"Just to make sure you don't try and leave before I get back."Almost at the door, he turned, came back to her, and kissed her hard. "Thanks for a great night," hesaid, grinning as he let her go and opened the door.

Julie blankly watched the door close behind him. How had he meant that? Were you supposed tothank your lover after a night of great sex? Or was he trying to tell her they were done now?

She took a deep breath. When he came back down she'd talk to him so that she'd know if they wereofficially dating now. He was going to USC on a football scholarship, but his school was only an eight-hour drive from Stanford, so they could see each other several times a month pretty easily if they reallywanted to.

She was working on the zipper on her badly wrinkled dress when she heard laugher. Her spinetingled with alarm. Who was Ty laughing with? And what was he laughing about?

He couldn't be laughing about her, could he? Not after what they'd shared. She'd given him hervirginity. He had to know how special he was to her—that she wasn't like the girls he usually slept with.

She finger-combed her hair and quickly looked in the mirror over the tiny sink to make sure she didn'thave mascara on her face. She told herself that she trusted him to tell her the truth when he came backdown. Even so, she picked up her heels and tiptoed down the hall and partway up the stairs, just to thepoint where she could see some faces and hear what they were saying.One of Ty's teammates poured something golden into a shot glass and handed it to Ty. "Dude, youneed to tell us who you're here with. Everyone's been wondering."Ty tilted his head back and drank, then held out the small glass for a refill. "Trust me, she's hot."Julie's face flamed and she nearly dropped her shoes. How could he talk about her like she was justsome random girl he'd picked up at a party? Even if, a voice inside her admitted, that was exactly whatshe was.

"Samantha? Ellen? Melissa?"

Ty laughed and did another shot. "I'll see you guys later. Got to get back to the fine babe I've gotstashed away."

Julie hated the way he called her a "fine babe," even though she knew lots of girls would be flattered.

"What's that in your pocket?" one of his friends said, grabbing her underwear. "Hell yeah, you've gotanother pair of panties for your collection!"

En masse, Ty's friends dropped to their knees. "We bow down to the master."Ty made no move to get her underwear back. Instead, he inclined his head to his friends as if he wasthe king and they were his servants.

He'd taken her panties to give to his friends as a prize.

Cold, bitter anger filled Julie. She walked back down the stairs and pushed open the stateroom door.Eyeing the rumpled bed with distaste, she sat down on a firm upholstered chair in the corner by the built-in armoire.

A few minutes later Ty returned, his eyes glazed over enough to make her wonder how many moreshots he'd pounded.

"Miss me?" he asked, but his expression made it perfectly clear that she had to know how lucky shewas to be his chosen grad night screw.

"Not really," she forced herself to say in a steady voice. "I'd like my underwear back now."He shook his head and moved toward her. "Not so fast. We've got hours before the owner comesback. Don't you want to make the most of it?"

Self-disgust washed through her. Had she really let him touch her all over? Go inside her? He wasjust a cocky jerk looking to score.

"I don't want to keep you from your friends. I'll bet they missed you last night."He shrugged. "Not really."

"Funny, that's not what it sounded like from here."

He kneeled in front of her on the expensive carpet, at least acting like he cared. Considering howdrunk he probably was, he moved pretty fast. She'd heard his dad was a drunk too. Like father, like son.

"Forget what you heard," he said. "It's just stupid guy stuff."

"Screw you."

He grabbed her hand. All night long, his touch had inflamed her, driven her crazy with desire. Nowher fingers remained as cold as icicles.

"It was just guy talk. They wouldn't understand about you."She didn't give a crap about his pseudo apologies. She couldn't let herself believe him.Julie pulled her hand out of his warm grasp, then stood and stepped into her shoes as if she didn'tgive a damn that he was on his knees staring at her.

He stood up too, and she hated how dwarfed she felt by his height, his broad shoulders, as if he waslording his size over her on purpose.

"I said I was sorry, but you're not going to listen to what I have to say, are you?"She stared straight back at him. "I hate you. I'll always hate you. And I never, ever want to see youagain."

He reached for his shirt and grabbed his shoes. "Fine by me. Have a nice life."He left her standing in the middle of the boat. She hadn't even been able to get away first. It was thefinal blow.

Julie's eyes refocused on the football field as Ty laughed and picked up one of the smaller kids. He spun the little boy around to celebrate what she guessed was a perfect spiral. How could she go back to putting up walls when he acted like that?

It had been a great day. Ty was clear on what he wanted to do when the time came to retire. He wanted to run a place like this, teach kids the joy of the game, how everything you needed to know about life was right there with you on the field. Teamwork, respect, how to win, and how to lose. Football was hard on a body. Either you were forced to retire injured or you left willingly while everything still worked. Ty was hoping for the latter.

As he helped the boys clean up the balls and nets on the fields, he looked over at Julie. She had her head bent over her BlackBerry, good little worker that she was. He was hit with the memory of taking her naked up on that balcony in Napa and he had to look away, trying to get his mind off of her curves, the way the pulse in her neck jumped when she threw her head back and came. He was about to turn around and head for the clubhouse when he heard a man's rough voice boom across the field.

"Jackie boy, I hope you kicked some ass today."

Jack's face flamed and he ducked his head and fumbled a ball on purpose so that he could run after it. Away from the man that Ty assumed was his father.

The ruddy-faced man stumbled in Ty's direction. He slapped Ty on the back and stale whisky fumes poured out of his mouth as he said, "That's some superstar I've got out there, isn't it, Ace?" Ty worked to repress his revulsion. It wasn't Jack's fault that his father was a worthless drunk.

"Sure is. He's a great kid."

The man scowled. "All I care about is that he's great at football. We didn't come here this week for him to make friends. Win at all costs—that's what I've been teaching him. I don't care who he has to crush along the way. He hasn't been a sniveling baby out here today, has he?" Ty had gone cow tipping a few times with his buddies as a kid in Marin, and he was sorely tempted to poke this guy's overinflated chest and watch him fall to the ground, his thick legs flailing heedlessly in the air.

But he wasn't here to tell guys like this where to stick it. All he could do was help their kids on the field, teach them the right way to act, and hope they remembered what he'd told them when push came to shove.