Page 56 of Tempting the Player
Distaste pulled at her full lips. “Are you okay with this?”
“Hmm?”
“Okay with people following you around all the time? Knowing when you have people staying over and stuff like that?” she elaborated. “You have an army of stalkers.”
“I don’t know. Warmed up?” When she nodded, he hit the down arrow on the thermostat. “I really don’t think about it.”
She appeared to consider that. “Because you’re used to it?”
Chad nodded. “I guess you can say that.”
“Well, you’ve been playing ball since you were twenty, right? That’s ten years of this, so I guess you would be.” She paused, and he was surprised that she knew when he’d started playing ball. Had to be Maddie. “Still seems like a total violation of privacy.”
“Comes along with the job, though.”
Bridget didn’t respond to that and a companionable silence lasted until he pulled into the parking garage. They swung by her car to grab her overnight bag. Of course, the thing was the size of a small van and featured a kaleidoscope of colors.
“Bag?” he asked, offering his hand.
“Why?”
He smiled. “Trying out the gentleman thing and was going to carry it for you.”
“There’re no cameras around.” Then she lowered her voice. “Are there? Oh my God, are they inside?”
“Just give me the bag.”
Bridget handed it over, and he steered them toward the door. “No one is inside. The security won’t let them into the garage or the doors downstairs.”
She followed him into his building and down the empty hall. Once inside his toasty apartment, he dropped his keys on the counter and then dug out his cell, leaving it there.
“Which guest bedroom do you want?” he asked. “There’s one downstairs, but the bathroom is out in the hall. The two upstairs have their—”
“I remember,” she said, eyeing the stairs. “I’ll take the bedroom downstairs.”
“Suit yourself.” He carried her bag over to the door under the stairs and nudged it open with his hip. The room was really bare. Just a bedside table, a bed with two pillows and a thin cover, and a small TV mounted to the wall.
“I like the walls,” she said, following him in.
Chad smiled to himself. It was the only thing with color—red walls. “I’ll get you a heavier blanket. I turn the heat down at night,” he offered as an explanation. He put the bag on the bed and shoved his hands into his jeans. “You can also order any movies you want.”
She looked around, her gaze dropping to the hardwood floors. “Is this what you do when you normally bring women back to your place?”
Hell no. Usually he took them straight to one of the guest rooms—never his—or they didn’t even make it that far. Bridget had been the first woman he’d taken to his bedroom, and he hadn’t even realized that until now.
“No, Bridget, this isn’t what I normally do. You should remember what I normally do.”
She let out a soft, low laugh that had his stomach muscles clenching. “This is so awkward.”
Chad stared at her a moment, his gaze soaking up the deep red of her hair, the delicate arches of her cheekbones, and the lush swell of her breasts. He forced himself to look away before he took her to the floor and buried himself in her so deeply that he wouldn’t know where he ended and she began. “Want a drink?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
They went back into the kitchen, and he opened the cabinet where he stored the drinks. “Your choice.”
Bridget peered over his shoulder. “I better stick with wine. Something sweet, if you have it.”
He found some bubbly champagne that Maddie had given him but he’d never drunk. While he poured her a glass and got a little scotch out for himself, he watched her wander aimlessly through the kitchen and into the living room once she had her drink.
