WHEN THE PITCH GETS PERSONAL
Atlanta Skyline’s star Swedish wingback Oz Terim—or as the fans call him, the Wizard—has an airtight plan for his life, his career, even his meticulously renovated house, but he barely gives a thought to the Islamic faith he inherited from his Turkish parents. So no one’s more surprised than he is when he’s the victim of anti-Muslim hate crime. Refusing to take the threat seriously, he resists the security detail Skyline insists on . . . until he meets Kate Mitchell. There’s no room for her in his plan and she’s the exact opposite of what he wants. Then why can’t he keep his hands off her?
After ten years in the military—and getting fired from her first post-Army job in Saudi Arabia—Kate Mitchell has slunk home to her Georgia roots. Private security isn’t the career she dreamed of, nor is she thrilled to work with an uptight professional athlete who plays a sport she has no interest in. She never expected to be attracted to him—or for him to fall for her, too. As their opposite lives tangle up—and the threat against Oz grows more serious—Kate has to decide who she wants to be in life and in love.
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Books by Rebecca Crowley
Atlanta Skyline
Crossing Hearts
Defending Hearts
Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Defending Hearts
An Atlanta Skyline Novel
Rebecca Crowley
LYRICAL PRESS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
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Copyright © 2017 by Rebecca Crowley
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First Electronic Edition: September 2017
eISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0264-8
eISBN-10: 1-5161-0264-9
First Print Edition: September 2017
ISBN-13: 978-1-5161-0265-5
ISBN-10: 1-5161-0265-7
Printed in the United States of America
Chapter 1
Kate hissed a curse as the pen rolled down the slanted cover of the three-ring binder and onto the floor. She ducked under the desk to catch it and grimaced at the array of too-personal objects stored in the footwell: a half-full bottle of aftershave, scuffed leather Oxfords, and a nail clipper with a rusted hinge.
She snatched up the pen, blew off the dust it gathered on its journey and righted herself in her chair, wrinkling her nose as she stifled a sneeze. If her boss was going to insist that VIP client meetings were held in his office, he could at least vacuum occasionally.
Not that he had any interest in this account, having pointedly informed her most soccer players are football rejects. She wasn’t super excited about selling private-security services to an athlete who played a sport she’d never watched, either, but she didn’t exactly have a long line of potential clients knocking on her door. She thought of her monthly sales target, the fees for her niece’s after-school tutor, the hundred dollars her mom blew on online poker last month. Then she opened the binder to the first page—a printout of the logo for Atlanta Skyline, the local Championship Soccer League team.
She rolled her eyes. If Lorraine spent less time fighting with the antiquated printer in order to fill these binders with grainy copies of websites and focused on the actual content of the client’s request, maybe these briefs would be done more than three minutes before the VIPs arrived.
She sighed and flipped to the next page.
A Wikipedia article about soccer.
“For God’s sake, what the actual—”
A rap on the door had Kate swallowing the expletive and bolting to her feet, wobbling momentarily on her high heels.
The door opened just wide enough to admit Lorraine’s teased hair.
“Clients here to see you,” she announced before shoving the door open the rest of the way and ducking back into the hall. With a sinking feeling Kate realized Lorraine hadn’t given her the clients’ names, nor had she gotten that far in the binder, but it was too late. The two men crossed the threshold and stood uncertainly before her, glancing around the shabby office. One was in his late forties with graying, ash-blond hair and hipster glasses. The other was younger, taller, and appeared even less thrilled to be there.
“I’m Kate Mitchell.” She stuck her hand out to the older of the two, assuming he’d be the one paying the bills. “Thanks for coming in.”
“Roland Carlsson,” he replied. “And this is Oz Terim.”
“Nice to meet you, Oz.” She brightened her smile as she extended her hand, committing the unusual name to memory. Its owner offered no reply, regarding her coolly through remarkably large, remarkably dark eyes.
She gestured for them to sit and did the same, noting the way they both inspected the fraying cushions before lowering themselves into the rickety chairs.
She picked up her pen and hastily scribbled their names on the back of the logo page, including a phonetic Cher-eem for Oz’s last name. Then she folded her hands on the desk. “What can I help you with today?”
Roland and Oz exchanged cryptic glances. Then Roland leaned forward while Oz crossed his arms and leaned back, the sleeve of his form-fitting T-shirt riding up to reveal a tattoo wrapping his biceps.
“I manage Atlanta Skyline, and Oz is a left-back on the team,” Roland began, offering a hint of an accent before cutting himself short. “Sorry, maybe you know all of this already. How much background do you want?”
“As much as you feel is relevant,” she responded, quickly jotting their roles beside their names on her piece of paper. She added a question mark beside left-back as a reminder to look up what the hell that meant.
Roland looked again at Oz, who arched a challenging brow at his manager before taking a committed interest in the wall on his other side.
“This is Oz’s third season at Skyline. He came with me when I joined from Boston Liberty,” Roland continued, and Kate nodded, though she had no idea what he was talking about. “We’ve never had any problems before, here or in Boston. In fact, Oz has become a fan favorite. They call him the Wizard,