One Night with a Quarterback Read Online Free

“I’m a nerd in disguise.”
    â€œAn IT nerd, huh?” He thought about that a second, scooped up the last of the pancake, and motioned at her with the full fork. “I thought all those guys wore weird T-shirts with techie-double entrendres on them and dreamed about hot girls like you from their futon in their mom’s basement. How’d they let you in the nerd club?”
    Typical stereotype
. She smiled sweetly. “They’d never seen real boobs before, so I flashed them at the interview. Job lock.”
    He nearly choked on his milk.
    Good.
    After mopping up the spilled milk, he asked, “Do you work for a company out here?”
    â€œNo, I work for one in Atlanta. Or at least, I did,” she added. The leave of absence had been approved, as long as she agreed to take some smaller jobs she could do from her laptop in the hotel. But Cassie had a strong feeling if she became a sensational headline scrolling across the
Yahoo!
homepage, her company might see her more as a liability and feel the need to make the leave of absence a permanent one.
    â€œAtlanta?” Trey’s brows rose. “Did you just move here?”
    â€œI’m not . . . I mean, I might be . . .” She sat back, unsure how to answer. “I guess I don’t know.”
    â€œSo you’re here for pleasure, not business.”
    She shook her head. No way were they traveling down that road. That road led to thinking about tomorrow. And tomorrow wasn’t at all what she wanted.
    But what did she want? She had about twelve hours left before her meeting tomorrow. Today? Whatever, it could be tomorrow, since she hadn’t slept yet. The real question was, how did she want to spend the time?
    The answer formed almost immediately, and the embodiment of that answer was watching her with a curious amount of intensity, from across the table.
    * * *
    Trey pushed his plate to the side and watched Cassie wave down their server, motioning for the check. “In a hurry?” he asked, trying to keep disappointment out of his voice.
    â€œI am,” she agreed.
    Huh.
He settled back, draping one arm over the back of the booth. And here, he’d thought things were going well.
    The server walked by, black checkbook in hand, and he reached for it automatically. Cassie snatched it practically mid-air and deposited her credit card in the slot, handing it back to the server.
    Trey waited for recognition, but luckily the server seemed exhausted enough from working the graveyard shift that she didn’t give him a second glance. He was all but invisible.
    Maybe there really was something to this hiding in plain sight thing. He never would have guessed one simple pair of frames would have done it. But then again, he’d been laying low long enough, people had stopped looking for him out around town.
    â€œI could have taken care of that,” he said.
    â€œI’m sure you could have. But you know us techie geeks. We make a good living, since we’re not paying rent while living in our mother’s basement.” She grinned when he snorted. “Okay, ready for the frank stuff?”
    Frank stuff. He sat up straighter, which meant he had to readjust the glasses. They worked, so he couldn’t hate them. But it didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed as all fuck with them and ready to throw them across the room. “By all means.”
    â€œI like you. I want you. I think you want me. So I’m mostly in a hurry to get back to my hotel room and see if you’re as funny and good looking naked as you are sitting there eating second dinner.” She said it so simply, like she was telling him she wanted another round of pancakes.
    And for the first time in longer than he could remember, he felt tongue-tied in front of a woman.
    She waited a few beats, then waved a hand in front of his face. “Is your sudden muteness a sign I should slowly back away and make for the