Out of His League

by Cathryn Parry

  “Yes.” He patted Brandon on the head. “I’ll see you Monday at the hospital, kid.”

  “Okay!”

  “Brandon, please go upstairs and brush your teeth,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

  Her nephew left. The door slammed behind him and she didn’t move a muscle. Jon stared at her. “Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked in a low voice.

  “You said...three dates.”

  “Yeah, but I didn’t expect...”

  “What?” she challenged him.

  “This.” He leaned in and kissed her. With hunger, with firmness, with desire. Mouth to mouth. And she kissed him back, with everything she had. For a brief second, their tongues touched, stroked.

  “Jon!” Brandon poked his head outside the door again, oblivious. “I forgot my baseball glove in your truck.”

  Jon groaned and pulled back, and Elizabeth put her hand to her mouth. She couldn’t help it; she smiled at him, feeling silly and punch-drunk and...delicious. “You were right,” she murmured. “I did like it...very much.”

  Jon sucked in his breath. He looked stunned.

  “I’ll call you,” she said breezily. And then she strolled into the building.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  LIZZY DID CALL HIM, on Monday, during his lunch hour, when Jon least expected it.

  “I can’t make it this Saturday,” she said. “Can you come over on Thursday for dinner at six, instead? That’s the day after Halloween. Also, the day after game seven of the World Series. Thankfully, I’m not on call that evening.”

  He would chuckle if he wasn’t so irritated with her. What was this, family fun day number two? A pizza dinner with her and Brandon on a school night was not what Jon had in mind, not after that kiss they’d shared.

  But the time and location of the next date was not his choice.

  “Fine,” he said. “Dinner it is.”

  Maybe, Jon thought as he tossed down his phone, staring at the remnants of his brown-bag lunch on the desk in Coach Duffy’s office, Lizzy was dialing down the intensity. Maybe she’d thought it over and had changed her mind. There was nothing but complications involved in getting too hot and heavy, and they both knew it.

  Jon wadded up the empty bag from his lunch and tossed it in the trash. He felt like crap.

  Still, he would be seeing Lizzy. Plus, he’d be getting away from shoptalk for the evening. He was sick of thinking about his contract problems and the escalating criticism on sports radio.

  Maybe he should treat the dinner as a night of hanging out with an old friend. Just show up and be a good guy to her and the kid and attempt to enjoy himself.

  “What kind of flowers does your aunt like?” he asked Brandon on Monday afternoon at the hospital.

  “Don’t know.” Brandon wiped his nose. “But I need some baseballs to practice for tryouts. And I need a new glove, too.”

  The trek to Dan’s Sporting Goods later that day was easy. Jon bought the baseballs, but he ignored the glove request for now. He wasn’t going to spoil the kid—the glove Brandon owned already suited him fine.

  On the flower question, though, Jon decided to phone Brooke.

  “Hi, Jon,” Brooke said when she picked up. “I was thinking about you. I have a meeting set up with the front office next week.”

  “Good. Keep me posted.” He paused for effect. “What kind of flowers do women like?”

  Brooke giggled. “Are you asking me what my favorite flowers are?”

  “No. I’m asking because I’m meeting someone tonight.” Which brought him to his main point. “Tell Vivian I can’t be one of her bachelors at the charity auction, because I’m seeing someone.”

  There was a long silence on the other end. Then a terse, “Who is she?”

  “She wishes to remain private.”

  “Fine. Roses always work.”

  So on Thursday Jon stopped by a combination farm stand/florist place he knew in the suburbs. But the long rows of flowers and bouquet options overwhelmed him. Lizzy didn’t seem like a flower sort of woman, anyway. When he saw the bags of locally picked apples, big and ripe, he knew they fit the bill. It was a family supper he was attending, not a seduction.

  At exactly six o’clock he knocked on her door, a bag of apples under his arm and two regulation youth-league baseballs for Brandon in each back pocket.

  He expected the kid to answer the door, his energy bouncing off the walls as usual.

  What he got instead was Lizzy. In a sexy black dress.

  Whoa. His gaze skimmed from her neckline, to her hips, to her bare legs and back up again. She wore shiny pink gloss on those usually naked bow lips. And all he wanted to do was draw them inside his mouth and kiss it all off.

  His elbow loosed on the bag of apples propped on his hip, and one by one, the apples slipped and dropped to the hardwood floor. Plunk, plunk, plunk.

  She straightened the bag from him and then knelt to pick up the fallen apples.

  “Lizzy, what’s going on?” he asked.

  She looked up at him with a small, secret smile. And he could see straight down her cleavage. She was wearing a black lace bra.

  Whoa again.

  “Brandon is staying with a schoolmate tonight.” She stood with the apples he’d dropped. “Thanks for these, by the way. They’re Cortlands—cooking apples—I think I’ll use them to bake a pie.”

  “You...cooked?” was all he could think to say. The house smelled like roasting chicken with great-smelling autumn herbs in the oven.

  “Come inside.” She took him by the hand, and he followed like a baby duckling. “There are lots of things you don’t know about me, Jon. There are two or three dishes I’m pretty good at.”

  He would just bet. “You set this up so we would be alone?”

  “I know, it’s crazy. We are a completely mismatched couple.” She rolled her eyes. “But I couldn’t help it. I could no longer deny the attraction.” And then her gaze roamed over his body.

  He wasn’t getting the greatest feeling, as if he was standing in another charity bachelor auction of sorts. “So, to be clear. Is this a date, or is it just a meeting for sex?”

  Her cheeks turned pink. “Why can’t it be both? I mean, you’re married to baseball. And that’s good, because...it’s safe. In the end, you’ll always choose baseball.”

  “You’re afraid I’ll fall in love with you?”

  “No! I would never presume that. I just...don’t want you to expect too much from me.”

  He removed the baseballs from his pockets and set them on the couch. Brandon would know what to do. Jon sure as hell didn’t.

  “Look,” Lizzy said, “I’m being practical. I know this isn’t long-term between us. You travel. You have a very public baseball career. And I work in Boston. I have a very private hospital career. In the reality of making anything work longer than that, we are an impossible couple. Anyway, you said...back that day in your apartment...that you were going to cut me loose after three dates. And I thought...if I didn’t act soon enough...” She blushed. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Jon. I need you, but not in the way that you think.”

  “How do I think?”

  She sighed. “Everybody else cares about you because of baseball. They want your status to rub off on them. But I don’t want that. I want...you.” She looked at him, seemingly shy.

  Anybody else would have stopped there and taken her. He wanted to. Man, he wanted to. But he couldn’t help messing with fire. Because he needed to know.

  “So, to be clear, my job tonight is to be some kind of stud to you?”

  “What? No!” Her eyes darted as if panicked. “I don’t know why I’m attracted to you. I don’t know why I see myself in bed with you. It has to be...chemical. And temporary. But I don’t want anything more than that.”

  “Neither do I,” he said.

  She drew back, confused. “You don’t?”

  He had news for her: he didn’t fall in love. Never had. Maybe it was because
of his mom’s early death. Maybe it was because he didn’t tend to bond that way—he’d been accused of that more than once. “So, let’s talk about ground rules,” he said.

  “Is that a baseball thing?” she asked nervously.

  “It’s a human thing, Liz.”

  Her brow scrunched. “I don’t understand.”

  Of course she didn’t. She was so cocooned in her own world, separate from everyone else. What an irony that she worked in a big, public, healing profession.

  “It means that we’re setting the boundaries for what we expect of each other so there’ll be no problems later,” he said.

  She hugged herself. He understood he was making the discussion cold, almost transactional. But it was for the best this way.

  And yet, he wanted her so damn bad. Wanted to strip off her shell, get inside her head. See that expression of happiness when she saw how good he could make her feel—

  She nodded. “You’re absolutely right. This is for one night only. After that, there is no reason for sexual contact.”

  He nearly laughed aloud, but he kept control. “That’s just it,” he patiently explained. He couldn’t tell her that he wanted something different from what was normal for him...he was out of his comfort zone, too. Maybe he was falling for her. But if he told her that, she’d run screaming. “I want a rule that it’s something we’ll decide afterward. We’ll see how it goes tonight.”

  Very smart, and very safe. Maybe it wouldn’t work. Maybe they wouldn’t work.

  She frowned. “Why would this go beyond a night?”

  She really was a babe in the woods. He stared at her, his tone blunt. “You might like it, Liz.”

  * * *

  WAS HE SERIOUS? Elizabeth wondered. She’d assumed this was for one-time only, just to sate a silly curiosity she had. It really was clinical.

  It was also crazy. Yes, she’d had fun with him on Saturday, but really, they were simply too different as people to have any sort of relationship.

  But the way Jon was looking at her, those ice-blue eyes...he made her shiver. He always made her shiver.

  “I don’t like your rule,” she said. “It’s too open for me.”

  “And that terrifies you.” He said it as a statement.

  “It’s not practical. What more could you want from me?”

  He gave her a sad smile. “I told my agent today that I’m seeing somebody. Somebody private, and I won’t divulge her name. I was thinking of you when I said it—don’t make a liar out of me, Liz.”

  “Why in God’s name would you do that?” she wailed. “Now they’ll be trying to find me—”

  “No. This is a private arrangement.” He said it in that low, mystical-sounding voice. God, she ached for him. His kiss on Saturday night had kept her up for hours, tossing and turning, wondering how she could get through this physical attraction that burned like she’d never been burned. It had to be because she’d met Jon when she’d been at her most vulnerable, upset over Brandon, and worried for Ashley.

  Brushing her hands over her dress, she turned to the calendar on her kitchen wall, filled in with all the dates and times and commitments for Brandon’s schedule. Ten more nights, that’s all she had to survive until Ashley was home and her routine was back to normal. Jon’s proposal needed to work with her life, too.

  She pointed to the calendar. “Until next Sunday, when Ashley comes home. Ten more days. But that’s my absolute limit. Those are the only parameters I can promise you. And during that time, I have Brandon to care for. He’s my first priority.”

  He nodded. “Sounds like the rules are set then.”

  “Any others?”

  “Just a question.” He cocked his head. “Have you ever done this before?”

  She sputtered in anger. “Of course! I am an experienced medical professional. This is a natural bodily function.”

  His mouth curved on one side. “You’ve done it clinically?”

  “What does that mean? That I’ve done it in the hospital, on an overnight on-call session? Of course not!”

  “What I mean, Liz, is have you ever been in a relationship?”

  “Me? Are you serious? And don’t look at me like that, Mr. Married-to-Baseball, because you haven’t, either. You’re just like me. I researched you on the internet, I know!” she said a little too loudly.

  He grinned at her. “Oh, Lizzy, you are too much fun for me.”

  “Is that an insult?”

  “Sweetheart, it’s my highest compliment.”

  Something in his tone made her pause. He wasn’t laughing at her. He was looking at her as if he was in pain and he was longing for her. It was the oddest sense, as if he was showing her something of his true feelings. The part of him that he not only covered up and hid from the world but denied was even there.

  Her heart squeezed. “I’m sorry for yelling at you. I just...don’t know what’s happening to me.”

  He gave her a small smile. “Me, neither, if it’s any consolation.”

  She shifted, glanced at the stirring spoon she was still holding in her hand. “We should probably eat now.”

  “Yes.” But he didn’t move a muscle. Just continued drinking her in with his eyes.

  “Jon...?”

  His smile flatlined. He crooked his finger to her.

  “What?” she asked tentatively.

  He crooked his finger again. Locked his gaze on her eyes. She felt the full force of his burning intensity and nearly dropped the spoon.

  “Wh-what about dinner?” she asked.

  “You’re dinner.” He reached over to the stove and turned off the burner. “Save it. We’ll both be hungry later.”

  Her breath sucked in and she drifted toward him, the hand holding the spoon dropping to her side. Her other hand she curled around his neck, drew him to her, though he didn’t offer any resistance; he followed his body and let himself be drawn to her.

  When their lips touched, he gently drew her bottom lip inside and nipped it. She made a little moan and pushed closer, enjoying the feel of his breath mingling with hers, and the fact that he did not release her. Instead he angled his mouth and kissed her like she’d wanted him to.

  She didn’t need to be nervous, because all he did was kiss her. Tenderly lavishing attention on her as if he was fascinated by her mouth, leisurely taking his time as if he enjoyed kissing her. His hand fell away so that only their mouths touched. She felt achy and full of yearning. She would give anything to brush against his chest.

  He drew his thumb along her cheek. “Lizzy, you drive me crazy, do you know that?”

  That pleased her. She tossed the spoon to the table and wrapped both arms around his neck. “I can’t stop thinking about you. I try, but I just can’t.”

  He smiled and picked her up, as easily as if she were weightless, his hands beneath her bottom. The hem of her dress rode up, while the top of it gaped down. She was up high, looking over him. “I want you so badly,” she said.

  His mouth went to the gaping neck of her dress. Nudged aside the fabric. And his lips drew down on her budded nipple. Through the lace bra, he gently suckled.

  She bucked in his arms. She hadn’t expected that at all: nobody had ever done this to her. She felt wild and wet and...she needed more. “Jon...please...”

  But he didn’t give her more. Just spent all his intensity and attention on that one breast.

  This was more than she had bargained for, or expected. He was only making her need grow. She whimpered again. “Please?”

  “Have you had enough?” he murmured, his mouth still on her breast, his breath hot against her skin.

  She squirmed. “No. Don’t tease me. Please. I can’t stand it.”

  “Do you want me to stay and give you more?”

  “Yes.” She glanced to her bedroom. “I do.”

  He strode with long paces, Elizabeth still in his arms, to her bedroom. And when they got there, he gently placed her on the bed. She pulled him down on top of her, but he withdre
w, leaning back and placing his palms on either side of the pillow cradling her head.

  “Lizzy, I’m warning you. My hands and my mouth are going to be all over your body tonight. Tell me now if you need to back out.”

  She couldn’t speak. He’d put incredible visions in her head. “I don’t want to back out.”

  His eyes burned into hers. “There is nothing halfway or easy or pretty about me, darling. Once we start, you’re getting my full intensity. Do you have condoms?”

  “Yes...in...my medical bag...” She reached over, straining, and yanked at the drawer on her night table. “Please, Jon...”

  He lay down beside her and pulled her on top of him, and he started kissing her all over again, true to his word.

  * * *

  “THAT WAS...THE MOST amazing...thing...I’ve ever been through.” Elizabeth reached up and cupped Jon’s cheek with her palm. The sex had made her completely inarticulate. It felt like...a soulful experience she had never imagined possible. “I cannot believe you don’t have some lucky woman tied to you for life.”

  He gave her a languid smile. They were both entirely naked. He was beside her, idly tracing her face as if she was the most amazing person. She stretched like a pleased cat, her toes curling and uncurling.

  “I’ve decided that I like your ground rules,” she said. “I would indeed like to do this again.” She glanced at him. “How about you?”

  He lazily curled a lock of her hair around his thumb. “I decided before we even started.”

  “Honestly?”

  He smiled. “Yep.”

  She sat up. “Is there somebody else you’re running from?”

  His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “You had to tell your agent you’re seeing someone. Why? Did you need to get out of a messy situation brought on by another one-night stand?”

  He laughed. “No.” But there was something about his expression that discomforted her.

  “Your dating life is complicated, isn’t it? We should have discussed this in the ground rules, shouldn’t we?”

  His blue eyes met hers. “Do you want to know the truth?”

  “I do.”

  He rolled to the pillow and put his hands behind his head. He glanced over her, to a spot on the wall. “The Captains asked me to do a charity bachelor auction.”