Katherine Garbera - His Seduction Game Plan

“Have you thought any more about letting me see his files?” Hunter asked.

“Of course. That’s why I’m here.”

“Oh, I thought you were here because we shared one hot kiss last night.”

“Well, I’m curious about that, too,” she said. Then realized she probably sounded like an idiot.

He watched her.

She had an uncomfortable feeling that she was being played and wondered if she shouldn’t just tell him no to the files and see what happened next. He shook his head.

“Sorry about that. Sometimes when I see what I want it makes me intense.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not pressuring you at all. I just was trying to see if I should drop my interest in the files. If that would be enough to make you believe that the kiss we shared last night was real. And not part of a play I’m making,” he said.

But he was a master playmaker.

This was complicated. But she’d made up her mind. He’d read her...maybe a little too well, but he was smart enough to realize using the lust between them to manipulate her wasn’t going to be the easiest way to get what he wanted.

She followed him out of his house. They drove up the Five. Hunter was a relaxed driver who had no problems keeping the conversation going. He told her about his best friend Kingsley getting engaged to his college girlfriend and about his godson, Conner, who tried to FaceTime them while they were driving.

“You’re close to them,” she said.

“King is like a brother to me. Closer actually.”

Suddenly everything about Hunter became clear. He’d do whatever he had to in order to see her dad’s files. She didn’t doubt that he may have toyed with seducing her and she didn’t know if he’d really dropped it, but she knew the stakes were high for him.

Interesting.

The shallow playboy had real connections. Ones she hadn’t guessed at before, and keeping him from her father’s files was going to be harder than she’d imagined.

* * *

Hunter’s meeting with Asia, his assistant, went smoothly. He’d texted her to say he was bringing a woman and to keep her smart-ass comments to herself. His assistant was very good at her job but she liked to sass him all the time.

“I like her. She doesn’t let you get away with anything,” Ferrin said when they were back in the car.

“I know. I hired her because she was the only one who didn’t ask to see my Super Bowl ring,” he said. “She couldn’t care less about football but she loves kids and grew up in a rough neighborhood so gets that kids having something fun and productive to do is important.”

“I could see that. I thought you were one of those rich boys who just took what he wanted and damn the consequences,” she said.

“Well, I’m a man, not a boy,” he said, giving Ferrin a long level look. Maybe he was moving too slow.

Desire flashed in her pretty blue eyes as she took him in with a glance. “I know you’re a man.”

Good enough. He wanted her to be aware of him. “Do you surf?”

“Do I look like I surf?” she countered. “Actually, I’m not very sporty.”

“How was that, growing up with Coach?”

“Horrible. I can’t catch a football, which used to enrage him. I’m okay at running but I don’t like it and I can swim but that isn’t a ‘real’ sport, according to him.”

“I can teach you to catch,” Hunter said. “I’m really good at it.”

“I figured, since you’re a wide receiver. I’m smart that way.”

“Yeah, you are. How about paddleboarding?”

“How about driving up the coast and eating lunch at this restaurant that I know? Or taking a walk on the beach?”

“I like it. But you’re never going to really know me unless you see me in action,” he said. When he talked he got into trouble. He said the wrong thing, and with Ferrin when he was being so careful to watch his every move, he didn’t want to chance it.

“I want to know the man, not the player, Hunter. Talking will do,” she said.

“You’re right, I’m happy to do that but in return you will do something with me.”

“Football?” she asked. The dread in her voice amused him.

“It’s not like I’m asking you to outrun zombies.”

“I think I’d prefer that,” she said. “I’m going to level with you. I never liked football and I know it’s because my dad loved it more than anything—and anyone—else.”

Hunter put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. “My dad is that way about the land.”

“The land?”

“Our family has a ranch that is generations old and when other families left and went to Dallas or moved on to oil, we kept cattle. It’s the only thing that Dad really understands. Football is okay for a man to watch on the weekends but to make a living at it, well, in his mind, that’s a lazy man’s path.”

“Football is at the crux of both our lives,” she said.

“See, we’re not so different after all,” he said, but they were different. He’d made his peace with his father. He’d always gone home in the off-season when he’d still been playing, and more frequently now. He did the early morning chores with his father. They’d gotten past the differences from their past. Ferrin hadn’t found that yet with Coach. Could Hunter do that for her? Mend that relationship?

Why did he want to?

Because he wanted her and was going to use her anyway, he thought. He needed to justify his actions to himself. To somehow make it seem as though it was okay for him to use her, to take her and the information he needed.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“You can look through Dad’s files. But... I’ll go through them with you,” she said.

Score.

But it didn’t feel like a touchdown. He felt as if he’d gotten the points due to something sly. A cheat.

“When you’re ready,” he said. “I still want to teach you to catch and spend the day with you.”

She gave him a long look from those gorgeous eyes of hers. And he realized there was much more to her than he’d noticed before.

“Waiting isn’t going to make me think you want to be with me more than you want to see the files,” she said.

“I know. But it will make me feel better that you are letting me see them,” he said.

“For a badass that’s not really a tough attitude.”

“The last time I put football before a woman it ended badly, Ferrin, but I need to make sure my conscience is clean on this.”

“Are you talking about Stacia? I want to know more about that. But I know it must be hard for you to talk about it,” she said.

Ferrin was right; he didn’t want to tell her the painful memories of Stacia’s death, how he’d broken up with her the very night she was murdered and had felt guilty about it ever since. But he knew he was going to have to. Only by talking about the past could he believe that she would understand why those files were so important.

“Definitely,” he said. “But not today. Today is about the present.”

She gave him another look, and to his guilty soul it seemed she read the truth buried beneath what he hoped was charm. “Fine. But you know it’s hard to move forward when you are carrying the weight of the past.”

He rubbed the back of his neck and nodded. “I’m very well acquainted with that fact.”

“It’s okay. This is only our second date. I was just trying to be helpful,” she said. “Occupational hazard, I guess.”

“Right, psychology professor. Why teach instead of practice?” he asked.

“Teaching suits me. My parents are teachers.”

“I guess coaching is teaching, isn’t it?”

“I meant my stepdad, but coaching can be considered teaching, as well.”

She didn’t include Coach when she talked about her parents. That was interesting, and he wanted to know more. He would take today to learn about her and when he got her home he’d tell her the whole truth about Stacia and the past.