Excerpt: Offside
Book One: The Barker Triplets
“Are you all right?” he asked gruffly and he so didn’t deserve the ‘I’m fine’ she snapped back at him, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
For a moment there was silence. Nothing but the gentle whistle of wind in the trees and the scatter of leaves to the ground. A shiver rolled over her and she wanted to look away from him, but she couldn’t. It was that damn superpower thing he had going on.
Her mouth went dry. It had to be.
His eyes were intense, their depths shiny, like liquid chocolate and that flutter in her belly began all over again. Sweat broke out along her forehead and for a moment she didn’t know whether to leave or stay or leave or…
“I’m just trying to look out for you, kid.”
Kid.
Something unraveled inside Billie. Something hot and urgent and big. It swooshed through her like a tornado, filling her up until there was nothing to do but let it out.
She took a step toward Logan and glared at him. The air crackled between them. She felt it like an electric shot that went right through her.
Billie was Indignant. Annoyed. Pissed.
Aroused.
Kid? Really?
“I don’t need anyone to look out for me. I’ve been doing just fine on my own for a long time now.” She paused and tried to grab hold of the emotion inside her. “I’ve dealt with sexism and small minds for most of my life. They may have loosened their restrictions in the pro league in Sweden, but that doesn’t mean any of the women who played were welcomed with open arms.”
She ran an agitated hand through the tangled hair at her nape. “I just,” it took a bit of effort to keep her voice calm. “I just didn’t expect that kind of crap here.” She shook her head. “I really didn’t, but if that’s the way the guys want to play, they’re stupid if they think it’s enough to stop me.”
“Billie–“
“I’m not done.”
Logan arched a brow–one that Billie missed–but she was roaring ahead like a freight train and nothing could stop her now.
“I’m a big girl.”
His brow arched a little higher and if she was paying attention she would have seen the slight lift to the edge of his mouth. It was a sexy lift.
A dangerous lift.
“I can see that,” he replied softly.
“I don’t need someone like you looking out for me. Not on the ice or off of it either.”
Her temper boiled over as everything from the night before hit her. The damage to her car. The Neanderthal attitudes. Ed’s smirk from less than an hour ago.
She leaned forward, so close she could count the long lashes that fringed his eyes. Her heart sped up and the butterflies in her stomach kicked into overdrive.
“And in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a damn, kid!”
“You said that.”
Chest heaving, Billie’s eyes dropped to the pulse that beat at the base of Logan’s neck, and then her gaze drifted upward until she settled on his mouth.
His incredible, sexy, wanton mouth. An image of his lips sliding across her body brought a new batch of heat to her skin, but it was a heavy heat, one that settled between her legs in a slow, torturous throb.
Was she insane? Probably. What other reason was there for what she did next?
Billie took another step forward and Logan took one back, but the truck didn’t allow him to move further. She stood on her toes, and sank her hands into the thick hair at his neck. His subtle, clean scent filled her nostrils and it was the sexiest thing ever. She leaned into him, her eyes never leaving his.
And then she kissed him.
