He wondered if Kendall was asleep yet. He needed to stop thinking about her, but he couldn’t think of anything (or anyone) else. He couldn’t stop remembering how she felt in his arms.

KENDALL PULLED ON a nightshirt a few minutes after Drew left and crawled into the bed. Normally, she didn’t mind sleeping alone, but tonight, she didn’t want to. She knew he couldn’t stay with her, but she wished he had. Even if they didn’t make love, she would have had someone to talk to while she tried to fall asleep. His house was only a couple of miles away, he’d said. He was probably already there, safe and warm in his own bed. She wondered if he slept with his hair in a ponytail, or did he let it fan out over the pillows? She sat up, adjusted her pillows once more, and sank into them. She heaved a long sigh.

He was incredibly sexy. Even more than that, he was interesting, funny, smart, and caring. And she’d kicked him out of her hotel room. She meant what she’d said to him about any involvement between them being career suicide for her, but she couldn’t believe she’d met a guy that had every possible quality she’d ever wanted and he was off-limits.

Again.

Maybe she’d get sleepy if she read a little. She reached out for the Kindle on her bedside table and reconsidered. She’d better check her e-mail one more time tonight. Who was she kidding—she wasn’t settling down any time soon. She was still thinking about Drew and how different her evening would have been if she’d asked him to stay. The wrapped condom he’d had in his wallet was still on the nightstand. He’d forgotten his slouchy knit hat; it was still lying on the floor in the corner of the room. It probably smelled like him too. At least she’d sent the books home with him . . .

“Oh, shit,” she said to herself. “My dad’s book—and my phone!”

She remembered slipping the phone into the plastic bag with the new book she was giving to her dad and rolling up the top to seal the contents before they’d set out for the hotel from the coffee shop. She’d thought putting the phone in a plastic bag was better than carrying it in her pocket, and it was raining so hard she was afraid the things in her handbag would get wet. She jumped out of bed, hurried across the hotel room, and dug through her handbag.

The small paper bags containing the salted caramel bars were a little smashed, but the bars were still edible. Everything but her iPhone was in her handbag. Maybe she left the phone in her coat pocket after all. She grabbed the still-damp coat off the corner of the couch and went through the pockets. No phone.

She flipped on every light in her hotel room and looked everywhere. No phone. It wasn’t worth calling the front desk to ask if she’d dropped the phone outside or in the lobby on the way up to her room. She knew where it was, and she also knew she had no way of getting it back: It wasn’t like she could walk across the field on Sunday afternoon and ask Drew McCoy if he’d seen it.

She’d have to make do until she could get another one. She couldn’t imagine how she was going to explain this to the Miners’ front office, either.

THIRTY-SEVEN HOURS LATER, the Sharks were playing the Miners in Sharks Stadium. Sharks players and fans had been anticipating this game since the season started. The winner would have first place in the division and an easy path to the postseason, which was always a great place to be in early October. It was a perfect day for football: Cotton-candy quality clouds dotted an impossibly blue sky while the sun warmed the sold-out stadium.

Drew spotted Kendall standing on the sidelines. She’d evidently abandoned the team suite to enjoy the crisp fall day with her colleagues and was having an animated discussion with a few of them while the teams lined up on the field for the kickoff.

He saw her laugh at something someone said to her. The guys standing with her were in suits and ties. She wore black pants, a team logo jacket, and a silver-colored silky-looking scarf tucked into her neckline. The rain-washed air put color into her cheeks. She brushed the bangs out of her eyes with one gloved hand. She was gorgeous, and it took everything he had to not run across the field and kiss her again.

There were a hundred women in the stadium right now that would love to have a cup of coffee with him, see a movie, have dinner, or anything else he could possibly dream up. He couldn’t stop staring at Kendall on the opposite side of the field, though. If he didn’t knock it off, one of his teammates or the coach was going to notice, and he’d be in deep shit.

She’d told him “no,” and he should accept that. She wasn’t the first woman he’d ever met, and she wouldn’t be the last. His eyeballs didn’t seem to get that memo, though. He kept glancing over to stare at her. He forced himself to pay attention to the game instead.

The first two quarters of the game went faster than usual. The Sharks’ defense wasn’t allowing the Miners to advance the ball, which was always a plus. He’d sacked the Miners’ quarterback twice. He wanted their unprotected quarterback to remember his name as the kid limped off of the field. Maybe the Miners should have spent some of the money they forked out for his overpaid ass on some decent offensive linemen instead. The Sharks’ defense was manhandling them; the score was 14–3. The halftime whistle blew, and he joined his teammates and coaches for the jog into the Sharks’ locker room.

He snagged a few orange sections and a cold bottle of Gatorade off of the cart that sat on one side of the room. If he could manage to get a few calories down while he listened to the coach, he was always better off during the second half.

Seth plunked himself down on the bench next to Drew and elbowed him in the side. “Trying to burn a hole through the Miners’ GM with your eyes or something, McCoy?”

Drew had crammed an orange section into his mouth. “Mhmm?” Shit. This would teach him.

Seth leaned closer. “You stared at her after every play. She’s staring at you too. Is there something you’d like to share with the class?”

“Fuck, no.”

“At least you have something to look at. Damn, this game’s boring. I could be jerking off out there and they still wouldn’t get a first down,” Seth said.

Derrick choked on what looked like half a bottle of Gatorade. Drew pounded him on the back until he quit coughing.

Seth shook his head.

“The Miners will make second half adjustments,” Derrick warned Drew. “We both might have something to do. Stick with us, will ya?”

Drew was saved from a response by the coach’s beginning his typical halftime instructions and two minute motivational speech. Twenty minutes later, he’d managed to down a few more orange sections, drink the Gatorade, hit the bathroom, and jog back out onto the field with the team.

Kendall was gone from her spot on the sidelines. Maybe she was getting a bite to eat or taking care of some business. He’d liked the idea she wasn’t hiding in the suite, and he was oddly agitated that she wasn’t on the sidelines right now. For a woman he was determined to ignore, she was sure taking up a lot of space in his head. He took his place for the warm-up exercises and put himself through the stretching routines he could do in his sleep. He glanced over at the Miners’ sideline again just before the second half kickoff. She wasn’t there.

He glanced up at the visiting team’s suite a few times during the second half as well. He didn’t see her.

Derrick sidled up next to him while the second-string offense was schooling the Miners’ defense in the fourth quarter. Coach wasn’t going to play his starters when the score was 28–3 and the Miners hadn’t succeeded in getting a first down since the second quarter.