“How about this? We’ll each do a round on the pitching machine. Whichever of us hits the most balls in total gets to claim a prize from the other?”

She leaned back to look at me and cocked her head questioningly. “A prize?”

“Yup. Whatever the winner wants,” I dared her.

She stared me in the eyes for a moment before answering. “Okay,” she nodded. “You’ve got a deal.” She took a step back and held her hand out to me to shake on it. So fucking cute.

“Ladies first,” I offered, waving her towards the cage.

I watched her as she squared up and took swing after swing, connecting each time. With each hit she made, I started to worry a little bit more about losing the bet. Luckily, she missed a couple at the end, giving me an opening to win this thing.

“I was in the zone there, Jackson. Think you can top that? You’d have to be damn near perfect,” she bragged as she left the cage.

“I think I’m up for the challenge.”

She looked me up and down. “I just bet you are,” she said suggestively as she wagged her brows at me.

I stepped into the cage and waited for the first pitch. There was no way I was going to miss any of these. I wanted that prize. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but fuck if I wasn’t going to try my hardest to win it.

I took my time as each ball sailed my way. It wasn’t about strength right now. It was all about accuracy. I just needed to make contact each time, and I didn’t have a lot of room for error. I could feel Kaylie staring at me, but I couldn’t look at her and risk being distracted like I had been earlier. I only had a few more pitches to go and I was going to bring this thing home.

“If you miss these, then I win,” Kaylie said in a sing-song voice. “I wonder what I could do with my prize.”

That split second of listening to her was just enough for me to miss the next pitch. I knew that she was trying to draw my attention away from the ball and to her, but I couldn’t let her do it again. I was so close to winning that I could almost taste it. If I missed one more, it was a tie. The next pitch came and I tipped it for a foul, but it counted. Only one more to go.

I can do this, I thought as the ball came rushing towards me. I took my advice to Kaylie earlier and kept my eye on the ball all the way through my swing, my face splitting into a shit-eating grin as I watched it connect with the bat.

I dropped the bat and spun towards Kaylie as she came up behind me. “Wow, you sure don’t like losing, do you?”

“I can handle losing, but I don’t like to lose when it counts.”

“And what do you want for your prize?” she asked.

“Not sure yet. And unfortunately I need to get going or I’m going to miss a meeting at the frat house. But I’m pretty sure I can come up with something good.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you can too.”

I grabbed the bat and took her helmet so that I could turn the equipment back in. I grabbed Kaylie’s hand as we walked to the parking lot, and I took her back to her car, realizing how close we had parked to each other and wondering how I hadn’t noticed her car in the first place.

“Thanks for letting me kidnap you.”

“I’m really glad we ran into each other. That was a lot of fun,” she said as she got into her car.

I watched her pull out of the parking lot. She was right. Hanging out together had been fun. And it was something I wanted to do a whole lot more of in the future, especially now that I had my prize to look forward to.

CHAPTER 11

Kaylie

The next few weeks flew by between school, dance, work, and making time for this thing that was growing between Jackson and me. He and I had developed a bit of a schedule, spending time with each other in the afternoon as often as we could and going out to dinner at least once each week. Jackson had been coming to the bar to hang out most Friday and Saturday nights when I was working. It was kind of sweet how obvious it was that my bartending bugged him, but he never said anything about it. He just kept showing up and making sure that I was safe when I was at work.

Not that he really needed to protect me from guys anymore since word had spread across campus that we were dating each other. Although his presence sure did help to make sure the other girls kept their claws in since he’d made it clear that he wasn’t going to let them give me any shit while I was working. Hell, while I wasn’t working for that matter. That didn’t stop all the glares and catty remarks, but I could take it. I’d decided he was worth it.

Jackson had kept our attraction burning at a low sizzle, backing away any time we got too hot and heavy. There was no doubt in my mind that he was in this for me and not for sex. If he had been, there had been plenty of opportunities where he could have gotten into my panties with the bare minimum of effort on his part. Or he could have claimed the prize he’d earned from our day at the batting cages for something sexual. Instead he’d just told me that he was keeping it in his back pocket for later. But we’d reached the point now where I felt like tossing my panties at him to make sure it was damn clear that I was ready for the next step. In fact, that wasn’t a bad idea.