Читать книгу The Bad Boy's Redemption: Too Much of a Good Thing? / Her Last Line of Defence / Her Hard to Resist Husband - Joss Wood, Marie Donovan - Страница 15

EIGHT

‘So, Carter has been cleared to come back to work in a month...’

Will stared at Kelby, nonplussed. ‘That means that I can leave Durban in a month or so?’

‘We’ll pay you out for the full three months.’

He didn’t give a toss about the money. It was leaving Lu earlier than he’d bargained for that was threatening to throw him into a tailspin.

‘Also, at the director’s meeting last night, the board agreed that Carter will retire in six months. I can offer you a position as consultant coach until then and a five-year contract as head coach when he’s gone. What do you think?’

Will yanked his thoughts away from Lu. ‘Giving control back to Carter sucks. I don’t know if I can do it and then work under him.’

‘It’s for six months, dude! And he’s a good coach. You’d learn a lot from him.’

Will placed his hands on Kelby’s desk and straightened his arms, thinking it through. ‘I’ve been getting other offers from other teams. Firm consultant and then head coach offers from Melbourne and Auckland.’

Kelby leaned back in his chair. ‘Have you talked to Lu about any of this?’

Will frowned at him. ‘No.’

‘Don’t you think you should?’

Will stood up and folded his arms belligerently. Because he was still reeling at the thought of how much he didn’t want to leave her, he narrowed his eyes at Kelby’s comment. ‘She isn’t a factor. We’re just friends.’

‘Friends! Yeah, keep telling yourself that.’ Kelby shook his head in disbelief. ‘And if you let her go then you’re crazier than I gave you credit for.’

Let her go? He hadn’t even had her yet! He’d spent most of last night tossing and turning, and when he had slept his dreams had been super-hot and had involved him taking Lu fifty ways to Sunday.

As a result he was tired, irritable, and still as confused and even hornier than he had been yesterday afternoon. He thought he was either a saint or an idiot to have dropped her off at home after their day on the beach and left her there.

No, he was definitely an idiot.

Will glanced at his watch. ‘I’ve got to go. I’m late as it is.’

Kelby frowned. ‘Late for what?’

‘Game analysis. It’s at four.’

‘Do you ever read any of the memos I send you? I asked for game analysis to be postponed because Lu is doing that nude calendar shoot with the squad this evening.’

Will turned around very slowly and sent Kelby his death-ray glare. ‘What. Did. You. Say?’

Kelby didn’t do a very good job of trying to hide his smile. ‘Twelve of the franchise clubs are collaborating on a calendar featuring the various teams to raise money for charity. Each franchise is responsible for capturing their own discreet image of the team.’

‘And Lu is doing this?’

Kelby looked innocent. ‘She is our photographer. I don’t know why you’re looking so surprised about this. I’ve been mailing you about it all week!’

‘I saw the subject heading and thought you were joking.’

‘And Lu didn’t mention it to you?’

Will frowned. ‘I think she did. I said something about it being a stupid-ass idea and that anyone associated with it was stupid...she hasn’t mentioned it again.’

‘I can’t imagine why,’ Kelby said dryly.

Will’s mouth flattened. ‘I’m really not happy about this.’

‘Lucky for you that I don’t give a toss whether you’re happy about it or not. It’s her job.’

Right.

‘Where are they doing the shoot?’ Will demanded.

‘In the gym.’ Kelby stood up as Will whipped around and headed for the door. ‘Will, don’t you dare go down there! Don’t make things difficult...’

Kelby sank back into his chair as Will ignored his order. Friends? Yeah, right! He hoped that Will didn’t make the shoot difficult for Lu, but he wouldn’t bet money on it. Kelby lumbered to his feet. Maybe he’d wander down to the gym for a little bit of light entertainment...

* * *

She needed a fan. She needed a walk-in fridge. She needed to stop blushing, Lu thought as fifteen briefs-clad, buff, super-sexy rugby players streamed into the Rays’ gym, their second home. Will was standing off to one side, fully clothed in jeans and a T-shirt, and the scowl on his face was as black as a summer thundercloud.

He’d yet to say a word to her.

Boxers, briefs, even a set of Y-fronts... Good grief, Lu, you can’t look there! Was the air-con working down here? The team members weren’t fazed about lounging around in their underwear. They chatted and joked and insulted each other about the size of their tackle and the state of their underpants.

‘We’ll let Lu decide,’ Matt hooted.

Lu lifted her eyebrows. ‘Decide on what?’

‘Boxers, briefs or thongs,’ Matt explained. ‘What do women prefer?’

Lu kept her face blank, knowing that they were trying to get a reaction. She knew boys—they’d push her until they got one. She hadn’t raised twin boys and had all their friends using her house as a second home for nothing. But she couldn’t look at Will, because then he’d know that she preferred commando.

Actually, just him buck naked would do the trick.

Matt snapped his fingers under her nose. ‘Lu! Concentrate, here—this is important research!’

Lu reached up and patted his cheek. ‘Sweetie...trust me. If I liked you enough to get to the point of wanting to rip your underwear off I wouldn’t really care what you were wearing. Though I’d have second thoughts if you were wearing a red thong with black lace...that’s just tacky.’

Matt placed his hand on her cheek and his eyes twinkled with fun. ‘But you’d like a leopard print thong, right?’

Lu laughed and played along. ‘Absolutely! Who can resist a man in a leopard print thong?’

Matt put his thumbs into his black boxers and shimmied them down his hips. Lu slapped her hands over her face and peeked out through her fingers as Matt did a slow turn, wearing nothing more than the briefest, tackiest, fakest leopard print thong.

Lu dropped her hand and bellowed with laughter as Matt posed in front of her, his hip thrust out in a typical model pose. She clapped before placing the back of one hand on her forehead and pretending to swoon.

The room roared. Matt high-fived her and Lu was still laughing when Will stepped away from the wall and cleared his throat. Cold eyes drilled through her and her laughter died in her throat as the room fell into an uncomfortable silence.

He jerked his head at the gym door. ‘Outside.’

Lu frowned. ‘Sorry?’

‘I want to talk to you...outside,’ Will stated, in a biting voice vibrating with anger.

‘Lu’s in trub-bel,’ Matt sang, and then winced when Will walked up to him and slammed his hand against Matt’s chest. Matt took two steps backwards.

‘If you know what’s good for you, you’ll shut up,’ Will stated calmly, his eyes spitting.

Matt held his hands up. ‘Yes, boss.’

‘You—outside.’

Will looked at Lu and his furious expression had Lu climbing down from the table and walking towards the door. She heard the door slam behind her and looked up at Will, who was obviously thundercloud angry. What was his problem?

‘Stop flirting with Matt,’ Will stated through clenched teeth.

Wha-at?

‘Jeez, Will, he was just trying to make the situation less awkward,’ Lu replied, confused. He couldn’t be taking their banter seriously, could he? ‘What is your problem?’

Will stepped in front of her and pushed her back against the wall. He placed a palm on the wall next to her head and loomed over her. ‘My problem? You’re about to get fifteen guys naked and the only one I want you to see naked is me. That’s my problem. I’m frustrated and as horny as hell. That’s another problem. I don’t care if this is your job. I. Don’t. Like. It.’

It was the first time she’d seen Will totally stripped of the cloak of control he constantly wore. His eyes were full of misery and frustration. His body was clenched with tension. He looked almost unhinged.

Over her being surrounded by hot, buff men... Well, shoot!

As much as she wanted to smash her mouth against his and be kissed by this out-of-control Will, she had a job to do—a job that was important to her. The other rugby franchises, as Kelby had told her, were hiring big-name photographers to capture their images for the calendar, but he had faith in her that she wouldn’t let their side down.

She had no intention of doing that, but she couldn’t do it with Will hovering like an angry tornado; he’d make the players tense, they wouldn’t relax while he was watching over them, and she wouldn’t be able to function. She had to get rid of him. Yet she knew that nothing shy of a dynamite stick would get him to leave.

So Lu stood on her tiptoes, slammed her mouth against his and slid her tongue into his mouth. Her kiss was open-mouthed and hot enough to drain all the blood from his brain...just what she needed. It took all her will-power to step away before Will caught her in his grip and wouldn’t let her go.

Stepping back quickly, she gave him a quick salute, slipped through the door to the gym, slammed it closed and turned the lock. Ignoring his furious fist pounding against the door, she walked back inside and went to the box she’d carried in earlier and yanked out an i-Pod and external speakers.

‘Who wants music?’ she asked loudly.

‘Yes! But a drink would be better!’ Matt responded above a chorus of approval and whistles.

Lu grinned as she pulled two bottles of tequila from the box and waved them in the air. ‘I also think this would be a lot easier with a couple of shots. There are quite a few bottles, so don’t be shy. But we’d better get slammed before Mr Grumpy breaks down the door!’

* * *

Lu, dressed in a brief pair of cycling shorts, a crop top and trainers, stood in front of the punching bag in the empty Rays gym and looked down at the small pair of boxing gloves that Will had just tied onto her hands.

‘I tried to book a private lesson for you at a Thai kickboxing school with one of Kelby’s mates who is an instructor, but they have a couple of cage fights coming up so he’s swamped,’ Will told her, dropping her hands. He stepped away from her to get some distance. She was wearing little more than underwear, and his boys weren’t making the distinction between gym clothes and lingerie.

It had been a week since he’d held her in his arms, and he’d never be able to look at the sea again without remembering how responsive she’d been to his touch. He’d had a lot of sex over the years, but even the thought of Lu far exceeded the hottest, craziest sex he’d had before.

It was shocking to realise that he, King of Brief Flings, could think like this. He was a rational adult male. He knew that great sex never lasted for ever. It went from great to good, then to OK, and then it faded to blah and then to mechanical.

It would happen even with Lu.

Lu interrupted his thoughts. ‘Right—gloves on, punch bag waiting.’

Her small hand ploughed into the bag and it drifted ever so slightly. ‘That wasn’t so good.’ She frowned. ‘When you hit it, it swings!’

Will grinned. ‘That’s because I’m lot stronger than you and also because you punch like a girl.’

‘Fist into bag. That was a punch,’ Lu protested.

‘A girl punch. You need to put some body weight behind it,’ Will told her. ‘Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, bend your knees. OK, good. Make a loose fist with each hand and lift, elbows straight out behind you. That’s it. Now, push off with your back foot and rotate your wrist and shoulder as you throw the punch.’ Will watched as her fist connected with the bag and rocked. ‘Better than before.’

‘This is hard,’ Lu muttered as she tried again.

‘Keep your wrist straight. Push off your back foot.’ Girl punching still, Will thought, but, seeing the determined look on her face, he knew that she would get it right if it killed her. Lu, he was coming to realise, had the determination of a dung beetle and the stubbornness of a mule.

‘When do I learn to kick?’ Lu demanded, huffing.

‘When you’ve learned how to punch,’ Will told her. ‘Keep your other hand up to guard your face. Don’t leave your face vulnerable to attack.’

‘Who’s going to hit me?’ Lu demanded.

‘If you are going to learn, then do it properly.’

Lu pulled a tongue at him and rocketed her fist into the bag , making it sway harder than before.

‘Better.’

After twenty minutes Lu rested her hands on her thighs and looked up at the bag. ‘I could’ve done with one of these when my folks died.’

It was the first time she’d willingly mentioned their death and Will fought not to react, waiting for her to talk. ‘There were days when I was so sad and so angry that I used to punch my bed. This is better.’

Will walked over to the fridge next to the mat, pulled out a bottle of water, cracked the lid and held it to Lu’s lips. She drank and sank to the mat, crossing her legs as she sat down.

Will joined her and they sat in silence for a while before he asked another question that he’d been wondering about. ‘Who told you? About the accident?’

‘Mak. He was our next-door neighbour at the time.’

‘How did you cope?’ Will asked.

‘What do you mean?’ Lu asked, giving him a blank look.

‘Lu, you were a teenager and suddenly responsible for two kids. How did you deal with your parents’ deaths? With having your life splattered against a wall?’

Lu was silent for a long time, her eyes on her shoes. ‘Strange...nobody has ever asked me that before.’

‘You’re kidding?’

She bit her bottom lip. ‘Nope. People would ask if I was OK but would barely wait for an answer before demanding to know how the twins were coping, whether they were getting counseling, how sad it was that they were orphaned so young.’

Will’s heart cracked at the pain coating her words. ‘You were also orphaned.’

‘But I wasn’t eight and blond and cute,’ Lu replied.

‘So how did you cope?’ Will repeated his question.

Lu shrugged. ‘I don’t know, actually. The first six months were a bit of a blur. We cried a lot. I remember that. I also remember doing a lot of exercise with the boys—playing soccer with them, taking them to the beach, making them as tired as possible so that we could all just sleep without dreaming, trying to avoid the nightmares.’

‘The boys had nightmares?’

‘Not so much.’

‘You?’

‘Constantly.’

Will lifted his hand and rubbed his thumb along one prominent cheekbone, then he brushed the violet shadows under her eyes. ‘Are the nightmares back, Lu?’

‘No.’

‘But you’re not sleeping?’ He could see the start of a lie, an excuse, then saw her pull it back and opt for the truth.

‘No, not much.’

Will knew that he wasn’t stupid when it came to women; he knew that Lu was thinking. She just wasn’t as good at hiding it as he was. He’d noticed the way her eyes lingered on his lips, caught the shudder of attraction when he brushed past her. He suspected that, like him, she lay awake at night remembering the feel of naked skin, the warmth of lips and the heat of hands.

Dangerous thoughts...

Will pulled back and jumped to his feet before reaching down and pulling Lu to her feet. ‘Punch that bag for another twenty minutes and I guarantee that you’ll sleep well tonight.’

‘I don’t want to sleep.’ The words flew out of her mouth and she didn’t know where they’d come from. Maybe it was because she felt so at ease with him, so connected. ‘One night. That’s it. In the morning we go back to being friends, pretend it didn’t happen.’