Starting with the delectable Ms. Landon.
BECKA SAT at her desk in the training room, updating player records, absently wrapping a twist of red hair around her finger.
“Got a minute?”
She recognized the slow drawl even before she glanced up to see Mace leaning against the doorway to the locker room. The quick frisson of excitement that whisked through her had her scowling. It had only been a few months since she’d unloaded her cheating bum of a boyfriend. The last thing she needed was to get caught up in more trouble on two legs, and Mace Duvall definitely qualified as trouble. Okay, maybe she’d felt bad about his situation earlier that morning, but too much sympathy could be a dangerous thing. Be too sympathetic to a jungle cat and you might just wind up being a snack, she reflected.
“What do you want?” she asked briefly. “I’m working.”
“Looks like my timing’s perfect,” he said easily. “Sammy said you could review the training records with me.”
She ignored a flutter somewhere in the vicinity of her solar plexus. Sports trainers weren’t supposed to have flutters on the job. “I’ll need time to finish this report first.”
“That’s fine,” he said equably, not moving.
Trust him not to take a hint, she thought. “Batting practice isn’t for two hours. Why don’t you go back into your office and I’ll come get you when I’m done.” He’d kept his distance during the game the night before, but time and time again she’d looked up to find his eyes on her. Time and time again she’d found him on her mind. Okay, if she were honest, she’d thought about him before she’d even seen him. His presence just made it worse. Hoping that sheer rudeness would drive him away, Becka bent her head back to her reports dismissively and tried to ignore the figure in the doorway.
Out in the locker room, the vacuum cleaner of the custodial staff whirred. On the other side of the wall, in his office, Sammy argued with what was probably the stadium manager over letting an Elvis impersonator do a pregame show from the pitcher’s mound. Life in the minor leagues went on.
Mace smiled to himself and pushed away from the doorway to walk toward Becka. Her head jerked up like a deer scenting a predator, her eyes wide and startled. He caught a hint of her fragrance and leaned in close to her to get a better whiff. Like sunkissed wildflowers, he thought. “I’ll just grab a seat,” he murmured into her ear. “I don’t mind waiting when I want something.” Enjoying her reaction, he moved past her to retrieve a chair from the back of the room.
Sitting across from her, Mace watched her pore over the reports, trying to understand why she fascinated him, trying to understand why he’d woken in the night thinking of her. He’d escorted internationally acclaimed beauties, women who worked at their mystique as though it were a career. How was it that tomboyish Becka Landon crept into his dreams?
It wasn’t as though she’d given him the come-on, he thought as he leaned back in the chair. Maybe she had a mouth that a man found hard to ignore, but she’d made it clear that she was no fan of his. So why was he getting hung up on her? He wasn’t a glutton for punishment. A woman said no to him, that was that.
But Becka’s body seemed to say yes. Despite herself, she responded to him. Perhaps therein lay the fascination. Mace studied the coppery spill of hair that trailed across her cheek as she worked. An energy hummed around her, a glow of vitality that radiated from her skin, taut warm hide stretched over perfectly toned muscles. He had the sudden urge to touch her, to see if he could feel that energy, like some kind of magic force field.
Becka was digging for a paper clip in the tray of odds and ends that sat at the base of her desk lamp when she glanced up at him and her hand froze. For a long instant, he stared into the cool green of her eyes, trying to divine just what it was about her that had its hooks in him. On impulse, he reached out to take her hand, just as she pulled a paper clip out of the tray and bent back to her paperwork. She fumbled as she clipped a sheet into the file. Minutes passed while she stared at the papers without writing or turning a page.
Finally, she put down her pen with a snap. “Fine. What do you want to know?”
“Are you sure you’re done?”
“You know I’m not done. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Are you sure?”
“Take advantage of my generous mood, Duvall,” she advised him. “It may not last.”
“Who are you working on?”
“Morelli.”
“Ah.” He leaned forward with interest. “Kid’s got some good moves.”
Becka handed him the file. “You think he’s got the goods?”
Mace shrugged diffidently. “Too early to tell, but I like the way he handles himself.” His eyes flicked to her mouth. He liked the way she handled herself, too, now that he thought about it. “So what do you do with yourself when you’re not working?” he asked abruptly. “What about dinner?”
Becka’s mouth opened in surprise, then shut. “Sorry, Duvall, I don’t date colleagues.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m not going to be a colleague any longer than it’ll take me to turn in my resignation.”
“What do you mean? You just got here. Your assignment’s supposed to be for a week.”
He was only here because they were humoring him, he reminded himself. It wasn’t like he was running out on the job. “It was a dumb idea. I shouldn’t have started it.”
“But you did start it.” An edge entered her voice. “You should at least finish the assignment.”
“What does one week matter?”
“To these kids? It’s everything. You’re a minor deity around here, you know. The amazing Mace Duvall, baseball superhero. They’ve memorized every detail they could dig up about you.” She shoved her chair back and paced across the office. “They talk about you every waking minute. I’ve got a kid with a severe high ankle sprain who won’t stay off it because he’s got the chance to work with you while you’re here. And now you’re telling me you’re going to leave without even getting into your assignment?”
“Hey, disappointment is a part of life. They might as well get used to it.” The words tasted bitter in his mouth. “Besides, they’re grown-ups. They can handle it.”
“No, they’re kids. You’re the grown-up and you’re supposed to be responsible,” she shot back, jerking her chin up.
Like a girl protecting her kid brothers against the neighborhood bully, he thought, surprised at just how sexy it was. An enticing flush ran along the tops of her cheekbones. “Look, it’s not that big a deal. I mean, really, what does it matter if I resign? I could walk out of the front door right now and get hit in the head by a falling brick and be just as gone.”
“Unlikely,” she said, sitting down reluctantly.
“So are a lot of things that happen, believe me.”
“All the more reason you should control what you can, and keep to your word.”
“What word? I made a stupid bet over a game of pool. I lost, and the stake was being a batting instructor for a season. I’ve got no real business being here, so I’m pulling out. It’s nothing personal.” He picked a steel ball the size of a walnut out of the tray of paper clips and began rolling it idly back and forth across the desktop.
“I’m not taking it personally,” she returned hotly. “I could care less if you stay or go but it’s important to these kids. They’re trying to do something here they care about. All you seem to be in it for is the moment.”
“There are worse ways to live than just enjoying the moment.”
“Some of us