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Yes. Bolted.
Grabbing her purse, she pushed past Rafe. She fled the room, the house, the whole scene. That didnotjust happen.
Chapter Three
Rafe felt another of his teammate’s hands on his shoulder as he sat in front of his locker after the game the following day. It had been an afternoon game and he and the rest of the Strikers had been back in sync. Each play perfectly executed. He’d made hits at each at bat and had no errors for the game, not that he normally expected them, but he’d come into this game not knowing what would happen.
“Way to fix it out there today, Rafe,” said Aiden as he walked by, towel wrapped loosely around his waist, hair still wet from the shower. “Knew you’d figure it out.”
He’d heard the same sentiments from the rest of the team for the last thirty minutes as he sat frozen, still in his uniform. The problem was, he had no idea what he’d done today that was different from what he’d done when they’d played their first of three games against the Hawks. He ran through his routines over and over, and nothing had changed.
Well, nothing except the fact that he had hardly been able to get his mind off that hot-as-hell kiss with Elise’s friend from the day before.
The way she’d grabbed him and leaned into the kiss, the way she’d kissed him back so completely and totally. That wasn’t at all what he’d expected from a tiny mouse of a woman like that. He would have thought a schoolteacher would be more prim and proper, not hot and steamy and so damned sexy she stole his breath. Then again, Elise was a teacher, and although Kane sure as hell didn’t kiss and tell, Rafe knew Kane wouldn't be with someone who wasn’t a wildcat in the bedroom. Maybe there was more to schoolteachers than he realized.
Rafe’s head came up. That was it—the kiss.Thatwas what was different. He’d kissed Ashlyn not more than twelve hours before the game. Rafe grinned and stripped out of his uniform, headed for the showers. He could work with that.
Ashlyn glanced down at her Yogi Bear pajamas as she rubbed her eyes and squinted at the clock on the mantle. Who on earth was ringing her doorbell at one o’clock in the morning? That thought woke her up as a ball of fear filled her stomach. Anyone coming to the door or calling so late probably had an emergency of some kind.
Ashlyn looked through the peephole and froze, then rubbed her eyes a few more times. Rafe Wilson was standing on her doorstep.Rafe Wilson. Onherdoorstep. She stepped back and frowned at the door, then moved forward again just as Rafe pushed the buzzer a second time, making her jump slightly at the sudden sound.
She wouldn’t normally answer the door for a man she didn’t know very well at this hour, but Rafe was close friends with Kane. Surely, he wouldn’t hurt her, would he? She nibbled on her bottom lip as she debated. She’d seen him a dozen or so times at parties. He was never drunk or out of control. She’d seen him hit on women, but he seemed to take no for an answer on the exceedingly rare times it was given. And, he was always polite with Elise, saying thank you and goodnight whenever he left.
Ashlyn looked down at her pajamas one last time before reaching for the door. She left the chain lock on and peeked through the four-inch space it provided, knowing full well he could likely break the wimpy little chain if he wanted.
Rafe’s eyes swept up and down her body and he seemed ... impatient. Annoyed, maybe that she took so long to answer? Who on earth comes to someone’s door at one in the morning and expects that person to answer right away? Or, for that matter, to answer at all?
He seemed to gather himself and she saw him take a deep breath, as though bracing himself. As she waited for what could possibly have brought him to her door, her mind replayed every second of his kiss from the day before. It was utterly ridiculous that her body responded to it, even now when it was nothing more than a memory. A damn good memory, she had to admit. Ashlyn blushed, trying to focus on the here and now instead of yesterday’s kiss.
“Rafe? Did you need something?” she asked.
The words that came out of his mouth were not even remotely expected.
“I need you.”
“Excuse me?” Ashlyn asked and took a step back, grasping at the neckline of her pajama top as though closing a robe more tightly around her body. But, there was no robe, nothing to cover her absurd Yogi bear pajamas, nothing with which to fortify her defenses. And, only that silly, useless chain on the door between them.
“I need you,” he repeated, as if that explained everything—as though it were self-explanatory. Ashlyn just stared.
“My game this afternoon,” he said more slowly, with the kind of deliberate breakdown one reserved for a small child who lacked the sophistication to understand concepts clear to adults. “No errors. Three hits, including a home run.”
Ashlyn nodded slowly, not at all sure what he was talking about.
“Yes. I saw. You bunted to third and brought Collier and Sampson home with your next at bat. The home run was beautiful. No one saw it coming.”
He nodded.
She shook her head.
They were getting nowhere.
“Can I come in, Ashlyn? So we can talk without a chain between us?”
She once again caught her lower lip between her teeth, not sure what to do.
Rafe held his hands up. “Just talk. Nothing more, I promise.”
After another short mental debate over the safety of letting him in, she erred on the side of he’s-good-friends-with-Kane-and-Elise and unlatched the chain before moving back into the room to let him in.
