The Enforcer by Nikki Worrell Read Free Book Online Page B

she was skittish and if he fucked this up now, it could all be lost. He also knew that she was full of shit. He was pretty good at reading people; it was a part of what made him a good protector. There was no way that her reaction to him was just because it had been a while. That kind of instant sexual attraction did not happen with just anyone.
    In his mind, he knew that even though he’d only known Lace for a few days, she could be the one, but he didn’t want to scare her off already by revealing too much. “Okay. I can understand why you say that. In your eyes, I’m a player. I make a lot of money, and girls throw themselves at me.” Lacey rolled her eyes at that one. “Seriously, I’m not full of myself; believe it or not, I hate it. I have two agendas for wanting to talk to you. Number one, I’d like to apologize for man handling you out there when you were nice enough to help me get rid of some unwanted attention.”
    Jody paused to try to get a read on Lacey. Would she think he was sincere? Because if he were being truthful, he would tell her that he wasn’t sorry at all. He loved man handling her. He was, however, aware that it probably wasn’t the best thing he could have done. “I had no right to grab you like that. My only defense is that my mind stopped working, and I took what I wanted.” She seemed to accept that, even though her face was still closed off. “Number two is this – I would love to ask you out on a formal date, but I can see you’re not ready for that.” Pausing for a second he added, “So instead, would you please consider going to the friends and family skate with me in two weeks? The team does it every year just before Training Camp starts. It’s very casual, and we can get to know each other a little bit better with a lot of other people around. Friends do that, don’t they? At least think about it.”
    Remembering Lace’s reaction to him earlier (and her denial that her reaction was to him and not just any guy), he threw caution to the wind. “Oh, one more thing. I didn’t mean to, but I lied … I’m going to put my hands on you again.” He gently placed his hands on either side of her face, giving her plenty of time to pull away. “Think of this as an experiment. You said it wasn’t me, but just physical contact that you’d been missing.” He ever so slowly lowered his lips to hers while looking right into her eyes. She muttered, “Aw hell,” right before she closed her eyes and slid her hands around his neck, pulling him down those final inches. Jody spared a second for a triumphant laugh, before he sealed his lips to hers.
    Lacey was in heaven and didn’t even care that she gave in so easily. She was tired of always second guessing herself where men were concerned. Body contact felt nice, my ass. It’s all Jody. Maybe she could just keep it casual, but what if she couldn’t?
    With her breathing more than a little unstable, Lacey pulled away. “All right, fine. I guess it’s obvious that we have a physical attraction. But here’s the thing. I’m not looking for a relationship. I’m just starting to recover from a nasty betrayal, and to be totally honest, my reaction to you scares me. Only days ago I finally decided to throw myself back in the dating pool, but I’m only looking for some casual dating.” Pointing at Jody and herself she continued. “The problem here is that I’m not sure if I’ll be able to see you as a casual fling. But I don’t want you to think that by saying that I’m ready for more, because I’m not. My body, however, seems to respond to you more intensely than it should.”
    “So what’s wrong with that? I think intensity is a good thing.” Jody liked that he could get her to respond to him so well. What man wouldn’t?
    “Look Jody, I’ve had a bumpy past. The bottom line is that I’m not looking for anything serious right now.”
    He’d been hurt in the past too, and would never hurt someone else like that if he