Read Online Playing Hard by Melanie Scott - Free Book Online

They behaved, for the most part, logically.
    They were soothing.
    So soothing, in fact, that they sucked her in as usual to the point that she jumped when her office phone rang. She gave herself a mental eye roll and then hit the speakerphone button.
    “Amelia Graham.”
    “Hello, Amelia.”
    If she’d been actually holding the phone she would have dropped it. The voice was instantly recognizable. Oliver Shields. What the hell was he doing calling her?
    “Who is this?” she asked, trying to play it cool.
    “Why, Amelia, have you forgotten me already? After you flirted shamelessly over gummy bears?” Oliver asked.
    “I did not flirt shamelessly.” She tried to sound indignant rather than embarrassed. Because there’d been at least a hint of flirting. The way Oliver’s voice rumbled over the phone did distracting things to her nervous system, which made her want to flirt a little more. “How did you get this number?”
    “You told me where you worked,” Oliver said. “I used the magic of the phone directory and called the switchboard.”
    She couldn’t help feeling pleased. He’d looked her up. She grinned to herself and then shook her head. She was getting carried away. “Is there something I can do for you, Oliver?”
    He laughed. Was it wrong that she was already way too fond of the sound of his laugh?
    “Now that, Ms. Graham, comes under the category of leading questions.”
    He sounded more himself than he had last night. Well, more like the guy that she’d met in the bar. She’d only talked to the man twice, for heaven’s sake. She didn’t have a large sample to go on. “No, it comes under the category of polite inquiry. Did you call for an update on how the yuan is performing against the yen?”
    “Nope,” he said cheerfully. “I’m calling to let you know I’m out of gummy bears.”
    Her smile widened. Now, there was a flimsy pretense for calling her if ever she’d heard one. Oliver Shields was making up excuses to talk to her. That information made her both happy and nervous. “You’re in a hospital, Oliver, I’m sure they sell gummy bears in the gift shop. And you must have at least twenty-two nurses willing to do your bidding.”
    “Ah, but I’m not in the hospital anymore,” he said.
    “You’re not?”
    “Don’t sound so surprised, Amelia.”
    “But you only had surgery a few days ago.”
    “Yes, and my doctor is happy with my progress, so he kicked me out.”
    She wondered if that was true. Or if Oliver had found a way to convince everyone to let him leave the hospital earlier than he should. But Lucas Angelo was a surgeon. He wouldn’t let one of his star players leave before it was safe to do so.
    “So where are you?”
    “At my apartment. Gummy-bear-less.” He put on such a sad voice for the last part of the sentence that she laughed despite herself.
    “They just let you go home alone? No nurse or housekeeper to help you out?”
    “The nurse left an hour ago with everyone else. He’s supposed to come back later. My housekeeper doesn’t come every day.”
    “I’m sure there are places that would deliver gummy bears to you,” she said, trying not to feel sorry for him. She remembered the first few days home after she’d busted her arm. She’d been exhausted from not sleeping well, and every simple task seemed to take three times longer than it should. And hers had been her left arm. Not her dominant hand with a bonus injured ankle.
    “They might get the wrong kind,” Oliver said. “Plus they aren’t you.”
    Her breath left in a rush. She’d been ready to find another excuse but it was hard to resist Oliver Shields saying “they aren’t you” in that voice. Something about it curled around the logical parts of her brain and arrowed straight for the parts that wanted . Wanted him. Against all her better judgment and all the complications that would come with him.
    “I can’t come now,” she said, feeling resolve float away like a balloon snared by an