She's the One: COunting on Love, Book 1 (11 page)

As expected, Amanda was a little early.

“Hi.” She looked amazing. Happy. Excited even.

Which he really loved. “Hi.” He couldn’t help his grin.

She had her hair pulled up in a ponytail, and was dressed in light blue capri pants and a white-and-blue-striped sleeveless blouse. She had on only a touch of makeup and she looked young and natural.

He wanted to kiss her the moment he saw her.

Then he got a whiff of her lemony body spray and he wanted to do a lot more than kiss her.

But she simply turned on the heel of her white leather flip-flop and headed back down his front steps. “Let’s go,” she said breezily.

They took her car since Ryan still didn’t know where they were going.

They chatted about nothing in particular on the twenty-minute drive, but Ryan lost all track of the conversation when she pulled in to the parking lot of a big building with neon signs in the windows.

“Laser tag?” Ryan looked at Amanda, surprised and even a little impressed.

“I’ve only played once, but I loved it,” she said. “I thought maybe you’d do this with me.”

“Why would you worry about other people knowing you like this?” he asked.

She looked at the building. “It’s not that I’d be worried about someone finding this out,” she said. “It’s that I don’t take the time for it. It seems like I always have too many responsible things to do.”

“Maybe you should let your sisters see you like this,” he said. “Let them know you can have fun.”

She shut off the car and pulled the keys from the ignition. “It’s not the having fun I want to avoid with my sisters. It’s the ‘I told you so’ that I’d get.”

“You’d get ‘I told you so’ from them for laser tag?”

She got out of the car and he followed her. “Totally,” she said over the top of the car. “I don’t usually take the time to blow off steam, and then if I do and actually have fun, they would definitely say ‘I told you so’.”

“So you need me…”

“Because you won’t think laser tag is dumb, you won’t make fun of me for getting into it and you
won’t
say ‘I told you so’.”

He grinned at her. “I definitely won’t. Since I’ve never told you so.” They both slammed their car doors and met at the front bumper of the car. “Your job is to make sure I have fun but to keep me from getting cocky and doing something stupid in there, okay?” Amanda asked.

It had to be a reference to the story she’d told him last night about Conner’s coach. He was surprised. He’d attributed the confession the night before to the raspberry liqueur. But now she was bringing it up again, fully sober.

That was kind of awesome.

Immediately following that thought, a surge of anger and the need to punch something washed through him. It was unexpected and completely out of character for Ryan. But, dammit, the man had been a respected teacher and coach. A
married
teacher and coach. Who had to have been at least ten years Amanda’s senior, if not more.

Ryan worked to keep calm. He didn’t get angry. He didn’t get protective. He didn’t get riled up about other people’s choices. He didn’t really understand the need to get even.

Until Amanda.

Wow. He was going to need to do a lot of meditation with this girl around.

“I don’t think you need to worry about making any life-altering choices while playing laser tag today,” he said lightly.

She smiled up at him. “Promise?”

“Promise. Just fun. No trouble.”

She took his hand and started for the front of the building. “That’s perfect—and exactly what I need you for.”

She needed someone she could have fun with, let loose with, who would understand, not judge and not let anything bad happen.

“I’m your guy.” Ryan pulled the door open for her.

She gave him a smile that was cute and sexy at the same time. He didn’t usually think of the women he spent time with as cute but…it fit.

And he was sure she would
hate
knowing he thought she was cute.

They stepped into the building and looked around. There were only four other people besides the people who worked for the laser tag place.

They signed in and paid for their game. Amanda chose
crazygirl1
as her player name and Ryan picked
CaptainAmerica
.

“How very patriotic of you,” she commented.

He grinned. “Kicking ass and taking names for the red, white and blue.”

She smiled back and tucked her hair behind her ear.

Cute. Definitely.

Ryan had played laser tag a few times and yeah, it was fun. But sneaking around in the dark suddenly seemed a lot more appealing.

“So why laser tag?” Ryan asked, content to simply watch her as they wandered the lobby, looking over the video games that lined the walls, waiting for the laser tag game in progress to end.

“It’s dark so you’re kind of anonymous, you get to run around and hide and
shoot
people and you’re
supposed
to.”

He smiled down at her. “So you get to be bad, but no one really gets hurt. I get it.”

And he loved the insight.

She wanted to be naughty but was afraid of the consequences. She didn’t realize that the consequences of being a little wild could be
good
too. He’d have to help her figure that out.

As he strapped on the vest that would keep track of his shots and hits, he watched Amanda shrug into hers. He snagged the strap that was dangling just out of her reach. She looked up and he tugged on the strap, bringing her closer. She almost stepped on his toes, but she didn’t protest the proximity or him reaching around her to buckle her vest.

“You ready to be a little naughty in the dark?” he asked.

“Yes.” She said it breathlessly. “But before we go in there I need to know—are you for me or against me?”

He grinned and moved in even closer. “Against. Always. As much as possible.”

“Then you better watch your ass.”

He laughed, then swatted
her
ass. “I’ll be too busy watching yours.”

She was surprised for one second before her expression turned sexy. “Not in the dark.”

“You’re right. I might have to go by feel.” He couldn’t resist and ran his flat palm over her butt again.

She licked her lips. “Thought you said no sex.”

“I said no sex on
this
date. But not on every date forever.”

“So this is…” She trailed off, clearly wanting him to fill in the blank.

“Foreplay.”

The buzzer sounded to signal the start of the new game and the inner doors swung open.

Ryan watched Amanda stare back at him, the single word
foreplay
hanging between them. She was the one to finally pull her gaze away.

“Then let’s go,” she said.

“Right
behind
you, babe.”

She tripped a little as she turned and started for the game area.

Ryan followed her, a big grin in place that he didn’t think that was going to go away any time soon.

Everyone gathered around the computer monitor that listed all the players by their player names and waited for the signal to begin.

“And when you say ‘against me’, you meant like in a sexy, get-up-against-me way, right?” Amanda whispered.

He grinned. “Sure.”

“You didn’t mean ‘against me’ as in you’ll shoot me if you find me?”

“Guess we’ll find out.” He raised his weapon.

“Ryan—” She was cut off by the starting buzzer.

The lights went down, plunging them into darkness but for strips of neon lights.

Everyone scattered but Ryan and Amanda. She turned and looked at him with wide eyes.

He raised his weapon. Her jaw dropped.

“You wouldn’t.”

“No consequences, remember?”

Her eyes narrowed. “Except maybe never seeing me naked.”

He watched her for a long moment, trying to gauge if she was serious.

“I would so throw this game if you meant that,” he finally told her.

She raised her gun and shot him.

As his vest beeped and blinked, she smiled. “Sucker.”

“You’re in trouble,” he said simply.

They both knew that after being shot, the game would disengage his gun for a few seconds, so she had a little time before he would be able to shoot her back.

She gave him a wink and then turned and ran.

He was laughing as he gave her a head start. He
was
going to find her. And when he did, she was definitely in trouble. Good trouble.

Several minutes later, he had to admit she was good. He hadn’t caught even a glimpse of her. He rounded a corner and suddenly felt someone grab the front of his shirt and yank him into a dark corner behind a padded column.

“Oh, my gosh, I’m in trouble,” Amanda hissed.

“I should shoot you right now,” he said.

She ducked behind his shoulder. “Some of my students are here.”

“No way.” What were the chances?

“They must have been in the game before ours too, so I didn’t see them up front.” She still hadn’t let go of his shirt.

“I take it you don’t want them to see you now?”

“Right.”

“Why?”

That seemed to stump her for a moment. “Well…because.”

It was dark, but he could see enough to know that she looked gorgeous. “You look like a woman who’s having a great time. Nothing is wrong with that.” He brushed a stray strand of hair away from her forehead.

“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.” She took a deep breath. “I just freaked out a little when I saw them.”

“That’s okay. You were surprised.”

“Well…embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed?”

“Yeah. I, um…” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.

“You what?”

“Kind of shot one of them. Repeatedly.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Okay, well, that’s what you’re here for.”

“I might have…”

“Yeah?”

“Yelled.”

“Yelled,” he repeated.

“Yep.”

“Something specific?” He was fighting a smile now.

She sighed. “‘Take that, maggot’.”

He couldn’t contain his snort. “Maggot? Wow. That’s harsh.”

She covered her face with her hands. “I know.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

“As long as they don’t see me it’s fine. They’ll think that it was a crazy woman who looked a little like their clinical director, but they won’t believe it because I’d never do something like that.”

“Obviously,” he said dryly.

“So if they don’t see me,” she went on. “I’ll be fine. But if they do then…”

“The world will still turn.”

“But I’ll be embarrassed.”

“Which is
not
the worst emotion to feel.”

She met his gaze. “I was thinking that maybe you’d be okay with hanging out in this dark corner with me.”

Oh. He leaned in, bracing his forearm on the wall beside her head. “Well, it’s probably best that these impressionable young people not find out that their director of clinical education would say something so horrible.”

She smiled. “Exactly.”

“Even worse would be for these kids to know that their director of clinical education is so hot and fun.”

He leaned in and kissed her. She dropped her gun and wrapped her arms around his neck. He cupped the back of her head, holding her in place for a full, deep tasting. He stroked his tongue along hers, drinking in the sound of her groan and welcoming the feel of her pressing her hips into his.

Thankful for the wall behind her, he leaned in. Their vests kept them from being breast to chest, but he felt every inch of her legs along his.

When he lifted his head, she sighed. “Wow.”

He grinned. “Yeah, seeing you like this would definitely fuel some major fantasies for a lot of your students. It would be so distracting and so unfair to their learning process.”

She smiled. “Thanks for thinking of all of them. Really generous of you.”

“I feel strongly about the education of our future physical therapists.”

“Uh-huh.” She pulled him down for another kiss.

It was hot and made every cell in his body pulse. He wanted her and he
was
going to have her.

Amanda gripped his hips, her thumbs through the belt loops on his jeans, and pulled him closer.

Their height difference with her flat shoes and the laser tag vests kept him from getting close enough. Though he wasn’t sure if he’d ever actually feel close enough.

He ran his hands over her vest, unbuckling the straps. “Gotta lose this, babe.”

“Right with ya.” Her fingers got busy on his vest, and within seconds both dropped to the floor with a thump.