His Seduction Game Plan

“That’s not fair. You were cleared of any wrongdoing back in college. I’d think that having a former NFL player would be something they’d publicize.”

“But that’s not how the world sees it,” he said, unlocking the door. Still, his work with the foundation made him feel a little less empty after everything that had happened surrounding Stacia’s death. “You coming in? You can wait on the deck in the back or in the kitchen while I take a quick shower.”

“I’ll wait on the deck. I like being outside. We don’t have to do this today,” she said.

“I want to. Spending the day with you is what we need.”

“We?”

“Yes, so you can trust that I’m not going to do something to hurt your dad. And so that I can remember the man I used to be.”

He went up the stairs two at a time. In the shower he pretended that her presence in his home fit his plan, but she’d thrown him. She was a linebacker he’d missed when he was running his route, and though she seemed like a lightweight, she was capable of bringing him down before he reached the end zone.

* * *

Ferrin had no real agenda when she’d decided to come to Hunter’s house. She must be here to try to figure out if she should give Hunter access to her father’s files. To get answers.

Or at least that was what she told herself.

It wasn’t because of the kiss that had plagued her dreams all night. Or the fact that for the first time she thought she might be experiencing lust. Real lust. Not the kind that she could explain away as mating instinct or her biological clock. She wanted Hunter. There was nothing logical about it. It was all white-hot lust. They had nothing in common; it was just the way he looked. That big, muscly body of his and the fact that he was focusing all of his attention on her. She wished it bothered her but it didn’t.

She was a thinker. She had never been attracted to any of her dad’s players...at least not since she’d turned eighteen and started to make a life for herself as an adult. She prided herself on being above her animal instincts, and one dinner with Hunter had made her question all of that.

One dinner.

Why was she here?

“You look way too serious for this gorgeous sunny morning,” Hunter said, stepping out onto the porch. He’d changed from his running clothes into a white linen summer suit paired with a pastel-colored shirt. On anyone else it would have looked as if he was trying too hard, but on Hunter it fit. His hair was artfully styled, his beard neatly trimmed and he smelled fresh and clean.

“We’re not all used to dancing our way through life.”

“Ah. So you’re tasting a little bit of regret this morning,” he said.

“Why would I be? We didn’t do anything last night.”

“Is that the problem?” he asked, sitting down next to her in one of the deck chairs.

“I don’t know,” she said. Honesty—it was one of the tenets of her life. “Maybe.”

“Me, too,” he said. “But we can always rectify that. We would never have been able to fix it if we had moved too fast and had regrets this morning. Would you like to join me for breakfast or have you eaten?”

“Breakfast would be great. What did you have in mind?” she asked, getting to her feet. In her mind she had a checklist. Kind of like when she did a psych evaluation at work. Her mother had told her more than once that relationships wouldn’t work if she filtered through theories, but she really had no other way to figure out what made Hunter tick.

“I’m meeting my assistant at a little diner off the Five. She works in my main office in Malibu and is driving up to give me some papers to sign and other stuff. So it’s a forty-minute drive.”

“Sounds good. Dad’s not expecting me until dinnertime.”

“Have you thought any more about letting me see his files?” Hunter asked.

“Of course. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh, I thought you were here because we shared one hot kiss last night.”

“Well, I’m curious about that, too,” she said. Then realized she probably sounded like an idiot.

He watched her.

She had an uncomfortable feeling that she was being played and wondered if she shouldn’t just tell him no to the files and see what happened next. He shook his head.

“Sorry about that. Sometimes when I see what I want it makes me intense.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not pressuring you at all. I just was trying to see if I should drop my interest in the files. If that would be enough to make you believe that the kiss we shared last night was real. And not part of a play I’m making,” he said.

But he was a master playmaker.

This was complicated. But she’d made up her mind. He’d read her...maybe a little too well, but he was smart enough to realize using the lust between them to manipulate her wasn’t going to be the easiest way to get what he wanted.

She followed him out of his house. They drove up the Five. Hunter was a relaxed driver who had no problems keeping the conversation going. He told her about his best friend Kingsley getting engaged to his college girlfriend and about his godson, Conner, who tried to FaceTime them while they were driving.

“You’re close to them,” she said.

“King is like a brother to me. Closer actually.”

Suddenly everything about Hunter became clear. He’d do whatever he had to in order to see her dad’s files. She didn’t doubt that he may have toyed with seducing her and she didn’t know if he’d really dropped it, but she knew the stakes were high for him.

Interesting.

The shallow playboy had real connections. Ones she hadn’t guessed at before, and keeping him from her father’s files was going to be harder than she’d imagined.

* * *

Hunter’s meeting with Asia, his assistant, went smoothly. He’d texted her to say he was bringing a woman and to keep her smart-ass comments to herself. His assistant was very good at her job but she liked to sass him all the time.

“I like her. She doesn’t let you get away with anything,” Ferrin said when they were back in the car.

“I know. I hired her because she was the only one who didn’t ask to see my Super Bowl ring,” he said. “She couldn’t care less about football but she loves kids and grew up in a rough neighborhood so gets that kids having something fun and productive to do is important.”

“I could see that. I thought you were one of those rich boys who just took what he wanted and damn the consequences,” she said.

“Well, I’m a man, not a boy,” he said, giving Ferrin a long level look. Maybe he was moving too slow.

Desire flashed in her pretty blue eyes as she took him in with a glance. “I know you’re a man.”

Good enough. He wanted her to be aware of him. “Do you surf?”

“Do I look like I surf?” she countered. “Actually, I’m not very sporty.”

“How was that, growing up with Coach?”

“Horrible. I can’t catch a football, which used to enrage him. I’m okay at running but I don’t like it and I can swim but that isn’t a ‘real’ sport, according to him.”

“I can teach you to catch,” Hunter said. “I’m really good at it.”

“I figured, since you’re a wide receiver. I’m smart that way.”

“Yeah, you are. How about paddleboarding?”

“How about driving up the coast and eating lunch at this restaurant that I know? Or taking a walk on the beach?”

“I like it. But you’re never going to really know me unless you see me in action,” he said. When he talked he got into trouble. He said the wrong thing, and with Ferrin when he was being so careful to watch his every move, he didn’t want to chance it.

“I want to know the man, not the player, Hunter. Talking will do,” she said.

“You’re right, I’m happy to do that but in return you will do something with me.”

“Football?” she asked. The dread in her voice amused him.

“It’s not like I’m asking you to outrun zombies.”

“I think I’d prefer that,” she said. “I’m going to level with you. I never liked football and I know it’s because my dad loved it more than anything—and anyone—else.”

Hunter put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. “My dad is that way about the land.”

“The land?”

“Our family has a ranch that is generations old and when other families left and went to Dallas or moved on to oil, we kept cattle. It’s the only thing that Dad really understands. Football is okay for a man to watch on the weekends but to make a living at it, well, in his mind, that’s a lazy man’s path.”

“Football is at the crux of both our lives,” she said.

“See, we’re not so different after all,” he said, but they were different. He’d made his peace with his father. He’d always gone home in the off-season when he’d still been playing, and more frequently now. He did the early morning chores with his father. They’d gotten past the differences from their past. Ferrin hadn’t found that yet with Coach. Could Hunter do that for her? Mend that relationship?

Why did he want to?

Because he wanted her and was going to use her anyway, he thought. He needed to justify his actions to himself. To somehow make it seem as though it was okay for him to use her, to take her and the information he needed.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“You can look through Dad’s files. But... I’ll go through them with you,” she said.

Score.

But it didn’t feel like a touchdown. He felt as if he’d gotten the points due to something sly. A cheat.

“When you’re ready,” he said. “I still want to teach you to catch and spend the day with you.”

She gave him a long look from those gorgeous eyes of hers. And he realized there was much more to her than he’d noticed before.

“Waiting isn’t going to make me think you want to be with me more than you want to see the files,” she said.

“I know. But it will make me feel better that you are letting me see them,” he said.

“For a badass that’s not really a tough attitude.”

“The last time I put football before a woman it ended badly, Ferrin, but I need to make sure my conscience is clean on this.”

“Are you talking about Stacia? I want to know more about that. But I know it must be hard for you to talk about it,” she said.

Ferrin was right; he didn’t want to tell her the painful memories of Stacia’s death, how he’d broken up with her the very night she was murdered and had felt guilty about it ever since. But he knew he was going to have to. Only by talking about the past could he believe that she would understand why those files were so important.

“Definitely,” he said. “But not today. Today is about the present.”

She gave him another look, and to his guilty soul it seemed she read the truth buried beneath what he hoped was charm. “Fine. But you know it’s hard to move forward when you are carrying the weight of the past.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. “I’m very well acquainted with that fact.”

“It’s okay. This is only our second date. I was just trying to be helpful,” she said. “Occupational hazard, I guess.”

“Right, psychology professor. Why teach instead of practice?” he asked.

“Teaching suits me. My parents are teachers.”

“I guess coaching is teaching, isn’t it?”

“I meant my stepdad, but coaching can be considered teaching, as well.”

She didn’t include Coach when she talked about her parents. That was interesting, and he wanted to know more. He would take today to learn about her and when he got her home he’d tell her the whole truth about Stacia and the past.

Four

The beach wasn’t too crowded in the middle of the day as they walked down it. Though she’d said she wanted to talk, she wasn’t too sure now. Hunter seemed to have no barriers and she didn’t really want to know the raw, broken man underneath the sexy exterior. She’d reacted to him on an intimate level and it would be much easier to just kiss him, take him to her bed and then show him the door.

But his pain was real to her. Observed in the quiet moments when he thought she wasn’t watching him. There was a palpable drive to it, as well. The woman in her wanted to comfort him.

Sex would do that, she thought.

Lust. It truly had been a long time since she’d met a man who just plain turned her on the way he did.

Emotions. These emotions weren’t comfortable for her. Give her a nice, calm feeling of indifference—that was really all she wanted.

“What’s the deal with you and your dad?” Hunter asked as he stopped to look out at the sea.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” she said. This was a mistake. Just go buy a football and let him throw it to her. That was what she should have done. But instead she’d wanted to talk.

Her mom would be...understanding. She’d probably be able to offer some insight that Ferrin herself was missing. She wondered if he’d let her call a time-out on their day date to call her mom.

She started laughing at how ridiculous that thought was.

“You okay?”

“No. No, I’m not. I suggested this to get to know you better but you turned the tables on me and suddenly I realized I don’t want to let you any closer. I don’t want to get to know a man who loves a sport I hate. A man who wants something from the father I barely know. A man who makes me aware of myself as a woman. I am so used to being in control of myself and my environment.”

Hunter put his hands up, shoulder-level, and cocked his head to the side. “I wanted to play football. It’s quick and physical and neither of us would have to do much thinking while we were playing.”

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