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“Evangeline…” he started. “I came armed and ready with an entire speech on how I was going to win you back, but standing here looking at you has made me forget the words.” I opened my mouth to say something but he cut me off with his hand. “I can’t take my eyes off you. You’re absolutely beautiful. Not that you weren’t before, but now that you’re carrying my child inside of you. It’s like there is a golden aura around you. You’re glowing.”

Was he blind? There was no ‘golden aura’. I was almost four months pregnant. My boobs were huge and tender, my feet were swollen and I had a noticeable bump protruding from stomach; how could he possibly find that
beautiful
? “Please don’t say things that aren’t true, Ryan.”

Ryan took a step closer to me and leaned down causing another shiver to run through my body as he gently tucked loose strands of my hair back over my shoulder and pressed his lips lightly against my ear. “If you don’t believe me, check for yourself. He popped up as soon as my eyes landed on you,” he whispered.
Huh?

Slightly confused, I glanced up and came face to face with the smug grin I knew all too well. That’s when it hit me. I immediately raised my hands to push him away but he caught my wrists before I had the chance.

I frowned as I tried but failed to free myself from his grip. “You think comments like that are going to make me want you back?”

“Oh, I already know you want me,” he replied with the cocky grin still in place.

I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat caused by his very presence, and tried my damn best to act as though his words didn’t affect me; as if his words didn’t make me tingle all over or wish that his hands were grabbing other parts of my body instead of my wrists. “Don’t think I didn’t notice the look on your face when I came through those doors, or the way that your body is reacting with me standing so close. I notice everything about you. You’ve been staring at me like a lioness that hasn’t eaten for days which is understandable, I guess. Just admit it, Evangeline; you want me bad,” he continued, adding a wink at the end of his sentence.

“You are the most arrogant person I’ve ever met,” I groaned with an eye roll.

“Save the compliments for later, Evie, when I have you against the wall.”

“I’m not going to sleep with you,” I hissed, finally pulling myself free from his grasp.

“We’ll see,” he responded, his smug look returning. “But right now, I need you to come with me.”

“No way, I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Why not? Don’t trust yourself around me? Afraid that I am right and you won’t be able to keep your hands off me?” I frowned at his comment, which caused him to chuckle. “Alright, the truth is, it’s me that isn’t going to be able to contain themselves. Hell, I’m about to explode all inside of my pants just standing here looking at you, but I didn’t come here with the intention of sleeping with you, I came to talk.”

I blinked.
Did I hear him right?
“Let me get this right, you risked your career that you love so much by leaving in the middle of a game, to drive to Newport from Anaheim to
talk
to me?”

His eyebrows rose. “You’ve been keeping track of my games, I see,” he asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

I quickly shook my head.

“Of course you haven’t,” he said teasingly.

“For your information, Derek told me.”
Shoot! Remember your phone is still on the ground somewhere.
I tore my gaze away from him for a moment to pick up my fallen cell phone. Getting back to my feet, I added, “And anyway, just answer the question.”

“Yes, I did. I came to ask the mother of my child why she never called back and
why
she failed to mention that she was carrying my child in the first place.”
Shit.

“Ryan…” I looked around the room in hopes that no one had heard him. Thankfully, the restaurant was quiet today and the nearest table was a middle-aged couple dining several feet away. They glanced over but once they saw me looking they quickly turned back to each other. My family on the other hand was a different story. All three pairs of eyes were firmly glued on us. Gran and Willah with slightly worried expressions while Hunter had his eyes zeroed in on Ryan. His straightened posture and tight, clenched jaw indicated he was ready to come running at the first sign of trouble.

“Now do you understand why I said to ‘come with me’,” he whispered.

He was right, yet again. It was a lesson I should have learned long ago. Public places, including the middle of a restaurant filled with prying eyes, were no place to discuss personal issues.

I let out a sigh and returned to face him. “Let me just tell my family what I’m doing.”

Ryan nodded and kept his eyes on me as I walked back over to the table.

Gran and Willah both agreed it was best to talk things over with Ryan, while Hunter continued to ramble on about how I was better off without him, but after a little
forceful
convincing from Gran he eventually gave in and allowed me to go. What was it with over-protective boys in my family?

****

Just as we reached the car that Ryan had hired to drive down from Anaheim, another car screeched to a halt a few parking spaces away. We both looked over as the engine cut off and a middle-aged man dressed in a suit jumped out, slamming the car door shut behind him. The man looked furious and was headed straight for Ryan.

“Here we go,” Ryan muttered under his breath, staring at the fast approaching stranger while he opened the car door for me. “Get in and whatever you do don’t show the man any fear.”
What the hell?

A little confused and slightly concerned, I obeyed his instructions without question and watched the scene unfold before me.

“And just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!” the angry man shouted at Ryan.

Ryan, looking unbelievably calm, closed my door and started making his way around the front of the car with the angry man following closely behind. “Proving to my girl just how much I missed her, what does it look like?” Ryan answered casually with a shrug.

“Have you lost your god damn mind?!” the man continued. “You just left in the middle of a ball game! I don’t care who you are; you can’t just do something like that! You need to get your ass back to Anaheim before they cut you from the team!”

“They can try but they won’t. You and I both know they need me too much,” Ryan said, stopping in front of his door and turning to face the man.

“Can you stop being a pompous fuck for just a second. They can cut you and they will! You’ll be lucky to get another game in the majors this season after the ridiculous stunt you just pulled! They’re as furious as I am!”

“Calm down, Phil. Go back and tell them I’ll be in New York in a couple of days.”

“Why are you letting a girl— Wait.
What?
You’re not coming back?”

“Nope. I told you, I’m busy spending time with
my
girl,” Ryan replied, turning away from the man named Phil and opening the car door. “You can tell them exactly what I just told you or think up some lame excuse but I’m not changing my mind. I have a lot of making up to do.”

The man raised his hands, balled them into fists, and looked as though he wanted to scream a whole lot of curse words, but decided to keep them to himself instead while Ryan hopped into the car. Winding down the window, Ryan hung his head out and said, “Cheer up, Philly. Bet you’d do the same thing if you were in my position.”

Phil shook his head firmly. “You can bet I wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull something like this on the team paying me millions to play.”

“Well, maybe you need to live a little on the dark side, Phil,” Ryan mocked.

Phil smacked his palm against his forehead as Ryan started the car. “What did I do wrong in my past life to possibly deserve the most insubordinate client in the world?”

With a smug grin, Ryan replied, “
Hey
! Don’t forget that I’m also your most sexiest client and I earn you truck loads of money, so it’s not all that bad. Now, please excuse me, I’m wasting precious time. Tell the guys I’m sorry.”

“That’s the thing, you always say that but you are never really truly sorry. You can’t just say that every time—”

“Yeah, yeah. See ya, Phil,” Ryan cut in before slamming his foot down on the accelerator and speeding off, leaving Phil standing alone in the restaurant car park.

CHAPTER 34

We drove for a little while without saying a word to one another. I thought it was best not to mention the encounter with the angry Phil guy or to ask Ryan where we were headed. But eventually, curiosity got the better of me and I couldn’t help but ask the questions playing on my mind. “Who was that guy that looked ready to knock you out?”

“Philip Taylor is my ever doting sports manager,” Ryan answered without taking his eyes off the road.

Detecting the sarcasm in his voice, I turned to face him and noticed the tiny smirk on his otherwise impassive face. “You don’t seem to be worried by anything he said.”

“That’s because I have nothing to be worried about. You’ve never seen that man angry.”
Err… Did he forget that I witnessed the whole conversation?
“That, back there is
nothing
compared to what that man is capable of,” Ryan quickly added.
Oh.

“So, you’re not really in trouble then?”

There was a small chuckle then he turned to me with a grin on his face. “Oh, I’m in trouble alright,” he said quickly, before turning back to watch the road. “But I don’t care. The worst they’ll do is spank me on the bottom and tell me what a naughty boy I’ve been.”

His comment made my eyebrow rise. “You really think that you’re more important than the rest of the team and they won’t punish you?”

All I got back in reply was a shrug.
Jeez, he’s so full of himself!

“I don’t think I’m better than the rest of the team, but
they
do. Anyway, even if they did, hypothetically, ‘punish’ me, I’d do it all over again if it meant I was on my way to you.”

I looked away from him, suddenly uncomfortable. How was I to come back from that comment? Instead I decided to change the subject.

“Where are we going?” I asked, forcing my eyes to stay focused on the road ahead.

“To the hotel—”

“
What?
” I blurted out, spinning in my seat to face him. “I told you I wasn’t going to sleep with you!”

“Relax, Evie. I’m not going to sleep with you, even if you strip me naked and demand it from me.” I let out a quiet groan as he continued, “I booked a hotel room to give us a chance to talk in private.”

I eyed him carefully for any evidence of lying.

“If you keep staring at me like that, I might just break that ‘no sex’ rule and pull over on the side of the road to have my way with you.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” I said forcing back a smile. I couldn’t help it; the guy knew every button to push.

“Oh yeah? And who’s going to stop me? You surely won’t. You’ll be too busy screaming out my name while I’m deep inside of you.”

Hearing those words from his mouth made my insides come alive, and soon my mind was conjuring up naughty images of the two of us.
Snap out of it, Evangeline!

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”

My little fantasy immediately burst into tiny pieces. “No! Of course not!” I snapped, feeling my cheeks redden.

Ryan just grinned and nodded silently.

Desperate not to let him see my humiliation, I turned back to the road and decided to keep my mouth closed the rest of the way.

Unfortunately, we reached the hotel in less than ten minutes and before I knew it I was standing in the middle of the hotel room with my eyes glued to Ryan’s toned back, watching while he lifted his shirt over his head.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop myself from gawking. I squeezed my hands into fists and dug my fingernails into my own skin to stop from launching myself at him. “You said we were
just
talking.”