One of the trainers called my name, distracting me from the hell in my head. He iced me down and did routine PT to help my arm and shoulder heal from the workout I’d given it in practice.
After a shower, I tossed my bag over my shoulder and walked through the dugout to the field. I was surprised to see Caroline still standing at the fence. Her smile was wide, and her eyes sparkled at she waved in my direction.
She was here for me. Shit.
“Hey, Calvin. Looks like you guys are ready for a serious season.” I watched her lips move. They were perfectly painted a shade of red that reminded me of the Marilyn Monroe posters I had on my wall in college. Her blonde hair was short, not as short as Marilyn’s, but curled at the ends in spiral ringlets that made her look sweeter than what Ace made her out to be.
“Thanks, I believe we’re ready,” I admitted.
“How about you. Do you feel ready, or are you nervous?” she asked.
“I’m more than ready, and no, not nervous,” I semi-lied. In fact, I was nervous as hell, but that wasn’t her business.
Her eyes narrowed and those sexy red lips curled into almost a pucker. “Of course, you’re not nervous, you’re a beast!” she exclaimed with a squeal and then a sweet laugh. Her head fell back against her shoulders as she over exaggerated her humor at her comment, but it led my eyes to her long neck.
“I’ll have a box, so I’ll be watching every game,” she said and then motioned to one of the skyboxes. “I just had to be down here today so I could get a better look at you.” She smiled. I couldn’t tell if her eyes batted to flirt or if they were blinking from the sun that had started to fall.
I cleared my throat and took a step away. “Well, we appreciate your support. We need all we can get as a new team.” The public relations department would love me today.
“I’d love to take you to dinner and celebrate your last practice,” she purred. Yes, she was definitely flirting.
“I’d love that,” I accepted, then immediately felt that growing burn in the pit of my stomach. “But, I really shouldn’t.” I retracted, taking another step away.
Those beautiful lips pouted, and her eyes dropped with sadness to match. Her thin white top was low; her breasts pushed out so far I thought her chin would rest upon them as she lowered her head to exaggerate her expression.
“Why not?” she asked in a sweet baby voice. That was my weak spot. Whitney could get me every time with that tone, and here stood a woman who was certainly stirring some attraction in me using my weaknesses against me.
“I’m in a relationship and having dinner with a beautiful woman would probably create some trouble.” I made my excuse sweet and to the point.
Whitney should be proud. Well, with the exception that I just called this woman beautiful.
She placed a hand on my arm and slowly caressed it, up and down, squeezing it gently as those big blue eyes blinked at me. Her movements mimicked something familiar, something sexual, and my cock twitched.
“Honey, I’m not asking you to marry me, just dinner.” Her voice dripped like honey from those lips. “Does she not want you to eat?”
“I just think she might be upset,’ I admitted.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. A beast cannot be tamed completely. She should revel in the fact that she has something more than a man and not try to cage it up.”
It was almost the same line that Ace had been using on me since spring training started, but somehow when it came from her, it made more sense. “I appreciate the offer, maybe another time,” I apologized. “I’m sure she has something special planned.”
Her hand dropped from my arm, and I instantly missed it. Slowly, she pushed the sunglasses from the top of her head down over her eyes and puckered her lips in a kissing motion before turning to walk away. Yes, I watched. That ass was perfect, shaped like an upside heart, full, plump, and fit perfectly into her red capris.
I wanted to kick myself in the balls as she turned and looked over her shoulder. That was probably the hottest woman I’d ever seen, and I just turned her down. My cock twitched again inside my pants, not out of excitement this time, but utter disappointment.
“She’s out for your blood,” Ace whispered in my ear as he patted me on the back. “Let’s get a beer.” He took my bag from my shoulder and gripped my elbow to turn me around.
I might have stood there kicking myself, daydreaming about what could have been for another twenty minutes if he hadn’t showed up.
“I can only have a couple,” I insisted as he tossed my bag into the small backseat of my car.
“You drive,” he said.
“Where’s your car?’ I asked.
“Holly wanted to visit her cousin,” he said and rolled his eyes. “It’s like an hour from here, too much for a cab.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t even know Holly was here.”
He opened the passenger door and slid into the seat. I could tell this wasn’t something he was willing to talk about. Which meant it was all I wanted to talk about on the ride to the bar.
“You two getting serious then?” I asked.
“No, don’t read too much into it, hot shot. She’s a nice piece of ass, that’s all.”
I was grinning so hard my cheeks hurt. “Oh yeah, a nice piece of ass that you seem to be getting serious about.” I dropped my sarcasm in his lap and continued my painful but still-worth-it grin.
“I can still fuck, and I do, trust me. Whoever I want, whenever I want,” he snapped. “She knows that. She can too.”
Yeah, right.
“Not like you,” he went on, “who can’t even accept a dinner invitation because your woman might get pissed.”
“No, I just know how good I have it. Besides, Whitney probably has a nice dinner planned, probably something romantic to celebrate the beginning of the season. So, a couple beers and I’m out. You can find your own way home.”
Not that Ace finding a ride was a problem, but it felt good to be in control for a moment. I knew he wouldn’t let me lead for long, he never did.
“You know that’s not why you didn’t go,” he said, leaning back against my Italian leather car seat and grinned to match the one I wore earlier. “You didn’t go because you wanted to fuck her.”
“Oh c’mon, I don’t even know her. She was being nice, so I was polite, that’s all,” I lied. I did want to fuck her. The thought of those red lips around my cock and those baby blues looking up at me was what made me twitch in my pants.
“Yeah, well you better keep it in your pants with that one, kid. You can’t handle a woman like that,” he warned.
I glared at him. “You don’t know what I can handle.”
There was no way I wanted Ace Newman, a player I had idolized all through college, to know that Whitney had popped my cherry and was only the second sexual experience I’d ever had. The one before it, Sarah Frankfurt, a girl with braces and big breasts let me get to third base in junior high. She wanted to go down on me, but her mouth full of metal scared the hell out of my dick.