Game for Anything (16 page)

"Good. Because I'd have to rip him apart with my bare hands if he ever touched you." Julie didn't know what to say to his surprisingly touching declaration. It was nice to know that they had an unspoken agreement of monogamy for their time together. She certainly couldn't have dealt with him even looking at another woman. Not while they were sleeping together. Although, if she was honest with herself, it was just as hard for her to think about Ty dating someone else when her contract with the Outlaws came to an end.

She looked back out over the water, let herself soak up the beauty, the small waves rippling across the lake onto the shore. Inhaling the sweet pine scent, she softly said, "I'm having a great time with you, Ty."

She didn't look at him; didn't want to see if he felt the same way, or if he was trying to hide pity at how quickly she'd fallen for him. But at the same time, she wanted him to know that she was happy. And that she was pleased with the work he'd done thus far to clean up his act.

"I'm glad," was his response.

There was so much warmth in the two words that her fears instantly disappeared. What was she thinking? They were evenly matched, both in spirit and accomplishment. There was nothing but lots more fantastic sex, along with laughter, in their near future.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The next day, they headed for a children's football camp in Palo Alto. "This is my favorite place to be all summer," Ty told Julie as they pulled into the Camp Cougar parking lot. Several football fields stretched all around the parking lot, with a brown-shingled building directly to their left. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the guys who run this place."

It was bear hugs all around inside camp headquarters.

"Everyone, this is Julie." Ty wasn't embarrassed about needing an image consultant, but he wouldn't have minded letting his friends think they were an item for five minutes. Julie, of course, didn't feel the same way. As she shook hands she said, "I own an image consultancy, and the Outlaws hired me to work with Ty."

"I hope we're not supposed to act surprised," Tony said with a grin. Now in his sixties, he'd been running this camp since Ty was a ten-year-old on the field, kicking ass and taking names. "Ty always was a wild one—although we loved him anyway."

"What have we got this year?" Ty asked, not in the mood to discuss his past. Things were so good with Julie that he didn't want her remembering what an ass he'd been in high school. "Any standouts?" Tony nodded. "One kid, Jack, reminds me a lot of you. He can play any position, offense, defense. Nothing fazes him. Plays like he's sixteen, not ten."

Julie sat down on the corner of a desk and crossed her legs. Damn, she had some sweet thighs, Ty thought.

"Does being so good, so young, ever lead to resentment from the other kids?" Julie's question was a good one, and Ty struggled to focus on football rather than what was beneath her panties. "Sometimes there are problems, especially if one of the kids has an attitude. In most cases it isn't really their fault, though. It can be rough when your folks have been building you up to be the next Payton Manning."

Tony nodded. "This kid, Jack, is real friendly, just like your client here. Attracts people like a magnet." Ty took the compliment in stride and looked out the open sliding glass door, scanning the field. It wasn't hard to spot the future superstar. He threw like a high school kid, not a fifth grader. He was quick and seemed to have an instinctive understanding of the game. While the other kids had to stop, think, then decide which way to turn, Jack was two steps ahead.

"You ready to meet this year's group? They've been talking about you since yesterday." Ty nodded. "Can't wait."

If someone had told Julie that she'd thoroughly respect Ty Calhoun, she would have said they were completely nuts. But somewhere along the way, she'd developed a newfound appreciation for Ty's charisma and charm, not only at the handful of charity functions they'd attended together throughout Northern California, but also from watching him interact with these kids. She'd called a photographer and several sports writers to let them observe Ty working with the kids. By the time her assignment was through, people were going to remember him for the great things he did, not for cavorting with strippers.

Sitting in the shade of an oak tree, she sent one final email and dropped her BlackBerry back into her bag.

Ty was showing the kids how to hold and throw the ball, and they were eagerly taking in his every word, every movement. As a group, they picked up their footballs and tried to mimic the way he turned and cocked his arm, the perfect spiral the ball took through the air. For the most part, it was a ball-flinging disaster, and Julie quielty giggled. The boy they'd been talking about, Jack, was the only kid in the bunch who made it look easy.

In so many ways, he was a smaller version of Ty. Dark hair, tanned skin, effortless grace on the field. If she and Ty had a child, would it be a boy who looked like Jack? Or a little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes?

Her hand went to her mouth as she gasped. She hadn't actually just imagined having a child with Ty, had she?

She was letting herself get in
way
too deep. She took a deep breath, working hard to rebuild the wall around her heart. How could she have let herself forget, for one single moment, what he'd done ten years ago?

Julie's eyes blurred as she watched Ty run across the grass to pick up a football. All at once, she was back in that yacht with the eighteen-year-old boy she'd just given her soul to.

Grad night on Ty's borrowed yacht was an endless dream of pleasure. Hour after hour, Ty continuedto kiss her, lick her, and caress her, and she returned the favor in every way she could. She wanted tomemorize every muscle, every sinew, the way his abs tightened when she swept her tongue across hisnipples and then marked them gently with her teeth.

Sated and overwhelmed by all of her orgasms, hardly able to believe how close she felt to a boyshe'd never talked to before that night, Julie lay half-awake inside the stateroom until the light outside thetiny window changed from moonlit black to gold.

"It's morning," she whispered and Ty answered by pulling her closer against him, his eyes stillclosed. When she finally fell asleep, she dreamed that she was sailing across the Bay. The wind was inher hair and it was a perfect, sunny day. But then she saw Ty piloting an oncoming yacht that was justabout to crash into her. She cried out for him to change course, but all he did was laugh at her. Hisfriends were on board his ship and they were all laughing too, like they knew some dirty little secret abouther.

Julie woke up just as the ships were about to hit. She was disoriented on so little sleep, but she waspretty sure she heard stomping on the deck above them. Had the owners come back early to claim theirboat?

She sat up, covering herself with the sheet. But even though she was petrified about beingdiscovered having sex on a stranger's boat, she couldn't help but admire Ty's incredible physique, tannedand toned from the ankles up.

His eyes opened and his lips curved in a sexy grin. "Come lie down again," he drawled, but shecouldn't ignore the feet that got louder with every passing second.

"It sounds like someone's on board," she whispered.

He cocked his head at the ceiling. "Sure does."

She knew her eyes had to be wild, her hair and makeup unfixable. "Shouldn't we get dressed andget out of here?"

He sat up, utterly unconcerned with his nakedness. Julie didn't think she'd ever learn to be socomfortable with her body, not if she had a hundred years to practice.

"I'm not too worried about it," he said, "but I can go out and take a look if you really want me to."She nodded. "That'd be great."

While he was gone, she'd put her dress back on and use the tiny bathroom to assess the rest of thedamage. After all, she was going to have to sneak back into her parents' house soon. Although they wereboth so self-absorbed, she doubted they'd notice that she'd been out all night and hadn't called.He zipped up his black dress slacks, picking up her discarded panties and shoving them in hispocket.

"Just to make sure you don't try and leave before I get back."Almost at the door, he turned, came back to her, and kissed her hard. "Thanks for a great night," hesaid, grinning as he let her go and opened the door.

Julie blankly watched the door close behind him. How had he meant that? Were you supposed tothank your lover after a night of great sex? Or was he trying to tell her they were done now?

She took a deep breath. When he came back down she'd talk to him so that she'd know if they wereofficially dating now. He was going to USC on a football scholarship, but his school was only an eight-hour drive from Stanford, so they could see each other several times a month pretty easily if they reallywanted to.

She was working on the zipper on her badly wrinkled dress when she heard laugher. Her spinetingled with alarm. Who was Ty laughing with? And what was he laughing about?

He couldn't be laughing about her, could he? Not after what they'd shared. She'd given him hervirginity. He had to know how special he was to her—that she wasn't like the girls he usually slept with.

She finger-combed her hair and quickly looked in the mirror over the tiny sink to make sure she didn'thave mascara on her face. She told herself that she trusted him to tell her the truth when he came backdown. Even so, she picked up her heels and tiptoed down the hall and partway up the stairs, just to thepoint where she could see some faces and hear what they were saying.One of Ty's teammates poured something golden into a shot glass and handed it to Ty. "Dude, youneed to tell us who you're here with. Everyone's been wondering."Ty tilted his head back and drank, then held out the small glass for a refill. "Trust me, she's hot."Julie's face flamed and she nearly dropped her shoes. How could he talk about her like she was justsome random girl he'd picked up at a party? Even if, a voice inside her admitted, that was exactly whatshe was.

"Samantha? Ellen? Melissa?"

Ty laughed and did another shot. "I'll see you guys later. Got to get back to the fine babe I've gotstashed away."

Julie hated the way he called her a "fine babe," even though she knew lots of girls would be flattered.

"What's that in your pocket?" one of his friends said, grabbing her underwear. "Hell yeah, you've gotanother pair of panties for your collection!"

En masse, Ty's friends dropped to their knees. "We bow down to the master."Ty made no move to get her underwear back. Instead, he inclined his head to his friends as if he wasthe king and they were his servants.

He'd taken her panties to give to his friends as a prize.

Cold, bitter anger filled Julie. She walked back down the stairs and pushed open the stateroom door.Eyeing the rumpled bed with distaste, she sat down on a firm upholstered chair in the corner by the built-in armoire.

A few minutes later Ty returned, his eyes glazed over enough to make her wonder how many moreshots he'd pounded.

"Miss
me?" he asked, but his expression made it perfectly clear that she had to know how lucky shewas to be his chosen grad night screw.

"Not really," she forced herself to say in a steady voice. "I'd like my underwear back now."He shook his head and moved toward her. "Not so fast. We've got hours before the owner comesback. Don't you want to make the most of it?"

Self-disgust washed through her. Had she really let him touch her all over? Go inside her? He wasjust a cocky jerk looking to score.

"I don't want to keep you from your friends. I'll bet they missed you last night."He shrugged. "Not really."

"Funny, that's not what it sounded like from here."

He kneeled in front of her on the expensive carpet, at least acting like he cared. Considering howdrunk he probably was, he moved pretty fast. She'd heard his dad was a drunk too. Like father, like son.

"Forget what you heard," he said. "It's just stupid guy stuff."

"Screw you."

He grabbed her hand. All night long, his touch had inflamed her, driven her crazy with desire. Nowher fingers remained as cold as icicles.

"It was just guy talk. They wouldn't understand about you."She didn't give a crap about his pseudo apologies. She couldn't let herself believe him.Julie pulled her hand out of his warm grasp, then stood and stepped into her shoes as if she didn'tgive a damn that he was on his knees staring at her.

He stood up too, and she hated how dwarfed she felt by his height, his broad shoulders, as if he waslording his size over her on purpose.

"I said I was sorry, but you're not going to listen to what I have to say, are you?"She stared straight back at him. "I hate you. I'll always hate you. And I never, ever want to see youagain."

He reached for his shirt and grabbed his shoes. "Fine by me. Have a nice life."He left her standing in the middle of the boat. She hadn't even been able to get away first. It was thefinal blow.

Julie's eyes refocused on the football field as Ty laughed and picked up one of the smaller kids. He spun the little boy around to celebrate what she guessed was a perfect spiral. How could she go back to putting up walls when he acted like that?

It had been a great day. Ty was clear on what he wanted to do when the time came to retire. He wanted to run a place like this, teach kids the joy of the game, how everything you needed to know about life was right there with you on the field. Teamwork, respect, how to win, and how to lose. Football was hard on a body. Either you were forced to retire injured or you left willingly while everything still worked. Ty was hoping for the latter.