Double Take Seduction – by Lisa Rayne #2
Mac spotted her—the same time the hitter did—and called her name. Ryder shifted her gaze to Mac and almost missed the appreciative gleam that crossed the hitter’s face. A small shiver tickled up her spine.
She crossed the last few feet to give her friend a hug, and a deep voice yelled, “Heads up!”
Reflexively, she put up a hand to protect her head and sidestepped right into the loose handle of a black duffel bag on the floor.
She tilted precariously. Trying to brace herself for the imminent fall, her hands went out just as a strong male arm grabbed her around the waist and pulled her backside firmly against a pair of hard-muscled thighs.
She let out a gasp at the near fall and the feel of the man behind her. Warmth seeped through her shirt from the palm he’d planted on her abdomen.
“Are you alright?” a rich baritone voice, possibly the one that had shouted the warning, asked softly against her ear in a sexy drawl.
She tried to turn, words of thanks welling inside her, but her Good Samaritan held her too firmly. Looking over her shoulder into his face, heat suffused her. Taut with surprise and confusion, she blinked twice before her gaze registered the dusky brown skin and familiar smile.
Her head whipped toward the net, where impossibly the hitter still stood, and back again.
She did another double take and saw the hitter coming her way.
Her head snapped back to the stranger holding her from behind.
He chuckled at the expression on her face.
He was a mirror image of the man she’d been admiring from afar and in his face twinkled a pair of mesmerizing green eyes.
Twins.
There were two of them, and with green eyes no less.
For eight long months, she’d been on a dating hiatus, floating through her days without so much as remembering the opposite sex existed for purposes other than business—or legal hassles.
Now, here she stood in the presence of the first man in ages to elevate her heart rate. And he came in duplicate?
Her hitter jogged to a stop in front of her. “Sorry! That one got away from me,” he explained in the same sexy baritone as his twin.
“Yeah, I bet,” his brother scoffed and made an expression that suggested he called bull on that explanation.
She glanced at the gorgeous face that had first caught her attention and sank into a second pair of impossibly green eyes.
So this is what they meant by that old expression “drowning in someone’s eyes.
” She’d never really understood it, or even cared to, until today.
She felt herself drowning in a sea of green, and as long as this hunk starred in the role of King Neptune, she’d go down willingly.
Justin ignored his brother’s accusatory look that suggested he had shanked that ball on purpose. He wouldn’t be wrong.
Dammit. He’d wanted an excuse to make the acquaintance of the tall, shapely goddess his brother currently had wrapped around the waist. The ploy hadn’t been meant to send her straight into Julian’s arms. He’d meant simply to send the ball out of bounds, but the long legs of the newcomer had distracted him enough that the ball had actually gotten away from him.
Kenzie approached with the errant volleyball in hand. “Ryder, are you okay?”
Ryder’s mouth opened and closed as she stared between him and his brother one more time. “I’m fine,” the goddess finally said.
“Yes ... you ... are ,” Julian crooned in a low, husky whisper, slipping easily into player mode.
When Julian’s fingers squeezed Ryder’s waist, Justin wanted to yank her out of his brother’s arms. Instead, he grabbed a Gatorade and took a drink to keep from saying something to his brother he’d regret.
His gaze wandered over the long, corkscrew-like, chestnut curls of Ryder’s ponytail, the white, moisture- wicking shirt outlining pert breasts, and black spandex shorts that hugged curvaceous hips.
He’d give anything to trade places with his brother at this moment.
“You can let me go now, Tex,” Ryder said with a cheeky grin. She tried to turn, but Julian’s continued hold meant she did little more than rub her nice ass against his front. Her eyebrows shot up, and her eyes locked on Julian’s. “Down boy,” she quipped.
Chuckling, Julian released her, his hands flying up in a hands-off motion. “Apologies. Totally not within my control.” Offering her one of those hands on their way down, he said, “I’m Julian Kane. And the doofus with the bad aim is my brother Justin.”
“Ryder Jenkins,” she replied and shook Julian’s hand.
His brother’s interest in the beauty showed on his face. Not surprising. She had spunk as well as looks. Justin suspected just how much Jules liked what he saw had been apparent against her backside, which is what had led to the snarky exchange between the two.
She hadn’t shrieked and played the offended damsel.
Instead, she’d simply responded with a smart-aleck remark.
That alone would have Jules half in love with her.
He went for those outgoing, mouthy types.
Justin usually didn’t, but something about this woman made him curious to find out what else came with the attitude.
Tamping down his rising annoyance at his brother’s behavior, he capped the Gatorade and also shook the lady’s hand. “Hi. Welcome to the league, Ryder. Kenzie has mentioned you a bunch. Great to finally meet you.”
Ryder clasped his hand. A small electric charge sizzled across his palm when her fingers surrounded his. Staring into light eyes that were not quite hazel but not quite brown, he stood captivated.
Jules stepped up and gently pulled her hand out of his grasp. “You can let go now, Jay.”
Kenzie looked at each of them and shook her head at Jules’s posturing.
“Back off, boys. Ryder came here to play volleyball, not be pawed over by the likes of you.” She placed an arm around her friend.
“Come on, girl. The game’s about to start, and you still need to put on your knee pads and get warmed up. ”
The women walked away, talking animatedly, and Jules picked up his water jug.
“You could have stepped back,” Justin whispered to him between clenched teeth.
“I could have.” Jules didn’t even pretend not to understand to what Justin was referring. “But why waste time letting her know I’m interested?”
Justin’s fingers tensed around the bottle in his hand. “Oh no, you don’t. I saw her first.”
“But I met her first, and you know the rule. First twin to meet a woman has the right to date her.”
“She and I made eye contact when she first came in, and technically that’s a meeting.”
“Nice try, Jay, but no happenings.”
“What do you mean no happenings?” He’d known it was a long shot, but this one time, he needed Jules to give in. “Otherwise, at best, we met her at the same time, which means the First Advance rule doesn’t apply.”
“You can let that go, kiddo,” Julian said and patted him on the chest.
He shoved his brother’s hand away. He hated when Jules pulled that “kiddo” crap. The irritating know-it-all was only older than him by five minutes. You’d think it was five years the way he acted sometimes.
“You know the procedure. First of us to meet a woman has the right to date her unless we expressly state we’re not interested.”
“You’re interested in everything with a vagina. How do you know you’re truly interested in her?”
“Apparently”—he took a sip of water—“the same way you do, little brother.” Jules gave him an assessing glance. “You’ve never quibbled this much over our rule before, and we’ve been doing this for over a decade. So I’m guessing Ms. Jenkins got the same rise out of you when she walked into the gym.”
Not exactly, Justin thought. His attraction hadn’t led to an immediate boner.
But he couldn’t fault Jules’s reasoning otherwise.
Sometimes he really hated having a lawyer for a brother.
It made it nearly impossible to win an argument.
Although Jules left his partnership at Remington, Hager & McCormick a few years ago to become the general manager of the Kansas City Griffins football team, he still wielded a sharp legal mind. And he was right. As usual.
Justin truly regretted that his brother had met the woman first. And yeah, if the situation were reversed, he’d absolutely claim that ending up in his arms versus a glance across court qualified as a first meet. It had only been by a few seconds, though.
So did it really count?
He peeked toward Kenzie and her pal. He didn’t know why he had such a strong feeling about Ryder, but he did.
They’d exchanged no more than mutual appraising looks and a few words.
And he wanted her. He wanted to be the one to take her out, the one to dance with her, and definitely the one to feel her naked skin against his.
For the first time since he and Jules had instituted their pact, First Advance rights felt like shackles instead of safeguard. And he wasn’t sure he could play by their own effing rule.
This was going to get tricky.
Before Ryder sat down, Mac gave her a big hug.
“Girl, I’m so glad you came!” Mac gushed. “We are going to have so much fun for the rest of the season. We never beat Justin’s team. But at least when Felicia played, we had a fighting chance to go home with our pride intact since she and Jules work the net so well together.”
Surprised, she paused the lacing of her volleyball shoes. “The twins play on separate teams?”
“Yep. Everyone insisted. We all felt they had an unfair advantage. It’s bad enough that Justin played in college on a full scholarship like you. When you add unfair communication by twin telepathy, no one wants to play against them on the same team.”