Free Knowing the Score by Kat Latham

at her sarcastic tone. “You’re right—I barely remember being a virgin. But you might be surprised to hear I haven’t had sex in a hell of a long time.”
    She cocked a disbelieving brow. “What constitutes ‘long’ for a professional athlete? Days? Hours?”
    “Coming up on a year.”
    Her jaw dropped. She covered her mouth with her hand. A year?
    “I stay celibate during the season so I can focus on my career. Women can be...distracting.” His lips flattened and he blinked before focusing on her again. “For some reason, I don’t know...I haven’t told anyone this so it’s hard to put into words.” He took a deep breath. “I thought this summer would be like the last few, where I’d have a short-term relationship with a woman I met at the pub, or a woman I’ve...known, in the past. But I haven’t been able to do that. Not since Granddad’s heart attack.”
    “You don’t need to be around him constantly, Spencer. I’m sure he’d love it if you went out more.”
    He ignored the inference that his grandfather wanted to see less of him. “It’s not for lack of opportunity. I’ve had opportunity. I just haven’t had the stomach for it. Well, my stomach hasn’t been the problem.” He grimaced. “I want to sleep with someone I actually like, but I can’t take the risk of anything permanent. It needs to be someone I can be up front with, someone who knows it has to end next month when the season starts.”
    “I can see your problem.” Her mind whizzed at the speed of light because she could already tell where he was going with this. Caitlyn was proud of herself for keeping the tremor out of her voice. Now she just needed to find a way to wipe her nervous palms before he noticed how badly they sweat. “You need to have sex with a friend.”
    “Exactly! A friend who won’t be around very long, so she knows as well as I do that it’s nothing lasting.” He drew in an unsteady breath. “Caitlyn, I don’t think we need to keep talking in the third person like this. I’m obviously talking about you. About us. You’ve been on my mind a lot in the past week or so, but I couldn’t figure out if I scared you, or...?”
    Her eyes flew to his and saw a little boy’s shyness lurking there. “Are you kidding?”
    He shrugged. “Of course. Well, no. Not really. I mean, you did bite me.”
    She yanked her hand away and cringed, her face burning. “I am so sorry about that. I totally screwed the pooch.”
    He looked aghast. “You what?”
    “I screwed the pooch. I made a mistake.”
    “Yes, I can see how that would be a mistake.” He glanced around. “Caitlyn, that’s not a common expression here, so I’d be careful who you use it in front of.”
    She barely heard him. He’d wound her up by mentioning the tongue debacle. “You’re ridiculously good looking. You’re beyond beautiful. And there’s something seriously wrong here that Plain Jane is reassuring Adonis of his attractiveness.”
    He snorted. “I’m tempted to find the closest private spot and show you exactly how attractive I think Plain Jane is. But here’s the crux of our problem. I don’t want to hurt you, or to scare you, and that’s what I know will happen if I follow my impulse to jump you.”
    “I’m not easily scared.” Oh, the lies she told.
    “No, but you are inexperienced.” Crossing his arms between them, he leaned forward. “Tell me about your virginity.”
    “Uh, cod and chips?”
    They both twisted to face a red-cheeked teenage boy balancing two plates on his palms. Spencer sat back so the server could slide the plates onto the table before fleeing the scene. Caitlyn forced a smile. “Believe it or not, that’s not the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to me. But it does rank up there with biting your tongue.”
    Spencer grinned. “Before my tongue goes anywhere near your teeth again, I want to know what happened.”
    “Knee-jerk reaction. Men make me nervous. Especially big men.”
    He