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He rubbed at his eye, surprised when his hand came away with blood. “I should have said no,” he said.
She gave him a concerned glance. “What?”
He winced, and suddenly there were two roads in front of him. “I shouldn’t be driving.”
She unclicked her seat belt and knelt up on the passenger seat, leaning across to brace a hand on his shoulder.
It was almost enough to make him hit the guardrail. “What are you doing?”
“Keep your eyes on the road.”
“Did you set me up?”
“Shhh. Drive.” She leaned in close and blew on his neck.
No, that was almost enough to make him hit the guardrail. He pushed her away. “Stop. Tell me the truth. Did you—”
“No. I didn’t. Let me help you.” She shoved his hand out of the way and knelt up again.
Her breath on his skin felt awful and amazing at the same time. He fought not to make a sound.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I wish I had more power.”
“No,” he ground out. “You don’t.”
“I saw their car,” she said. “Around the corner. Tyler and my dad have been talking about staking out the sports center all week—”
“Thanks for the heads-up.”
o;I think living in a city would make me stir-crazy,” said Michael.
She thought of his parents’ landscaping business and wondered if a guy like Michael would actually suffer in a city. “I guess we’re not fated to be together, then.”
She’d meant for it to come out flippant, full of sarcasm, but the words fell flat and honest. He looked over his shoulder. “I guess not.”
The machine buzzed, signaling the last pitch. Michael hit hard, sending the ball into flight before it hit the nets and dropped dead.
She expected him to feed it another token, but he stepped over to the fence and hooked his hand on a link exactly five inches to the left of hers.
Again, he was too close. Her heart kicked. She stared up at him and stopped breathing.
“Want to learn?” he said.
“Learn?” Her voice was squeaking.
He tapped the fence with the end of the bat. “How to hit.” She couldn’t. She’d already spent too much time talking to him. This had danger written all over it.
But some part of her heart had already told her brain’s insistent thoughts to shove it.
Because she was already saying yes.
His brain kept asking him what the hell he was doing, but Michael ignored the doubts and led Emily to the slowest cage. All afternoon, her presence had been little flickers against his skin, not entirely unpleasant. From the moment he’d caught her in the office, blushing and stammering and fighting to turn down her music, he’d been fighting the urge to reach out and touch her, to see if those little flickers were a promise of something more.
She hadn’t reported him. That had to mean something. Right?
Especially now, when she stood with him in the eight-foot-square cage, listening to him talk about things like stance and hand position and letting the ball come to her.
God, he needed to shut up. He felt giddy and nervous and it was a miracle he could even form a coherent sentence. He held out the bat. “Here. Let’s just try.”
