“Yeah. Too bad about that. Also too bad I have a roommate tonight, or we could have some serious phone sex.”

“Trevor.” Her body swelled with instant need.

“Something to think about for the next time we’re alone.”

“You’re good at tormenting me.”

“Call it foreplay.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Hey, you can always get yourself off and tell me about it later.”

“I could, couldn’t I? After all, I don’t have a roommate.”

His voice lowered. “And now my dick is hard.”

She slid down under the covers. “And I’m wet, thinking about you being hard.”

“What are you going to do about it?” he asked.

“I don’t know.” She petted her pussy, wishing he were there to take care of things.

“Make yourself come, Haven. Let me hear it.”

She sucked in a breath. “And then what will you do?”

“Then after we hang up I’ll sneak into the bathroom and jack off. Really quietly.”

Just the thought of him doing that was enough to ratchet up her desire to unbearable levels.

“Hang on a second.” She pulled off the covers, and shimmied out of her underwear. “Okay.”

“Are you na**d?”

“From the waist down. How about you?”

He laughed. “Uh, no. But I’m hard. Really hard, and picturing you on your bed. Spread your legs for me, Haven.”

She really wished she could see him. That he could see her. But that would be unwise, especially with him loitering in the hallway. With an erection. She spread her legs, her hand immediately drifting toward her pussy, gliding over her flesh. “I’m touching myself. I wish it was you touching me.”

“I wish I could put my hands on you right now. Or my mouth. I want to make you come.”

And he could do it so easily, too. She closed her eyes and imagined him between her legs, his fingers and mouth doing delicious things to her. Instead, she used her own fingers, brushing over her clit. She knew her own body, knew what it took to bring herself to a lightning-fast orgasm.

“Haven, I hear your breathing. Do you know what that does to me?”

“Yes. I do.”

“Tell me what you’re doing.”

“I’m rubbing my clit. Slow to start, then giving it a little pressure. Going a little faster now. God, Trevor, just hearing your voice—I need to come so badly.”

“Put your fingers inside your pu**y for me. Don’t come just yet.”

She dipped a finger inside. “I’m so wet. I want your c**k in me.”

Now it was Trevor’s breath she heard. “I want that, too. Soon, babe. Fuck yourself for me.”

She did, her breath catching as she imagined Trevor’s thick c**k sliding in and out of her. “Trevor. This is so good. Fuck me, Trevor.”

“Christ, Haven. My c**k is so hard. Do you know how much I want to be there? How much I want to lick and suck your pu**y and make you come? Take your fingers out and lick them. Taste yourself for me.”

She shuddered at the hushed tone in his voice, knowing what it cost him to be out there in the hall, hard and aching. She removed her fingers, sucked her juices off each one, let him hear her until she heard him groan.

“It tastes like pussy, Trevor. Like my pussy. Why aren’t you here to make me come?”

“I wish I was. Now you have to do it. Make yourself come. Let me hear it.”

She was so ready, so far gone, she plunged her fingers back into her pu**y and lifted her hips, grinding the heel of her hand against her sex. “I’m going to come for you. Are you ready?”

“Fuck, yes. Do it.”

She felt her pu**y squeeze tight around her fingers as the first stirrings of orgasm wrapped around her, chilling her skin, blinding her to everything but the bolts of intense pleasure lighting her up.

“I’m coming, Trevor. I’m coming.” She let out a harsh cry as her cl**ax blasted through her. She heard every one of Trevor’s coaxing words as she rocked through her orgasm, shuddering until she fell to the mattress, spent and perspiring.

“That, Haven, was incredible.”

She smiled. “Thanks for the coaching.”

“And now if I don’t get into my room and jack off, I’m going to burst out here in the hall.”

“Think of me when your hand is wrapped around your cock, okay?”

“Honey, you’re all I’m going to think about. And I’ll probably bite my tongue clean off trying not to shout when I shoot my load.”

She grinned. “Good. But don’t bite your tongue. I’ll see you tomorrow, Trevor.”

“’Night, Haven.”

She hung up, and spent the next few minutes just lying there, imagining Trevor stroking his c**k and getting off while thinking about her. They were some very fun, very hot thoughts.

She finally got up, cleaned up, then climbed back into bed, a lot more relaxed and ready to go to sleep.

She couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

TWENTY

TREVOR—HELL, THE ENTIRE TEAM—HAD NEVER PLAYED three worse games.

The three games they needed to be at their very best, and they’d sucked. They couldn’t manufacture runs when they needed them the most, they’d made stupid mental errors on defense that had cost them runs, and they’d lost close games they shouldn’t have lost.

They won only one game in Atlanta, and that one by only one run, which meant they’d been eliminated from postseason play. And they had no one to blame but themselves.

Trevor’s own production had been shit. It was like his bat had taken a vacation. He’d left runners on base, couldn’t get on base when it had been most critical, and he’d struck out with the f**king bases loaded.

God, he’d been terrible. Hell, the whole goddamned team had played badly.

He’d never felt shittier, even though Manny had given them a pep talk after tonight’s game in Atlanta, telling them sometimes tough losses came at the worst possible time, and this year, the worst possible time had come now, at the end of the season when they’d needed to win.

Trevor had planned to play in the postseason, had already made plans to talk to Tampa about delaying his start with them.

Now, his baseball season was over, and he wasn’t sure he was prepared to deal with that.

Even worse, Haven hovered in the locker room with her camera crew. And while he was happy to see her, the last goddamned thing he wanted right now was another f**king camera stuck in his face.

He saw the sympathy on her face, and he knew she wanted to hug him, but she had her job to do, just like he’d had his to do.

Though he’d royally blown his.

And still, she hovered, as if this were the last place she wanted to be right now, too. Well, he wasn’t going to invite her over to talk to him. He wasn’t feeling particularly generous at the moment. She was going to have to either grow some balls, stick the camera in his face, and do her job, or hide in the corner all night long. Either way, in about five minutes he was headed to the shower, and her opportunity to do the interview would be lost.

He unlaced his shoes and bent over, but couldn’t resist taking a peek at her from the corner of his eye.

She was still there, avoiding everyone.

Sink or swim, sweetheart. Come on, Haven, where’s your courage? Finally, she pushed off the wall and came toward him, the cameraman directly behind her.

“Trevor.”

He lifted his gaze to hers. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry about the loss, and I can’t even imagine how shitty you must feel right now, but I’d like to get a few minutes of you on camera.”

“Sure.”

With an audible sigh, she motioned to the cameraman, who started filming. Haven sat next to him.

“This was the last game of the season for you and for the Rivers tonight, Trevor. How do you feel about the loss?”

“How do I feel? Right now I feel like—” He was about to say shit, but he knew that wouldn’t fly. “I feel bad. I feel bad for the team. Like I let them down.”

“It wasn’t just you out there playing, though. Why do you feel personally responsible?”

“I didn’t do my part. I played like shit.” She could edit that out later. Or maybe she wouldn’t. At this point he didn’t care.

“You take the game seriously.”

He shot her a look. “Hell, yes, I do. This is my career. I love this game. Every guy on the team does. We hate losing, especially when getting into the postseason was within our grasp.”

“There were some tough calls out there, and every game was close.”

“And we made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. I struck out with the bases loaded. That right there was the potential to turn that game around.”

“So you take personal responsibility for losing tonight’s game.”

“I do.” He looked around. “Talk to any guy on the team tonight and every one of them will say the same thing.” He paused to take a breath. “Look, I know I tout myself as some kind of superstar. That I play two sports and I like to think I do both of them well. But at the end of the day, we’re a team. We win as a team and we lose as a team. And right now we the team think this sucks. And we’re going to continue to think it sucks until the start of next season, when we get together again, bound and determined to take the team all the way to the postseason again.”

She didn’t say anything else, so he stood. “I’m going to hit the showers.”

HAVEN FELT AWFUL FOR TREVOR—FOR THE ENTIRE Rivers team. It had been a grueling series with Atlanta. Both teams played tough. Both had exhilarating highs and both made mistakes. It could have gone either way. Unfortunately, this year it had gone Atlanta’s way, and they would be heading to the postseason, while the Rivers players would be going home.

The first thing she’d wanted to do in the locker room was put her arms around Trevor, tell him she knew how it felt, and commiserate with him. But with her camera guy in tow, she had to keep her professional face on and grill him about the game, about how it felt to be on the losing end this year.

She’d hated every minute of it, but it was her job and she’d had no choice. She told her camera guy to send her the film and she’d edit it later, then she waited outside for Trevor.

It was a while before he came out—before they all came out. Alicia and Liz were waiting out there with her. Liz had the baby with her, and oh, God, she was so precious, with red hair and the biggest green eyes Haven had ever seen. Liz even let Haven hold her, and Genevieve just looked up at her with those beautiful eyes.

“You don’t mind if I kidnap your daughter and take her with me, do you?”

“Not at all. But I will kill you,” Liz said. “And so will Gavin, who’s going to be in a bad mood for a month at least after that loss.”

“No, he won’t,” Alicia said. “Because you have Genevieve to take his mind off losing the postseason.”

Liz smiled. “That’s very true. I’ll remind him he has more time with his daughter now.”

“She’s an incredible consolation prize,” Haven said, handing Genevieve back to Liz.

“Thank you. I’m glad she’s with me on this road trip. I hesitated bringing her along, but she really is going to be a great comfort to her daddy right now.”

The guys spilled out. It was a quiet group, all of them going to their families for comfort. Garrett slung his arm around Alicia, who gave him a big kiss. Gavin took Genevieve from Liz and cuddled her close, kissing the baby on the top of the head before brushing his lips across Liz’s. Trevor finally came out and met Haven.

They visited with everyone for a few minutes, then said their good-byes and headed toward the team bus. Trevor hung outside with her.

“I’m sorry about the interview,” she said.

He frowned at her. “Never apologize for doing your job. You did what you had to do.”

“You could have refused. But it was an insightful interview into a player’s emotions after a particularly tough end-of-season loss. I know it was brutal, but you were very honest and I appreciate you giving me the time.”

“You’re welcome. And you need to toughen up.”

“Excuse me?”

“I thought you were going to hide in the corner of the locker room all night. It was a perfect opportunity to interview some of the players. As well as me.”

“You were all down.”

“And easy prey for a reporter. A lot of us were vulnerable and ready to spill our guts about how we felt right then. You could have swooped in and gotten some great interviews. You blew it.”

She sighed at the realization. “I know. I need to work on that.”

“Yeah, you do.” He looked toward the door. “I have to go with the team.”

“Yes, you do. And I need to catch my flight back to St. Louis. I’ll see you back there.”

“Okay.”

She watched him get on the bus, then got in her rental car and headed for the airport. She worked on the flight, writing some copy from her notes. By the time they landed, she was tired. She took a taxi back to the house.

Trevor wasn’t back yet. She knew his flight left after hers, and they probably had some team stuff to deal with, so she didn’t expect him back until late. She unpacked and got into bed, turned out the light, and was asleep within minutes.

She woke to the feel of a warm body next to hers, a hard c**k brushing up against her butt, and a very large callused hand massaging her breast and teasing her nipple.