Daring Attraction

by Melanie Shawn

  Without getting the green light from his brain, his body acted independently as his fingers wrapped around Julianna’s slender arm.

  “Wait.”

  That got her to look at him. Her dark-brown eyes that were sprinkled with golden flecks widened with alarm beneath a blanket of inky lashes.

  “What?” she asked.

  Good question.

  Cole tried to think fast and say something a lot smoother than, “Looking for this?” Usually, thinking on his feet was not a problem. He assessed situations and took action—it was part of what made him a good quarterback. As far as his game went with the opposite sex, well… He’d been accused of having a silver tongue with devil ears, not angel wings, more than once.

  Apparently, Julianna Perez was the kryptonite to his mojo, because just being near her made him feel powerless. On and off the field, Cole had always been a natural leader. Commander. Captain. He took charge, made decisions, and was always in control. But around Julianna, Cole turned into a speechless observer of his own life. He wanted to participate; he just had no idea how to get in the game. She was more than breathtaking, she was thought-taking, mind-taking, soul-takingly beautiful.

  When Julianna’s cocoa colored eyes dropped from his intense stare, he noticed something black smeared on her jaw, just below her cheek. Lifting his hand, he brushed his thumb across it. It did not escape his attention that, as the pad of his finger grazed her silky soft skin, she sucked in a sharp breath and a light tint of pink rose up her neck and spread across her face. Knowing that touching her affected her, just as much as it did him, made him want to puff out his chest and pound on it caveman-style.

  “You had a smudge,” Cole explained as he lowered his arm.

  Julianna shook her head slightly and covered the spot where his thumb had just been with her own. Looking more than a little flustered, she stumbled over her words as the heated flush on her cheeks darkened. “Oh, yeah… It’s nothing… I just… It’s probably from…”

  “When you changed the tire, Mom,” Anthony piped in.

  “You changed a tire? Seriously?” Cole hadn’t meant for his voice to sound so shocked, but she did not look like the tire-changing type. In fact, he was sure she must have had guys lining up to change her tire—or do anything else she could possibly need.

  “Yes. I did.” Julianna lifted her chin high and her jaw tensed. She no longer seemed off-balance. The only heat in her face now was the flaming daggers shooting out of her eyes.

  Shit. That was exactly what Cole’s reaction to her mechanic abilities had landed him in. A big, steaming pile of shit.

  “Thank Mr. Carson for getting your bag, Anth,” Julianna instructed as she once again turned to leave.

  “Thanks, Coach Carson!” Anthony held his bag up and quickly followed his mom.

  “No problem.”

  While Anthony smiled and waved, Julianna didn’t spare him a glance.

  Cole watched as the duo walked away from him. Questions flooded his mind. Where was Anthony’s dad? What kind of home did they have? Was there a boyfriend? He hadn’t seen a ring on her finger, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t in a relationship.

  Cole didn’t know any of those things, but he knew one thing for sure—nothing in his life was going to be the same after today. Because now…he knew that Julianna Perez existed.

  Chapter Three

  Julianna’s eyes darted to the rearview mirror for at least the tenth time since they’d gotten off the exit to the stadium as she pressed her lips together nervously, not used to the slippery feeling of gloss on their surface. This morning, her beauty routine had been a fun game of do-over. She’d stood in front of her bathroom mirror applied lip gloss and mascara, washed it off, and then reapplied it. Then repeated that behavior two more times.

  Tonight, she had a catering gig, so she could justify the fact that she was wearing makeup with the fact that she would barely have enough time to run home, change, and rush to her job once Anthony’s practice was over. But that would be a big, fat lie.

  As many times as she told herself that it didn’t matter that there was a very good possibility she would be seeing Cole Carson again today, she still hadn’t been able to convince herself of it. All week, she’d only been able to think about the quarterback who set her body on fire. Never before had she met someone she’d responded to on such a primal, cellular level. After trying to figure out why she’d been so affected by him, she’d finally come to the conclusion that his pheromone levels must have been off the charts. That was the only logical explanation.

  Last week, when she’d been up in the stands, she’d barely managed to get any work done. Which was not like her at all. Especially when she had lists to keep her on track of what tasks she needed to accomplish, which she had. Focus had always been one of her greatest strengths, but it had also failed her completely last Saturday. She’d been so distracted checking on Anthony and then checking out Cole. More than once, during the check-out portion of her distraction, she’d found the sexy quarterback staring up at the stands. Right. At. Her.

  “Mom, I need to get more toothpaste and I need binder paper.” Anthony said as he played a game on his phone.

  “Did you add it to the list?” she asked.

  “No. What’s this?” Anthony turned his phone so that she could see the screen.

  Slicing her eyes to the right, she saw a boat with a paddle sticking out of it and five lines beneath it. Returning her attention to the road, she told him, “Canoe. And I told you to add what you need to the list so that we don’t forget it.”

  Her life was structured. Very structured. Being a single mom who worked two, sometimes three, jobs didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room in the time or money departments. Something as simple as forgetting an item at a store could throw the delicate balance of their lives off.

  “Okay,” he agreed distractedly as he typed the letters into Draw Something. Then he exclaimed in surprise, “You were right!”

  Anthony usually asked her to identify pictures in his game, at least a couple of times, whenever he played. It never failed to amuse her how shocked he was when she had the right answers.

  “Isn’t it cheating if I tell you the answers?”

  “No,” her son said, as if that were the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “I’m just playing the game, not another person.”

  “So…am I, like, your lifeline?” she asked.

  “My what?”

  “Your lifeline, like on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.”

  A quick glance over at Anthony and his furrowed brow told her that he had no idea what she was talking about.

  “Never mind.”

  Putting the phone down, Anthony looked out the window as the stadium came into view. “Last week, when we were doing drills, Cole said that I had a good arm.”

  “That’s great, Anth!”

  And there it was. The other reason she hadn’t been able to go more than a few minutes without Mr. Sexy Football Man flitting through her head—Anthony had not stopped talking about him. He’d told her that Cole had helped him by showing him where to hold his hand on the football, the correct way to tackle someone, how to block someone… The list went on and on.

  The thing was, it was totally normal and healthy for her ten-year-old son to be obsessing over meeting his hero and getting to be coached by him. That was exactly the right response to that situation. What was not the correct response, was for a twenty-six-year-old, single mom, who worked multiple jobs to be daydreaming, night dreaming, all-the-time dreaming about that same person. Especially after that person had made it clear that he doubted her ability to even change a tire. Male chauvinist, playboy athletes were not her type.

  Still, none of that had stopped her from spending several hours Googling Cole Carson. That behavior was not healthy or normal. Her obsession was borderline stalker status. She’d been so embarrassed when her neighbor—and her unofficial best friend—Megan had stopped by to bring back a bowl she’d b
orrowed. She had seen her computer screen filled with images of the quarterback! So Julianna had lied and said that she’d just been trying to get a little more information on Cole because he’d be coaching Anthony for the next five weeks—and she was surprised her nose hadn’t grown like Pinocchio.

  Pulling up to the guard gate, Julianna inwardly cringed when she saw that surfer boy was here again. Today, she had her I.D. ready to go, so she hoped that the chitchat would be minimal.

  “Morning,” Julianna said, as she handed the security guard her driver’s license.

  “Good morning.”

  As a slow smile built on the guard’s face, Julianna knew this was not going to go as smoothly as she’d hoped.

  “Wow.” Tapping the license against the clipboard he was holding, the guard shook his head. “How did you do that?”

  Here we go. Julianna told herself not to jump to any conclusions. Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t the beginning of a lame pick-up line.

  “Do what?”

  “Manage to be even more beautiful than I remember you being, especially since I have a very good memory.”

  Then you should remember that I turned you down.

  A forced smile pulled at her lips, but she did not respond because she didn’t trust herself—or her temper—to stay in check if she did.

  “My name is Chad, by the way.”

  And I care because…?

  “Hi, Chad.” She was not about to tell him that it was nice to meet him because it wasn’t.

  “What are you doing tonight?”

  “Working.” She was tempted to add that it wouldn’t matter if she were free as a bird—there was no way she’d be flying anywhere with him. Ever.

  “What about tomorrow night?”

  This guy was not going to give up.

  “Look, Chad, I’m not interested in going out with you. I just need to get my son to practice.”

  “All business, huh? I like that.” The gleam in Chad’s eye told her that this was not over.

  Thankfully, a loud honk sounded. Glancing in the rearview mirror she noticed that a line of cars filled with parents and kids had formed behind her. After a second, longer honk, Chad quickly handed back the I.D. and raised the arm.

  As soon as she rolled her window up, Anthony asked, “Why do guys always have to talk to you like that?”

  Julianna’s heart sank faster than a bread without enough yeast. She hated that her son was subjected to these idiots’ come-on lines. At least Chad’s had been G-rated. When they got into R or worse territory, the questions Anthony had were a lot more difficult to answer.

  “They just think they like me,” she explained.

  “They don’t even know you.”

  “I know. That’s why I said they think they like me. Haven’t you ever liked a girl as more than a friend?” She’d never brought up the “girl” topic before—mainly because she still thought of Anthony as her baby. The truth was that he would be in middle school next year. He wasn’t a baby anymore.

  “Yeah, but I know her.”

  Wait. What?!

  That was not the response Julianna had been expecting. Girls are gross. Girls have cooties. No, I’ve never liked a girl. Those were the responses she’d anticipated.

  “You like someone?”

  “Yeah. My girlfriend,” Anthony said as plainly as if he’d just told her that the sky was blue or the grass was green.

  Julianna’s mind was screaming, My son has a girlfriend?! However, she knew that if she wanted Anthony to talk to her about this stuff, the last thing she should do was freak out. Calm. She needed to stay calm.

  “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend,” she managed to say, without crying or hyperventilating as she pulled into a parking spot, for which she was pat-on-the-back proud of herself.

  Anthony shrugged as he opened the door. “You never asked.”

  “Don’t forget your bag,” she reminded him before he made it out of the car. When Anthony opened the back door to grab his bag, she asked, “What’s her name?”

  “Bailey. From my class.”

  She sighed in relief. Not only was Bailey a sweetheart, but she was also really smart. Julianna wasn’t thrilled at the idea of her ten-year-old son having a girlfriend, but he could do a lot worse than Bailey.

  Still, she had some questions. “How long as she been your girlfriend?”

  Anthony pulled the strap on his bag up as they made their way across the parking lot. “Since the Valentine’s Day dance.”

  That was three months ago! You’ve had a girlfriend for three months? How did I not know that?

  Deep breath. She wasn’t sure if this question would be the one that would cause him to shut down, but she wanted to know.

  “What do you like about her?”

  He was quiet for a minute, and she figured she’d stepped over the invisible it’s-none-of-your-business-Mom line. She’d decided to drop it—for now—when he answered.

  “She’s funny and really good at math. I like her eyes and her hair. Plus, she smells good.”

  “Oh.” Julianna nodded, trying her best not to broadcast the emotion that was welling up inside her. She knew it was silly, but she’d almost cried because he’d listed “funny” and “good at math” before anything physical. That was her boy.

  As they walked onto the field, a couple of the other kids from the program saw Anthony coming and waved him over.

  “Bye, Mom!” he called out as he ran to join his teammates on the sidelines.

  Julianna scanned the field and felt a distinct stab of disappointment when she didn’t see Cole as she made her way to where she had sat last week and pulled out her laptop. Her mind was swimming with the bombshell Anthony had just dropped. She knew he was growing up, but in one week, he’d started playing contact sports and informed her that he had a girlfriend. It was a lot for her mom psyche to work through.

  Beads of sweat were already forming on the back of her neck as she flipped her computer open. Florida heat in May was no joke, and even though it was barely nine a.m., the sun was beating down with full force. After taking off her flip-flops, Julianna stretched her legs out on the bench in front of her so she could take advantage of working outside and get a little color on her legs, which were somewhat pale from winter.

  As she waited for her computer to boot up, a chill ran down her spine and her stomach rolled like it was Tina Turner going down the river. She knew before she raised her gaze that he was there and looking at her. Her heart raced as she lifted her head in slow motion. When her eyes immediately locked with his like a heat-seeking missile, the sizzling connection between them was hotter than the Florida sun on the hottest day of the year.

  Today, Cole was wearing a Miami Thunder hat, knee-length, black running shorts, and a sleeveless, orange T-shirt. The lines of defined muscle on his arm put all kinds of visions dancing in Julianna’s head and none of them were of sugarplums. They were of what it would feel like to be in those arms. To touch those arms. To kiss those arms.

  Fiery need lit deep in her core. Cole inspired instantaneous, raging, inferno flames of desire to ignite in her, and she didn’t understand it. But what she did understand was that if she acted on whatever heat she was feeling, it would be playing with fire, which meant there was a very real possibility she could get burned. So she needed to stay away from him.

  Cole Carson should come with a warning label: Too Hot to Handle.

  * * *

  “So, your mom works at a doctor’s office?” Cole asked casually, as he sat beside Anthony while they watched Alex run some final drills with the B team. Anthony was on the A team, whose members were all drinking Gatorade and eating orange slices on the sidelines.

  All day, he’d been slipping in questions about the woman who had hijacked his thoughts and dreams for the last week. In the process, he’d gotten to know a lot about the boy who was sitting next to him. And he had to admit that, at first, he’d just been asking the kid questions about himself so it wouldn�
�t be as obvious when he asked about Julianna, but soon, he’d found himself really enjoying getting to know Anthony.

  The kid was smart, funny, and a lot more mature than the other kids in the program. It didn’t surprise Cole at all when Anthony told him that he got straight A’s. Or that he had a girlfriend, who he’d apparently just told his mom about this morning.

  “Yeah. And she also copies medical records at home and sometimes works as a server.”

  Three jobs. Now came the question Cole had been waiting all day to ask. He just hadn’t had the right opening. But this was his chance—practice would be over in five minutes.

  “What does your dad do?”

  Anthony narrowed his eyes at Cole. As the kid stared at him, Cole started feeling like a grade-A asshole. Maybe he wasn’t being as slick as he’d thought. Anthony probably saw right through him for the slimeball he was.

  After several beats, Anthony looked back at the field. “I don’t have a dad.”

  “Oh.” Cole let out a breath he hadn’t even known he’d been holding.

  Obviously, he knew that Anthony did have a dad. He hadn’t been conceived via Immaculate Conception. But it sounded like the sperm donor wasn’t in the picture. Anthony hadn’t mentioned one thing about him all day.

  “So, it’s just you and your mom?”

  “Yep.” Anthony’s open, easygoing demeanor had turned guarded and shut off.

  “When I was growing up, it was just me and my mom, too,” Cole confided in the kid even though he never talked about his upbringing.

  It wasn’t that he was embarrassed about it—it was more like he was protective. Cole had been the man of the house from the time he’d understood what that responsibility meant, which was probably exactly what Anthony felt.

  “Really?” Anthony’s big, brown eyes—which were the spitting image of his mom’s—peered up at Cole. “You didn’t have a dad or brothers and sisters?”