“No, we’ll settle it right now. You’re the great negotiator. You taught me that one yourself. We settle the deal while it’s on the table.”

“Bastard. And here I thought you never paid attention. Fine. I’ll make you a pie. Or I’ll try to remember how to do it. No guarantees. I might end up poisoning you.”

“I’ll take my chances. So, back to you being a kid. You got to see your friends on the weekends, right?”

“Yeah. I had two best friends, Lindsey and Denise. I got to swim in Lindsey’s pool in the summers.”

“Nice.”

“It was. We used to do everything together. Sometimes I’d get to sleep over at their houses but not very often.”

“Why not?”

“My father wouldn’t let me. Said my place was at home with my family.”

“Your father was strict?”

She snorted. “That’s an understatement. He ruled our home with an iron fist. My mother had to report in every second of her life. Where she was going, what she was doing, who she was seeing. God forbid she wasn’t at her desk if he happened to call her office. He’d go off into a tirade about that.”

“Why?”

“He had to be in control. His whole life was about controlling people. Controlling her, controlling me. The world would stop turning if he didn’t know what we were doing every moment of the day. That’s why he didn’t work much. How could he work and manage us at the same time?”

Gavin didn’t say anything. Dammit, why had she offered up so much information? She’d only meant to talk about Lindsey and Denise, and the fun they had. She’d meant to keep it light. But, oh, no, she’d just had to talk about her father.

“I’m sorry about your dad. That must have been hard on you.”

“I avoided him, defied him when I could.”

“And your mother?”

She pressed her lips together, determined not to talk about it.

“Elizabeth? What about your mom?”

“She did whatever he told her to do like the good robot she was. He told her to be home at a certain time, and she was. Canned goods had to be organized in a certain way in the cabinet, and they were. Towels had to be folded just right, or she had to do it over again until they were. She had no friends, because why did she need friends when she had him to take care of, and God knows he was a full-time job. She was supposed to spend all of her time with him.”

He reached under the blanket and took her hand in his. “I’m sorry. That’s no life for a kid. There must have been a lot of tension in the house.”

She shrugged, tried to pull her hand away, but he didn’t let go. “It wasn’t that bad. I managed just fine.”

“It sounds like it was a nightmare.”

She didn’t want to answer, but something compelled her. “It was hell.”

“But you survived it. And knowing who you are now, I’d bet he couldn’t control you.”

She laughed. “No, he couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him. He tried, and he did when I was younger, but by the time I hit high school, he was too busy managing every second of my mother’s life and had to choose between her or me.”

“And he chose her.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Lucky her.”

“Do you see them at all?”

“Oh, hell no. I’m not going back there. Once I left for college, that was it. I wasn’t going back there ever again.”

“Don’t you at least wonder how your mother is?”

Her shoulders slumped.

“I tried, Gavin. I tried to get her away from him, tried to get her to come visit me, because I sure as hell wasn’t going back there. She refused, said Daddy needed her and she couldn’t come.”

“So she chose him over you.” He swept his hand over her hair. “I’m sorry, honey.”

She batted back the tears that threatened. It had been too many years since she’d cried over what she couldn’t change. Never again. “She made her choice to put up with him and his demands. She has to live with it now. That doesn’t mean I have to.”

“So you never went home after you left for college?”

“No. Never. I was free and I wasn’t going back. I was on full scholarship, and I worked during school. I had no reason to go back.”

“So they never once came out to see you?”

“No. I’m sure my father was afraid if my mother left the state, she’d somehow escape him and he’d lose her. He was happy keeping her in that little town, and obviously she’d do whatever she was told.”

“She never called you or wrote?”

“Oh, sure. She’d call and ask me to come home at the holidays or during summer. Whatever Dad wanted her to say. After I said no enough times she stopped calling.”

He didn’t speak for a while. She knew what he was thinking. “You think I’m a cold-hearted bitch, that I abandoned my mother.”

“That’s not what I’m thinking at all, Elizabeth. You weren’t supposed to be responsible for her. Your parents were supposed to be responsible for you.”

“They were. They fed me and put a roof over my head. I got a decent education and I wasn’t abused.”

She heard his soft laugh and tilted her head to look at him. “What?”

“Come on. You’re smart, surely you know.”

“Know what?”

“Elizabeth, your father was an abuser.”

She shook her head. “No, he was a prick and a controller. But he never hit my mother or me.”

Gavin turned in the swing to face her. “Honey, an abuser doesn’t always hit. Abuse is emotional, too. Don’t you think that’s what your father did by controlling your mother, by forcing her to live in what was essentially a prison?”

Talking about it made her relive it, and she didn’t want to go back there ever again, had sworn she wouldn’t, not even in her mind. And she’d already spent way more time there tonight than she’d ever wanted to. She shrugged off the blanket and hopped off the swing. “I’m tired, Gavin. I had a long day and a long flight, and I’d really just like to go to bed.”

She walked away, didn’t look back to see if he was following, just headed straight for the bedroom, stripped off her dress, and crawled into bed without turning on the light.

She had to shut it all out, to forget, to shove the past where it belonged so it couldn’t come back and haunt her again.

Within a few minutes Gavin joined her, his body chilled from the cold air outside. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. She resisted at first, but he wouldn’t let go of her until she relaxed her body against his.

He didn’t ask for anything, didn’t say anything, just stroked her hair. The silence and his breathing finally calmed her, and she was able to shut her eyes.

But she couldn’t shut out the memories. She’d never be able to make them go away.

NINE

RAIN AND WIND BATTERED THE DECK AND WINDOWS, coming down so hard Gavin couldn’t even see the chairs.

The rain kept them shut inside. That was bad. No game today.

No sunshine, nothing to do but stay inside.

That could be good.

While Elizabeth slept during the morning, Gavin went to the store and bought food. He intended to cook for her, felt bad about making her talk about a past that was obviously painful for her.

She’d had a rough childhood. A very rough childhood with a father who’d been abusive to both her and her mother. And yet she’d managed to escape and grow up to be a strong, independent woman, which said a lot about her strength and character. He wanted to talk more about it, but it was clear she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe she never would be, and it was her right to decide that.

But he admired her more for what he knew now about her. There were facets to Elizabeth he’d never known about, things about her that made him appreciate the woman she’d become. She’d done it all on her own.

Despite the game being rained out, he still had work to do. Workouts with the trainer and indoor batting practice with the batting coach. He left a note for Elizabeth telling her where he’d be, hoping she’d still be there when he got back.

He was gone most of the day. He had spent several hours on physical training, then batting practice, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with his swing. The verdict—nothing was wrong with his swing. As he figured, it was mental. The mechanics were all in place; he just had to connect bat to ball. And he would, as soon as the rain stopped and he got the chance to stand at the plate and swing the bat again.

He had to do a few media interviews late in the afternoon, then he was cut loose for the day and on his way back to the beach house. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised to find Elizabeth’s car in the driveway, but he was glad she was still there. When he went inside, she was curled up on the sofa, a steaming cup of something on the table in front of her, her legs crisscrossed over each other and her laptop sitting in her lap. She wore a sundress and a sweater, had her hair in a ponytail, and didn’t have any makeup on. She looked so young, almost like a teenager, when she lifted her head and smiled at him.

God, she was beautiful.

“Hi, honey. How was your day?”

He grinned and flopped onto the sofa next to her. “Just great. How was yours?”

“Productive, actually. Nothing like a rainy day to help one catch up with paperwork and phone calls. I got a lot done. You?”

“Workouts and batting practice and a few interviews. Trying to figure out why I’ve been oh-for-everything the past few games.”

She frowned. “You have? Why?”

He shrugged. “No clue. My swing is fine. Mental block I think.”

She leaned forward and kissed him. “Too much sex weakens you.”

“I haven’t had any sex. You were gone. That’s probably the problem.”

She gaped at him. “Oh. I didn’t know we were being exclusive.”

“I believe I mentioned that the first night we had sex.” He arched a brow. “Tell me you didn’t go around screwing everything with a dick while you were out of town.”

She laughed. “I’m the one with the two-year drought, remember.” She laid her hand over her heart. “I’ve been totally faithful to you.”

“Ditto.” He swept his hand behind her neck and pulled her mouth to his for a searing kiss that made his dick hard in an instant. God, he’d missed her, had missed f**king her last night. But last night she’d needed to be held, not fucked.

Now, though, as she climbed onto his lap and her br**sts pressed against his chest, Gavin felt the warmth of her and inhaled her scent, and he didn’t want to wait. He needed her. She was a fire in his blood and constantly on his mind. She made his balls quiver, and all he could think about was sinking inside her.

He shifted her underneath him, spreading them both out on the sofa, positioning himself on top of her. He nudged her legs apart and positioned his c**k against her sex, feeling the heat soak through her underwear and his jeans.

“Five whole days without sex, huh?” she asked, lifting against him with a wicked smile.

“Six now. It’s killing me.”

She swept her fingers across his goatee, then slid her hand down his chest and between them, cupping his hard cock. “Poor baby. How you must be suffering. We should take care of that right away.”

“Yeah, we should. How about right here?”

She gave his c**k a gentle squeeze. “I’m just lying here waiting for you to get this inside me. I’m ready, Gavin. I’m wet and my pussy’s throbbing. Fuck me.”

He sucked in a deep breath, raised off of her only long enough to lift her dress up and take her panties off and unzip and remove his jeans, and then he was between her legs again, falling into her welcoming arms.

His mouth met hers at the same time his c**k slid inside her. Unsheathed, he felt her, hot and slick, tightening around him as he thrust inside her.

He swirled his tongue around hers, and she wrapped her hand around his neck, her fingers diving into his hair. She lifted her h*ps and tightened her legs around him. He’d never felt anything like the sensations bombarding him all at once. His mouth on hers, his c**k inside her, and his whole body pressed against hers. He fisted her dress, pulling the strap down on one side to reveal her breast.

No bra. He liked that. He bent and took her nipple in his mouth, feeling it harden against his tongue as he sucked.

“Gavin,” she whispered, arching her back and feeding her nipple to him, still holding on to the back of his head and keeping him there. Her body was fluid motion as she moved against him, and he was caught up in a tight ball of tension, ready to skyrocket into an orgasm that he’d held back for all these days.

All he’d done was think about her—how she looked, how she smelled, how soft her skin was. He popped her nipple out of his mouth and looked down on it, then dragged his tongue up to her neck and grazed her throat with his teeth, watching the goose bumps prickle her skin.

She smelled like vanilla, like sugar cookies, and he loved the taste of her. She was like his favorite candy—hard on the outside but a soft surprise on the inside.

She was his Elizabeth, and he didn’t think anyone knew her like he did. He didn’t think she’d ever let anyone know her like he knew her. And that made her a treasure. His treasure.

He lifted up on both arms and looked down at her. She was painfully beautiful without her makeup on, her hair pulled loose from her ponytail, all messy and perfect. He lifted and thrust into her, watching her eyes when he rolled his h*ps over her to grind against her clit.