Catching Lily (Spring Training Book 2) Read online

  She wasn’t sure how much of her decision was based on fear for his safety or how much was based on fear for the way he made her feel when they were together.

  No matter how she looked at it, she needed the space. And if she lost him in the meantime? That was the risk she had to take.

  * * *

  Dominic sat in the dark, staring out the enormous picture window in his too-quiet house. He leaned back in his chair and put his hands behind his head. “Fuck.”

  Half of him had the urge to ignore her request, drive to her apartment, and force her to see him. If he could just be near her… He knew he could convince her otherwise. But that was the point. And she knew it too.

  Was it possible she was right and his dominance was too intense for her? When they were together, they were on fire. When they were not, he always heard the hesitancy in her voice. He never wanted to hear that tone in a submissive. Maybe he pushed her too far too fast.

  He didn’t really believe that. But the worst thing he could do would be to bully her into continuing to sleep with him while she was unsure. He wasn’t that guy.

  Nope. If Lily Phillips was meant to be with him, she would come back. He’d left that door wide open. The ball was totally in her court.

  Now all he could do was pray she could see how good they were together when the dust settled and her ex-boyfriend stopped bothering her.

  The urge to interfere, follow the man, go to his house, and confront him was strong. But the last thing Dominic needed was to get arrested himself, right before the season started. He knew with certainty he wouldn’t be able to control his temper if he was face-to-face with Luke Vandergriff.

  He had to report to spring training in two days. Spending those last two days alone hadn’t been in the plans, but it looked like that was exactly what would happen.

  Chapter Nine

  One week later…

  “How was your last week off? I haven’t talked to you since the wedding,” Xavier asked as he tossed a ball to Dominic.

  “Sucked. Yours?”

  Xavier Monreal was three years older than Dominic. The two of them had been brought up from the minors at the same time, however. Three years ago. Before that, they had played on the same AA team together for a year. Xavier winced. “That bad? Dude, all you have to do is step outside and women fall all over you. It couldn’t have been that bad.”

  Dominic shrugged as he tossed the ball back and then took a few steps away from Xavier to lengthen the distance between them. “None of that really matters when the right woman doesn’t turn her head.”

  Xavier’s eyes widened, and he smiled. “You fell for a chick? Dominic Cordes?”

  “Sappy. I know. I’ll get over it.” Would he?

  “Did you meet her at Zodiac? Did Lincoln introduce you?”

  Dominic shook his head. Xavier knew him well. Dominic’s tastes ran deep enough that regular women off the street wouldn’t interest him. But he didn’t want to discuss it. He changed the subject. “How’s your family?”

  Xavier rolled his eyes. “Dad’s still a pain in my ass. He’s losing it.”

  “I’m sure he’s stressed about your brother’s arrest.”

  “But see, that isn’t my problem. If Juan wants to fuck up his life, I’m not obliged to fix things. Besides, what the fuck do they want me to do from Florida? I’m sure as shit not heading to Puerto Rico to ease my father’s feelings right as spring training is starting.”

  “You think you’ll ever move back?”

  “Doubt it. I’m rather Americanized.” He stepped back several more yards. “After all, I spent nearly my entire life shuffling back and forth between my mom and my dad. Six months in Florida. Six months in Puerto Rico. It’s a horrible way to raise a kid.” His next throw was harder.

  Dominic nabbed it out of the air. “I hear you. Hell, my family’s in Washington. That’s farther than Puerto Rico. And it’s fucking cold in the winter. Not sure I’ll ever return, either.”

  “With our luck, we’ll get traded there next week. Bite your tongue.” He threw a harder ball, leaning his right side into the toss. “You heard from Brett yet? He return from the honeymoon or decide to abandon us?”

  “Yeah. He’s back. He’s around here somewhere. I think they got back last night.”

  “Still happily married?” Xavier widened the space between them again.

  “I’m pretty sure Zia has him wrapped tightly around her finger. He’s whipped for good.”

  “The wedding was gorgeous. But I’m glad it was him and not me. The thought of all that planning and ceremony gives me hives.” He shuddered as the coach called them all in for a team meeting before starting practice in earnest.

  Four hours later, exhausted and frustrated with his pitching accuracy, Dominic trudged toward the Miami clubhouse on the third-base side of the field, stretching his neck in both directions.

  Fans lined the fence—diehard fans that loved the sport so much they even came to watch practices before the season started. Some came every day. Some of them lived, ate, and breathed baseball. Dominic couldn’t blame them. If he hadn’t made it to the majors, he would probably be one of them. Baseball had been in his blood since birth. His dad had put a glove in one hand and a bat in the other as soon as he could sit upright.

  He lifted his head to put on his friendly face. After all, the fans were there to see the players and catch a glimpse at the new roster. Their existence paid his salary. Part of his job was to sign autographs and make nice. Usually that wasn’t difficult. The last week had been taxing after everything that happened with Lily.

  Her face flashed through his mind as it often did. Her smile. The way she giggled when he teased her. The way she submitted to him. God, that woman. When her eyes rolled back and her lids fell to half-open… He missed the hell out of her. But he hadn’t bothered her. Not once. Not a single text.

  Most evenings, he sat holding his phone, willing it to ring or buzz. It never did. And he managed to conjure up the willpower to avoid texting her himself.

  He spoke to the police officer a few times. The only reason he was able to get information out of Detective Wright was because he’d been indirectly threatened in the initial texts also.

  There had been no new developments. A hearing was scheduled for the following day to solidify the restraining order, but other than that, not a peep out of Luke Vandergriff. It seemed as if the asshole really did leave Lily alone as soon as she broke things off with Dominic. That pissed him off more than anything else.

  If Lily’s reason for breaking things off with Dominic stemmed from that motherfucker, then Vandergriff had won. And Dominic wanted to punch the man in the face until his eyes were too swollen to see out of.

  He shook thoughts of revenge from his mind and pasted a fake smile on as he approached the row of fans. Perhaps none of them would stop him specifically. It was always possible. Some fans were interested in a particular player and left the others alone.

  No such luck.

  He nearly groaned when he noticed the tall redhead leaning seductively against the fence. She tossed her thick long curls over her shoulder as he got closer. “Missed you,” she whispered.

  She was a regular fan, but not one he relished seeing often. Somehow she always managed to rub against him in a way that made his hackles rise. She was not his type. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Everything about her was fake, including her hair color, which he assumed was probably dirty blonde underneath the strange too-red color.

  He forced himself to play nice. “Hey, Valerie. How was your winter?”

  “Great. Yours?” Her perfume, the same scent she always wore, filled the air, making it difficult to breathe.

  “Good.”

  She set her hand on his forearm and held him close, her nails almost digging into his skin.

  If Lily wanted to score him with her nails while he made her scream his name, that was fine. It made his dick hard. But not Valerie.

  He shuddered inside.
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  “Sign my new hat for me?” She held up a ball cap, flipping it over so he could sign the inside of the bill. If this season was anything like the last, he would see her often in the stands wearing that hat. Especially during spring training.

  He took the marker from her hand and signed the cap, handing both back to her as quickly as he could.

  “Got plans for the weekend?”

  “Nope.”

  “Aw. That’s no fun.” She leaned her entire body into his. Her breasts grazed his arm. He had never touched them directly, but she pressed them into him often enough for him to judge them to be fake. Plus, they were a bit too pert and didn’t match her skinny frame. “Take me for a drink, why don’t you. It’ll be fun.”

  “Sorry, Valerie. I’m busy.” He tried to extricate himself from her clutches without pissing her off, but failed as she leaned in farther, her other hand grasping his waist.

  Her bottom lip stuck out in a pout. “Okay, but next time.”

  “Sure. Maybe.” He pointed over his shoulder. “I need to get to the clubhouse. Coach is waiting to ice my arm.”

  She stroked her fingernails down his arm and then batted her eyes. “Call me sometime. I bet we’d have amazing chemistry.” She reached into her cleavage and pulled out a folded piece of pink paper, which she slowly tucked into the pocket at his ass.

  It took every ounce of control not to jerk away from her and tell her to fuck off. Instead, he simply shook his head as if she were kidding and walked away.

  Gross. He would need two showers to get her perfume off his skin.

  * * *

  One week later…

  “Hey.”

  Lily lifted her gaze from the magazine in front of her to find Ava walking toward her. She smiled. “Hey, yourself.” The gallery was about to close. It wasn’t unusual for Ava to come in near closing. Sometimes the two of them kicked back and had a drink after locking up.

  “How was the hearing?”

  Lily blew out a breath. “Would you believe he didn’t show up?”

  “What? How is that possible? Can he do that?”

  “Yep.”

  “So what happens now?”

  “Well, the hearing part was easy. The judge granted me the restraining order. It’s actually called a dating violence injunction. The question is why didn’t Luke show up? And we may never know.”

  “What does your lawyer think?”

  “He thinks I probably scared him off by requesting the restraining order. Since I haven’t gotten a single text or call or message of any form from Luke since the dead flowers, there’s a chance he backed off and didn’t show up because there was no contest. Maybe he didn’t care.”

  “That’s…somehow not comforting.”

  “I agree. But there’s no way to prove he smashed my windshield. Just because he drives a black SUV and maybe some of the plate digits match means nothing.”

  “What about the texts, though? And the pictures?”

  Lily sighed. She felt the same frustration, but what the hell was she supposed to do? “They’re only marginally admissible in court at all. It takes an act of Congress to get a judge to look at text messages. It’s too easy to fake them. And there’s no way to be sure who sent them, even if they came from his phone.”

  Ave frowned. “Who the hell else would have sent them?”

  “I know. It’s crazy. But as long as he leaves me alone, I don’t care.”

  Ava rolled her eyes as she led Lily to the back room, went straight for the fridge, and grabbed a bottle of Chardonnay. She didn’t say a word until she had two glasses poured, handed one to Lily, and took a seat on the couch next to her.

  Lily took a long drink. Ava had something else to say. Lily could read that look easily.

  “You going to tell me what happened between you and Dominic Cordes now? Or continue to blow that off?”

  “Tell you what? He went to spring training, as far as I know. The man plays baseball eight months out of the year. He’s a kid.”

  Ava’s eyes rolled with more exaggeration this time. “The man I met in your kitchen wearing a pair of boxers was not a kid. And you know it. He lit your apartment on fire. I could see the smoke lingering from whatever the two of you were doing before I arrived. So don’t give me some shit about his age. No one cares about that.”

  Lily ran a finger over the edge of her glass. “Look, Ava. It’s complicated.” She couldn’t deny the fact that she thought about him every day and stared at her phone for hours hoping he would contact her, even though she expressly told him not to.

  “Nothing’s that complicated. You haven’t smiled since he left. I assume you sent him away. And I don’t believe for a second it was because of some dead flowers. He’s a grown man. He can handle himself. Why would you break up with a guy who put that sparkle I saw in your eyes over some threats from an ex-boyfriend? It makes no sense to me.”

  “Maybe there’s more to it.” Though Lily had no interest in getting into that with her sister. Besides, she didn’t have all the answers herself yet.

  Ava sighed loudly. “Have you spoken to him since that day?”

  “No.”

  “Did you have a fight or something?”

  “No. Ava. Stop.”

  “Have you spoken to Zia about this?” she persisted.

  “No. And I’m not going to. It’s no big deal. It’s over.”

  Ava narrowed her gaze. “It’s not over. You’re not over anything. You pushed him away. I saw the way he looked at you. Like you hung the moon. You got scared. Something spooked you. Is it because you’re afraid of commitment?”

  Lily sighed. Maybe it would be easier to just tell her and get her off her back. “Ava. It’s not commitment, though I should be scared. The man is twenty-six.”

  “Gasp.” She put an exaggerated hand over her heart. “Only eight years into adulthood with a steady income and a full-time job. Heaven help us.”

  Lily smiled at that. “Okay. You’re right. I don’t give a shit about his age. I did. For a minute. Maybe two. But not anymore.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Lily took a deep breath and released it as if she was about to announce he was a felon or drug dealer. “He’s a Dominant.”

  “A Dominant?”

  “Someone who likes to practice various aspects of BDSM. Bondage and stuff like that.”

  “I know what BDSM is, Lily. I’m also an adult.” She set her wine glass on the coffee table. “And you liked it.”

  “How do you know that?” Lily was a little shocked at her sister’s cavalier attitude.

  A slow grin spread across Ava’s lips. “You totally liked it, and it scared the hell out of you.”

  Lily lowered her face. Well, fuck.

  Ava set a hand on Lily’s arm. “It’s okay, you know. Lots of people practice some form of BDSM. It’s not some heinous crime.”

  Lily shot her a glance. “How are you the voice of reason here?”

  “Someone has to be.”

  “It was too intense, okay?”

  “I didn’t see any marks on you that morning. Did he hurt you?”

  “No. God no. He never even touched me like that.”

  “He didn’t spank you or something?”

  “No.” Embarrassment flooded Lily’s face. In the light of day, this all sounded ridiculous. “It wasn’t what he did. It was how he made me feel. I don’t think I want to feel like that. Scared the hell out of me.”

  “Feel? I think what you’re saying is that you don’t want to feel at all, and he made you feel something deeper than you’ve ever allowed yourself to feel. You’re thirty-four years old, and the only long-term relationship you’ve had was with a cheating asshole. You won’t allow yourself to let your guard down.” She gave Lily’s arm a squeeze. “You’ve had to be an adult for too many years. You had to raise me when you were hardly old enough to raise yourself. And I’m so grateful to you. There are no words to express my gratitude for what you did for me.

  �
�But you bottled yourself up when you were forced to become an adult. You had to deal with the extreme pain of losing Mom and Dad while putting on a brave face every day and being a parent to a little girl who hardly understood what was happening. I was six. You were barely an adult.”

  Tears fell down Lily’s face. Ava had never so outwardly expressed herself like this. “It’s my fault they died that day.”

  “No, it isn’t. You weren’t driving their car, nor were you driving that truck. It just happened. It sucks. And I hate that you feel such guilt. You need to let that go and move on with your life.”

  Lily couldn’t breathe. Ava was right.

  Ava leaned closer. “You sacrificed everything for me. Including you. I know you’ve dated some. But no one was ever able to dig through the hard outer shell to see the real Lily Phillips. She’s a strong woman. Sometimes it’s okay to not be strong, though. Let someone else shoulder the burden for you.”

  Lily wiped the tears away with her fingers. “What does this have to do with Dominic?”

  “Everything. He made you feel. He got to you. And you got scared. It’s hard to let someone inside like that. Especially when you haven’t done it for so many years. But it’s time.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Not maybe. Definitely. So, Dominic is in Jupiter for a few weeks, right? Spring training for the month of March? And then he’ll be traveling. Why don’t you take some time off? Go up there and see him. Give yourself a chance at happiness.”

  “What if he isn’t interested anymore? Hell, I don’t know for sure he ever was as interested in me as I was in him.” Except she did know. He made it clear.

  “You won’t know if you don’t go find out.”

  Lily bit her lip and then confided something she hadn’t intended to admit out loud or ever put into action. “I was thinking I might go to the local club that caters to alternate lifestyles. Try it out. See how I feel. I can’t ask Dominic to change for me. So if I go to him, I need to be willing to be what he needs. And I’m not sure I can do it.”

  “Excellent idea. Zodiac, you mean?”

  Lily flinched. “Why do you know about a private BDSM club?”