The ballroom glittered with the rich and famous. Santa Rey was four hours north of Hollywood and Malibu, and thanks to Mark offering up all the Mammoth players for auction, celebrities had flocked to the event. Casey was up on the block first, and was bought by a blonde television starlet. James went up next. Lena started to bid on him but Rick yanked her back into her seat. James ended up going to some cute young twenty-something, happily spending her daddy’s money.

And so it went, with Rainey dazzled by the money pouring in.

After the last player was auctioned off, the entire team of Mammoth players dragged Mark up onto the stage. She knew he’d just come back into town and had to be exhausted, but he looked incredible in a tux. He didn’t look thrilled about being auctioned off, but resigned to his fate, he stood there as the bidding started. And the crowd wasn’t shy either. Rainey’s heart started pounding, and her palms went sweaty as she lifted her bid paddle.

One hundred dollars. She’d just bid one hundred dollars on a man she was more than a little pissed at. Three women were in the bidding with her. One hundred twenty five. One hundred fifty. One hundred seventy-five… Unable to sit calmly, Rainey stood up and shouted her next bid. “Two hundred.” It was all she had left on her Visa. Maybe if she didn’t eat for the next month she could go to three hundred.

The next bidder was from Los Angeles. A woman producer, someone whispered. She bid a thousand dollars and Rainey sagged back in her seat. Probably for the best. It’d been silly to even think about bidding on him.

She felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she found James, crouched down low so he couldn’t be seen. “Here,” he said, and shoved something into her hand.

She looked down and her eyes almost fell out of her head. It was a wad of hundreds. “James-”

“It’s from the guys. You can’t turn it down, you’ll insult them. Plus, we all voted. We need you to win him, Rainey, bad. He’s been a complete ass this week, even from three thousand miles away. Only you can soften him up. Please win him and do whatever it is you do to make him nice again.”

She looked across the ballroom at the players, who were all watching her hopefully. “How much is here?” she asked.

“Five grand.”

“Five grand?”

James smiled. “Just hedging our bets. Plus, it’s a write-off. Don’t second-guess it, beautiful. It’s lunch money for some of these guys.”

“Mark Diego, going for thirty-five hundred,” the auctioneer said. “Once, twice-”

“Five thousand!” Rainey shouted.

The players cheered and hooted and hollered.

Lena leapt up and hugged her tight.

Rick was looking pleased.

James just grinned from ear to ear.

And from the stage, Mark’s gaze narrowed on Rainey, unreadable as ever.


WHEN THE AUCTION ended, Rainey headed out to her car and found a certain big shot NHL coach leaning against the hood, watching her walk toward him with dark, speculative eyes.

Up close and personal, he took her breath. Like his expensive players, he was looking GQ Corporate Hot tonight in that very sexy tux, black shirt, black on black tie, and those badass eyes glinting with pure trouble. It was a cool evening, and yet she felt herself begin to perspire.

She’d purchased him. Good Lord. She’d fought for him tooth and nail and she’d won, and all she wanted to do was tear off that suit with her teeth.

And then lick him head to toe.

Not good. She’d already licked him from head to toe and knew that he tasted better than any of her favorite foods. She knew that he felt the same about her.

And she knew something else too. She knew by the way that her heart was pounding, pounding, pounding, threatening to burst out of her ribs, that this was no simple thing that she’d be getting over anytime soon.

The closer she got, the more her stomach jangled. It was crazy, her reaction was crazy. He was just a guy, a bossy, demanding, alpha guy she’d once known…

And yet somewhere along the way, maybe when he’d so readily and willingly stepped up to the plate to help, becoming a true role model for the team, she’d realized how much more he was. Watching him step outside his comfort zone only intensified the experience.

You could do the same, a little voice said. Take a real risk for once. Step outside the box, veer from the plan…

Don’t let your fear hang you up. Take a risk on him.

His eyes never wavered from hers, and she hoped like hell she wasn’t broadcasting her thoughts because she really wasn’t ready for him to know them. “Hey.”

His smile went a little tight, but he gave her a soft “hey” and backed her to her car, pressing up against her, slipping his hands in her hair to tip her face up to his. “I missed you,” he said.

Her heart squeezed. “Are you sure? Because before you left, I thought maybe I was driving you a little nuts.”

“Definitely, you’re driving me nuts.”

She thought about getting annoyed at his present tense except he pressed his mouth to her temple, then took a tour along to her ear. Taking the lobe lightly in his teeth, he tugged.

She clutched at him, the bones in her knees vanishing. “Mark.”

“I have something I want to show you.”

“I know,” she said, feeling his erection press into her belly.

He snorted. “Not that. Come on, let’s go.”

Easier said than done. The parking lot was mobbed by everyone trying to leave the auction.

“Excuse me, Mark Diego!”

They both turned and faced two guys in their early twenties, carrying cameras that flashed brightly in their faces.

Rainey grimaced and covered her eyes.

Mark didn’t so much as flinch, but grabbed Rainey’s hand and kept them moving.

“Sorry about the Stanley Cup, man,” one of them said, keeping pace. “Is this your girlfriend? What’s your name, sweetheart?”

Rainey opened her mouth but Mark spoke up. “No comment,” he said, and walked her toward his truck so fast she could barely keep up, damn her four-inch heels. Mark opened the passenger side door for her, then stood practically on top of her as she attempted to get in. But his truck was high and her little black dress was short. And snug. “Back up,” she said. “I need some room for this.”

“Babe, I’m the only thing blocking the money shot.”

Rainey realized he was right. Without his protection, the photographers could get a picture of her crotch.

“It’s either me or them,” he said. “And somehow I think you’d rather it be me than the entire free world.”

“Fine. But don’t look.”

“I won’t,” he said as she slid in, and he totally looked.

“Hey!”

She caught his quick, bad boy grin before he shut the truck door, locking her inside.


MARK DROVE RAINEY up the highway a few miles, into the burned-out area of the county, nerves eating at his gut. He was more nervous now than he’d been at the finals. When he turned off the paved road and onto what was little more than a field of dirt, he stopped the truck and got out, walking around for Rainey.

She eyed the large trailer in front of them. “What’s this?”

Saying nothing, he unlocked the trailer and led her inside and hit the light switch.

Rainey looked around at the office equipment and architectural plans spread across one of the desks. “Mark?”

“Look out there.” Heart pounding, he pointed to the window as he flicked another switch and the land on the other side of the trailer lit up. “That’s where it’ll go.”

She moved to the window and stood highlighted there in her little black dress and heels, the elegance of her outfit clashing with her hair, which was trailing out of the twist she’d had it in, brushing her shoulders and neck. “Where what will go?” she asked, pressing her nose to the glass.

“The new parks and rec center.”

She turned and looked at him, eyes shocked. “What?”

“Yeah, I bought and donated this land to the rec center. By this same time next year you’ll be in your new office.”

She stared at him for a long beat. “Did you do this so I’d sleep with you again?”

“Is that even a possibility?”

She just stared at him some more, taking a page out of his own play book with a damn good game face.

“No,” she said, her eyes on his mouth. “I’m not going to sleep with you again.”

He went icy cold and couldn’t breathe. “No?”

“No. Sleeping with you is what went wrong. Sleeping with you makes me want more than you can give.”

He let out a breath and nodded. He understood but it felt like he’d just taken a full body hit.

“But,” she said, taking a step closer to him, “the not sleeping part-that works for me.” She was breathing a little hard and her nipples were pebbled against that mouthwatering black dress.

He wanted to strip her out of it and leave her in just the hot heels, but she was throwing more than a little ’tude, and the shoes might be detrimental to his health. Nope, it all had to go, everything, leaving her gloriously naked. Then his gaze locked on the pulse frantically beating at the base of her neck and he knew he wasn’t alone. Reaching out, he cupped her throat, his thumb brushing over the spot. She was flushed, and the low cut of her dress was affording him a view that made his mouth water.

“Does it work for you?” she asked.

“Hell, yes.”

14

THE WORDS WEREN’T out of Mark’s mouth before Rainey pretty much flung herself at him. She couldn’t help it, there wasn’t a woman in all the land who could have helped it.

He caught her. Of course he caught her. He always caught whatever was thrown at him, but he was also protective and warm and caring, and had the biggest heart of anyone she’d ever known. She backed him to the waist-high window she’d just been staring out and kissed him, long and deep, and when his hands came up to hold her, a rough groan vibrating from his chest, she tore her mouth free to kiss his throat while she pushed his jacket off his broad shoulders. He tossed it aside while she worked open the buttons on his shirt. Clearly relishing her touch, he held himself still, his hands tight on her arms, as if it was costing him to give her the reins.