I whistled as I walked out of Lucia’s office, feeling smug. I had just talked the woman deemed unfuckable into a date, even if I did have to resort to messing with her head a little.
Though—and I wouldn’t tell her—the desperation in her eyes had tugged on something deep inside me, reminding me of my own past. Lucia had some deep need to make her job work. And besides, I didn’t know if I could’ve still walked out had she turned down my offer.
She had determination, and I could relate to that feeling. But she had also revealed a weakness to me, which I supposed had given me a leg up on the competition, and really, I had gotten what I wanted in the end. I was well on my way to winning two grand and had a date with a hot chick. I had fucking enjoyed her kiss the night before, and I wanted more, a lot more. She was coy, though, I had to give her that. No wonder she had looked at me so oddly last night when I’d asked her about Lucia. She was Lucia. I still was struggling to grasp that concept. Yet looking down at the paper with her address and cell number on it, it didn’t matter anymore, and I couldn’t help but grin.
I walked to the locker room, where some of the guys had already gathered for the day’s late-morning practice session. It was the last thing I wanted to do with my head still buzzing, but I had no choice. A downside of the job, having to go out into the heat with a fucking hangover. At least in Minnesota I had a fifty-fifty chance of having some cool weather to practice in.
“Jacob, my man! How did you like the party last night? Wasn’t it everything I said it would be?”
I looked over to see Terrence coming toward me, the ever-present toothy grin on his face. “It was, it was! And actually it was exactly what I needed.”
“You sure are in a good mood. Hell, I have a hangover to end all hangovers. But I can’t wait to find out, did you find her?” Terrence asked as he threw his bag into his locker, the sound making us both wince. “When you left last night you were so determined.”
“Oh, I found her, all right,” I said with an eager grin, glad that I could at least give him that information. “And I got digits and a date.”
Terrence’s smile slid sideways, his eyes rounding slightly. “You’re fucking with me, right? I know you are. There is no possible way you could have gotten that far in one night.”
I shook my head and held up the piece of paper, not showing him the info. I didn’t need him encroaching on what I considered my territory. I was going to tame Lucia and enjoy every minute of it.
“Shit, man,” Terrence said, eyeing the note, apparently trusting me as a man of my word. “How did you do that?”
“Charm, my man, charm,” I laughed, placing it back into my pocket for safekeeping. “Why didn’t you tell me she was the performance therapist? I would have prepared myself before she started picking my brain apart.”
“Oh, you know,” Terrence drawled as he pulled on his pads, “that would’ve been too easy. Besides, if we had told you, would you still have gone after her?”
I thought about that for a moment, thinking of how the lull of her missing identity made it all the more intriguing. Just the missing link had been enough to push me. “Nah, probably not.”
“Well,” Terrence said as I pulled on my own pads and laced my cleats. “You won, dude. No need to go through with the date now. It’s all over.” When I didn’t respond, he leaned up against the locker with his forearm. “Wait. You aren’t seriously considering going through it, right?”
“Why the hell not? I still need to get her into my bed,” I shrugged, slapping him on the back for good measure. I had worked this hard to find out who she was, and that kiss, the one that Terrence didn’t know about, was still on my mind. If she had blown me away with just a kiss, I could only imagine how it would be to get under the sheets with her. Under that prim and professional look of hers, I was betting on her being a wild ride. She just needed the right guy to bring it out of her, and I wanted to be that man. She was a conquest now, like a game I was told I couldn’t win. There was no way in hell I was going to back down at this stage.
“Shit man,” Terrence said as we started to walk toward the exit. “If you do this, you might not come back out. She will have you spouting that therapy crap before the end of the season, and then you can kiss a starting position goodbye. Ain’t nobody gonna survive when her fa—”
“Stop worrying. Have more faith in me than that, Terrence,” I interrupted, shielding my eyes as we stepped out into the sunshine. By the end of the season, I planned to have her in my bed and out of my system, and I’d be in that starting position. It was a good play.