And it wasn’t home cooking that they wanted to give him either.

Not that Wade minded. Nope, even with all the constraints that went with the new big, fat contract he’d just signed with Santa Barbara’s expansion team, the Heat, the guy seemed oblivious to pressure. Laid-back and easygoing, he took everything as it came, with a grain of salt and a slow, knowing smile that let everyone in on the joke.

Because life was one big funny to Wade.

She appreciated that, she just didn’t live it the way he did. Didn’t know how. As the publicist for the Heat and the lone female in a man’s world, Samantha’s life tended to be more work than fun lately. Hence her mission today.

The limo pulled up in front of Wade’s big beach-cottage-style house, which was perched on a bluff over the ocean. From the backseat she could see the ocean froth and pitch.

The motion matched what her stomach was doing.

In the work aspect of her life, she was extremely comfortable. That was a given. She’d been raised by men: her father, her uncle, her brother, and her cousins were all tough, implacable, unforgiving alpha males. Failure had never been an option, which translated to Sam being very good at whatever she tackled. Unfortunately, all she’d tackled lately was her job.

Maybe one of these days a guy would sweep her off her feet and then into bed, but it wouldn’t be today and it wouldn’t be with the guy she’d been tasked with babysitting.

The Heat had played last night. It was the first week of April, and it’d been an exhibition game, a prelude to their season opener on Sunday. They’d played the Padres, and it’d turned out to be surprisingly down and dirty. Wade had hit a homer in the second inning then been beaned in the third when the pitcher had hit him in the thigh with a throw-away pitch. The game had gone two extra innings and way past midnight before the Heat had finally won on Wade’s double, so Sam expected him to be exhausted and probably sore as hell. Maybe she’d even have to pull him out of bed.

The thought brought concern and a secret tingle to parts of her body that had been neglected for far too long.

Nice to know they still worked.

As she started to exit the limo to go get him, his front door opened. Six feet of rugged, leanly muscled male stepped out in Levi’s and an untucked blue-and-white-striped button-down. A gust of wind molded his clothes against the body that tended to make her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth, and he stopped to slide on his sunglasses and take in the ocean, the picture of a California surfer.