“So I’m guessing we don’t actually talk tactics in a time-out?” Dylan asked Piper, who was standing beside him.

“No, we never have. They usually just discuss what’s to eat after.”

Her face was red, arms damp with sweat. He couldn’t stop his eyes running over her.

“Stop it,” she hissed softly. “My cousins are here.”

“I can’t help it.”

“Try harder.”

“If I got any harder I wouldn’t be able to walk,” Dylan muttered as play started again. The woman was a walking sex goddess, and the harder he tried to ignore whatever the hell this was between them, the more he wanted her.

“Focus, Howard.” He only just caught the ball that Jack delivered before it hit him in the face.

“Focus,” he muttered. On the game, not the woman.

Chapter 15

They won, and Jack and Luke crowed all the way home. The Peasants, who were actually good guys, came back for chili cheese dogs and beer too, which meant plenty of smelly, sweaty men in the house. Piper had enjoyed the game, even if Dylan Howard had been there. The man could play, and seeing that big body of his glistening with sweat hadn’t done a lot to subdue this raging need she had for him.

Joe ordered him to the main house to eat chili cheese dogs and drink beer with the rest of them. Dylan tried to refuse politely, but eventually gave in, and was now currently showering at Joe’s. The Peasants were using the three bathrooms at the main house, and Luke and Jack had gone with Fin to shower at his place. The stables, apparently, were too cold for them.

“You’re soft,” Piper told them as they got in Fin’s car to leave.

“Fin has underfloor heating.”

“You two are the city boys,” Piper sneered. “Don’t be long, or the Peasants, Jack, Dylan, and I will have eaten all the chili dogs!”

Fin’s tires spun as he took off down the drive.

She had to admit her original opinion of Dylan was changing. She’d thought him a cold, stuck-up man when first they’d met, but that was changing... he was changing. Exposure to Ryker and its people was warming Dylan Howard up. She’d watched him interact with her cousins and Fin, and it looked like he’d always been one of them. He’d come into the café a few times too, and each time he’d brought a sister. The Howard siblings seemed to be bonding. It was slow, Piper was sure, but starting to happen.

“Hey, Mom.”

“How’s my baby?”