Body Check by Deirdre Martin Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t have what it took to stay the course? Either way, his parting shot made her furious.
    Of course, she was the one who’d taken aim first, she had to admit that.
    She had to go and make that jibe about the Playoffs. She couldn’t just bite her tongue. And what did it get her? Nothing, with the possible exception of an enemy for life.
    She went over to the buffet table, picked up a gleaming red apple, and bit into it, hard. So much for sweetness and light. Ty Gallagher had thrown down the gauntlet. She would pick it up. The battle had officially begun. He might have won the first two rounds, but in the end, she would win the fight. She was expected by Kidco to win. She was being paid to win. She’d fight Ty Gallagher to the bitter end. Not because she wanted to, but because she had to.

CHAPTER 03
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    â€œTyyyyyy. Tyler-Wyler. Wakey, wakey.”
    Ty cracked open one weary, bloodshot eye. The bodacious redhead he’d brought home the night before was playfully straddling him as if he were her own personal hobbyhorse.
    â€œCould you please get off me,” he muttered politely, the jabbing headache behind his eyes surging every time she bounced up and down.
    â€œThat’s not what you said last night,” she teased, leaning forward so her breasts grazed his chest.
    â€œThis isn’t last night,” he replied, closing his eye. His head felt bolted to the pillow, the pain was that heavy and intense. All play and too much Rémy Martin makes Ty a hungover boy . The woman whom he’d brought to screaming ecstasy the night before—Laurie? Laura? Lauren?—stopped bouncing, but she made no move to unwrap herself from his torso. In fact, her face was now buried deep in his neck, which she was biting in the hope he would revive and give a command performance. It wasn’t gonna happen.
    â€œI mean it,” Ty said gently. “I need you to get off me, I’m not feeling too great.”
    The woman clucked her tongue disappointedly then rolled off, allowing him to feel like he could breathe again. He forced open both eyes, and with what felt like every ounce of strength he had, slowly turned his head toward his night table to see the time. Ten-thirty A.M. Oh, shi—no wait, wait. Ten-thirty A.M . . . Sunday. Whew . For a second there he’d been seized with panic that he’d overslept and had missed practice. But then he remembered: Last night had been Saturday, and he’d gone with a couple of the guys to check out some private club down in Noho. The club owner, clearly thrilled to have a sports celebrity in his midst, had told Ty he could drink on the house. And Ty had, the sharp edges of the night growing increasingly fuzzy the more cognac he enjoyed. He remembered ducking into a cab with the redhead now beside him, and could somewhat recall the acrobatics they’d engaged in the night before. But the fact that she was here in his bed was proof he’d had too much drink. Usually, if he was interested in making love to a woman, he made sure they went back to her place. That way, he could leave after a respectable interval of afterglow and not have to spend the night. Now he was stuck.
    The redhead was sighing contentedly to herself and snuggling down beneath the covers, clearly intending to go back to sleep. Ty propped himself up on his elbow, and as nicely as he could, gently shook her shoulder.
    â€œI hate to do this, sweetheart, but there’s somewhere I need to be.”
    â€œThat’s okay,” she mewed in a kittenish voice. “You can just leave me here.”
    Ty chuckled, surprised to discover that even his face hurt. “No can do, honey. It doesn’t work that way at Chateau Gallagher. Why don’t you run along to the shower and I’ll arrange for a cab to pick you up in a half hour or so?”
    The woman sat up, huffing. “Fine.” Pulling the sheet to her chest, she rose, Ty’s bedding