Chapter Six

 

 

Alec was beginning to feel like himself again.

For the past month, Ruby had stayed by his side, navigating him through one press event after another. Doing all she could to get his image back on track. Giving him the chance to make things right: with his career, with himself, and with her.

In return, he’d been playing by Ruby’s rules, giving her space, not once mentioning what had happened between them that night at the Bootleggers’ stadium. That didn’t mean he couldn’t remind her every chance he got with a quiet look, making it clear he intended to share moments like those again with her someday—when she was ready for that, of course. But for now, he was content to spend time with her, though granted it was almost always in the presence of her photographer, Mike, who acted like some 1950s chaperone hell-bent on keeping Alec out of Ruby’s pants.

You can try, Mike, but you are so going to fail at that particular endeavor.

At the thought, Alec told himself to cool his engines. Now was not the time.

“I’m open, Alec!”

“Right-O, Luke,” Alec called to a happy eight-year-old. He was currently attending one his favorite charities in a local park for kids with cancer. Luke had just finished chemotherapy, and his bald head gleamed in the sunlight. From the moment Alec arrived, he’d instantly attached himself to his favorite football star.

Today’s event had been on his schedule long before Ruby’s quest to prove he was still a good guy began, and in truth, he’d been reluctant to have her photograph it.

 

 

“Not everything’s about my image,” Alec had told her. “I’m doing this because I want to, period. Find something else to photograph.”

“I know you’re not doing this for your image,” she’d replied. “But the best publicity is about showcasing the best in you. Yes, sometimes it seems contrived, but that’s the last thing this will be. You care for these kids. Let the world see that, Alec.”

In the end, he found he had a hard time saying no to Ruby. He didn’t know what that meant for their future together—he just knew there would be a future, whether she knew it yet or not. On that front, he was going to come out the winner.

For that to happen, he had to play the long game.

His gaze sought her out where she was sitting in the park bleachers, talking to some of the parents. Immediately, his mind went where it shouldn’t given what he was doing—their night at the stadium when he’d kissed those luscious lips, touched her impressively athletic yet curvy body, heard the sounds of her climax resonating all throughout the empty stadium. Nobody had ever scored on that field the way Alec did that night.

But he couldn’t dwell on it. He must stay focused. If he played his cards right, he might just hear that beautiful noise again one day, but for now, he had to prove his worth.

Alec tossed the football back and forth to Luke, enjoying himself immensely. Within minutes, a few other kids had joined them and they begged Alec to teach them how to tackle. The kids, due to their various states of health, couldn’t engage in rough sports. But a little bit of roughhousing wouldn’t be so bad, would it? After all, today, they just wanted to be kids.

He made a big deal of showing them what to do, cautioned them to go easy on him, then yelled, “Release the Kraken!”

Suddenly, Luke and an entire crowd of kids tackled him to the ground by surprise. He laughed, and the kids climbed over him like puppies. “Ruby! Help me!”

Ruby shook her head, then got down from the bleachers, heading his way. Though she was smiling slightly, she couldn’t hide the worry on her face.

Oh, shit.

“Alec,” she called, as she walked up to the scene. Along the bleachers, one or two parents might’ve had concerned looks on their faces, but most were into it, taking pics and having a fun time. “You know we talked about not overdoing things,” she admonished.

For a second, Alec felt guilty, but that changed as soon as he saw how happy the kids looked. “Guys, let’s all give Miss Ruby the sad look. Come on, you know the sad look.” He pouted and gave Ruby puppy dog eyes. The kids—three boys, including Luke, and two girls between the ages of four and ten—all followed suit.

Ruby rolled her eyes, fist at her hip. “Alec…”

“All right, all right,” Alec said, breaking through the kid pile, knocking them down one by one in fits of glee. “You heard the Big Bad Wolf. No tackling.”

Ruby bristled at his comment.

“I know, I know,” he said, standing and whispering in her ear. “I’m making you look like the bad guy. But you gotta admit it’s fun for them. Fine, and me.”

“Fun is one thing, but sometimes fun can do more damage than we think.” At her contemplative tone, Alec stiffened, immediately getting what she was hinting at. He didn’t like what it told him. That even as they’d been spending all this time together, a part of her was backing away from him.

“And sometimes,” he said, “fun is what makes the difference between going through the motions and having an amazing time in life.”

They stared at one another before she stepped back, clapped once, and faced the kids. Then, in her most excited voice, yelled, “Let’s all go find where they’ve put up the piñatas!”

Nobody moved. Alec suppressed a grin.

“I don’t want the piñatas,” one little girl said, clinging to Alec’s leg. “I want to keep playing with Mr. Alec. Pleeeeeease?”

“Come on now, sweetie. It’s time for the piñata, but maybe if you ask Mr. Alec nicely, he’ll take you there. Won’t you, Mr. Alec?”

“Of course I will,” he said, then murmured to Ruby, “And afterward, we can talk more about the merits of fun time.” He winked.

Ruby bit her inner cheek then pulled out her phone and looked at it like there was something important there.

Sure, Ruby. You can run, but you can’t hide. He laughed inwardly.

Luke crossed his arms. “I don’t want to play with the piñatas either.”

“I don’t blame you, buddy.” Tearing his gaze from Ruby, Alec looked down at Luke and touched the young boy’s shoulder. “Piñatas suck, but you want to know a secret?” At his ballsy proclamation that piñatas sucked, Ruby’s head snapped up.

“What?” The boy looked skeptical.

“I was the reigning piñata champion in fifth grade. I could beat that fluffy papier mâché donkey till it bled candy. So you know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared.”

“Yeah, you are. You’re scared you can’t beat me—”

“I can beat you! Just watch me!” Luke ran after the rest of the kids, determined to prove to Alec that he could beat him at piñata-whipping.

“Go get it, kid! Proud of you!” Alec yelled after him then, hands on hips, he turned to Ruby. “So, about fun. I think you and I—”

Quickly, she said, “I didn’t especially like that you undermined my authority with them, but I’ll admit that was impressive. You’re good with kids.” For a moment, Ruby looked like she wanted to eat her words, like maybe mentioning kids or babies wasn’t a good idea in front of Alec.

She was thinking of Colleen and what she’d done to him.

Damn his ex for interfering, even when she wasn’t around.

Since she’d seen him and Ruby having dinner, Colleen had been blowing up his phone. At first, it’d been too easy to engage with her. For every little thing Colleen jabbed at him, he jabbed back. Until he realized that was what she wanted and stopped replying to her texts altogether. Just like little kids who behaved bad in order to get attention, Colleen was doing the same. She was having way too much fun accusing Alec of being the worst ex ever.

Yes, he’d dodged a bullet with that one.

Then there was Ruby, ultimately and genuinely caring about his career with no ulterior motive other than to be the best publicist she could be. But more than that, she cared about him as a person. As a man. Hell, she was afraid her even mentioning he was good with kids would hurt him.

He hesitated and dug deep, relieved to find the pain of Colleen’s betrayal was only a dull throb now rather than a burning wound. Ruby had helped him get there.

“Nah. Kids are easy. They’re basically small versions of football players: they love sports, food, and yelling.”

She laughed. “I don’t know if that describes all kids, but I appreciate you getting out there with them. Not a lot of players do. Being with the little ones makes some feel vulnerable.”

“That’s because kids tell it like it is. If they don’t like you, if you come across as fake to them, they’ll let you know.”

“Most guys come to these events, take a few photos, and then hop back into their sports cars or go back to their villas in France.”

“My villa is in Spain,” Alec said, deadpan.

Ruby laughed, which made Alec smile. If he could make Ruby smile like that each and every day, he would’ve fulfilled his life’s destiny. What was it about her that made him so intent in impressing her? “How about you go help the kids with the piñata? That’ll make a great photo op.” Ruby waved to their photographer, Mike. “Hey, Mike, time for some piñata smashing! Get a few of Alec laughing with the kids, and if they can all jump on top of him, that’d be even better.”

Alec side-eyed Ruby. “We’ll talk later, Red,” he said meaningfully.

As he walked toward the pavilion where piñata-smashing was about to begin, he felt Ruby’s gaze checking him out and his chest radiated pride. Despite the excellent job she was doing keeping things strictly professional between them, she was doing a terrible job acting like she didn’t find him attractive. All day, she’d been checking him out. It was sexy to see her eyes wander all over his body.

“Want a Jolly Rancher?” Luke held out a wrapped green-colored candy.

Jolted out of his thoughts, Alec popped the candy into his mouth, making a face at the sour taste. The surrounding kids all laughed. He really did love their silliness. They sat in the grass, the kids munching on way too much candy and eyeing the piñata. Getting the hint, Alec stood and clapped his hands much like Ruby had done earlier.

“Let’s do this.” Alec reached for the baseball bat, showing the kids how to hit the damn piñata and how to stay far away so you didn’t get hit by a wild swing. He handed the bat to Luke, who wound up like a major league pitcher and let the poor paper minion have it. Its body split on the side, but he had to hit it a few times to get it to crack open. “Not bad,” he told Luke.

“See, I told you I could beat you.”

The whole time, Mike took shots, and Alec had fun with it.After the kids ran off to find their parents, Mike followed, snapping photos here and there. Ruby emerged from a public bathroom and walked toward him. Alec definitely noticed the additional application of shiny lip gloss, which made her smile look like a million bucks.

Part of him wanted to take her behind a tree and take her hair down, find the sex goddess who’d shown up for a brief interlude the other night. Even as she looked now, with her hair in a tight bun and wearing a black suit with a gray silken blouse, she was hot as fuck.

“So?” he asked her. “What grade would you give me?”

“For what? Destroying the piñata?” Ruby tapped her bottom lip. “Probably a C. It took you a while to get the minion’s head off.”

“I was letting the kids do it, smartass.”

She smiled. “Yeah, well, we’ll take to Snapchat in the morning and see what people thought of your piñata skills.”

He frowned at her not-so-subtle reminder that she was here as his publicist and nothing else. He’d been a good boy. It was time to show Ruby he could still be a little bad, and that she’d like it.

“Snapchat?” he said, even as they walked together. “What the hell is Snapchat again?”

Ruby may have sighed impatiently, but he still saw a tiny smile on her lips. “It’s one of those things, on the Internet. You know, that thing people use all the time now?”

“Oh. I only just upgraded my rotary phone to a cordless one, so give me some time. I’m slow on the uptake. Just kidding. Jesus Christ, Ruby, I know what Snapchat is.”

They laughed again, and Alec couldn’t help but reflect on how right this felt. Making jokes, bantering, like they’d known each other for years. When had he felt this comfortable with another person? Probably never. He’d always been on his guard, wondering if someone had it out for him. Sadly, in his line of work, more often than not, women wanted something from him. Every woman he’d dated had wanted him for the fame or money that came along with dating him. Those women had wanted the man in him, too, but he knew, deep inside, they wouldn’t have been as interested if he weren’t a professional football player on one of the top teams in the country.

Ruby wanted something from him, too, but that was different. She was doing it for him, for both of them. Any other woman would’ve kept their relationship going, milking it for all it was worth, but not Ruby. She wanted to protect her own career and his. Protect her relationship with her father.

And, he suspected, most of all…protect her heart.

Somehow, as he and Ruby chatted, they ended up near a copse of trees that provided some amount of privacy from the event. Mike had disappeared—probably to get something to eat—and Alec realized Ruby hadn’t noticed they were alone yet.

Then again, maybe she’d already noticed and had decided she didn’t care. He felt like she was giving mixed messages, but maybe that was because he’d played things too well, and she didn’t know where he stood. “You know, seeing you today, I couldn’t help but wonder where that other Ruby had gone.”

She swiveled toward him. “The other Ruby?”

“You know. The Ruby who demanded I touch her. The Ruby who grabbed my cock and made it fit, made it work, then worked me. The Ruby who screamed my name when I—”

She pressed a finger to his mouth. “Alec, there are kids here!”

“What? Red, they’re all eating hotdogs like three hundred feet away. That’s a football field, you know.” He kissed her finger, dragged it across his bottom lip, but she pulled her hand away. “A football field is that place where people have sex. Usually with the woman on top. Her tits and gorgeous body on full display. God, I love football.”

Ruby blushed fifteen shades of red.

“There, I wanted to see if I could still make you blush. And I can. Alec LeBrun takes the lead,” he said, imitating an announcer’s voice then faking a crowd cheering.

“You’re the most arrogant, annoying man.”

“And yet, you’re still here. Isn’t that amazing?” He flashed her his famous smile.

She opened her mouth, but then shut it with a snap. “I shouldn’t be here,” she muttered. “I should walk away and never look back. But I’m an idiot, apparently.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Which one?”

“I said, ‘Isn’t that amazing?’”

“That was rhetorical. It’s not amazing. I have to be here. It’s called my job.”

“So you’re saying if you weren’t my publicist, you wouldn’t spend time with me?” He cocked his head. Now, that was a valid question, and they wouldn’t be going anywhere until she answered it.

“We have to get going.”

“Not until you answer my question. If we didn’t have this—this client-publicist thing going…would you go out with me? Remember I’m shy and delicate. Be gentle when you respond.”

“Fuck no.” She giggled.

Alec gasped. “Such language! Do it again. It’s fucking hot. Come on. Say it.”

“No way.”

He couldn’t stop himself from touching her silky soft cheek. In the afternoon light, he could see those microscopic tiny blond hairs illuminating in the sun. “Maybe I should get you to put your hair down again,” he mused. “Is that the secret? When you have your hair up, you’re a good girl, but when it’s down, your bad side comes out?” He bit into his smile.

“Alec…”

“It is, isn’t it? A-ha. I’ve unlocked Level 2.”

“You haven’t unlocked shit.”

He reached to pull the pins from her hair, but she playfully slapped his hand away. “Don’t you touch the hair. Never, ever touch the hair, Alec. I’m warning you. Do you have any idea how annoying it is to redo it?”

“I won’t touch your hair,” he teased, “but only if you give me a kiss as payment.”

“That’s the second time you’ve asked for a kiss in exchange for doing me a favor.”

“What can I say? I need your kisses, Ruby. They’re like air. Or Wi-Fi.”

“Yeah, but—”

“But what?”

“I don’t want to feel like I owe you a kiss, Alec. If I ever kiss you again, it’ll be because I want to.” To his amazement and utter gratitude, she leaned closer…closer…they were inches away, and he leaned down to breathe in that sweet air right before a beautiful woman kisses you. Then, she ducked underneath his arm, laughing.

Before he could react, she’d scampered away like a mischievous little rabbit.

“You can run, but you can’t hide, Red!” he called, but he was laughing, too.

She waved a hand over her shoulder, but she didn’t turn back around. He sighed and, leaning against the tree behind him, he wondered what they would do next if he ever got her naked again. Whip her around against lockers and fuck her from behind? Throw her legs open and taste that sweetness in between? Watch those amazing lips of hers curl around his cock and suck it in deep?

Fuck.

Forcing himself to think of the least sexy things ever—cold showers, frogs, taxes—he finally got his unruly body under control so he could return to the job at hand—getting his life and career back under control, then focusing on winning Ruby’s heart.