Page 25 of Racing Heat (The Forbidden Heat #2)

~CASSIE~

The view is amazing, and I’m not talking about the view of the ocean.

Jase is sitting across from me, lit by the soft glow of the patio, wearing a navy-blue button-down shirt that’s rolled at the sleeves, showing me those muscular arms. There’s just something so hot about watching the veins flex in his arms while he moves.

He’s looking at the menu with a smirk on his face.

I’m sure he knows I’m watching, but so far, he hasn’t called me out on it.

A waitress coming up to the table stops my ogling of him.

“Good evening to you both. Here is the wine you preordered. I hope you’ll enjoy.” She picks up his wineglass and passes it to him so that he can take a sip.

“Perfection. Thank you.” He may have called the wine perfection, but his eyes were on me the whole time.

If he keeps on wooing me like this, I’m not going to be able to wait until we leave this restaurant to mount him.

“My name is Erin, and I will be taking care of you tonight. I will give you some time to review the menu. If you should need anything else, please let me know.” Erin makes herself scarce, and I decide that I like her so much better than the woman from the fish and chips place.

“What are you hungry for tonight?” Jase asks me, waggling his eyebrows at me.

“Why do I feel like this is a setup to make sure I’m so wound up by the end of night that I fall easily into your bed.” I pick up my wineglass and take in the sweet liquid. “Because you know you don’t have to work so hard for that. I’d go pretty willingly at this point.”

His smirk grows wider. “This is the treatment you deserve, and if it wins me points in the end, then I’m all for it.

But I wanted to take the time to do something nice for you.

You’ve certainly earned it, and I get the feeling that nights like these are going to be rare, so I want to make the most of it. ”

“I appreciate that.”

“Difference between a boy and man.”

I laugh at the remark. “So, you keep saying. I’m guessing it’s good that you’re older than me then. You have all of that experience you can bring to the table.”

“That I do. I’m going to ruin you for other men, just you wait.”

My sex throbs at the thought of him ruining me.

I have so many visions right now of how he could so easily ruin me.

By bending me over this table and taking me, fucking me while we watch the sun set.

Or taking me back to his car so that I can ride him again.

I know he feels a certain way about not having me in a bed for the first time, but I don’t care.

Any time that I get to spend with him, I’ll take, and any place he wants to take me, I’m game.

“You should probably look at your menu. She’ll be back soon,” he says, nodding in the direction of where I can see our waitress serving the other tables she’s working.

“I guess I should.” The words come out in a whisper, but I’m sure he heard me. I pick up the menu, and I can feel his eyes on me the whole time. “Shouldn’t you be deciding what you want?”

He shrugs as my eyes meet his. “I’ve already got that planned out.”

“Do you always plan everything?” I challenge.

He shakes his head, laughing lightly. “No, I don’t. That night at the club wasn’t something I planned. It just happened. Like a happy accident.”

I wink at him in way of response and go back to reviewing the menu. “What are you having?” I know that I should be looking at things that complement the wine. Red meat wouldn’t go well with the wine he chose.

“I think I’m getting the scallop and mushroom risotto.”

“Ugh, I hate mushrooms. They’re a fungus. How can you eat them?”

He laughs at me. “I don’t think of them that way. If they’re prepared right, they can taste rather good, and I’m sure here, they’ll be great.”

I nod, reviewing the pastas. “The player in me knows that today is my cheat day, and I don’t have to worry about having pasta or carb loading for anything. But man, do I want that seafood linguine.”

“Then you should get it. I’m sure it’s delicious.”

I close my menu and put it down.

Erin must take it as her cue to come over. “Are we ready to order?”

“Yes, please,” Jase tells her. “The lady will have the seafood linguine, and I’ll take the scallop and mushroom risotto, please.”

“Excellent choices. Can I get you an appetizer?” She looks from Jase to me, but I gesture for him to answer.

Jase watches me for a moment. “I think we’ll go with an order of the oysters, please.”

“I’ll put this right in for you. Your oysters will be out shortly.”

“Might as well do this night right,” he says when she walks away.

“Looking to make sure that I either fall into your bed, or that you can actually get it up?” My hand flies up to cover my mouth.

Jase laughs along with me. “I can’t believe I said that out loud.

Here you are planning this perfect evening and I’m saying things like that.

I guess you can dress me up, but you can’t take me anywhere. ”

“Oh, I can take you to so many places. And I love the way you think and the things that fly out of your mouth. If you’re worried about acting a certain way with me because we’re here, then sod off. Because I took Cassie to dinner, not a facade.”

I nod, sipping on my wine. “You are just so unexpected.”

“So, I’ve been told.”

I go to ask him what he means by that, but Erin is back, placing our oysters in front of us. I decide to let that piece of the conversation die for now.

“Okay, so I’ve never tried oysters before,” I tell him. “You’re going to have to show me how to do this.”

“I’m happy to teach you. I hope you’re feeling adventurous.

” He picks up an oyster. “Okay, so what you’re going to do is take the little fork and use it to loosen it.

” He shows me which one to use and runs it along the sides of the oyster.

“Then you bring the shell to your lips and drink it down. Make sure you get all the juices—or liquor, as some call it. That’s the best part and will give it its flavor. ”

He winks at me before dipping his head back and taking the oyster in. I suddenly wish that was me he was slurping down. My thighs clench again. I clear my throat and pick up the oyster, then eat it just the way he showed me to.

“Well, what do you think?” he asks.

“It’s pretty good,” I tell him.

He laughs. “If you don’t like them, you don’t have to keep on eating.”

“No, I want to.”

He just nods and we eat in silence for a bit. I’m the first one to break it.

“Did August bring you right from Manchester?” I ask him. “How did he find you?”

“My agent actually reached out to me. The Cromwell’s must have found me through him,” he explains.

I gasp. “You have an agent?”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I do. It’s kind of how I stay employed.”

I laugh along with him. “I just didn’t realize.”

He nods. “Well, we kind of view football a bit differently than you do over here.”

“Ah, across the pond, eh?” I fail horribly at impersonating him.

“That was really bad.” He winks at me. “But yeah, we have agents over there and some of your players do too. Who negotiated your deal for you?”

I lean back in my seat. “Would you judge me if I said I just trusted the Cromwell’s and Coach Watts? They were talking to my college coach at the time. No one really represented me. I know that’s not the way it went with others. Hendrix had her brother, but Amelia, Mac and I just trusted them.”

He smiles warmly at me. “I love that. I love that you were that trusting of them. It shows more about you than you think it does.”

“Yeah, that I’m an idiot.”

“No, you believed in this team, and you believed in your shot. I think they did right by you.”

“I think so too.”

I sip on my wine, staring at him. I love how relaxed he looks, leaning back in his chair like he doesn’t have a care in the world. I decide to take my shot and ask him a few things.

“What made you decide that this was right for you? Why leave Manchester for our brand-new team?”

“I really liked what the Cromwell’s said and what they stood for. I also liked that we were building a team from nothing. I got to see some footage of the goalies, and believe it or not, Hendrix was my top pick.”

“She is really awesome. Does she know that?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, let’s not give her an ego.”

“So, they pitched the team to you and let you pick your people? That was all it took to get you to leave Manchester?”

“Pretty much,” he replies. He’s smiling but it’s off. It’s not meeting his eyes and isn’t as easygoing as it was moments ago.

“I call bullshit, Ford. What else was happening then?”

“There’s no drama” is all he says in return.

“Not buying it. No one talks about their family the way you did and then leaves them to move to a different continent and coach a team in a state where no one thinks we need a second one. What was the real reason?”

He sighs and takes a long sip of his wine.

“Easy there. You trying to drain the glass?” I tease him. “Is it that bad?”

“No, I just don’t like talking about it.” He shrugs and looks out at our view of the ocean. “But if you really want to know, I’ll tell you.”

“Well, now I feel bad for making you.”

“No, you wanna know and I want you to know.”

Erin comes back and places our plates in front of us. We thank her and she makes herself scarce. I appreciate that.

I inhale the scent. “This smells amazing.”

He nods in agreement. “It really does.”

“But don’t think the food is going to make you get out of telling me.”

“Let me get a bite or two in, okay? Then you can know the whole sordid story.”

“Oh, so there’s dirt?” I ask, wiggling my eyebrows at him.

“Not nearly as juicy as I’m sure you’re thinking it is.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I’m happily twirling my pasta and digging into the seafood pieces that are on my dish, when he extends his fork to me.

“You have to try this. I know you don’t like mushrooms, but I promise you it’s worth it.”

I study him. “It’s really that good?”

“Oh yeah, it’s really that good.”

“Fine,” I relent. I take a sip of my water to cleanse my palate. He feeds me a bit, and I hate that I like it. Its garlic and butter flavors fill my senses with the richness of scallop. I barely notice the mushroom. “Okay, not saying I want a whole dish of that, but it is really good.”

“Told ya,” he teases.

“Yeah, yeah, you told me so. Now spill it.”

He chuckles. “Okay, fine. I left because of her. I just couldn’t handle being in the same town as her.”

I feel like an ass for making him tell me. “I’m sorry I made you talk. I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

He chuckles, grinning from ear to ear. “Yeah, you got my secret pain.”

“Wait a minute. That’s not why, is it? You’re playing me.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“No, you’re just grinning like an idiot. Come on, was your divorce so bad that you needed a continent between you two?”

“You make it sound so dramatic.” He shakes his head. “I feel bad that I built it up so much for you, because it’s not really like that.”

“You made me think I had you talking about something seriously awful for you. You’re going to pay for that later,” I tell him.

“Can you be naked when you cash that check?”

“Yeah, but you can’t touch me.”

“You’re wounding me, woman.” He grabs for his chest, then shrugs.

“I just needed a change. My life in Manchester was fine, but that was the problem. I wasn’t moving on.

I wasn’t really going anywhere. There weren’t a lot of coaching options for me there.

I mean, I could get some work, but not what I wanted.

She had moved on and was happily dating someone else.

My brother was talking about kid number three.

My parents were traveling. It just felt like everyone had moved on and I was standing still.

Almost like I had graduated and hadn’t taken any of the necessary next steps.

So when the Cromwell’s came calling, I talked it through with my agent and got on the next flight. ”

“That is less dramatic than I had imagined.” I take another bite before asking, “Do you regret it?”

“Sitting here with you, I don’t regret a single decision I made that brought me here.”

I get the feeling that he’s not just talking about coming to the US. “I’m so happy that you took a chance on this team and came here. But more importantly, I’m glad we’re taking this chance on us.”

“Me too.” He reaches across the table and clasps my hand. “This was a good move and I’m so happy that I’m here with you right now. I know this is going to be complicated, but I’ve done ‘safe’ my whole life. I think it’s time I tried to make things a little complicated.”

I nod. “Let’s let the chips fall where they may.”

“You realize that could end up with both of us out of jobs.”

I consider this for a moment. “I get that, but I don’t care. Besides, you have an agent. Maybe he could get me a job playing for Manchester or something. Then you could come back home with me, and I can punch that sorry ex-wife of yours in the mouth.”

Jase’s eyes widen. “You would do that for me? Fight the ex? How do you know I wasn’t the bad husband or something?”

“Because, Jase, someone like you couldn’t have been. She doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

“Thank you for saying that. Our relationship was a bit more complicated than that, but I think in the end, it worked out for the best for everyone.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I lean back in my chair and place my hands on my stomach. “I’m not sure I can eat any more.”

“Wanna get out of here? Walk on the beach or go back to my place?”

“I like it when you’re direct,” I say with a smile.

“So…my place?”

“Yeah, your place.”

“I’m going to break so many speeding laws getting you home.”