for a steady string of gorgeous women and certainly fed his ego. All those years he’d never given a thought to how people saw him. He rocked it on the field and reaped the benefits of his success with the female population.
Still, it had stunned him to suddenly realize he was tired of the eternal conga line of women in and out of his life. What was once his juice had suddenly became old hat.
Things had changed so much in the past five years. He was in a much different place. As his life continued to evolve, so did the things he wanted from it. Like settling down. Getting married.
What he really needed was a woman like Shay.
Joe blinked and looked around, as if someone had actually spoken the words out loud. Where in hell did that thought come from? Again he reminded himself that she was off-limits to him. Right, right, right. Maybe he could tattoo it on his brain. Even thinking of her that way was off-limits. He needed to keep telling himself that.
Okay, time to get dressed and find someplace to eat. Maybe he’d pick up a pizza and bring it back. Or Chinese food. Then early to bed. And sleep, if he could do it with Shay only a few feet away from him.
He wondered what she’d say if she knew about the work he did with kids? With teenagers? Obviously her entire image of him was crafted from those wild years and the accompanying tabloid coverage. But so much had changed. He had changed. Did she ever watch his television show? If so, what did she think of it?
