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She’s flashing me her mischievous smile while the PR guy coordinates shots and positions us for “candids” that pop.
She’s watching me when no one is watching her.
And she’s brightening every damn thing about today.
Wozniewicz took off about twenty minutes ago, but not until he pulled Natalie into a longer-than-necessary hug and told her to call him if I gave her any trouble.
What an ass.
When the last of the camera gear is packed up and the doors to the public are closed, and Natalie helps sort books and label boxes, I head out to my car and back it up to the walk. I tell myself not to think about hanging around while she finishes. Not to offer her a ride home again.Shit.That’s the dead last place my mind needs to be going right now. We’ve got a game tonight, and demolishing the Bruins is the only thing I ought to be thinking about.
Rounding the car, I pop the trunk and pull out the dolly before stacking it with four boxes I’ve got to donate. When I get to the door, Natalie is the one waiting there, her eyes narrowed on me.
“What’s this?”
“A few books I wanted to add.”
“In addition to the check you wrote? The verygenerouscheck.” The door swings closed behind us and her hand wraps around my wrist, butterfly light, but it stops me as effectively as if I’d walked into a brick wall. “And oh my God, are you blushing?”
No. No, I am not fucking blushing. It’s hot in here and I spend my life on the ice. Or maybe I’ve got a touch of the plague.
“Big burly guys don’t blush,” I grumble, cutting a look over to where she’s leaned up against the wall beside me, her eyes delighted, her smile breathtaking.
“So you’re overexerted then, from all this heavyrolling?” It’s a taunt, only the way she says it, sort of low and breathy, has my thoughts spiraling into a place I keep trying not to go to with her.
Too late. I’m staring at her mouth thinking about what it was like kissing her. Remembering how she bit my bottom lip, lightly, just enough to hold me where she wanted me while she licked it.
I’m thinking about her short nails at my shoulders and how her lips felt against my ear— “Okay, I’m blushing.”
I need to stop looking at her jeans and thinking about how sweet it would be to get inside them, or to hear her breath hitch while I played with her. Right here. Against this wall.
I could have her coming against my hand in less than five minutes. I did last time.
Christ, my heart starts to jack and I’m about a quarter second from sporting wood. “I ought to get these with the other donations.”
Those neat white teeth sink into her bottom lip, and pretty soon I’m going to need more than this stack of boxes to keep her from seeing what it’s doing to me.
“Yeah, of course. You’ve got a game tonight.” She glances around and then asks, “Why wouldn’t you have brought this stuff in while the PR guys were here? They would have eaten it up. I know you’re trying to work on your image. This is just the kind of thing that would help. Same with that kid, Erik. He was beside himself when you signed his stick. But the minute the cameras came out you clammed up.”
I could brush her off with some non-answer, but when she’s looking up at me with those big blue eyes, I don’t want to put a bunch of bullshit between us. I like that she’s curious enough to ask me something. So I give her the truth. “Guess I just want to feel like some of what I do here is for me and for the charities I’m supporting. Not for my image.”
“But if the reason you decided to donate all these books and tablets is because you wanted to make a difference, I don’t see how letting someone take your picture could diminish that? I mean, you know what’s in your heart, right?”
I stop the dolly next to a pile of boxes, and Natalie immediately grabs the top one off the stack. I grab it back, laughing. “Christ, first with the blushing and now you want to help me carry my boxes? You trying to drive my ego into the ground here?”
“Something tells me that thing wouldn’t stay down for long. But no, just helping.”
I shake my head because now she’s got another box. I set the first one aside and reach for the one in her hands. Our fingers touch and it’s like someone plugged me into a socket. I feel the heat from that accidental touch like lightning through my nervous system, like a fucking current beneath my skin. But a good one.
Her eyes cut to mine, going wide before darting away.
And now I’m not the only one with pink cheeks.
Chapter 9
Vaughn
Her fingers slide free of mine. I set the box aside as she takes a few steps away and then turns back to meet my eyes.
