Author: Jaci Burton

“Oh, yeah. That.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. That. Invites were sent out. Teammates and wives and girlfriends and coaches.”

“Okay.”

“I have someone coming over at four to clean your place, and the caterers will be there at five. Can you let them in, or give me a key? Or maybe I can just follow you home. I have my clothes with me.”

She was acting so formal, like she needed to ask permission to be at his house. “Peaches. Come home with me. It’s fine.”

She nodded. “All right.”

She followed him to his place. Once there, she was a whirlwind of activity. The cleaning crew came in and suddenly it was all dusting and vacuuming and bathroom cleaning. Once the caterers showed up, he didn’t have a spare second to even talk to Savannah, because she was directing setup.

He did his best to stay the hell out of everyone’s way while they transformed his place. He decided to go out back with a beer and took a seat, enjoying the quiet. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

He must have fallen asleep because Savannah poked him.

“What are you doing?”

He looked up at her. “Drinking a beer.”

“You need to go inside and get ready.”

She had changed into a dress. A pretty sexy one. It was blue. Simple. Sleeveless. Clung to her. She looked hot.

“What time is it?”

“Six. Party starts at seven.”

His lips lifted. “It doesn’t take me an hour to get ready.”

“No, but some people might arrive early. Go.”

This was her deal, not his, so he might as well not add to her stress since she already looked like she might start pulling her well-put-together hair out any second. He got up. “Yes, ma’am.”

He showered, shaved, and changed clothes, then came back into the living room. Savannah was arranging cups of nuts or something on a table.

It didn’t even look like his house anymore. They’d rearranged the furniture, which, according to Savannah, would make for more mingling space and had made room for the caterers to bring in tables to lay out the food. The bar was set up. Everything looked ready to him.

Whatever stress Savannah had seemed to have disappeared. She was relaxed and smiling as she came over to him and tilted her head back.

“You look nice.”

“So do you.” He took a step forward. She took one back, obviously trying to maintain professional distance. He grasped her wrist, felt the fast thump of her pulse as he rubbed his thumb over her skin.

“Nervous about the party?”

Her gaze met his. “A little. I want it to go well for you.”

“It’s just the guys from the team, Peaches. Don’t sweat it.”

“But you don’t like entertaining here and I know I forced you into this. I don’t want you to be stressed over it.”

He laughed. “I’m not the one who’s stressed. You’re flitting around here like freakin’ Tinker Bell. Maybe you need a drink to calm down.”

“I’m fine. Not worried at all. This is what I do.”

He ran his hand up her arm. “Then maybe it’s something else that has your pulse racing.”

Her eyes widened and she pulled her arm away. “No, it’s nothing else.”

“You can’t keep running away from me. From us.”

The doorbell rang and she offered up a smile. “Yes, I can.”

Two of his offensive linemen were at the door along with a girlfriend and a wife. They made a beeline for the snacks, claiming that, after today’s workout, they were starving. Savannah played hostess and greeted everyone while Cole held down bartender duties.

Within an hour his place was crowded with people. He was actually surprised that nearly his entire offense showed up. So did the coach, though he assumed Coach showed up to make sure his guys didn’t get wasted, since they had practice tomorrow and a game this weekend. The only people drinking hard liquor or mixed drinks were some of the women. A few of the guys had a beer or two, but mostly stuck to water or soda. They all knew what practicing with a hangover was like—it was unpleasant, especially if the coaches knew you were hung over. They’d make your day a living hell.

Cole found himself huddled with Lon and Jamarcus. Kenny had made friends with a couple other rookies, so he hung out with them.

“Your assistant do all this?” Lon asked.

Cole searched the room and found Savannah talking to a few of the women, encouraging them to come to the food table to get something to eat.

“She did.”

Savannah caught his gaze and blushed, then smiled.

Jamarcus’s girlfriend, Tanya, came up and slid her arm around him. “This is very nice of you, Cole. Thank you for inviting us.”

“Thanks for coming.”

“And Savannah is so sweet. We’re both from Georgia, so we’ve been catching up. Makes me miss home.” She looked at Jamarcus. “We need to go to my mama’s house for Christmas.”

Jamarcus laughed. “Whatever you want, baby.”

Savannah saw them looking her way, so she came over. “How is it going? Can I get you anything?”

“We’re great, honey. You should take a break and enjoy some time with your man,” Tanya said.

Cole fought a smirk as Savannah cast a worried look in his direction. “Oh, we’re not together. I just work for him.”

He loved when she blushed like that. He loved seeing her entire body cast in that pretty pink shade when he made her come.

His dick twitched just thinking about getting her naked and making her squirm under his tongue.

When she met his gaze, he knew she knew what he was thinking about. She cast him a warning gaze, then turned to his friends.

“If you’re all okay, I’ll see if anyone needs anything. Excuse me.”

She wandered off.

“Wow.”

Cole turned to Tanya. “What?”

“I don’t mean to be gossipy, because that’s not in my nature, but there were some serious fireworks exploding between you and Savannah.”

He grinned. “You think so?”

“I know so. Don’t you think so, too, Jamarcus?”

Jamarcus looked at Cole, then back at Tanya. “No comment. I’m not getting my ass kicked over that one.”

Cole laughed and clapped Jamarcus on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, man. Tanya is right. There’s something going on. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, she’s beautiful. Nice, polite, and friendly. If I were you I’d grab her and never let her go.”

“I agree,” Tanya said. “If you don’t, someone else will snatch her up and you’ll regret not taking the chance.”

They were probably right. But it was difficult when the object you were chasing was doing her best to avoid getting caught.

SAVANNAH WAS SO PLEASED. THE PARTY WAS FANTASTIC. Cole had spent the majority of the night hanging out with Jamarcus and Lon and mingling with his offensive line. He’d had some major one-on-one time with Grant Cassidy, the Traders’ quarterback. The two of them had huddled in the corner, having an intense conversation. When she’d inched over to eavesdrop to make sure they weren’t simply talking about women or sports cars or something else innocuous, she heard them dissecting plays.

Perfect. It had gone much better than she’d hoped. He was bonding with his teammates, who all seemed to be having a great time. Cole was even talking with the coach, who had come up to her and told her that Cole’s performance and behavior was better than he expected—so far.

She had hope. Of course, it was still only preseason, but she intended to take this one step at a time. Entrenching him with the team was a giant first step. Once they all had one another’s back, she’d concentrate on his personal image. Team play was vital, though, and this was an important night.

Everyone started to filter out by eleven thirty or so, since they all had practice in the morning, and under the coach’s watchful eye, no one wanted to party too hard. She hadn’t intended for this to be a raucous night of debauchery, anyway. Just a night of food and drink and a chance for Cole to feel more like part of the team.

After the last player left, the caterers came in and cleaned everything up. Savannah and Cole helped them carry the platters and tables out to their van, the furniture was restored to its rightful place, and his condo looked like it had before the party. The van drove off and she went into the closet for his vacuum.

“What are you doing?” Cole laid his hand on her wrist.

“Finishing the cleanup.”

“I have a service that does that.”

“I told you I’d take care of everything.”

“You’re dressed way too nice to act as maid service. Though the mental visual of you in a short little maid’s uniform…”

She rolled her eyes at him. He laughed, took the vacuum and slid it back into the closet. “Seriously. Sit down. Kick off your shoes and relax.”

The last time that happened she’d ended up in his bed. “No, thank you. I think I’ll head out and let you get some sleep.”

“I’m way too wound up to sleep. Come sit with me and you can tell me what you thought about tonight.”

Debriefing was a good idea. She’d like to get his thoughts on his conversations with his teammates. She took a seat on the sofa, but kept her shoes on and her feet on the floor. “I thought it went very well. How did you think it went?”

“It was good. I had fun. You spent the whole night working the room like a pro.”

“It’s my job. I wanted to make sure you had the time to mingle.”

“I did mingle. I talked to everyone. I did what you asked me to do.”

She frowned. “I don’t recall asking you to do anything. Other than have this party, of course. If you really didn’t want to do it, you should have said something.”

“I didn’t want to do it. But it turned out fine. I had fun. The guys are all great and we needed this. It was a good way to get us all together off the playing field. I haven’t really had time to get one-on-one with the offensive linemen, and Cassidy and I went over plays and talked strategy for the season. During practice it’s all drills and plays. There’s no time to talk.”

She relaxed. “So you’re saying I made a good call?”

“You made a good call.” He stood and held out his hand. “Now come with me.”

He pulled her to her feet and led her toward the kitchen.

She frowned. “Where are we going?”

“Outside.” He grabbed two beers from the refrigerator and slid open the back door while she stepped outside. The humidity had lifted, so it was—for a change—a nice night. There was a breeze, crickets were chirping, and the sky was clear. They took seats on the chairs, Cole opened the bottles, and they sipped their beers. Savannah enjoyed the quiet after the sheer madness of the party, and Cole seemed content with the silence between them.

This was…nice. It was something a married couple would do after a party. Sit outside together and unwind. Or at least she thought that’s what they’d do. Since she’d never been married or even part of a couple, she really had no idea. All she knew was that being with Cole was becoming a habit, and it was more personal than professional. Which made her want to bolt.

“You’ve got that look in your eyes.”

She met Cole’s gaze. “What look?”

“The one that says in less than five minutes you’re going to grab your purse and run out my front door.”

She lifted her chin. “I have no such look.”

“Actually, you do. It usually appears after we’ve had sex.”

“It does not.”

He continued to stare at her, giving her his stoic, unflinching look.