Knowing the Score by Kat Latham Read Free Book Online Page B

angry blister swelled the back of her heel. Resting her foot against his thigh—far too close to his still semi-interested erection for comfort—he cracked open the tin and rummaged around until he found a couple of plasters big enough to cover the area.
    “So...you’re a model.”
    Surprise made him laugh. “What? Oh, the advert. Jesus, don’t let Granddad hear you ask me that. I’ll never hear the end of it.” He shrugged, gratified to see he’d teased a smile out of her, and ripped open a plaster. “I guess...um, sponsorship ...is how I make a lot of my money. But most people know me for being a professional egg chaser.”
    Her face scrunched up in confusion.
    Oh, yeah. American. “I play rugby,” he explained. “The ball’s shaped like an egg. Sort of.” Not really.
    Her body, which he’d felt thrumming with nervous excitement seconds earlier, stilled. “Rugby? But...isn’t that a violent sport?”
    “Can be, but there are rules. Biting, for instance, would get you a twelve-week ban.”
    She closed her eyes in obvious chagrin, making him laugh.
    “Worst injury I’ve had is a broken femur.” Motherfucker had it hurt. And nearly terminated his career. He shrugged off the memory. “It wasn’t too bad.”
    Thank God he’d been twenty, full of calcium and fury, ready to work his arse off to prove himself a better man than he’d been made out to be in the papers.
    He left the foot he’d treated on his thigh and picked up the other one, bending over to examine the back of it. Another violently red blister stared back at him, but his gaze also caught on a wine-colored blemish staining the side of her calf, too dark to have been caused by the shower’s heat. He trailed his fingertips over it, making her leg twitch.
    “It’s a scar from a snake bite.” Caitlyn sounded almost breathless, her voice turning husky in a way that sent every cell in his body humming until her words broke through his pheromone haze.
    “You’ve been bitten by a fucking snake? ”
    “I worked in Thailand after the tsunami. Stumbled across a pit viper—literally. Fell right over it. Fortunately it didn’t hold much of a grudge and only bit me quickly before trying to escape the scary red-and-white beast that nearly crushed it.”
    His heart picked up pace. “You could’ve died.”
    “Not likely. Not from a pit viper, anyway. And we had a field hospital nearby, so I got antivenom quickly. Believe me, the country was teeming with aid workers getting into all sorts of trouble. We probably outnumbered snakes ten to one.”
    Jesus, her job sounded so worthy. And he’d practically bragged about surviving a broken leg so he could go on to play more rugby. Unable to restrain himself, he pressed his lips to the scar, his hands bracing both of her feet against his thighs. Her body froze, and he glanced up to see her hands tightly clasped in her lap, eyes closed and a slight smile curving her lips.
    With only a second’s hesitation, he stroked a palm over her calf and kissed her bare knee. Her leg spasmed, and he clasped it harder, grinning up into her surprised face.
    “You weren’t going to knee me in the teeth, were you?”
    Her throat flexed. “Not intentionally. I’m, um, not very experienced, Spencer. You should know that up front. Before I accidentally hurt you.”
    Every muscle in his body tensed, and he swallowed hard. “How not very experienced?”
    She grimaced. Suddenly, her knee-clenching posture and all the mixed signals she’d thrown his way became clear in one terrifying, blindingly bright shaft of realization.
    Goddamn it. She couldn’t be a virgin. She had to be at least in her mid-twenties. No...not possible. Certainly not possible for a funny, clever woman who had the added benefit of looking like a walking, talking wet dream.
    She was jumpy as hell whenever he got close, but women her age weren’t virgins. Not unless they were waiting for the right man and simply hadn’t given up hope of finding him