Free Fair Play by Emerson Rose Page A

about him since you’re going to be staying here for a while.”
    “Is Ben your boyfriend?” Ninety-nine percent of that question is teasing, and the last one percent is genuine concern that Nick is the perfect catch for a guy named Ben and not myself.
    “Ben plays defense for the Hawks. He’s my best friend and absolutely not my boyfriend. He’s like family to us and he’s around a lot. He’s different from the other guys on the team. He’s not interested in the wild party life and he doesn’t have any family or a steady girlfriend, so he hangs with us.”
    “That’s cool. So, don’t leave my door open or grab a drink in my underwear in the middle of the night?”
    He lowers his focus from my eyes to my mouth. My pulse rises, and I squirm under his gaze and pull my bottom lip in between my teeth.
    “Sorry, too forward?” I ask.
    “You should be careful what kind of ideas you put into my head, Ms. Brown.”
    His tone says watch it lady, but his eyes say he wants nothing more than to see me wandering around his house at night in my panties and bra.
    I watch him round the front of the car and open my door, deafened by the sound of my heart pounding in my chest.
    “We can do some pictures around the house tomorrow. Scarlet will probably nap until it’s time for dinner. Let’s go inside, I’ll put her down and show you your room.”
    Between opening his door and opening mine, he has managed to rein in the desire that was in his tone seconds ago.
    Nicolas Wood is once again the friendly fatherly man I spent the day with. The dominant, smoky-eyed man that I pushed to the edge with my teasing words seconds ago is nowhere in sight.
    I nod silently. No man has ever made me speechless, but Nick Wood has cut the lines of communication between my brain and my vocal cords with a few commanding words.
    He scoops Scarlet from her seat with ease and leads me up the long brick path to the house. Two rows of trees line the path, and their intertwined branches form a canopy overhead that keeps the yard uncharacteristically cool for this time of year.
    The warm summer air smells sweeter here than the salty air from the beach. Hot pink bougainvillea that matches the pink sunset crawls up the brick wall that runs the length of the property on the south, and the sound of a million locusts singing fills the air.
    God, I could stay here forever. The only thing missing is the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore. If this house were on the beach, it would be outright heaven.
    We climb the stairs to the porch and while he unlocks the door, I glance to my right at the row of mission rocking chairs. There are small cocktail tables every few chairs and enormous potted hydrangeas set in each corner.
    I feel like I’ve walked into Terra from Gone With The Wind, but more beautiful.
    Nick pushes open one of the incredible tall front doors, and I follow him inside to a wide-open foyer with a sweeping curved staircase. A chandelier bigger than my apartment in Chicago twinkles overhead, and a large round table sits in the center with an impressive vase overflowing with light pink hydrangeas and purple wisteria.
    I’ve seen the homes of professional football players on MTV’s Cribs and I know they have money, lots of it. But this house is nothing like the ostentatious mansions that those players buy just so they can say they spent a couple million on a place to lay their head.
    This is home that says I am classy and down to earth. You can almost feel the love that it took to make this house a home. It has character and history and a style long since forgotten.
    Nick glances over his shoulder and catches me with my head tipped back, checking out the gorgeous chandelier.
    “I’m going to lay her down. If you want to look around, be my guest. I didn’t see Ben’s car, but that doesn’t mean he’s not lurking around here somewhere, so be on the lookout.”
    “Okay, I’m not going far though. I’m afraid I’ll get