Seduced by the Game (26 page)

Her mind flashed back to
those laughing blue eyes blazing with desire during their bathroom trysts,
sympathetic with concern over her childhood story, and brimming with irritation
because she’d latched on to him as a pretend boyfriend.

She sighed. It was over.
The party was a success. They’d be making good money along with a bonus.

That’s all that should
matter.

Only it wasn’t.

She missed him. She shouldn’t,
but she did.

* * * *

Cooper opened his eyes to
find Joker sitting on his chest staring him straight in the eyes. His head hurt
like hell, courtesy of the half bottle of whiskey he drank when he’d arrived
home.

“Hey, buddy. Miss me?” He
reached up to pet the scruffy cat.

Joker meowed, most likely
bitching about the quality of his life and the crappy servant he’d been forced
to tolerate for more years than he could count.

“Yeah, I know. Life’s a
bitch.”

Joker rubbed his face
across Cooper’s stubble.

“I met a woman last night.
I thought she was someone special.”

The cat studied him, as if
to say,
I know where this is going.

“Yeah, I kinda fell for
her. She was gorgeous, great body, great dancer, confident, intelligent.”

Joker’s purring almost drowned
out Cooper’s words. Oh, to be a cat and not to have a worry in the world.

“I was going to ask her
out until I discovered she’d used me, so I dumped her ass.”

Joker dug his claws into
Cooper’s chest, but he didn’t flinch. The pain didn’t come close to matching
the pain he felt inside. This was stupid. He didn’t fall for a woman, not like
this. Yet he had, and now he didn’t know what the hell to do about it.

“Hey, you’d have done the
same thing.”

Joker continued to stare
at him as if to say
dumb shit.

Yeah, he’d wanted to spend
more time with her, explore those unfamiliar feelings she elicited in him. He’d
always been a bit of a daredevil, and she’d tempted him to take a chance on a
relationship.

Only she’d been paid to do
it. How did a guy get past that? And how did a guy get past that hot body,
expressive eyes, sassy mouth, and long fucking legs? Obviously, he hadn’t. He’d
dreamt about her all night long, doing the things to her he hadn’t gotten a
chance to do on the boat, and letting her do the same to him.

He was a fool. A damn
fool. She’d used him. That was a fact.

Despite it all, the truth
behind her words about the team had sunk in. Nothing he did would move them
back to Florida. Did he really want to leave his guys, guys he’d built a
rapport with, and start over somewhere else?

The answer was no, he
didn’t.

Cooper sat up, knocking
the cat off his chest. Casting an annoyed look over his shoulder, Joker stalked
off in a huff and disappeared out the bedroom door, probably to extract revenge
on the leg of an expensive piece of leather furniture.

* * * *

Cooper walked past Ethan
Parker’s sergeant major of an assistant, and swung open the door to Parker’s
office. Ethen looked up from his computer, surprise crossing his face.

His admin pushed her way
past Cooper. “I’m sorry, Mr. Black. He got past me.”

“It’s okay, Mina. He can
stay.”

Mina hesitated and Ethan
gave her an encouraging smile. With one last, disgusted look at Cooper, she
left the office, shutting the door after her broad butt got through it.

“She’s scary, that one,”
Cooper joked, trying to break the ice.

“Mina’s been with me for
years. I appreciate all she does.” Ethan sat back, put his feet on the desk,
and adopted a casual pose that was anything but casual. “What can I help you
with, Coop?”

Cooper studied Ethan for a
long moment, Ethan looked right back, his direct gaze never wavering. Cooper
couldn’t recall one time that the former team owner ever looked him straight in
the eyes.

He took a deep breath and
let it out, as if it would cleanse him of all his ill-conceived notions. “I’m
here to talk about the team, and what I can do to make this transition
smoother.”

“Are you serious?” Ethan’s
feet dropped to the floor, and he sat up straight. A slow smile spread across
his face.

“Dead serious. I’ve been
an ass. I want to start over.”

Ethan nodded slowly but
didn’t answer right away. He was letting Cooper squirm, and Cooper had to
respect him for that. The guy had some major balls. Finally, just as Cooper was
starting to fidget, Ethan nodded slowly. “All right. Let’s brainstorm some
ideas. Let me take you to lunch.”

“Sounds good.” Cooper
hesitated. “One other thing. Isabella Maxwell. How well do you know her?”

“I don’t. Not really. I
learned about her company through a mutual friend.” 

“What exactly is her
company?”

“They’re called the Party
Crashers. They have a website. Look them up. They guarantee they can turn a bad
party into a good one. Knowing your attitude and your teammates’ toward this
move and me personally, I figured that party could use all the help it could
get. She did a great job, and I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t believe
they’d be able to pull it off.”

Yeah, she’d done a great
job, especially on Cooper. “That’s it? They’re paid to crash parties?”

“Yeah. That’s it. Did you
think there was more?”

“Uh, no. Not at all.”
Cooper stared over Ethan’s head out the window, his brain a confused mash of
conflicting thoughts.

“Seems like you two hit it
off that night.” Ethan stood and grabbed his coat, shrugging into it as he
headed for the door, and Cooper followed. “Any chance you’ll see Izzy again?”

“I don’t know.”

“She seems like a good
woman.”

“Yeah, she does,” Cooper
said, and he meant it.

Chapter 7—Power Play

When the bell tinkled over
the coffee shop door, Izzy looked up and did a double take. A tall, fit man
walked in, a hoodie pulled down low over his face.

His body looked a lot like
Cooper’s. But lately, she’d been seeing Cooper in every man who walked in that
door, as if he’d come looking for her. It’d been a week, and she needed to get
over him, but instead she’d taken to Googling his name, staring at pictures,
and reading everything she could get her hands on about him, such as all the
charity work he’d done in Florida, how he always took time to talk to fans, how
he played the game with all-in passion.

A woman had to admire a
man like that.

She’d developed a bit of a
fan crush on him, become a puck bunny before she’d ever seen her first
professional game in person. Nothing unusual with that. Right?

Izzy tugged on the bottom
of her Seattle Sockeyes number fourteen jersey that Ethan had given to her when
she’d picked up her very generous check. Number fourteen happened to be
Cooper’s number.

She glanced around the
coffee shop and back to the hooded man lingering near the doorway across the
room. Midmorning wasn’t her busiest time, and he was her only customer. A
little jolt of fear ran through her, and she prayed she wasn’t about to be
robbed.

Izzy put on her bravest
smile and waited for the man to come to the counter. His long strides carried
him closer as he pulled the hood off his head. Her heart leapt over the Olympic
high bar and set a world record. Her mouth dropped open. Her hands gripped the
edge of the counter.

“Cooper,” she rasped,
shocked to see him. Delight raced through her body, alerting dormant parts to
the hot man’s presence, and alerted they were.

Too much.

“Hey.” He stopped in front
of the counter, his eyes on the menu board on the wall. “I’ll have a double
caramel macchiato.” His lopsided grin warmed her heart.

“Do you even know what’s
in one?”

“Drink them all the time,
gets me in touch with my feminine side.”

“You don’t have a feminine
side.”

He met her gaze but not
before his eyes travelled lower and back up. “Number fourteen, huh?”

“Ethan gave it to me. Let
me get that drink started right away.”

He nodded. She could feel
his eyes on her as she made his drink, watching her every move. She slid the
drink across the counter to him.

He took a sip and licked
his lips. “Yummy.”

“I make the most awesome
macchiato anywhere.” She couldn’t help but smile.

“You do, take it from a
connoisseur.” He grinned right back. “Can you join me? You don’t seem too
busy.”

“Okay.” Izzy tried not to
sound too excited and poured herself a strong cup of coffee—she’d need it to get
through the next few minutes—and joined him at a small table near the window.
Outside the skies were gray with drizzle. “It’s raining again.”

Another smile quirked the
corners of his mouth. “You know, this incessant rain is actually somewhat
romantic.”

“It is?”

“Yeah, or it would be if I
had a special someone to share walks in the rain with me.” He reached across
the table and took her hand in his.

“I’m sure you’ll find that
person.” She was afraid to read anything into the emotions lighting up his eyes.

“Maybe I already have.”
Cooper looked down at their intertwined fingers then back up. He swallowed and
ran his free hand through his dark hair. “Izzy, I’m sorry. I called you a
prostitute, and that was inexcusable. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“I forgive you, and you
were right, too. I was using you—at first. But it went further than that. I
never
get physically involved with guests or clients, ever. You blew through all my
convictions with one epic, sexy smile.”

“Really? Only one.” He
preened like a male lion after seducing his lioness into the den.

“Only one.” She watched
him, waiting and hoping.

“How about we start over?”

“That would be awesome.”

He removed his hand from
hers and stood. Her heart sank. He was leaving? Was that how he started over?

Instead he bent down and
took her hand in his again. “I’m Cooper Black.”

She giggled, batted her
eyelashes, and gazed up at him. “I’m Izzy Maxwell.”

“Well, Izzy, I think you
and I should get to know each other better. Would you like to go to dinner with
me tonight?”

“I’d love that, Cooper.”

“So would I.”

Cooper pulled Izzy to her
feet and kissed her soundly, a kiss full of new beginnings and future
promises—not to mention, hot enough to melt ice.

# # #

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

I hope you enjoyed this brief look into Cooper and Izzy’s growing
romance. They’ll be back soon in a full-length novel. Subscribe to my
newsletter for the latest on the Sockeyes and other upcoming Jami Davenport
books
at
http://www.jamidavenport.com
.

* * * *

BOOKLIST

The following Jami Davenport titles are available in electronic
and some are available in trade paperback format.

Evergreen Dynasty Series

Save the Last Dance

Who’s Been Sleeping in My
Bed?

The Gift Horse

Seattle Sockeyes Hockey Series

Skating on Thin Ice
(Coming Soon)

Crashing the Boards,
Seduced
by The Game

Seattle Lumberjacks Football Series

Fourth and Goal

Forward Passes

Down by Contact

Backfield in Motion

Christmas Break

Time of Possession

Standalone Books

Love at First Snow

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jami Davenport has been
writing since she was old enough to know the alphabet. An advocate of happy
endings, Jami writes sexy romantic comedy, sports hero romances, and equestrian
fiction. Jami lives on a small farm near Puget Sound with her husband, a former
Green Beret turned plumber, a Newfoundland cross with a tennis ball fetish, a
prince disguised as an orange tabby cat, and an opinionated Hanoverian mare.

She works in IT for her
day job and is a former high school business teacher. In her spare time, Jami
rides and shows her dressage horse and grows roses. An avid boater, Jami has
spent countless hours in the San Juan Islands, the setting for her first two
books. In her opinion, it is the most beautiful place on earth.