Dare to Play

by Carly Phillips

  He complied, thrusting faster, deeper until her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she came, the vibrations encompassing every muscle in her body. Two more thrusts and he stilled, the rough groan that came from inside him something she’d be remembering for a long time to come.

  * * *

  Jaxon stood in the bathroom with the excuse of cleaning up, but the truth was he didn’t want Macy to see the effect she’d had on him after something that was usually a simple act of two people getting it on. She’d completely undone him and he was in shock. But being the consummate playboy, he shook off the uniqueness of the event and headed out of the bathroom, finding Macy fast asleep on top of the covers.

  Instead of waking her, he pulled an extra blanket from his closet, covered her, and climbed in beside her. Though he didn’t typically bring women back to his house, preferring hotel rooms or their place, where he could make an easy exit, Macy wasn’t his normal lay. She was his sister’s best friend. He’d be seeing her again, and he needed to end things on a decent note.

  Something he’d deal with tomorrow.

  He had his reason for keeping all relationships casual, and it was a solid one. He’d had his heart broken before, and he never wanted to experience that pain again.

  Katie, his college girlfriend and the woman he thought he’d marry, had taught him a hard lesson. She had dumped him after he’d been traded to Washington in his first deal, not willing to give up her life to be with the man she’d claimed to love. The lifestyle on the road wasn’t for her, or so she’d said, despite the fact that she’d known what she was getting into going in. Or maybe it had been that his starting salary wasn’t good enough. Who the hell knew.

  What he’d learned for sure was that his father, Jesse, had been right. No woman would want him, and Jaxon refused to let that be proven true again. So he’d locked up his emotions and lived life to have fun. Not even being dead eliminated the ghost of Jesse Prescott.

  Hell, not even finding out that their uncle Paul had been all the Prescott siblings’ sperm donor, making Jesse not their biological dad, had undone the damage he’d caused. One and done was a joke among the Prescott brothers, but Jaxon meant it. No woman would hurt him again.

  The next morning, he woke up to the sun shining through the shutters he’d forgotten to close, and as he glanced over, Macy was dressed in that gorgeous, white, curve-hugging dress he’d stripped her out of last night. His cock, already hard with morning wood, perked up even more.

  “Oh! You’re awake. That makes things easier. I don’t have to wake you. Zip me?” she asked, sliding her hair away from her back and over one shoulder and sitting down on the bed.

  He blinked in surprise and pushed himself up. “You’re leaving?” he asked stupidly.

  What had he expected? That she’d stay for breakfast, where they’d rehash all the reasons this couldn’t happen again? He didn’t know how he was going to bring up the subject as it was. Jaxon didn’t come back for seconds. Although as he watched Macy attempt to untangle her sexy hair with her fingers, he thought he could make an exception. Just this once for her.

  “Macy–”

  “Jaxon–” They spoke at the same time.

  “You first,” he said, leaning against his headboard.

  She treated him to a forced smile. “Listen, this was great and all.”

  Great? he wondered. How about explosive? Mind-blowing? Anything bigger and better than great.

  “I really needed a night for myself,” she went on, speaking quickly. “But it can’t happen again. And there’s no need to tell anyone. Especially Bri. No one needs to know.”

  He blinked. She was giving him the blow-off speech? In all his years since Katie, he’d done the walking away. He couldn’t say he liked how it felt being on the receiving end, but at least Macy had made his life easier.

  “Agreed?” she asked, her cheeks pink again, embarrassed and nothing like the seductress he’d seen last night.

  He nodded. “Agreed. But at least let me walk you out.” His mother had raised him to be a gentleman, and he followed that rule as best he could, depending on the woman and the circumstances.

  She nodded.

  After climbing out of bed, he pulled on a pair of sweats, his trousers from last night probably still on the floor in the kitchen. That thought brought memories of her sucking the come off her finger. His cock jerked and he willed the sucker not to make its presence known.

  Entering the kitchen behind her, he saw she’d folded his clothes and placed them on the counter. She’d also found cleaner and had sprayed down the granite surface, the container and paper towels also sitting out.

  “I couldn’t figure out which was your garbage,” she said, face adorably flushed.

  “Thank you.” He placed a hand on her lower back, and his body buzzed at the contact.

  Holy shit, what was it with this woman? He needed to get her out of here immediately. He stepped in front of her and led her to the garage, opening the door and hitting the button on the wall.

  They reached the car and she turned to face him. He could see her struggling with some internal thought.

  Finally she said, “Last night really was incredible.” Leaning over, she pressed her mouth to his, swiping her tongue over his lips, the kiss lasting longer than he thought she’d planned.

  Then she ducked her head and climbed into the car, immediately starting the engine, then reversing and driving away as fast as she possibly could.

  Chapter Three

  Thank God Hannah wasn’t coming home until this afternoon, because Macy needed the time to pull herself together and process last night. She had a huge project she needed to work on today. As a web designer, she made her own hours, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have deadlines. Whether she’d be able to focus or not was another story.

  She barely recognized the woman she’d been with Jaxon. She’d been open and sexual and she’d never be the same again. But she needed to shower, sit down to work, and put it behind her, all of which she did. Then, with a glass of iced tea and her laptop open, she settled in. But instead of being able to design, her mind was full of memories of him pounding into her, giving her pleasure and taking his own, along with the delicious aches and pains in her body that reminded her of every moment with Jaxon Prescott.

  She was still staring at a mostly empty screen when Hannah came home from her friend’s, dropped off by a parent. She left her overnight bag in the laundry room and walked into the kitchen, where Macy sat, still trying to work.

  “Hi. How was your night at Holly’s?” Macy asked.

  “Fine.” Hannah opened the pantry, pulled out a box of cereal, grabbed milk from the fridge, and sat across from Macy as she poured herself a bowl.

  Instead of making conversation, Hannah shoved spoonful after spoonful into her mouth, her focus on her cell phone. Instagram was her app of choice, and Macy knew better than to interrupt her every-five-minute check for likes.

  After a few minutes of silence, Macy’s creative energy kicked in, and she started to work, diving into a new premise she thought her client, a restaurant owner, would love.

  “Holy shit! You’re Insta-famous!” Hannah said loudly, staring at her screen.

  “What are you talking about?” Macy had her own Instagram account and opened the app. “What are you looking at?”

  “TNZ says you spent the night at Jaxon Prescott’s, the baseball player, and there’s a picture of you doing the walk of shame after. I don’t know whether to say eew or be impressed,” Hannah said, her eyes wide.

  Macy searched TNZ and found the photo. She stood by her car in Jaxon’s driveway wearing last night’s wrinkled dress, her hair a ratty mess, Jaxon in the sweats he’d pulled on to walk her outside. The photographer must have been well hidden, because neither one of them had seen him, or she never would have initiated the kiss that got caught on camera.

  Her cheeks flushed and burned as she faced her sister. “I don’t know what to say.” She’d tho
ught her night would be personal and private. A joke considering everything Jaxon did seemed to be caught on camera. He was the playboy the press loved to watch, and she was caught in the chaos.

  Hannah studied her with wide brown eyes. “You barely date. I can’t believe you were with a hot jock. Wait until my friends see! I’m going to share it!”

  “No!” Macy shook her head. “Please?”

  “What’s the difference? It’s public! Everyone will see it anyway. This is going to get me so many likes,” she said, going ahead with her share despite Macy’s feelings.

  Before she could react, her cell rang. Seeing Bri’s name, Macy’s stomach churned, and she drew a deep breath before answering. “Hello?”

  “You slept with my brother?” Bri’s voice carried, and Hannah stared, clearly interested in the fallout.

  Macy rose and took the call in the family room. “It just happened. We were talking at the party, he was down from you guys getting on him about the brawl, I … have some issues I haven’t told you about yet, and we left to get dinner. One thing led to another…” She trailed off, figuring enough was enough. Bri had already figured the rest out for herself.

  “Yeah, I got that from the photo.”

  “Jaxon can’t even get privacy at his own home?”

  Bri let out a long sigh. “You wouldn’t believe the lengths the paparazzi will go to. I wouldn’t be shocked if one was in a tree to get that shot.”

  “Well, this is awkward,” Macy muttered.

  “You’re an adult. I’m not judging you. I just wish Jax would learn some discretion. Even he knows anywhere outside isn’t safe.”

  “I guess he wasn’t thinking?” Before Bri could jump on that comment, Macy went on. “Is this going to get him in more trouble?”

  Bri said something to someone and then replied, “Sorry. I was talking to Austin. I don’t know. He just doesn’t know the meaning of lying low.”

  “It seems to me a lot of these incidents aren’t his fault.”

  “But they call attention to him anyway. He’s got a list a mile long. And listen to you, all #TeamJaxon,” Bri said, laughing.

  At least she wasn’t pissed at Macy. And she hoped Bri wasn’t angry at Jaxon, either.

  “Listen, I have another call. Talk later.” Bri disconnected, and Macy returned to the kitchen to find Hannah talking on the phone.

  “Yeah, isn’t it cool? The Jaxon Prescott, pitcher for the Miami Eagles,” she said.

  “Who are you talking to?”

  “Mom,” Hannah said and turned away to continue chatting.

  Macy winced and lowered herself into a chair. Hannah had no idea her mother had threatened to go after custody, but if she was serious, Macy had just given her a very wide opening to take Hannah away from her. The last thing she needed was to be portrayed as a groupie or a slut who indulged in one-night stands, getting rid of her sister so she could have sex.

  She groaned, putting her head on her arms, wondering what she was going to do now.

  * * *

  When a man couldn’t even kiss a woman in the privacy of his own driveway, something was really wrong with the world in general. Fucking paps. Social media. People who lived to see what famous people did in their spare time. They all needed to get a life of their own and stop fucking up his. This time they’d captured a nice girl in their clutches, and that pissed Jaxon off even more. Macy hadn’t signed up for his kind of life. Not the way the groupies who followed him from game to game and bar to bar did.

  He didn’t have a chance to check on her, and even if he had the time, he didn’t have her number, which meant he was going to have to beg his sister to share it. That was the only good thing about him being summoned to Dare Nation.

  He walked into the building and headed straight for Austin’s office, smiling at the main receptionist on his way to his brother’s corner office, where Quinn, Austin’s personal assistant and wife, had a desk right outside.

  “Hi, Jaxon,” Quinn said, greeting Jaxon not with her usual happy smile but a pitying grimace.

  “I take it they’re waiting for me?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “How’s my adorable niece?” he asked about the baby, not only because he cared but because the longer he avoided the firing squad inside that office, the better. His brother Austin had found baby Jenny on his doorstep, moved Quinn in to help him navigate being a dad, and the two had fallen in love. Despite Jaxon’s cynicism on the subject of love, he was happy for his sibling.

  Eyes lighting up at the topic, Quinn went on to tell him all the things the six-month-old baby was learning to do. “And she stands up and bounces on her chubby little legs and she’s scooting backwards. Pretty soon she’ll be crawling!”

  “Said like a proud mama.” Jaxon folded his arms across his chest and grinned. His brother was a lucky man—if Jaxon were to consider settling down with a wife and a baby lucky. Which he most certainly did not.

  “Jaxon, stop stalling and get your ass in here!” Austin bellowed from the open door behind Quinn.

  Quinn winced. “Guess you better move it.”

  “It’s times like these when it sucks to have family as your agent and publicist.”

  Quinn’s laughter followed him as he headed around her and through the door to face his siblings.

  Austin stood behind his desk, arms folded, eyes narrowed, wearing a suit that demanded respect. Beside him, leaning against the floor-to-ceiling dark mahogany bookshelf, waited Bri. High-heeled foot tapping, lips pursed, and also dressed up in her finest suit, she met his gaze.

  “Okay, let’s have it.” Jaxon didn’t mean to sound glib but realized, based on his brother’s and sister’s expressions, that’s exactly how his statement had come out.

  “Despite the fact that we discussed this at the party, let’s start with the obvious. What part of lie low do you not understand?” Austin asked.

  “Oh, excuse me. Walking out onto my own driveway is a crime now,” he said, well and truly pissed off.

  Austin closed his eyes and groaned. “You’re right. It’s not your fault, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a staple online, in the papers, and everywhere else. Not to mention you’ve now made Macy a target for unsavory gossip.”

  Jaxon winced at that because it was true. Online celebrity sites had jumped all over the photos and were more interested in finding out who the woman he’d been with was, which put Macy directly in the spotlight. Something she probably didn’t need or want.

  “Sit,” Bri said, glancing between her brothers.

  Not wanting to piss his sister off further, Jaxon sat.

  Leaning back against the sofa, he glanced at his brother and braced himself for whatever came next, but Austin had obviously calmed down. He walked over to the seat beside him and lowered himself onto the cushion, placing one arm on the back of the sofa.

  “As your brother, I understand who you are and why you act the way you do.” Austin was fully aware of Jaxon’s past with Katie and always coming in behind both Austin and Damon because of his choice to play baseball, not football, and disappointing their father.

  “But dammit, Jax, you have to grow up.” He held up a hand. “I’m not talking about getting caught on your driveway but brawling? You’re twenty-eight. Old enough to understand you’re nearing the end of your pitching career.”

  Jaxon’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Ouch.”

  His sibling was hitting on every insecurity he had about his past, old relationships, his job, his career, and his future. The things he partied and drank to avoid dwelling on.

  He knew why he’d fallen into this lifestyle, and it wasn’t just the woman who’d walked out on him.

  Though Jaxon had been fifteen when his father died, Jesse Prescott had been around long enough to have an impact. His asshole father had let him know in no uncertain terms, if he didn’t play football, he was useless and no woman would want him. After losing Katie, Jaxon had gone about proving his deceased old man wr
ong by letting any cleat chaser available into his bed.

  Austin didn’t flinch at Jaxon’s reaction. “It’s my job to tell you the hard facts. I know you’re in the off-season, but if you want to retire in disgrace, you’re well on your way, because if the Eagles want you gone, no team is going to want to pay what’s left on your contract, and they’re not going to trade for a twenty-eight-year-old with Tommy John surgery two years ago. The reality is you’re too old for the partying and sex-with-groupies shit, too.”

  “Hey! Macy isn’t a groupie!” Bri said, taking the words out of Jaxon’s mouth before he could say the same thing.

  “You know what I mean,” Austin said. “Actually, this is worse, because Macy is a nice girl who probably didn’t expect her life to be turned upside down by sleeping with you.”

  Jaxon dipped his head. “Yeah. Linc said the same thing,” he admitted, speaking of his best friend, his catcher, and a happily married family man who planned to retire at the end of next year when his contract expired.

  Bri strode over and put a hand on his shoulder, offering sympathy. “I represent Linc, too, as you know. He gives me no trouble, he goes to work, does his job, and knows how to stay off ownership’s radar. Can’t you be more like Linc?”

  Jaxon’s eyes opened wide. “You mean you want me to get married and settle down? Hell no. No female wants to live the kind of life a baseball player does. I’m constantly on the road and play one hundred and sixty-two games a year, excluding postseason. Not to mention the fact that I was once in a relationship, came damn close to having that married life, and learned it’s not in the cards.”

  Austin groaned. “It is possible to live that life with the right woman. Look at Linc.”

  “You two sound like parrots,” Jaxon muttered.

  Austin went on. “You won’t be playing ball forever. You’ll be more settled. And you don’t want to be alone for the rest of your life.”

  “Says the man who not three months ago was a die-hard bachelor. Ever heard the expression the pot calling the kettle black?”