Game For Love: Love Games (Kindle Worlds) (6 page)

“Mostly major universities, why?” She seemed flustered by his hand on her, her face flushing a cute shade of pink. But she moved her head slightly, giving him better access.

“Well, you know, the icebreaker you make at University of Florida might be a hit there, but a flop at Maryland. If you discuss texting as being as big an archrival to public speaking as Michigan when you’re at Miami, you’ll flop. If you say the same thing at Ohio State, you’ll have them enthralled. If you talk about speech in elementary schools as if it were a basic running game at UCLA, where they run nothing but the West Coast Offense, you’ll get blank stares.”
 

Declan got a blank stare of his own from Marlee.

“But Marlee, it could have a lot of potential. It’s a great idea, really. Do you have a list of where you’ll be speaking yet?”

“I have a complete itinerary at home, why?”

“I’ll take a look at it. You tell me your thoughts on what you’d like to say, how you had planned to weave football terms into your lecture, and then I’ll tailor it to each university for you. This could be fun. I loved college football. The rivalries were the greatest. The traditions. You don’t get that in the pros. There’s a purity to the game at that level you don’t have anymore in the pros. Though, unfortunately, college football is a big business itself these days.”

“I couldn’t possibly ask you to do that for me, Declan. That would take up a lot of your time.”

Yeah, time he could be spending in bed with her. Still, it could mean more that just one night with her. And he was beginning to think that one night with Marlee Reeves might not be enough.

“Actually, you hit me at the right time. I am now officially unemployed. I have to be in New York next Monday morning. I’m taking a flight out Sunday afternoon, but my time is yours until then. And I’d really like something to distract me this week, anyway.”

“Distract you from what?”

“Monday I start working on an audition tape in New York. Then my agent shops it around to the networks. I’m spending all next week at meetings with FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, and ESPN. I never did any endorsements throughout my career because I didn’t want to distract myself at all, so I have absolutely no experience in front of the camera, other than press conferences after games, and those are always a blur to me. I have this horrible vision of getting in front of those cameras next week and freezing, nothing coming out. Or of just rambling.”
 

That was his worst fear. Making an ass of himself. Declan had always been so confident of his abilities, knew exactly what he was capable of on the field. This unknown of his possible new direction in life was beginning to creep up on him.
 

He hadn’t allowed himself to think much about it while there were still games to concentrate on. Now, just the thought of stepping in front of the cameras made him tense. Unwittingly, Declan squeezed Marlee’s neck. It wasn’t hard, but it took her by surprise and she let out a little squeak.

“Sorry, darlin’.” He smoothed her skin where he had squeezed it. “See, I’m getting all tensed up just thinking about it. My agent says they’ll have all sorts of experts there to help me through it, but…”

“Declan, my God, you’d be amazing on camera. I don’t know what size the female audience for watching football broadcasts is, but it will triple when you’re on the screen. Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?” Realizing what she’d blurted out, Marlee ducked her head. Declan lifted her chin to look at him, and she saw what was surely a smug smile. “Apparently you
do
know how gorgeous you are.” She nudged him in his gut, causing a small grunt.

“But it’s certainly nice to know that
you
think I am.”

“So if you think you’d be so bad at this, why are you doing it?” she asked him.

Declan shrugged. “It’s what ex-quarterbacks do. We go on TV and tell America how it should have been done.”

“And you can do that?”

“Tell them how it should have been done? Sure. That was always my strength: strategy, play breakdowns, tactics, play-calling, I can do that in my sleep. The thought of being on camera to do it…that makes me nervous.”

“The great Declan Tate nervous, I don’t believe it. You play in front of cameras every week.”

He waved a hand in dismissal. “That’s different. I don’t even know they’re there. And three hours ago you had no idea who ‘the great Declan Tate’ was, so don’t pull that bullshit with me.”

“Three hours. I’ve only known you for three hours, and now…” She let the thought go, but Declan picked up the fumble and ran with it.

“And now we’re going to sleep together. We are moving pretty fast, aren’t we? I’m not going to lie and tell you I’ve never slept with a woman on the night I met her. Because I have, several times. I will tell you that I’ve never been the aggressor in those situations, it was always very easy for me. You’re not an easy woman, Marlee, and I don’t just mean sexually. That’s obvious.
 

“I’m not going to get all flowery, either, and start spouting words that you and I both know I don’t mean. I will tell you this. I have never been as immediately attracted to a woman as I am to you, Marlee. And I think it goes both ways. I’m only in town until Sunday, and you leave soon after that. We could have a great time scratching this itch that’s been irritating us since we laid eyes on each other. I know that’s not your usual style. You probably take things much slower, and I appreciate that, but Marlee…do you really want to slow down?”

He was giving her an out, but damn he hoped she wouldn’t take it.

“No, I don’t want to slow down. In fact, how fast can we get out of here?”

Declan had her out the booth and had Gino calling for a cab before she could take another breath.

 
He nuzzled her neck as they stood in the dark vestibule of the restaurant while they waited for their cab. He balanced her coat in the crook of his elbow, wanting her in as few layers as possible until their cab arrived and they had to brave the cold. His hands ran up and down her back, lower to her thighs, and once again he cursed her choice of pants over skirt. He really wanted to get his hands on her skin, but she was completely covered. She certainly left more to the imagination than most of the women he knew. He found he liked that. Liked having to imagine the shape and size of Marlee’s breasts, not having them shoved in his face in a barely concealing top.
 

He undid the buttons of her suit coat and slipped his hand in to feel her smooth silk blouse. He rested his hand on her tummy. “God, Marlee, I can’t wait to get you home, I need to get these clothes off you.”

Marlee seemed distracted, and not only by Declan’s hands on her. “Declan, I think I could help you.”

“I know you can help me, baby, but not here, and not in the cab, either. I want you bad, but I don’t want the driver getting off on our exploits. Or selling photos to TMZ.”

Marlee giggled. God, what a cute sound she made when she did that.

“Not with that. Though I’ll help you with
that
later. I was thinking about your audition. Do you think practicing in front of a camera and getting some feedback from me would put you more at ease about next week? I am good at what I do, you know.”

Declan brought his head up from where it seemed permanently attached to Marlee’s neck and thought about what she had just said. “Yeah, I think that would help. Do you have access to something like that, or were you thinking of home movies? Because, baby, I could think of lots of ways to film you and me together.” He raised his eyebrows in a suggestive but kidding manner that made Marlee smile. God, what a smile she had. And that mouth: full lips that came to a perfect bow on top. Oh, what that sexy mouth could do to him.
 

“As a matter of fact, I have carte blanche at a video recording studio at Boston College for the week. I was going to tape my lecture and do self-critiques. We could do you as well. My experience is more in front of live audiences, but I’ve done my share with recording. I could give you some pointers.”

“Would that interfere with your preparations?” What was he saying? She was giving him a chance to be around her for the whole week.
Grab it, man, grab it.
“I mean, that would be great. We could put the football stuff in your lecture at the same time.”

“Great. I have the studio from ten to five every day this week. We can start tomorrow.”

“Well, we won’t be there by ten tomorrow.”

“Why not?’

“Because I don’t intend to let you out of bed until noon,” he said as a cab pulled up to take them home.

Chapter Five

A
t quarter to ten the next morning, Marlee entered the Comm/Arts building and let herself into the video studio. Marlee’s Chestnut Hill home was only a few minutes’ drive from the Boston College campus, but this morning she had decided to walk to the studio. She did this frequently in the early fall and late spring, when she would spend the journey contemplating her classes and students, upcoming lectures, and even spend a few minutes thinking about her life.

 
It was on one such walk last fall, amidst the swirling, crisp, fallen orange leaves, that Marlee had come to the conclusion that she was ready to settle down and start a family. She would never give up teaching; she loved that too much. But once she had children, she would cut back to teaching only one or two classes a semester.
 

She’d thought she was ready two years earlier, but the dream had been ripped away from her, and it’d been too painful for her to think about again until recently.

It was shortly after that walk last fall that Marlee began driving through different suburbs and subdivisions, getting ideas of where she and her new family would ultimately live. She loved the home she currently owned, but she would want something larger once she had children.
 

She also began accepting more invitations to faculty social gatherings. Marlee assumed that her potential future mate would be met at just such a function, visualizing him as someone very much like herself: an academic who had reached professional achievement and was now ready to concentrate on home and hearth. So far the search had been fruitless, but Marlee had not been discouraged. It had only been a few months since she had come to her conclusion that she was ready to take a chance on love again.

Only this time with an appropriate man.

Marlee couldn’t remember the last time she had walked to campus in the dead of winter. It had taken her a few minutes to uncover her heavy mittens and more substantial boots. And she felt the need for physical activity, because Lord knew she didn’t get any last night.

Just as they were entering the cab, Declan’s cell phone had rung.
 

“Sorry, I need to get that—only a few people have this number, and they wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important. Yeah, hello?”
 

Marlee watched from the back seat of the cab as Declan took in who was calling him, and his reaction as he seemed to grasp the reason for the call.
 

“If it’s not that bad, can’t you take care of it?” He stepped back on to the sidewalk, turned his back on Marlee, and said something softly into the phone that Marlee couldn’t quite make out. After a few more moments of speaking softly into the phone, Declan’s shoulders sagged. He turned around, and as he slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket, he informed Marlee, “I have to go home. You take this cab. I’ll call another.”

Without further explanation, Declan closed the backseat door on Marlee. He then opened the passenger-side door of the front and handed the cab driver a wad of bills. “Here you go; take her home, and please see that she gets inside safely. Could you please radio to your dispatch and have them send another cab here ASAP? I’ll be going to Brookline.” Declan looked to the back seat at a stunned Marlee. Just as she was about to protest his paying for her cab, he cut her off.
 

“I’m sorry, Marlee. You have no idea how sorry. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, okay? At the studio? I know the Boston College campus pretty well; an old teammate of mine is the coach there. Which building will you be in?”
 

When Marlee described where the Comm/Arts building was located, and gave him the room number of the studio, Declan nodded in acknowledgement. “Yeah, I know where that is. Tomorrow at ten. I’ll see you then. And Marlee, again, you have no idea how truly sorry I am that our night ended here.” He closed the door and stepped to the curb, keeping his eyes on Marlee the entire time.
 

She only sat and stared at Declan, not knowing if she were relieved or disappointed at the turn of events. Her body was most definitely disappointed, but she suspected that it may have been too close a call for her heart.

Now, as Marlee began checking and setting up the video equipment, her body’s endorphins kicking in from her walk, she surmised that it was probably divine intervention that had ended their evening as it had. She had almost slept with a man she had just met. A football player, no less! Someone with whom she had absolutely nothing in common.
 

A man
so
not appropriate for her future.

Marlee chided herself. She was a responsible adult—if she wanted to have a short fling with someone, as long as they were safe, and both willing, what was wrong with that? Why did she need more rationalization than being incredibly attracted to Declan, and he to her? She knew there was no future with a man like Declan, but she was entitled to a little fun, with a man who seemed to share in the mutual attraction.