Everything to me, page 3
Kendall laughed. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I love your place. I much prefer it to what I imagine my brother bought. It just surprised me, that’s all.”
“Why’s that?”
“I don’t know. Growing up, you seemed kind of flashy and always loved lots of attention and I guess I thought you’d want the big fancy house everyone would admire.”
He winced. “God, I wasn’t that much of a prick, was I?”
She stopped walking and gawked at him. “What? You weren’t a prick.”
“No? Just all flash and no substance.” He cringed. He knew he’d had a pretty big ego when he was younger and was kind of full of himself when he first got signed, but hearing Kendall’s impression of him stung a little.
“I never said that.” Kendall grabbed his arm. “You had something to prove to the world. I got that. It didn’t make you a prick. It made you hungry. Determined. You had a bit of a chip on your shoulder when I first met you, but it was more of a screw you. No one is going to tell me what I can and can’t do.”
If only she knew how true that was. Before his dad had left, he’d taken every opportunity to tell Pete what a useless piece of shit he was. How much he regretted him being born. He’d always felt like he was a big part of the reason his dad had left. When things started to look up for him with baseball, his biggest dream had been to finally prove his old man wrong.
Kendall’s hand brushed against his arm, drawing his attention back to her. She smiled at him and began walking again. “You had this whole bad boy vibe going. It was pretty hot.”
“Oh yeah?” He flicked a glance at her, then pulled open the door to the restaurant.
The hostess smiled. “Hey, Pete. For two?”
“Yeah, thanks, Carla.”
They followed Carla to a table against the window that overlooked the water.
Kendall slid into her seat and looked around the restaurant. “I like it, it’s trendy without being cheugy.”
“Chew gee? What the fuck is that?”
Kendall rolled her eyes. “You know, like trying too hard.”
Pete snorted. “You just made that up. There’s no way that’s a real word.”
“It totally is a word.” She placed her hand against her chest. “I’m offended you think I’d lie about something like that.”
“Must be some bougie Atlanta term because I’ve never heard it before.”
“Well, you know.” She flicked her hair off her shoulder. “I am in marketing, after all, so I have to keep up to date on what all the cool kids are saying.” She stuck her tongue out and smirked.
“Oh right, of course. I just didn’t realize I wasn’t still a cool kid.” Shit, he’d just turned thirty. How was that old?
Kendall reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Don’t worry, you’re still cool to me.”
“Gee, thanks.”
The server stopped at their table. “Can I bring you something to drink?”
Kendall glanced over at the bar and quirked her brow as she pondered the selection. “Sorry, I don’t know what kind of beer you have.”
“But you want beer?”
“Come on, Pete. I would be kicked out of the Graves family if I didn’t drink beer.”
He pictured Ryan’s dad and all the attempts at making beer in the basement he’d made over the past decade. He shuddered. God, some of them had been horrific. Some things should be left for the professionals or at least people who had a better understanding of science than Pat. “I’m sure we can do better than your dad’s basement beer.” He laughed, then turned to the server. “Can we grab two samplers and just load it up with your 10 best sellers and we can split it to figure out what we like?”
“I don’t go to brew pubs very often at home, so I forgot they do that. Fun.” She leaned back in her chair. “Thanks for letting me crash with you. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. I’m glad you asked. It’ll be nice to spend some time with you. We’ve never really hung out, just the two of us before.”
“Yeah, it’ll be nice to get to know each other better as adults.” She smiled at him.
And instantly, his cock was back at the party. Son of a bitch. The thing had a mind of its own around her. He was going to have to put a leash on the damn thing if this kept up. She was here for work. She didn’t need her brother’s friend lusting after her.
“Advertising huh, what’s that like?”
The look on Kendall’s face said she knew exactly what he was doing with the little dodge and weave game he was playing as he tried to avoid anything that might steer them back towards discussing hooking up. With any other woman, he would be all over a casual fling and enjoying the hell out of the week, but this was Ryan’s sister and he could almost hear him warning Pete off her as they spoke.
“Advertising is good. I work at a boutique firm in Atlanta that recently opened an office here in San Diego.”
“You’ve worked there, what, five years?”
“Yeah, I started there right out of University. I did an internship with the firm my summer before graduating and it was like a dream come true when they hired me after graduation.”
“Why’s that? What’s special about the firm?”
“I don’t know, it’s just…” She shook her head and paused, like she was trying to find the words to explain it. “The company was started by these four amazing women. They were only a few years older than me when they started the firm with some startup money from a couple of investors who now live in San Diego, thus the new office here.” Her eyes glittered with excitement when she looked back at him. “They are absolutely incredible and so creative. Somehow they’re able to convince these stodgy business men to try innovative ad campaigns that no one would ever expect them to be willing to try. I’ve learned so much from them.”
“That’s awesome. You were lucky to hook up with them right out of the gate.”
“Oh, tell me about it. They took me under their wing right away and have even helped me with taking some advanced business courses to learn that aspect of the company as well. It’s been pretty wild.”
Her voice hummed with excitement as she spoke about her job. If she could be that passionate about work, he could only imagine what she’d be like in bed. Woah. He needed to rein those kind of thoughts in and fast. He was not going to think about her like that. She was Ryan’s sister. Ryan’s kid sister. He’d known her since before puberty had really kicked in. He would not think about her as a woman.
He glanced across the table, and Kendall smiled at him. Ok, that might be easier said than done. Why the hell did she have to grow up to look like that?
Smart, beautiful, and liked baseball. That was like the freaking trifecta. Ok, he needed to get his thoughts back on track. Talk about work. Most people were willing to talk about themselves to the point of being annoying about it. That ought to curb his lust for her.
“Why’d they send you here to San Diego?”
“Mmm, they just started the firm about six months ago and thought the person they hired would be a perfect fit. He seemed to have the same philosophy as them, but somehow that doesn’t seem to translate with clients. All four of my bosses are married with young kids and it’s not convenient for them to come out here just to get the lay of the land. I’m here to see what’s going on, get a feel for things and then, if need be, one of them will come out and make some changes. None of them will ever move here, so if it turns out it’s going to be too hard to get this up and running properly, they may just decide to sell.” She shrugged. “We’ll see. It’s still too soon to tell. At this point, we don’t know if it’s a management issue, a staffing issue or something else. So that’s what I’ll be doing this week while I’m here. Playing detective and putting my new business management classes to good use.”
She placed her elbows on the table and leaned towards him. “Okay, enough about me. You must be pretty excited that Ryan got traded to San Diego so you two can play together again.”
What? They couldn’t be done talking about her already. No woman was willing to jump to talking about him that quickly. He’d been counting on her boring him with shop talk to cool down the lust that sizzled beneath the surface since the second he laid eyes on her again.
He scanned the bar for their server. Where the hell were their drinks?
Chapter Three
The server stopped at the table with two trays of beer samplers. She laid a piece of paper on the table beside each tray. “This lists the beers in each sampler with a score sheet for you to rate which ones you like best. Are you wanting to order now as well, or do you need more time?”
He looked over at Kendall, and she glanced at the menu she hadn’t opened yet and winced. “Yeah, we’re going to need more time,” he told her.
“No problem. Just give me a wave when you want to order.”
Kendall picked up the sheet in front of her and slid a tray toward herself. He’d never seen anyone take beer tasting so seriously before. She studied the beers, looked back at her list, then swooped in and scooped up the list in front of him.
“Hey, that one’s mine.” He grabbed her hand to try to get the sheet back.
She sucked in a breath when their hands touched. Raising his head, he looked at her and held her gaze for several seconds. The air hummed between them.
Her voice shook slightly when she spoke. “I thought we were going to share.”
“I don’t share well with others.” Shit, why did he say it like that? They were talking about beer and he made it sound like he was a possessive caveman who didn’t share his woman. Which was a lie because he’d been known to do that too. The sheet dropped to the table and he let go of Kendall’s hand. What was wrong with him? He prided himself on always being cool. He didn’t get weird about women.
“Are we just going to dance around this sexual tension for the entire week, then?” Kendall pinned him with a look. And damn if that didn’t make her even hotter that she was confident enough to call him on his bullshit.
“I thought we agreed it was a bad idea for anything to happen between us.”
“No, you said it was a bad idea. I disagreed. I think it sounds like a fantastic idea.”
Pete shifted in his seat and his dick twitched beneath his fly, letting him know it thought it was a great idea as well.
“Do you know how many times your brother warned me off you when we were kids?”
“We aren’t kids anymore, Pete.”
“No, I know, but still Ryan has made it clear he doesn’t want his friends touching his sister.”
“And yet he was the one who suggested I call you and stay with you instead of getting a hotel.”
Yeah, what was that all about? It’s not like her work wouldn’t pay for a hotel, so why had Ryan pushed her to call him? “He probably figured you were safe with me.”
“There’s safe and then there’s safe, Pete.” Kendall picked up her necklace and moved the charm back and forth on the chain like a seductive pendulum. When she stopped in the middle of her chest, his eyes lingered on her cleavage, and that twitch became a throb. Shit, he was in trouble.
“I’m not the teenage girl you remember.”
“Believe me, I’m very well aware.” The girl he remembered was shy and a little bit awkward. The woman in front of him was anything but. She dropped her necklace and it landed between her breasts. Unable to stop himself, his eyes lingered on the skin where the necklace landed. This woman knew her appeal and was willing to use it to her advantage.
Kendall slid the beer scoring sheet towards her and flipped it over, drew a line down the middle, and began writing.
“What are you writing?”
“A pros and cons list.” She winked at him. “I seem to remember you doing them when we were kids.”
“Pros and cons to us sleeping together?” he asked, amused at the effort she was willing to go to convince him this was a good idea.
“Yep, I told you I’ll pull out all the stops on this one.” Kendall pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and smiled coyly, then wrote on the sheet.
Finally, she slid the paper towards him. Holy shit, she was a dirty girl. She definitely made some fine points. The only thing on the con list was Ryan. The pro side was completely filled and the woman made good points.
Maybe she was onto something, and he should at least hear her out. It’s not like he had to follow through with anything, but she was right. She was an adult and deserved the chance to plead her case.
“Didn’t you grow up in Vegas?” Kendall asked.
“Yeah, why?” Where was she going with this? He leaned back in his chair and looked her in the eye. A small, sly smile spread across her face.
“Well, I’m thinking this week can be like Vegas. What happens here stays here.”
He shook his head. “This isn’t Vegas, Ken.”
“No, but it can be like it if we want it to be.” She leaned forward and clasped her hands together beneath her chin. The movement pressed her breast together and he bit back a groan.
“I’m only here for a week. Ryan is already at training camp, so there’s zero chance of us seeing him.” She licked her lips slowly. “You can’t deny the chemistry between us. I know I’m going to be spending the entire week thinking about you either way, and I’ll be doing my best to convince you we should fuck.”
He shifted on the stool and pulled on the corner pocket of his jeans to subtly shift the fabric in an effort to ease the tightness.
“I can be very persuasive, Pete. I convince people they want things for a living and believe me, I am very good at my job.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
“I’m thinking it makes more sense to enjoy the entire week and get the most out of it rather than both of us being sexually frustrated all week long until we get to the point where we finally cave the night before I leave in a feast of sweaty, carnal lust. I mean, I’m all for that too, but I think it would be more fun to partake all week.”
“Okay, but are you going to be able to make it just about sex this week? I don’t want you to weave fairytales around this becoming something. Because I promise you, it won’t,” Pete told her.
“Believe me, I’m very well aware of your reputation, Pete. I have no illusions about what this is.”
“Are you sure? Because I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted, but no offense, I can’t fuck up my friendship with Ryan because you want it to become something more. I’m sorry if that makes me sound like an asshole.”
“No, it honestly doesn’t. I don’t want to have to deal with shit from my brother any more than you do.”
“What does that mean?”
“Oh, come on. Exactly what you’re worried about, but on the other side. He’d lecture me about how stupid I was to get involved with you. You’re a pro-athlete. You aren’t going to end up with a girl like me, blah blah blah.”
“What the fuck? Why wouldn’t I end up with a girl like you?” He knew Kendall was too good for him, but that didn’t mean he would end up with some groupie. Hell, he’d long since outgrown the novelty of that.
Kendall rolled her eyes. “It’s not a shot at you, it’s a shot at me.”
“From where I’m sitting, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you.”
“Well, thank you.” She tilted her head to the side as she watched him. “So, I propose we take advantage of the forced proximity this week to bang the hell out of each other. Then when I go home, we go back to business as usual.”
“How would that work when we see each other?”
“Come on, Pete, how often is that going to happen? In the past five years, how many times have we seen each other? Two, maybe three?”
“Yeah, but that will be different now that Ryan’s been traded to the same team as me.”
“Not really. I might see you when you guys come to Atlanta for a game, but Ryan will be there, so it’s not like anything would happen anyway, so it would just be like normal.”
“And you think you can be normal with me after we’ve had sex?”
Kendall leaned back in her chair and laughed. “Umm yeah, I think I can be normal around you after we’ve had sex. I might live in the south, but I’m not some pearl clutching virgin who’s going to be all scandalized because you took my honor,” she said, her voice dripping with a false southern accent. “Trust me, I can be cool around my brother if you can.”
Damn, she made a good point. Could he do this? Could he hook up with Kendall with no strings? His head said, don’t be an asshole. She deserved better than a casual hookup with a guy like him. His dick said he was being an asshole if he didn’t take her seriously and respect that she knew her own mind. Problem was, he didn’t know which head to listen to. He picked up one of the beers from the tray without even looking at the list and took a sip.
Kendall reached out and took the beer from his hand and brought the glass to her mouth for a sip. She handed the glass back to him when she’d finished. He looked down at the glass and the faint lipstick mark on the rim from where her lips had rested. How messed up was it that he wanted to place his lips over that lipstick stain?
“I can be cool around your brother. But if we do this, no one finds out.”
Kendall held his gaze. “And when I leave, we go back to the way things have always been. No feeling guilty and trying to drag this thing out because you’re scared of hurting my feelings. We fuck, get it out of our systems and go back to normal.”
Pete took a deep breath and exhaled. Hopefully, they wouldn’t regret this decision, but at this particular moment, he didn’t care. “Deal,” he agreed. Looks like my little brain won this round.
“Let’s get out of here,” Kendall said.
“You don’t want to eat first?” he asked. God, he hoped not because now that they’d agreed to do this, he couldn’t wait to get back home.
“Not even a little bit. We can order pizza or something later.”
“Done.” He threw a twenty on the table and stood up. Reaching for her hand, he pulled her out of her chair. She pressed against him and grabbed his belt buckle with her fingers.
