Shit. Now wasn't the time to think about that. Not when all he could think about was taking Melissa home and making love to her all night long.

Out of the corner of his eye he watched her leave. If he'd had any self-control, he would have let her go home to her apartment alone and get some sleep.

Forcing himself to do his duty as an Outlaw, he socialized awhile longer, then extricated himself from the party. His cock was rock hard and he broke a dozen traffic laws getting out of Golden Gate Park. He passed the parking lot where she'd ridden him doggy-style, and a drop of precome emerged on the head of his dick.

At this rate, he wasn't even going to make it to her place. He raced up her steps and rang her doorbell, feeling like a kid on Halloween, with Melissa as the candy.

The building door buzzed open, and when he got to her apartment door he barely let her open it before his mouth was on hers and he was kissing her as if he hadn't seen her for weeks.

When he finally let her catch her breath, she said, "I was just putting together something to eat. I thought you might be hungry."

He nodded, following her into the kitchen, one hand threaded through hers. His stomach growled, but it would have to wait.

She looked up at him. "That was pretty wild tonight, wasn't it?"

He nodded, forcing himself to reply, trying not to be such a sexed-up ogre. "Wild."

"I can't believe we did that," she said, and it finally occurred to him that she looked nervous.

He pulled her against him. "It was incredible. You're incredible."

She pressed a kiss to his lips and whispered, "Remember what you said to me this morning?"

He looked into her amber eyes. "About fucking you on the kitchen table?"

She nodded. "What are you waiting for?"

An instant later she was facedown over the kitchen table, her skirt at her hips, her sweet, round ass beckoning him. He couldn't get his pants off fast enough, could barely manage to slide on another condom.

He drove into her with an apology on his lips. He'd never started to come this fast, didn't know what was wrong with him. But she was writhing and crying out beneath him, and as he pushed down the top of her dress to cup and squeeze her breasts, he realized she was coming, too.

Melissa was any man's wet dream.

Chapter Nineteen

Dominic left early the next morning for an appointment with the Outlaws' physical therapist and she decided to head into the office to watch JP's game tapes and take notes.

Which was when she realized exactly how screwed she really was.

She'd always had a good instinct for players—even her father thought so, which was high praise- but not this time. Although JP had all the right moves, they just didn't come together into a cohesive package. Obviously he'd gotten into the pros because he was a natural athlete. But making it in the pros took a whole lot more than innate talent.

Had her father ever dealt with a situation like this? She didn't think so—but she couldn't exactly ask him. Not when she'd made a point of being able to handle everything on her own.

Maybe she'd ask Dominic tonight. He'd promised to make her dinner, and sworn that they'd actually eat it this time.

Suddenly the door was flung open.

"Have you seen this yet?" her father asked in a hard voice as he waved a newspaper clipping in the air.

She frowned. "I don't know. Let me see it."

He wadded the paper into a ball and threw it at her. It was the most unprofessional thing she'd ever seen him do. Holding on to the tenuous thread of her pride, she fished it out from beneath a row of chairs and smoothed it out. Her father flicked the light on and she blinked in horror.

Last night at a benefit for the San Francisco Aquarium,

unrestricted free agent JP Jesse told us that his new

agent is "one hot babe." Which begs the question: Exactly

how close is the lovely agent with her new client?

Angered by her father's low opinion of her taste in men, she said coldly, "JP is my client. That's all. I'll talk to him about watching his mouth."

"I don't want to see something like this in the press about one of my agents ever again. Understood?"

"Understood."

Her father was right, and she'd been skating on thin ice with Dominic for too long. She had to decide between being with Dominic and being his agent. Given that Dominic didn't want to be her "real" boyfriend, the choice was easy. Now she just had to tell him that they were through.

A few hours later, she knocked on Dominic's front door. Opening it, he kissed her as if he were dying of thirst and she was water. Following him into the kitchen, her heart in her throat due to what she had to say, she noticed that he had a faint limp. One of the hardest-working guys on the Outlaws, Dominic pushed himself every day, both on-season and off.

"How was practice today?"

He pulled ingredients out of his stainless steel Sub-Zero refrigerator. "A bitch. Like always." He grinned. "You want to know what got me through?"

She had a sinking feeling that whatever he said was only going to make it harder for her to break things off.

He pulled her against him. "Thinking about the next time I take you, someplace you aren't expecting to make love. The way you're going to have to swallow your moans of pleasure so no one in the next room hears how hard you're coming."

She swallowed hard. Just as he leaned in to kiss her, she said, "I watched JP's game tapes today."

Dominic stiffened and released her. She hated how cold she felt without his heat. "What'd you think?" "I'm not—"

Her purse started vibrating on the counter. She unzipped it and reached for her cell phone, checking the caller ID.

"It's JP." She was pleased at how furiously Dominic started to chop the celery as she clicked her phone open.

"Ms. McKnight?"

She rolled her eyes. At least he wasn't calling her babe anymore.

"You're not on a hot date tonight, are you?"

She glanced up at the gorgeous man standing five feet away, busily preparing a gourmet dinner for her. She most certainly was.

"No, I'm not."

"Good," JP said, sounding like a little kid who'd just been given his favorite treat. "I need your help with a very important decision."

"What is it?" With a guy like JP, it could be which shirt to wear.

"I'll tell you when you get here," he said.

The signal went dead and she held her phone away from her ear and stared at it.

"What's the little punk need now?" Dominic asked.

She shook her head. "I don't know. But evidently it's urgent."

Dominic looked her in the eye. "Don't go."

More than anything, she wanted to stay here with Dominic. But she couldn't do that. She had to tell him they were through. Done. Over.

Yet she couldn't spit it out yet; everything in her heart rebelled against it. She'd tell him soon.

"I have to go."

"Stay," he urged, moving toward her.

But if she let him touch her, she'd never be able to get away. And once she was naked in his bed, she'd never be able to tell him to get lost. Soon someone in the business would find out about them and share their dirty little secret with the world. JP would demand a new agent because he was pissed at her for not showing up, and it all added up to one thing: nothing. If he touched her, she'd be left with nothing. No hot sex and no clients.

"He's my client. He needs me."