Free Center Stage: A Hot Baseball Romance (Diamond Brides Book 8) by Mindy Klasky

all. Teammates didn’t go after each other’s sisters. Especially not teammates like Ryan. Not when Zach was one hundred percent aware of the crazy things that happened when there was too much alcohol at a hotel bar and too many girls in a hotel lobby and too many long, lonely nights in hotel hot tubs, hotel bedrooms, hotel suites where the drinks kept flowing and the girls kept coming and…
    They were both breathing hard by the time they reached the pier. Lindsey barely hesitated before she strode beneath the hulking wood. He followed her, because what the hell else was he going to do?
    The sound of the waves was louder beneath the structure; each crash echoed off the wood above them. The uprights sent spray into the air, a fine mist that shot a jagged line down his back. He licked his lips and tasted brine.
    Determined not to think about other things he could be tasting, he took a few steps away and cupped his hands around his mouth. Throwing back his head, he hooted like an owl, the way his father had taught him years ago. The sound ricocheted off the underside of the pier, swirling around them like an entire flock of birds had taken up residence in the shadows.
    Ten years since he’d lived in Chester Beach, but he still found the echo spot without a problem.
    “Do it again!” Lindsey commanded, laughing.
    He shook his head, though, and held out his hand, inviting her to join him at the right place—halfway between the third and fourth pilings, smack in the middle of the pier. “You do it,” he said, and he gestured for her to throw back her head, to make her own sound.
    She curved her fingers beside her mouth and called out “Hoo!” but the sound was lost in the darkness.
    “You’ve got to be in just the right spot,” he said, waving her a half step closer to the sea. She followed his direction, but she moved too far to her right.
    “Hoo!” she tried again, but her shout died away before the next wave crashed. It was dark enough that he couldn’t see the disappointment on her face, but he heard it in her voice when she said, “It doesn’t work for me.”
    Before he could remind himself not to touch her, his hands were on her waist. He planted his feet firmly, automatically gauging the distance to the breaking waves. He flattened his palms, guiding her a quarter-step back, bracing his thighs to keep them both in the proper spot. He couldn’t hide his grunt as her ass brushed against his crotch, as his cock reminded him that broken ribs would be a small penalty to pay for the grassy scent of her hair just beneath his nose, for the heat of her body, long and lean and taut against his.
    That gasp through his clenched teeth echoed back a dozen times, bouncing off the wood, off the packed sand, off their bodies. He lied to himself, told himself she wouldn’t hear it, wouldn’t recognize his need, but he knew he didn’t have a chance when she stiffened beneath his palms.
    Let go of her. Just step away.
    But he didn’t want to drop his hands. He didn’t want to open up a space between them. He didn’t want to do all the things any sane man would do, any guy who wanted to live another twenty-four hours, maybe even with his dream job intact.
    ~~~
    She wasn’t that naive.
    She recognized the sound that had echoed all around them; she understood what it meant. She froze as she realized what Ryan had to be thinking. She’d practically kidnapped him, stealing his car for good measure. She hadn’t hesitated to be her seductive best when he’d held back; she’d looked up at him through her eyelashes; she’d stuck out her lip in a pout.
    She’d spent the entire drive to Chester Beach thinking he was safe. He was one of Zach’s teammates, for God’s sake. Ever since her first crush on a ballplayer, on a left-handed pitcher with a killer curveball who had long ago been traded to Kansas City, she’d known Zach wouldn’t put up with her dating any guy on his team. He was her big brother. He laid down the