Game For Love: Love Games (Kindle Worlds) (5 page)

Chapter Three

M
arlee’s and Anna’s voices abruptly dropped off as Declan was finally able to get to the table. It was obvious they’d been talking about him. His gut clenched for a moment as he wondered what the verdict was. He turned to Marlee with a raised, questioning brow. “And what did you ladies find to talk about?”

Cole got back to the table at the same time, and the men both sat down. He’d run his own semi-gauntlet of fans, but wasn’t as recognizable in Boston as Declan was. Declan scooted close to Marlee; Cole did the same on the other side of the table to be near Anna. He draped his large arm over his petite wife, who snuggled into his side, giving Declan a small pang of envy.

“Oh, nothing much,” Marlee said, but then a small smile lit her face and she bowed her head to keep Declan from noticing.

But he noticed. She didn’t
want
to like him. She had something against him, but damn if she didn’t like when he touched her. To prove his point, he once again took her hand, and placed both his and her entwined hands on his thigh. He moved them gently back and forth, not sure if he was doing so to excite Marlee or himself. Did it matter? His thigh, solid muscle from years of workouts, nearly liquefied as her hand, albeit with his guidance, lightly stroked.

Thankfully, the fine linen tablecloths went all the way to the floor. Declan said a silent hallelujah and began caressing Marlee’s hand, beginning with the sensitive skin between her thumb and forefinger. Her fingers were long and elegant. So were his, he knew, all the better to wrap around a football. What would Marlee’s digits be best wrapped around? Declan nearly choked on his ice water at the thought.

Marlee was quiet for a moment. It looked like she was silently contemplating something, her brows furrowed as if solving a problem. That must have been it, because she suddenly straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. Decision made. But what had she been deciding?

She stroked her free hand up Declan’s arm, turning her body into his, while she squeezed his hand that joined hers. Her cat-green eyes looked into his, so deep, so crystal clear he felt as though she could look through him. She locked them with his and simply said, “Yes.”

Declan was mesmerized by her eyes, and it took him a moment to realize what she’d said. It took him a couple of seconds longer to deduce what Marlee was talking about. She was saying yes to him, wasn’t she? Yes to
them
. Yes to being with him, getting under the sheets, getting under him, and getting down to business. Declan flashed her his trademark smile—the one he flashed when he’d just come back from ten points down with four minutes left to win the game—and leaned forward to kiss her.
 

He was interrupted by Cole, who, until this time, had his head stuck behind a menu, oblivious to Declan’s and Marlee’s deep gazes. “Yes what, Marlee? What was the question? I missed it.”

Declan smiled at Marlee with regret that his proposed kiss had been cut short and turned to Cole, but had no intention of explaining. How could he explain something to Cole he didn’t understand himself? Plus, after Cole’s warning, he wasn’t sure his buddy would be as happy about Marlee’s answer as Declan was. “It was something I asked Marlee, Cole, and I got the answer I wanted.”

“Yes. But on one condition,” Marlee said, holding Declan’s gaze.

Declan groaned playfully. “Of course there’d be a condition. I should have figured that with a woman like you. What’s the condition?”

Marlee ignored Declan’s “woman like you” comment. “Yes, if you can correctly guess how many slips of paper with phone numbers you have in your pants at this exact moment.”

“Easy. None. Guess it’s a qualified yes, then.”

“I don’t believe you. There must be at least five, probably more.” He knew she’d seen the women hand him their numbers and Declan, in turn, had put them in his pants. He could tell she thought he was lying. The look of hurt on her face proved it.
 

“There’s none, darlin’, but you’re more than welcome to find out for yourself.” Declan freed his hand from hers and held his arms out from his body, to indicate he was ready for Marlee to frisk him. The loss of contact, and its adverse effect, shocked him. He wanted to reconnect immediately, but Marlee was insistent on the phone numbers.

“That won’t be necessary.” She turned away from him, back to Anna and Cole, who were engrossed at the moment in their own conversation. Thank goodness. He didn’t want her friends to hear what he was about to say to her.

Declan took Marlee’s hand again and said quietly in her ear, “I trashed them all in the kitchen as I was leaving the house. I don’t need anyone’s number tonight, Marlee. I only want you.”

Marlee’s head was spinning. Darn, she was right back where she was moments ago, wanting a man whom she had no business wanting.
 

He said he didn’t want anyone else’s number
tonight
. That was telling. Obviously he was thinking even shorter-term than she. That was fine; she’d just have to get her fill of Declan in one night. Hopefully it would just be a very long night.

Cole and Anna’s discussion ended at the same time Declan and Marlee had made their peace, and Cole turned to Marlee. “Hey, Marlee, what was it you wanted to talk to me about? Something to do with why you wanted to go to the game with us today, right?”

“Oh, well, I’ll ask you some other time, Cole. It’s really not that important.”

Declan squeezed her hand. “What was it, sweetheart? What did you want to talk to Cole about?” As he said this, Declan disengaged their hands that had been previously hidden under the table, and put his arm around her shoulder. Out in the open now. Might as well let Cole and Anna in on their secret.
 

They were going to be together. Probably only for tonight. But Declan seemed intent on letting everyone know it.
 

Cole and Anna once again exchanged glances but didn’t seem too surprised by Declan’s PDA.
 

Marlee faced Declan, surprised that she kind of liked the “sweetheart.” “It seems silly now, with you here, but the reason I wanted to go to the game today and the reason I want to pick Cole’s brain is I want to learn more about the game of football.”

“Well shoot, darlin’. You’ll get two for the price of one tonight. Why do you want to know about football? And, better yet, why
don’t
you know about football already? It’s our national pastime, for Christ's sake.”

“I thought that was baseball,” Cole piped in.
 

“Whatever.” Declan arrogantly waved Cole’s statement away as he turned to face Marlee. He had begun absently stroking her shoulder and upper arm with his strong, callused thumb, and she found it soothing, hypnotic.

“Believe it or not, I’ve done more than okay in my thirty years without knowing a thing about football. It may be your entire life, but a lot of us out there couldn’t care less about the sport.”

“Okay. So why learn now, if you’ve done so fine before?”
 

“Anna mentioned that I’m a communications professor?” At Declan’s nod of acknowledgement, Marlee continued, “Next week I’m going to DC to speak with the education department about the need for more speech and public speaking, starting earlier in schools. From there I’m touring some universities to talk about it. How the onslaught of texting and social media has drastically decreased the ability for young people to do any kind of intelligent public speaking.”

“True dat,” Anna said with a wink.
 

Marlee smiled at her and continued, “I don’t do it a lot, but when I speak at other schools I usually do some kind of icebreaker, then I tie speech theories to it in a metaphorical way, and then I come back to it as I wrap up the lecture. In the past, my lectures have been attended by solely other faculty members of the universities where I’m speaking, so the interest points I weave through has been very, shall we say, cerebral, for lack of better term.”

“Meaning I wouldn’t have a clue what you were talking about?” Declan said, and they all laughed.

“This series of lectures will probably be different. Because of the Department of Education’s interest on the topic, it’s my understanding that there will be larger audiences of a more general makeup. And I’ll want to have a more relatable icebreaker that I can then tie back around. So, the common denominator that I’ve come up with as a thread throughout my lecture is football.”

“That’s a great idea. Especially in college towns,” Cole said.
 

“That’s what I was thinking. If I can make it interesting enough, or state it in a way that appeals to the mass audience, I know I’ll have a better response.”

“So you want to cram up on football? Darlin’, it’s not that easy.”

“I know, but I figured if I went to a game, then had Cole explain the basic theory behind it, I could come up with something. Tie the need for good public speaking skills to, I don’t know, the need for a good…offense?”

Declan gave her a look like she’d just said something adorable. She figured she’d probably messed up even that small analogy.
 

He caught a wisp of her hair that had come down from her chignon. He twirled it around his finger. He motioned for the waiter. “Let’s get our order in now, and then I’ll tell you why your plan sucks.”

Chapter Four

A
fter a wonderful dinner comprised of a magnificent salad, full of feta, walnuts and dried cherries, and a loaf of fresh-from-the-oven bread, Declan turned to Marlee. He normally couldn’t wait to have a glass of wine or two after his last game of the year. He abstained during the season, but he didn’t order one tonight. He wanted his head clear with Marlee.
 

He’d taken his arm back so that he could eat, and now he placed his hand on her thigh. Very high up on her thigh. Her thigh was almost as firm as Declan’s, and much more shapely. She must work out. Then why did she know nothing about sports? Probably tai chi or yoga or some such crap. Of course she’d have to wear pants tonight, Declan lamented. No skirt hem to gently ease up with his hand. Couldn’t anything with this woman be easy? She was making his head spin more than seeing a nose guard bearing down on him.

“Marlee, true football people can smell a phony a mile off. If you, someone who knows absolutely nothing about the game, opens your lecture with a football anecdote, you’ll lose all credibility right then and there. Then who’s going to listen to you wax about the importance of—and breakdown of—public speaking, when all they’re thinking to themselves is ‘she meant tight end when she said right guard’?”

“How could I ever mix up a tight end and a right guard when I don’t even know what either one is?”

“Exactly my point.”
 

“So explain the difference to me.”

“Marlee, I know to your educated eye football seems like a barbaric game where men just run willy-nilly around the field trying to hurt each other, but it’s much more than that. The tactics, the precision, the strategy, the talent that is on that field is astounding.”

She hesitated, then said, “I realize that.”

 
“No, you don’t. You don’t realize that, you just don’t want to piss me off because of what’s happening between us. You don’t want to sabotage it.” She looked like she wanted to argue, but he quickly continued, “But let me be clear. We are going to happen, Marlee—I don’t know for how long, but I do know it’s going to be good. It’s going to happen regardless of this football-as-it-applies-to-public-speaking discussion we’re having, so you might as well speak your mind on the subject.”

“Listen, we’re going to take off, can you guys get home all right, or…” Cole said.
 

“We’re good,” Declan said to his friend. They shook hands, Declan standing and giving his former teammate a hug. “Thanks so much for coming today, man. With my family not here, it really meant a lot. I’m just sorry you had the Sunday off so you could make it.”

“We’ll make it further next year,” Cole said, and Declan nodded. It was a fluke and an unlucky fumble that had the Outlaws out so early in the playoffs this year.

“You’re…okay?” Anna asked Marlee.

Declan watched the unspoken words that flashed across the women’s faces. It seemed Marlee had Anna’s approval, and even encouragement, to go home with him.

“I’m good,” Marlee finally said. Anna hugged her friend in the booth, then scooted out the other side, and the married couple left the restaurant.

Sliding back into the booth, even closer to her statuesque body than he’d been before, he asked, “Where were we?”

“Me learning football.”

“Right. Or rather
not
being able to learn it over a dinner so that you could speak intelligently about it.”

“I just think that I’d able to pick up the basics of the game, tailor it to my lecture, and that would be that. I don’t need to know the philosophy of the game or its conception through current history just so I can have an icebreaker, for Pete’s sake.”

“You said you’ll be lecturing at universities?”
 

“Yes.”

“Major universities, small ones, junior colleges, what?” He played with her hair again, then let go of the tendril of hair and moved to her neck, softly stroking. She had a long, graceful neck that seemed to rise from her silky blouse like a tall aspen reaches for the sky. His fingers gently caressed, smoothing down the line of a translucent vein. Her skin was so soft, and he could just catch the scent of…jasmine.