Pace turned his back on them and, still holding on to Holly, looked down in her face. “I fell hard for you,” he said quietly, for her ears only. “And the only thing better than knowing it, is going for it. Going for something other than baseball, something that means even more to me.”

“Me?” she asked with a smile.

“You. Only you. I love you, Holly, so much.”

“Hey.” One of the camera guys behind them pushed his way around to look at Pace in horror. “You’re not retiring, are you? You just got back.”

Pace glanced at him with irritation, and the camera guy lifted his free hand. “Sorry, man. You’re trying to get laid. Carry on.”

Pace looked like maybe he wanted to shove him back over the fence, but then yet another camera guy came running down the aisle and stuck out another microphone. “What’s this about retirement?”

Pace shook his head. “Okay, all of you, back up. I need a second.” He turned back to Holly. “I’m trying to propose here.”

“Propose?” she gasped.

“Yeah. I—oomph,” he let out as she flung herself into his arms.

He smelled like the dust and dirt and sweat that was all over him, and she couldn’t get enough. “Oh, Pace. I don’t need a proposal.”

“You don’t?”

“No. I just need you.”

He let out a slow, heartbreaking smile. “You were right before, you know.”

“When?” she asked, liking to be right, about anything.

“When you said baseball was everything to me. It was, until you. Now you’re my everything.”

“Love the sound of that.” She melted against him and put her mouth to his ear. “I also loved your pitching tonight. It turned me on.”

His eyes heated. His hands tightened on her. They might have been alone as he dropped his forehead to hers. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She put her mouth back to his ear. “Now get me out of here, because you have another perfect game coming. This one private.”

He tossed his head back and laughed out loud as the flashes went off all around them. And that was the shot of him that made it into all the papers the next day, and later into many books on the sport.

And only Holly knew that the special light in his eyes at that moment wasn’t for the game the Heat had just won, but all for her . . .

Teaser chapter

Turn the page for a preview of the next novel by Jill Shalvis Perfect Game Coming soon from Berkley Sensation!

She’d read somewhere that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach, but Samantha McNead knew better than that—in certain men the stomach was aiming just a bit too high.

Wade O’Riley was one of them.

One of the most celebrated catchers in Major League Baseball, he had women lining up to meet him wherever he went.