Getting Wound Up: A Sapphire Falls/ Love Between the Bases Novel-- PART THREE (10 page)

More from Erin Nicholas

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Sapphire Falls

Getting Out of Hand (book 1)

Getting Worked Up (book 2)

Getting Dirty (book 3)

Getting In the Spirit, Christmas novella

Getting In the Mood, Valentine’s Day novella

Getting It All (book 4)

Getting Lucky (book 5)

Getting Over It (book 6)

Getting to Her (book 6 companion novella)

Getting to the Church On Time, wedding novella

The Bradfords

Just Right (book 1)

Just Like That (book 2)

Just My Type (book 3)

Just the Way I Like It (short story, 3.5)

Just for Fun (book 4)

Just a Kiss (book 5)

Just What I Need: The Epilogue (novella, book 6)

Anything & Everything

Anything You Want

Everything You’ve Got

Counting On Love

Just Count on Me (prequel)

She’s the One

It Takes Two

Best of Three

Going for Four

Up by Five

The Billionaire Bargains

No Matter What

What Matters Most

All That Matters

single title

Hotblooded

Promise Harbor Wedding

Hitched (book four)

Boys of Fall

Out of Bounds

Illegal Motion

Excerpt from Jennifer Bernard’s

Drive You Wild

Coming June 28, 2106

Footfalls raced after him.
Paige.
It had to be. Blood boiling, Trevor stopped at the head of the stairs and intercepted her, snagging her wrist and pulling her down the steps after him.

“What are you doing?”

“Rescuing you,” he growled.

“From what? I’m perfectly fine.”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“What…that makes no…sense…” She continued to squawk as he hauled her down the stairs into the clubhouse. He knew it would be completely empty during the National Anthem. Even the clubhouse attendant would be out on the field.

Once inside the deserted, towel-strewn locker room, he spun her against the wall and braced his hands on either side of her head. “This,” he ground out, “is a bad idea.”

She stared at him with a bewildered expression. He seized the opportunity to gaze his fill of her in the daylight, up close. Close enough to notice the outer rim of purple surrounding the sparkling blue of her eyes and the light spray of freckles across her cheekbones. A long strand of honey-brown hair clung to her neck. Fresh and alive, her apple fragrance lured him closer; he sensed the racing of her heart.

He eased off, in case it was fear causing her heart to beat so fast. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”

A crease appeared between her eyebrows. He clenched his hands to keep from smoothing it away. “I told you my name.”

“
Part
of your name.”

“We didn’t exactly meet at a formal tea party,” she said. “I don’t remember how I introduced myself.”

“I do. Paige, you said.”

“Well, it’s Paige Mattingly Austin Taylor, since you seem to require the whole thing.”

“The only part I’m worried about is the ‘Taylor.’ Your father despises me.”

She held his gaze. “A legend like Crush Taylor doesn’t like seeing talented players waste their gifts.”

As if she’d suddenly caught fire, he released her. He wasn’t wasting his gift, he was using it to protect his sister the best way he could. He paced away from her, rubbing one hand across the back of his neck.

“So last night you were in the parking lot waiting for Crush?”

“Yes. But I must have missed him, and then I saw you. And the man with the BB gun.”

“Does Crush know that was you on the security tape?”

Her eyes widened in alarm. “No. And please don’t tell him. He’d kill me. Or you. Maybe both.”

“I won’t tell him as long as you promise not to put yourself in danger like that again.”

She pushed away from the wall and sauntered toward him. “Um, I’m alone in an empty clubhouse with Big Bad Trevor Stark
.
” On that word, she tilted her head back and swept past him. “Apparently danger is my middle name.”

He followed her as she advanced farther into the clubhouse and peered curiously into the lockers. “I’ve never been in here before. It was always off-limits,” she told him.

“Is that why you turned me down? No sleeping with the players?”

Outside Ramirez’s locker, she turned to face him, folding her arms over her chest. With a mighty effort, he fought to keep his gaze away from the pretty curves of her breasts under her T-shirt. “I turned you down because our acquaintance consisted of about ten minutes of conversation while fleeing a man with a BB gun. Also because I was headed to see my father. Not only that, I’m not in the habit of sleeping with men I’ve only met once. I can probably come up with a few more good reasons. Is it really so strange?”

“In my life, it’s unusual,” he said simply. What the hell, it was the truth. Girls came on to him all the time.

A distant thumping sound told him the pregame ceremony had finished and the Catfish were taking the field. Normally, he’d be pissed as hell that he wasn’t out there with them. Not this time. Talking to Paige in the empty quiet of the clubhouse, he didn’t miss the baseball field. Strange.

Paige had scrunched up her face at his mention of his love life. “I think we can both agree that it’s a good thing I turned you down, given who my father is. I hope your feelings aren’t still wounded.”

He shot her a sharp glance. “You know, suddenly I see the Taylor family resemblance. Crush always irritates the hell out of me too.”

She bit her lip, amusement filling those big blue eyes. “I picked up on that.”

“My
feelings
don’t get wounded, so you can just put that worry out of your mind.”

“Just like that, huh?” She flicked her fingers in the air. “What are you, some kind of emotionless robot?”

“Not at all. I have emotions. I get horny.”

He used crudeness deliberately to get a rise out of her. But it only made one corner of her wide mouth lift, as if he’d issued a challenge. “Could have fooled me. We’ve been alone all this time and you haven’t once made a move.”

Narrowing his eyes, he closed the space between them. “Your taunts won’t work. You rejected me, remember? That ship has sailed.”

“Really? Where’s the ship going?” She stepped forward.
Olimpia
Milano,
that’s what her shirt said, and damn him for not being able to keep his eyes off her. Those curves made the palms of his hands twitch, so he closed them into fists.

“Nowhere,” he said firmly. This girl was trouble with a capital T—for Taylor.

“Are you afraid of the mighty Crush Taylor?” She took another step closer. “He’s not as bad as he seems, you know.”

“I’m not afraid of him.” He placed his hands on her shoulders to keep her from coming any closer. Her warmth carried into his skin, into his being, as if it was igniting him from within.

“And I’m not afraid of
you
.” She ducked underneath his hands in a quick move right out of the NBA. He took a step back and his calves hit the bench situated next to the lockers. She reached out in apology and suddenly they were right smack against each other, chest-to-chest.

Fire flashed down his spine, hot and urgent. He hauled her against him—oh, sweet Jesus, she felt good. Soft and firm and shapely and alive and fresh and…then her mouth was under his, her lips parting, her breath warm against his mouth, her flesh lush and sweet. It wasn’t a kiss so much as a head rush.

Her breasts pressed against him, soft and enticing. He growled and walked her backward, pinned her against a locker. Lifted her legs to wrap around his waist. His lack of pants meant the bare skin of her legs slid against his, a smooth friction that sent more blood to his groin.

She trembled in his arms and grabbed the back of his jersey. “Touch me,” she whispered wildly. “Just touch me.”

Her urgency threw fuel on the fire driving him. He adjusted her on his thighs and slid his hands under the edge of her shorts, her skin like warm silk against his palms. She pushed against him, grinding against his seeking fingers.
Wild
.
Fierce.
He reached for her heat, for wetness, for glory. And froze.

Crush Taylor’s daughter.

He pulled his hand out of her shorts and released her so she slid to the floor. She would have stumbled if he hadn’t held her steady. Eyes huge, mouth moist from his kiss, she stared up at him.

“I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.” Closing his eyes against the temptation of her, he swiped his arm across his forehead. His face was damp with sweat. How had a simple kiss gotten him to this state?

“No, it was my fault,” she whispered. “I wanted you to. Oh God. I’m sorry. I guess it’s… I’m so embarrassed.” She covered her face with both hands. Her ponytail fell forward and he pushed it gently behind her shoulder.

“Embarrassed?”

“I’ve been going through a divorce, and it’s been awful, and sex became this
loaded
thing, it was never just fun or pleasurable. I guess I forgot what it felt like when… I shouldn’t have gotten carried away like that, and just so you know, I tend to babble during awkward situations. Can we mutually block this out? Make a pact of denial?”

“Pact of denial,” he repeated dumbly. He was still stuck on the divorce part. She looked much too young to be married.

“Yes. This never happened.” Her eyes clung to his, color flooding her face.

That didn’t sit well with him. He wasn’t about to forget something like this. Even now his hands pulsed with the memory of her touch. But if that’s how she wanted it…

“Do we have to shake on it? Because I’m not sure I can touch you without wanting to throw you down and—” He broke off as her eyes went the starry violet of a Texas twilight.

“That’s okay, we can make it a verbal agreement,” she said in a slightly choked voice.

He looked down at the front of his jersey. “I’ll have to have a talk with my nonverbal side, straighten a few things out.”

She let out a bubble of laughter. “I’ll leave that in your hands,” she said, then turned scarlet. “I mean… I’d…uh…better get to the owner’s box before my father comes looking. Pact of denial?”

“Can we add in a pact of stay the hell away from each other?”

“That might be hard. I’m going to be working here. Mission ‘Win the Championship’ is now my life.”

Just his luck, to share the hottest kiss of his life with a woman he couldn’t go near. He ran his hand across the back of his neck. “You’d better go. There’s a cold shower calling my name.”

She hurried toward the exit. Damn those long legs. How would he ever forget the way they’d felt wrapped around his waist? “One question,” he called after her. “Going through a divorce. Does that mean…?”

“It means I’m divorced.” Her face was the bright red of a St. Louis Cardinals cap. “I’ll see you around, Trevor Stark.”

“See you, Paige Mattingly Austin Taylor.”

With a fleeting smile, she whisked herself out of the clubhouse.

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Excerpt from Erin Nicholas’s

Getting Out of Hand

Book One in the Sapphire Falls series

“What’s going on?” Mason asked Drew.

Drew took a long draw of beer and then said, “It’s an auction. Kind of like those bachelor auctions. But the guys are bidding on dances with those girls. Later, the women will bid on ten guys. The money goes to the building fund.”

Mason was sure the men were not bidding because of the building fund, but he refrained from saying so.

“You one of the guys they’ll be bidding on?” Mason asked, already knowing the answer.

“You bet.” Drew grinned. “It’s great for the ego.”

Charlene ended up partnered for the next dance for thirty dollars.

Linda, a forty-ish blond in tight black jeans, promised the next two dances for thirty-five dollars and Betty, a cute little white-haired lady with enough jewelry to fund the entire building campaign times three, went to stand next to a tall bald gentleman who was grinning widely in spite of having spent fifty-three dollars on two dances.

Then Hailey stepped forward.

“And who’s next on Miss Hailey’s card?” Jack asked the crowd.

Several hands went up and Mason noticed that the guy she’d been dancing with was one of them. Mason leaned an elbow on the bar and took a sip of his beer while keeping track of the bid while it climbed.