Dare to Touch by Carly Phillips Page B

father had been cheating almost from the start. Or maybe her mom hadn’t known. After all, Olivia had been clueless when Jeff was fooling around with his teaching assistant right under her nose. She shook her head. It was hard to dispel the ridiculous thoughts and comparisons. She needed to put the past behind her if she wanted to enjoy her life.
    And Dylan seemed to be giving her a lot to enjoy.
    *     *     *
    Dylan stuck around for breakfast with Olivia and Avery, who’d announced her arrival by yelling at them for leaving their clothes around the dining room table. Dylan had laughed. Olivia had been mortified. But Avery had brought muffins, Olivia had made coffee, and they’d eaten quickly. He’d then pulled Olivia to the front door, leaving her with a long, deep kiss intended to let her know how much he’d enjoyed their night.
    He arrived at work—separately from Olivia, at her insistence, not his, because he didn’t care who knew they were together. No sooner did he settle into his desk than they were called into an emergency meeting.
    With the Pro Bowl a little over a week away, Ian wanted a meeting. After Big’s latest episode, caught, of course, by TMZ, Dylan understood the man wanted to be sure all bases were covered. Although the Pro Bowl was mostly an individual endeavor, the players still represented their teams. Which left Dylan with a lot of responsibility on the trip. And no time to deal with distractions.
    But as he settled into his seat at the conference table, was his focus on team image? The players? The travel schedule? Hell no. It was on the woman who’d opened her body to him last night. Her rich laughter echoed around the room as she laughed at something Riley said, the husky sound thickening his blood, and he clenched his pen tighter in his hand.
    He narrowed his gaze just as she glanced from beneath her eyelashes and looked directly at him. He raised an eyebrow, and she grinned, pursing those luscious lips that had been wrapped around his cock this morning, before immediately returning to the paperwork in front of her. Beneath the table, he pressed his hand against his thickening erection, cursing her effect on him when he couldn’t do anything about it.
    “Okay, people. Let’s talk.” And that was Ian’s way of calling this meeting to order from the head of the table.
    To his right was Riley, then Olivia, to his left, Coach Carter and the PR people who worried over every misstep.
    “Dylan? You first.” Ian sat down, ceding the floor.
    Dylan nodded. “The hotel is set. The Montelucia Resort and Spa in Scottsdale has our reservations.”
    “Double checked and confirmed,” Riley, his assistant, added.
    “I’m meeting with the attending players this afternoon, along with the PR team.” He inclined his head their way. “We’ll go over the ground rules, the planned interviews, and the possible unplanned ones. There won’t be any problems.”
    “I should hope not,” Ian said. “Liv, you’re going.”
    “Wait … what?” Olivia asked, obviously caught off guard.
    “Coach told me there was no way he’d have gotten through to him without your influence, so in case there’s trouble, I want you nearby.”
    She opened her mouth and closed it again, as Dylan did his best not to grin. Apparently, fate was looking down on him, because he and Liv were headed to a desert oasis for a week of business, yes, but plenty of private time too. Not that Ian knew he was facilitating Dylan’s agenda.
    “Problem?” Ian asked his sister.
    A sudden grin lifted her lips. “Scottsdale, Arizona, for a week? No, no problem.”
    Ian ignored her excitement and moved on. “Carter, you’re there for backup.”
    The other man, an ex-MVP himself, now forty-five and a star coach the Thunder was lucky to have, merely nodded. “Always planned to be there.”
    Olivia tapped her pen against the table. “Dylan, what time is your meeting?” she asked, meeting his gaze. Those Dare sibling eyes,