Double Take Seduction – by Lisa Rayne #3
The twin telepathy comment made her laugh.
She got down on the floor to stretch. After a few minutes of leg stretches, she surreptitiously looked around for Justin and found him in a huddle with his teammates.
He twisted the top off a half-full bottle of purple Gatorade and fixed his eyes on her.
A soft smile lit his face when he caught her staring at him.
The intensity of his gaze shot a tingle through her belly and a warm flush blossom beneath her skin.
He gave her a casual nod before turning back to his teammates. She watched him for a while. All contained power and grace, the man looked comfortable in his skin but seemed the type to make you work for all the layers underneath.
Done with floor stretches, she stood to loosen her chest and arms before finding a ball so she could take a few practice serves.
Feeling eyes on her, she knew without looking it was Justin.
Under the guise of dribbling the ball in prep to serve, she let her eyes search him out.
She was surprised to find him otherwise occupied deep in conversation on his cell phone.
She took a furtive look around and found Julian watching her instead.
When he caught her eye, he winked. She shook her head in disbelief but smiled despite herself.
The man was a blatant flirt. What her grandmother would call a rascal.
Yet, she sensed something charming beneath the overt devilment.
Whatever his charms, she noted his gaze hadn’t had the same effect on her as his brother’s.
The men might look the same, but the pull she felt toward the one with the quiet smile suggested they were very different indeed.
Mac glanced up in time to see the interchange between her and Julian.
Mac’s brow creased before her gaze swung over to Justin.
Justin closed his cell phone and stared at his brother.
The look on Justin’s face gave Ryder pause.
She’d watched the brothers give each other crap earlier, but this looked more serious than general sibling ragging.
She took some practice serves. After returning the volleyball to the ball rack, she sat down beside Mac whose face held a pensive look. “Something wrong?”
“Uhm, nah, it’s just . . .”
“It’s just what?” Ryder prodded.
Mac expelled a deep breath. “It’s probably nothing.
” Being the timekeeper, she started the two-minute warning clock and gathered the scoresheets.
“Justin’s mood seems darker than usual is all.
He’s upset about something. He’s usually the even-keeled brother, the one not prone to broody mood swings. Just wondering what’s up with him.”
An only child who had known the twins since kindergarten, Mac loved the pair like older brothers. She’d talked about them lots during the days she and Ryder had been roommates at USC. A protective sort, Mac wanted everyone around her to be happy. It was the Pisces in her—all empathy and harmony.
Looking back over at Justin, Mac said, “You know he’s watching Julian watch you, right? And the way Jules is watching you, well ...” She handed Ryder a blue team T-shirt then sounded the buzzer to start the game.
Ryder stood, the half-finished comment making her survey the scene. Julian stood with an openly come-hither gaze fixed on her. Justin’s body language conveyed a restrained aggravation, and Mac’s expression revealed her friend didn’t like any of it. An uneasy feeling washed over Ryder.
She sensed trouble brewing.
Justin stood with his phone in hand and released a big sigh.
His latest deal was going to hell, and to top it off, he had to watch his brother flirt with a woman who was raising his own libido to unnervingly irrepressible levels.
He couldn’t remember the last time he and Jules had been attracted to the same woman enough to both want to claim First Advance rights.
Here he was thinking of ways to get that tall piece of gorgeousness out to dinner, knowing Jules expected to have—and rightfully probably should have—the honor.
Add that to his souring deal, and he was just on the outer edge of extreme frustration.
He ran a hand over his waves. He didn’t like to lose .
.. at anything, and losing at business wasn’t an option with the five-year strategic plan he’d outlined for his architectural design and commercial development firm.
He’d been on the verge of securing a vast, undeveloped piece of land on the northwestern edge of the city.
Now, it looked as if a change in the rules governing applicable tax credits, and a proposal from a competitor that promised the city development costs too low to be real, might result in his loss of the property.
As important as the nuances of the deal were, Justin couldn’t hold his train of thought as he watched his brother’s roving eyes caress the curves of Ryder’s body.
She jogged to the middle of their side of the court to chat with her other teammates.
Needing to get his head on the game, Justin averted his gaze and spied Mac watching him.
Considered a quiet, introspective type, he wasn’t one to flirt overtly.
But if he was interested in a woman, that interest couldn’t be missed by those who knew him well.
And Mac knew him well. He needed to be more discreet about this attraction.
His relationship with his brother had taken almost a year to get back on track after that fiasco in college.
The last thing he wanted was to put that kind of strain on their bond after all these years, and definitely not if it meant putting Kenzie in the middle.
Jules gave Ryder and each of his teammates a double high five and clapped his hands. “Okay, let’s do this!”
The play got off to an easy start, best of three games with twenty-five-point rally scoring.
Neither team managed to get too many points ahead until his team got down fourteen to sixteen.
Then, perhaps spurred by his burning desire to decimate his brother on the court, their offense became nearly unstoppable.
Almost every play ended with a kill by him.
Jules got frustrated and started to dominate the net on the other side of the court. After he ran into Ryder for the third time to send the ball across the net after only the second volley, the long-legged beauty had had enough.
“Yo, Twin!” she shouted at Jules. “What position exactly are you playing at the moment?”
Julian didn’t even blink at the nickname. People had been calling them “Twin” since they were toddlers, because it was easier than trying to figure out which one was which.
“I’m at right front, obviously. Is there a problem?” Jules shouted back.
Arms akimbo, Ryder stepped toward him and groused, “Considering you just hit that ball from left front and nearly went through me to do it, yeah, I have a problem.”
“Look, shortie, I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings,” his brother drawled with a smirk. “I’m just trying to keep us in the game.”
She took a step toward him, sexy as hell in her peeve.
“If you want to keep us in the game, try remembering that volleyball is a team sport. How about you play your position and let us play ours. And here’s a thought.
” She dramatically placed her index finger against her lips as if in deep contemplation.
“Try passing the ball or maybe even try a set. Assuming, of course,” she added before turning her back on him and muttering, “a ball hog like you even knows how to set.”
Half their teammates and Justin’s chuckled at her dramatics, as did Justin himself.
Jules shot him a glare then retorted, “Of course, I know how to set. But who exactly am I supposed to set since I lead the team in kills?”
“He’s right,” said Gloria, a tall, thin blonde. “Julian is our best hitter. If he starts setting, we’ll be hard-pressed to get any kills.”
“Fine. I’ll set,” Ryder said to Gloria and Jules. Grabbing the volleyball from one of her other teammates, she tossed it hard under the net.
He caught it easily but noted the extra heat on the ball. “Now, now,” he said, enjoying her irritation at Jules, but not wanting any to spill over onto him.
The look Ryder shot him could have turned a man to stone, but he endured the Medusa glare with a mere hand to his heart. “Don’t take your frustrations out on me. I’m not the one trying to play through you.” He pedaled backward to his position on the serving line.
“Smart-ass,” she grumbled but managed a reluctant grin that let him know he hadn’t made it to the depths of doghousery his brother was skirting.
Everything about this woman called to him, not simply her athletic build and gorgeous face.
He really needed to find a legitimate way around Jules’s interest in her.
Her competitive spirit and fierce outspokenness only fed his growing desire.
He couldn’t help wondering if she brought the same fire to her lover’s bed.
Time to finish this match and figure out a way to find out.
Ryder’s switch to setter helped her team make a measurable comeback, but it wasn’t enough to win. Once Julian settled down and focused on teamwork, he wasn’t such a bad player. Unfortunately, even after the two of them got in sync, they were no match for Justin’s former D-I dominance.
She sat on a bench wiping her brow with a towel. She was tired in that feel-good way a body got after an intense workout. But she was also jazzed. The adrenaline high that came from high-level play made her ready for the next escapade.
Julian walked up to her. “Okay, I’ll give it to you, Legs, you’ve got skills.”
At five foot nine, the moniker didn’t faze her. She’d been called that often enough since she’d hit her full height. She simply flexed her biceps and smiled cheekily. “Why, gee, thanks, Ball Hog.”