I glanced in the mirror, messing with my hair for another couple of minutes, trying to make myself look the best that I could before heading over to Bryson’s. I really needed to give it my best effort tonight. Finally satisfied, I sighed and looked myself over; jeans and a plain, white T-shirt. I didn’t want to go there dressed to the nines and make it too obvious that I was desperate for her attention. “Get your game on, Jace,” I mumbled, as I slipped on my sneakers and headed to my best friend’s apartment to crash their dinner party. Well, ‘crash’ wasn’t exactly right because I’d called this morning and managed to talk Anna into inviting me over; whining that I hadn’t eaten properly for ages and how I'd had a hard week. As always, she fell for it. In reality, she probably knew the reason I was angling for an invite. On the way there, I stopped at the gas station, buying a bunch of flowers for Anna and a bottle of wine. By the time I pulled up at their apartment, I felt a

Throughout the following day, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It annoyed the hell out of me that she was so hot and unavailable. I’d always wanted what I couldn’t have. My mind flicked to Ashley again, and a strange excitement resided in the base of my stomach. I knew tonight was just a friendly dinner, of course, but I was seriously hoping to sweep her off her feet and make her change her mind by the end of the night. My preparations were already made. A table had been booked at a fairly nice and romantic restaurant, the flowers and chocolates had been bought – I was all set. All I needed before I went was to get my game back, and then I’d be able to charm her straight into bed. A punch to my shoulder made me wince, and I looked up at Russell, frowning. I’d been off in my own little world thinking about her again, and forgotten I was in the middle of a training, sparring session with one of my teammates. Shaking my head to clear it, I brought my hands up to protec

As I turned, I saw her standing just behind me. I grinned as I set my hands on her hips and lifted her onto the counter. A sexy little squeak of surprise left her lips as a blush coloured her cheeks. While she busied herself pulling on the bottom of her dress, trying to cover up her legs where it had risen up, I grabbed two mugs from the cupboard that I’d seen her get them from last time. We took the coffees into the lounge and when she sat herself on the sofa next to me, instead of one of the two other free chairs, I decided to take that as a good sign. Now, if I could get her to agree to come out with me again, then maybe I would have a real chance with her. I’d just have to be patient for a few dates until she was ready to give it up. I could be patient; well, I was pretty sure I could anyway; I’d never actually tried. We talked easily about movies that we’d seen recently or things that she wanted to see. She was gushing about some crappy sounding romantic comedy that s

She tore her gaze from the book and finally looked up at me. “This is really, really thoughtful. I love it, thank you.” Her eyes were so soft and appreciative that it made my heart speed up. “Yeah, no worries,” I mumbled. And now I’m mumbling too. I’m doing so well with this date so far! Ashley took the book, brushing her fingers across the front cover, looking at me in awe as if I’d just bought her something remarkable instead of just a book. I smiled weakly, shifting on my feet, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t make me sound like a raving lunatic. When she looked at me like that I started longing for things, things I’d never really thought about before – things like the word girlfriend, and exclusive, and mine. I was in real trouble with this girl. The player side of me that was just standing here wondering what colour underwear she had on, was terrified of this girl and the tender way she was looking at me. My player side was trying to force me

I barely slept that night; all I could think about was Ashley and what she said. She’d been burned by a player before, but if she was telling me that she wanted me to wait then she was clearly not opposed to the idea of sleeping with me at some point. Which meant that I was in with a shot. And that also meant that she didn’t have a boyfriend, after all, how could I be in with a shot if she were dating someone else? Ashley really didn’t seem like the type of girl to cheat and cause someone any pain. That still left the huge question of DJ. I knew he existed because Bryson had asked about him, but he wasn’t her boyfriend I would put money on it. She had never actually specifically told me she had a boyfriend, in fact, she’d never mentioned the word ‘boyfriend’ at all. I was just jumping to conclusions, and she was playing along trying to ward me off because she was scared of players. Due to her cancelling the evening date, I called Seth to see what he was doing instead;