She was so turned on, so revved up, it was nearly impossible to put words together. “You’re talking about what you might put into your body in the name of your love for baseball.”

He stared at her, then let out a low breath. “No. I’m talking about what Red would do for me. Which is anything, by the way. The very definition of love.” Seeming weary to his very core, he shook his head. “You know what, forget it. You wouldn’t understand.”

She felt like she couldn’t breathe. “Because I told you I don’t believe in love? Or because I turned my last boyfriend in for his unscrupulous actions?”

When he didn’t say anything, she took a step back, pressing a hand to her chest because her heart hurt. “You know what I think?”

“That I’m right?”

She’d been about to say that his fear of her was showing, but the same was true in reverse as well, which felt too revealing, so she swallowed hard. “I’m thinking that you, Pace Martin, are a very stupid male.” She bent for her shoe and purse. “And I want my panties back.”

“No.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” She had to brush against his body to get out, that warm, hard, amazing body she’d been hoping to have pinning her down on the bed right about now. Ha! Turned out he was no better than any of the other men she’d known.

Actually, he was worse.

Because he, unlike the others, had sneaked in past her defenses when she wasn’t looking. He’d made himself at home in her heart and was right this very minute power blasting his way back out again, destroying the organ in the process. “Excuse me,” she said stiffly.

Stepping back, he let her go.

She walked down the hotel hallway, her face hot, body hot, everything damn hot, and stopped at the ice machine. Grabbing a spare bucket, she filled it, then lifted the thing and pressed it to her cheek. When that wasn’t enough to cool her jets, she took a piece of ice and ran it over her forehead and then down her neck.

Temper and arousal did not mix well, not with her, and with a sigh, she turned and then went still. Pace stood in the opened doorway of his room, arms crossed, that big body leaning causally against the doorjamb, his eyes calm and steady for someone who’d just had two shots of vodka straight up.

And cynically amused.

“I have a better way of cooling down,” he said.

Yeah. But she didn’t think she could take it. She certainly couldn’t survive it. So she lifted her chin and continued down the hallway, stopping only to reach back for the bucket of ice, which was definitely going with her.

His soft, mocking laugh followed her all the way to the elevator.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16