Playing it Cool (Sydney Smoke Rugby) (16 page)

Another calm nod from Tanner. “Because?”

The blood vessel from earlier pulsed painfully at Dex’s temple. His heart beat loud in his ears as pressure built in Dex’s chest. “Because it’s not
goddamn
true,” he snapped. “Jesus. I can’t eat or drink or sleep, she’s got me tied in so many knots. Fuck, man, my whole game is off.”

“Because?”

The pressure built some more at Tanner’s insistent, annoying refrain. What did he want Dex to say? “Because…I think this thing with Harper is bigger than rugby. And frankly it scares the bejesus out of me.”

Tanner smiled this time, like they’d just had some kind of breakthrough. “
Because?
”

Dex’s blood pressure shot into stroke range as he contemplated popping Tanner right in the kisser. “God-
fucking-
dammit.” He glared at his best mate as the pressure inside his chest spiked then blew out in an almighty rush. “Because I love her, okay?”

There was a moment of stunned silence from Dex, the truth so startling that his mouth shut with an audible snap.

Tanner patted him on the shoulder. “Atta boy.” He grinned. “Wasn’t so hard, was it?”

The revelation sunk in like a lead balloon, unable to be ignored or denied anymore.
Christ.
What a fucking blind fool he’d been. It was so
obvious
now. He wasn’t the same guy he’d been before he’d dared Harper Nugent to a game of strip Battlefront and ended up doing the wild thing on her couch.

No matter how much he’d tried to tell himself nothing had changed.

Oh, he was still
him,
but he was aware of the differences now. Like all his cells had been reprogrammed and there was something inherently
changed
about him. He just hadn’t realised it until Tanner had forced him to dig deep.

He’d been too tunnel-visioned to allow anything outside of his career into the equation.

Dex shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t the way I planned things.”

Tanner laughed, and he opened his eyes. “Give it up, dude. This’ll be better, trust me.”

“I’ve got five years. I’m supposed to be concentrating on my football.”

“And that’s what you’ve been doing? Fumbling the ball? Fucking up line outs? That’s you concentrating? Don’t you think you’ll be able to concentrate
better
when she’s in your life for good? Because I gotta tell you, keeping her on the outside is
not
working for you.”

Dex knew the truth of it. And it wasn’t just about his rugby. Keeping Harper on the outside wasn’t working for him in
any
way. He was leading a half-life. He might as well be back in Perry Hill. What was a career if he didn’t have someone special to share it with?

“I don’t want to do it without her anymore.”

And with that, he surrendered every reservation, every mantra he’d ever lived by, and a huge weight lifted from his shoulders.

He felt free—and in love.

“Why are you telling me this?” Tanner grinned. “Go tell her.”

Dex smiled back. He just wasn’t sure he hadn’t blown it completely. “She thinks I think she’s not glamorous enough to be a WAG.”

Tanner shrugged. “So go prove she is.”

…

Harper’s legs shook as she walked up the four stairs to the stage, both from nerves and from her last confrontation with Dex. If it hadn’t been for this commitment, she’d have already left. Hell, if it had been up to her, Harper would have left after the red carpet incident, despite the obligation.

Not that Em would have allowed it.

The room was silent, and Harper felt acutely self-conscious, like every eye on her was judging her for what she was wearing and thinking how a woman her size should have chosen something a little more circumspect.

Why, oh why, had she worn something so revealing? Why had she listened to Em?

A few hours ago she’d felt proud and confident in the dress. It sure as hell had attracted a lot of attention. Dex’s eyes had almost fallen out of his head for starters, and then she’d been hit on all night by a bunch of good-looking
single
guys.

It had been just what her ego had needed.

She’d spent so many years thinking of herself as unattractive because of her curviness, but she could see with her own two eyes tonight that men
did
find her attractive. That she could actually turn heads. Dex included.

Em had been right about Harper’s feelings of unworthiness, but tonight had started to redress that. Until Dex had opened his mouth. And now the doubt demons were back.

The WAGS aren’t you
.

In one sentence, Dex has squashed her confidence.

The emcee, Dan, a hot young paediatric doc from the hospital introduced her and the audience clapped. A guy at the front table, who Harper could just make out under the rim of the stage lights, half stood, put his thumb and forefinger in his mouth, and let a loud wolf whistle rip. He smiled at her, clutching his chest dramatically and tapping his fingers to mimic his beating heart as he sat down. Everyone at the nearby tables laughed and cheered, and it was a good boost to her flagging ego.

Harper stood a little taller.

Dan boosted it some more by bowing with a low flourish at the end of his spiel then playfully kissed her hand. He had flirty eyes and Harper noticed the same interest she’d seen in a lot of men tonight.

She smiled as she took her place at the podium, and the audience hushed. She didn’t know if Dex was out there in the darkness beyond the glare of the lights. She’d watched Tanner hustle him outside earlier, and she had no idea if they’d returned. She tried not to think about it. This moment wasn’t about him.

It was her moment.

The mural projections had gone down a treat, and Harper could talk about her art all night. And who knew where this type of exposure could lead?

She launched into her speech about her creative process, as requested by the hospital executive, putting Dex firmly out of her mind. The audience was engrossed in it, and in the images she’d put together into a presentation. When she was done, Dan, along with some helpers carrying spare mics on the floor, facilitated a Q & A session.

Harper was thrilled with how well it appeared to be going. People seemed genuinely interested in her and the murals. It didn’t stop the now-certain feeling that Dex was somewhere beyond the blaze of lights watching her—her skin prickled with it. But if anything, his presence made her more gregarious in her answers.

She had this crowd in the palm of her hand—she could feel it—and she was going to work it whether he approved or not.

“I think we have time for a couple of more questions,” Dr Dan said in a voice Harper was sure soothed a lot of frazzled mothers.

“Yes.” The guy who’d wolf-whistled stood, and Harper smiled at him as he was handed the mic. “I’d like to know are you single, and would you come out on a date with me?”

Harper blinked at the unexpected question as the audience laughed. “Oh.” She blushed and couldn’t help but laugh also.

“Yeah,” another guy said, somewhere at the back, “Me, too.”

“And me.”

Harper’s cheeks warmed as two more guys stood and asked for a date as the crowd clapped and cheered each one.

“Looks like you have some admirers, Harper,” Dan grinned. “Guess you’d better put them out of their misery.
Are
you single?”

Harper tossed her head and stared in the direction of Dex’s table even if she couldn’t see it properly. “Yes.”

There were cheers from the crowd. “Well, now,” Dan said, obviously good at ad-libbing and taking the pulse of the crowd. “This wasn’t exactly what we’d planned, but maybe we should earn some money for the hospital out of this. What do you reckon, Harper? Shall we have an impromptu auction? A date with you to the highest bidder? All proceeds going to the hospital? What’d you say?”

Harper nodded and laughed. Why the hell not? It was a good cause after all. And the fact that Dex was here to witness it? Win/win.

Dan looked out over the ballroom. “Who’s prepared to put their money where their mouth is? And remember…” He put his hand across his heart to really work the pathos. “It’s for the sick kiddies.”

“One thousand,” the guy at the front offered with a grin.

“Two,” came from the back but it was impossible for Harper to see because of the lights.

From somewhere over to the left: “Three.”

And somewhere near that: “Four.”

“Eight,” the cocky guy at the front threw in, to a few
ooohs
from the rapt crowd.

“One hundred thousand dollars.”

The granite voice needed no microphone to carry. And even across an entire ballroom it had the ability to tighten her nipples. A collective gasp rang around the room as heads swivelled in search of who had made the outrageous bid. Harper didn’t have to search—she
knew,
and her breath momentarily stuttered to a halt.

What the hell…? For the love of all that was holy, the stupid man could have dated her for
free
.

“But I want more,” he said.

There was gravel in his voice now, and if there was a woman in the room not thinking of Dex naked on his knees, begging for more, Harper would like to meet her.

There was a stir amongst the audience, passing from one table to the next as heads turned toward the stage. He was on the move.

Harper couldn’t be sure, because she couldn’t really see, but she could sense him getting closer. She felt it in her gut.

And places slightly lower.

“Hey,” the guy at the front protested good-naturedly as Dex appeared at the stage, taking the steps two at a time. “What’s he got that I don’t?”

“He’s got balls,” someone yelled from the side.

“Yeah, and he rucks like a demon,” someone else joked, and everyone laughed.

Before she knew it, his tuxedoed form was on the stage and heading for her. Harper’s pulse accelerated. She could tell herself—
she could tell the whole damn room
—she was single, but she was always going to belong to this man.

Heat flushed Harper’s cheeks as a pregnant silence fell over the audience. What the fuck was he doing? Was he drunk and having a Kanye moment? “Dex?” She glanced at the rapt crowd and back at him. “What are you doing?” she whispered, but with the microphone right there, it wasn’t exactly private.

He slid his hands up her arms and turned her slightly to face him. “I’m apologising for being, in the words of Hugh Grant, ‘a daft prick,’ and I’m begging your forgiveness.” Someone in the crowd let out an almighty wolf whistle, and there were sporadic claps and cheers. “I can’t eat or drink or sleep for thinking about you. I sure as shit can’t play rugby.”

“You got that right,” someone in the audience called out, and everyone laughed.

“But I don’t care about that.” Dex slogged on, his fingers warm and firm around her biceps. “I don’t care if I don’t play another game of rugby ever again, because you mean more to me than it
ever
has. And if you want me to give it up, I will do it in a heartbeat. I’ll give up everything. Hell, I’d even go back to Perry Hill, as long as you come with me. I don’t care if we have to live on mac and cheese for the rest of our lives if it means you’re by my side, because I love you, Harper Nugent.”

More wolf whistling and clapping echoed around the ballroom. “I am madly, stupidly, desperately in love with you. I just didn’t want to see it.”

He paused for a breath, then, and the audience clapped and hollered some more. Harper’s heart was beating so fast in her chest she didn’t know how it was actually pumping effectively. Hot tears pricked the back of her eyes as she searched his calm green gaze for signs of disingenuousness.

There wasn’t any.

She couldn’t believe this was happening to her.
He loved her?
She’d dreamed about him saying those three little words but hadn’t believed she’d ever hear them. She certainly never thought he’d declare himself in front of a ballroom full of mostly strangers and a shitload of media.

And he wasn’t finished yet.

“In front of the four hundred people here tonight,” he continued, “and the hundreds and thousands of people who will see this on their television and the millions more who will see it the second someone here uploads the video they’re taking right now to Facebook”—more audience laughter—“I want you to know how sexy you are. How much I love your curves, how
obsessed
I am with your ass”—clapping and wolf whistling interrupted him and he waited for it to die down—“and how seeing you in your baggy painting overalls, the ones with the zip that goes all the way down the front, makes me want to do
real
bad things to you.”

Harper blushed furiously as the audience erupted, her pulse tripping. The entire ballroom filled with the sound of stamping feet. She’d accused Dex of keeping her as a dirty little secret, of being embarrassed by her body.

Well, he’d just blown that complaint right out of the water.

She knew what an intensely private man Dex was and how hard this must be for him, to bare his soul in front of everyone. But he was giving it his all.

His hands slid down her arms to clasp her hands that were trembling like crazy.

“But more than that, I love how you kick my ass in Battlefront, I love how you are with Jace and Tabby, I love your sense of humour and I am in awe of your artistic talent and how you volunteer your time to teach art to the kids at the hospital. And more than anything, I love how being with you feels like coming home and I don’t want to live another day without you in my life. ”

He dropped down on one knee. Harper’s eyes widened as her stomach went into free fall.

“What are you doing, Dex?” she whispered as the crowd went wild.

But he just squeezed her hands and smiled at her. “Harper Nugent,” he said when the noise died down. In fact the whole ballroom fell silent as if holding its breath. “I know we haven’t known each other for very long, but I love you. I want us to be together forever. Would you do the honour of marrying me?”