Heather Graham Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    And those tiny, almost indiscernible white scratch marks that ran down his cheekbone.
    He touched them absently. He never thought about them anymore; who would have thought that the little wildcat would have come back all these years later to haunt his life?
    “You will come to the party, won’t you?” Sam Loper inquired, stopping in the now almost empty stadium to catch her free hand and smile wistfully.
    Katie hesitated, stalling. If there was anything that she really didn’t want to do, it was spend the evening with a bunch of triumphant football players. She’d had enough of that scene lately.
    But Kent Hart had said that he was going; he had also said that he was still thinking about giving her the interview. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to stay as close to him as possible until he gave her a firm agreement?
    Maybe not, she thought fleetingly. She didn’t seem to have a talent for controlling her thoughts when she was near him. Usually, she could appear pleasantly interested in anyone; Kent Hart seemed to have her number all sewed up.
    She smiled, hedging. “Aren’t you guys still in training? Next week is a big game—and if you take that one, the following game will be even bigger. The Superbowl. You can’t go any higher than that.”
    Sam Loper laughed, flushing a little. “Yeah, well, we’re supposed to be lying low, but we’re only human, you know.”
    Yes, you are, Katie thought, but I wonder if you really know that yourself.
    “Actually,” Sam continued, “the party is a little bit illegal. I mean, the coaches sure won’t be invited. But there’s this guy who’s a Forty-Niner now who used to be a Saxon. He’s got a beautiful place a little south of San Francisco. We just kind of all decided to get together. We’ve got tonight and tomorrow, then it’s back to the grind, so we might as well get in a little R and R.”
    “Yes, I guess you might as well,” Katie agreed pleasantly. Wine, women, and song for the conquering heroes, she thought ruefully.
    “Will you come? We’re really not a wild crowd. Not half so wild as the papers make us out to be.”
    She hesitated again. She had been to just such a party last week in New York, one that hadn’t actually caused her to break off a relationship—that decision had been made before the party—but the atmosphere of the party had certainly added to the chaos and strain of the situation.
    And long before New York—long before she had even been an adult—she had been an out-of-sight witness to a few such parties. She had seen one destroy her parents’ marriage.
    Ancient history … But was it? The years changed, but did anything else?
    “Please? Say you’ll come. You—we—can always leave if you aren’t enjoying yourself.”
    It was either the party or dinner alone with a lot of introspective wandering that she didn’t really feel like enduring. And, she reminded herself, she still did have a chance of getting the interview with Kent Hart that was so important to her boss.
    Who would have thought, she wondered a little bitterly, that she would have come to crawling—no! She wasn’t crawling! Yes, sorry kid, you’re crawling—to the college kid her father had patronized all those years ago just to make a go of her own career?
    “Well?”
    “Sure, I’ll come. Thanks for the invitation. What time?”
    “Now.”
    “Oh, I can’t come like this. I got drenched during the game.”
    “I’ll take you back to your hotel, wait, and we’ll go whenever you’re ready.”
    “Well …”
    “Really, it will be easier that way. I know the area, and I’ve got a car.” He grimaced. “The car dealers don’t mind a little publicity—whether the quarterback is their own or not! And we can stop and grab dinner along the way and …”
    “And what?” Katie asked sweetly.
    “Get to know one another a little.”
    She had to turn away from him before he saw her smile. This was one quarterback who had learned to make all the right