High Heat (Hard Hitters #1) Read Online Free PDF

He shrugged. “You have to admit she’s hot, though.”
    “Yeah, I wasn’t really worried that you might be having sex with unattractive women.” She couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Something about him got under her skin. She took another bite of cereal. Maybe eating would keep her mouth too occupied to blurt out anything else inappropriate.
    He grabbed the box of cereal and poured himself another bowl. Good Lord, the man had inhaled an entire bowl in the time it had taken her to eat half of hers. “I prefer to have sex with physically attractive people. So what? That puts me in line with roughly ninety-eight percent of the population.”
    He’d certainly had no trouble looking right past
her
when she’d been an awkward teenager. Not that she’d been looking for sex back then, but being noticed would have been nice.
    “There’s nothing wrong with you wanting to get with attractive women, but caring about nothing except the way a woman looks is shallow. Aren’t there some smart, interesting, educated,
and
attractive women you can sleep with? Some anti–Christina Caputo?” How on earth had she gotten on this topic? Lecturing baseball’s biggest Lothario about the joys of meaningful relationships did not fall under her job description. He had a way of sucking her into inappropriate conversations.
    “Sure, I guess.” He shrugged. “I’m not a relationship kind of guy. Historically I’ve been looking for a meeting of the nads, not a meeting of the minds.” He shoveled another scoop of cornflakes in.
    She sat back in her seat, mouth agape.
    Get it together, Dudley.
Holding a press conference to explain that their superstar pitcher got that black eye when she punched him over breakfast would be a game changer for her career in PR, and not in a good way.
    “As I said, there is a motel in town, the Plainview.” Ice coated her words. “I wouldn’t recommend it, though. It’s a dive. I do know of one place you could stay, however.” She took a deep breath. “You can stay here with me. In the other half of the duplex,” she blurted when his expression froze. “I bought this house as an investment, and I’ve been renting out the other half. It so happens, you’re in luck. My last tenant moved out two weeks ago. It’s fully furnished.”
    He shrugged. “Fine. I’m not picky. I’ll have the hotel send my stuff out today.” He lifted his glass and chugged half his OJ in a gulp, his throat bobbing.
    “Great.” She breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll set you up with the key before I go into work.”
    Her dad wouldn’t be thrilled to learn about her new tenant, but she could handle him. She’d make him see that keeping Tom free of scandal and involved in positive PR for the team was worth putting up with him in close proximity for a couple of weeks.
    He was certainly no threat to her. Tom might sniff at the skirts of every woman in town, but she could withstand temptation. She’d proved that last night when he’d made his move in the car.
    With him in the next-door duplex, she could keep an eye on him. Whether she could keep him out of trouble was yet to be determined.
    ***
    “Hey, Tracy, I sent something to the main printer. Could you grab it for me and run it in here?”
    Sarah’s assistant, Tracy Rice, stood outside her office, checking her texts. Tracy had come to work for her two months ago. She’d been a model of quiet efficiency, but Sarah still barely knew the girl at all.
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Thanks.”
    As VP of public relations and the lowest-ranking executive, Sarah had a small office near the end of the hall, at the opposite end from the larger spaces her father and brother occupied. Her assistant sat in a cubicle outside her office.
    She scrolled down her computer’s screen, working her way through a flood of emails. The ticket office wanted to know which game the Quik-E-Stop wanted to sponsor for two-for-one ticket night. She’d asked the store’s manager