Chapter Three - Leah
Oh, this wouldn’t work.
His girlfriend? The idea was insane. He was insane.
That had to be it. Jack Carson wasn’t just a playboy trouble-maker brandishing muscles, tattoos, and indecent one-night stands. He was certifiably crazy. A meat-head that went rancid and decided to spoil my life too.
The meeting ended. I didn’t move, didn’t even offer my long-term, committed boyfriend a kiss before he strolled out of my office without even a slap to his wrist.
Though he slapped my ass on the way out the door.
His girlfriend?
Of all the idiotic, ill-conceived plans…
Jack came out looking like a damn martyr by protecting his girlfriend from the public eye. Not only did it give him cause to refute the allegations of his womanizing, now he had my word to say he was an honest and responsible man. Frank Bennett might have swallowed his own tongue by the end of the call, but his displeasure was as evident as the condom imprint in Jack’s back pocket.
This was more than a mess, worse than spaghetti on a white carpet or skirt tucked into pantyhose.
Except, for the first time, I was the one causing the problems.
“Leah.” Jolene called from her office doorway. “Can I have a moment with you in private?”
Cripes.
“Be right there.” I gathered my laptop and paperwork, pretending the tremble of my fingers was a result of my newly exposed relationship and not the peak of my blood-pressure before I stroked out.
For all I knew, Jolene planned to fire my ass on the spot. We never had a conversation about sleeping with our most expensive, temperamental, and important client, but something told me it wasn’t acceptable behavior. I wasn’t dating Jack Carson. Hell, it took me a year to even consider seeing another man after I left Wyatt. I didn’t have enough coffee to deal with this disaster.
But this was one hell of a PR masterpiece, something I never would have thought to do. Tame Jack Carson with rumors of a real, committed relationship? Let him look dependable and controlled?
If only his chosen girlfriend wasn’t me.
The only relationship I wanted with Jack was strictly professional—preferably separated by multiple layers of clothing, a couple miles of distance, and a bad cell connection.
Jolene waited at her door. I took the seat opposite her desk. Her heels clicked as she paced the room.
I earned forty grand a year, but I had the possibility for six figures once I made partner. I was promised a company car. Fancy parties. Jet-setting around the world. This job was everything I ever wanted.
And now it was ruined because of a wild, bad boy quarterback who wasn’t satisfied tormenting me in the office. He wanted me to go down with him.
Or go down on him.
Absolutely not.
Jack Carson was trouble, bundled in the body of a Greek god with a flashy smile and bandit blue eyes. Anytime he gave me butterflies, I got out the wasp spray.
“Leah…” Jolene took her chair with a sigh. “I had no idea you and Jack were a…couple.”
Yep, it was a big surprise to me too. The truth settled like a thick lump in my stomach, pitted next to my courage which hid under what remained of my pride. I needed to fess up. I wasn’t dating Jack. I wasn’t anything with Jack.
But I froze.
God...if Jolene knew we lied to the league?
PR wasn’t about lying, it was spin. I highlighted the positive aspects of Jack’s life, all the facts the public found more tolerable than his harem of woman, collection of speeding tickets, and out-of-court settlements for fist-fights.
If she knew I lied, I’d be out of her company quicker than Jack could run the forty, that was for sure.
Jolene stared at me, slouching despite her jacket’s shoulder pads. “Leah, I can’t see you and Jack Carson as a…I mean, he’s got such a reputation. And you…”
I bit my lip. “What about me?”
“After Wyatt broke your heart, you didn’t let anyone else get close…” Jolene watched as I awkwardly shifted. She apologized. “Not my place, I know. But Leah, I took you under my wing. You are the next me. I see these things.”
“This has nothing to do with Wyatt.”
“It’s just, after what he did, I couldn’t imagine you dating a man like Jack, someone who seems…”
Lord. “It…it certainly wasn’t planned.”
“Of course. Right. Working with someone this closely was bound to create a spark.”
Oh, Jack was fanning some flames now—hellfire, mostly. “Jack always was a special case.”
“That’s the truth.” Jolene stirred her coffee—brewed extra strong for the times when the crises hit harder than linebackers. “I guess we should have a talk about interoffice conduct and relations with clients.”
“Really, I don’t think that’s necessary—”
“I’ve never specifically prohibited these types of relationships.”
“Jolene, I swear. You won’t notice a difference in my quality of work. Nothing has changed about my commitment to our clients, including Jack.” I hesitated. “I doubt you even noticed anything was unusual.”
“You’re right. I didn’t know you two were dating.” Jolene laughed. “You’ve always been the epitome of professional, Leah. But, when I hired you as my assistant, I did it because you could handle the responsibilities and sensitive nature of our work. We are to remain invisible. We aren’t the story; our clients are the ones in the spotlight.”
Jack wasn’t going to make it out of the huddle at practice. Didn’t matter how many linemen protected him, I’d kick his butt from one side of the field to the other.
“I completely understand, Jolene. And I can swear to you—”
“I know, I know. You wouldn’t let this…fling interfere with your work.”
“Oh, I can absolutely guarantee it.”
Jolene nodded. She sipped her coffee, grimaced, and choked it down. She offered me a cup from the pot behind her. I smelled the bitterness from across the desk, and that much caffeine would only encourage me to bean Jack off the goal posts.
Her voice turned heavy. “This is hard to say.”
I braced myself for the words I had never heard in my life.
You’re fired. We’ll have to let you go. Get the hell out of my office.
Two humiliations in one day?
I’d never find a job as good as this one. I’d be forced to move. I’d have to sell my new car. Wasn’t it bad enough my plan for a family and marriage was ruined when I walked in on Wyatt humping his way into bachelorhood? I couldn’t lose the one job that promised every success I ever dreamed.
Marriage. Kids. Travel. Fantastic job.
This opportunity slipped through my fingers, even more tragic since it was all I had left in my life.
I hid my trembling hands. “Jolene, I promise—”
“Before you go back to work, I just have to say that Jack Carson isn’t the right man for you.”
I stared at her, wide-eyed. “You aren’t firing me?”
Jolene frowned. “I’m not worried about your job performance.”
“You’re not?”
“I’m worried about you.” She sipped the coffee before dumping three packets of sugar into the mug. “You know Jack’s reputation better than anyone. I know he must be fun, but he’s never going to give you what you need.”
“I—”
“You aren’t looking for a fling. Don’t let Wyatt’s behavior scare you away from a real relationship.”
“It’s not that—”
“Do you still want to find the right man? Settle down? Leah, you couldn’t wait to have kids.”
I pretended the folder full of information from the local fertility clinic wasn’t sitting in the bottom drawer of my desk. I wanted a family more than anything. Hell, I wanted it more than the marriage with Wyatt. It was unconventional, but I wondered what Jolene would protest more—an apparent relationship with the renowned manwhore Jack Carson…or the information on sperm donors I had meticulously catalogued in a hidden folder.
Both ideas were sounding crazy to me at the moment.
“Jack will not give you that life.” Jolene held her hand up. “This is me talking as a friend. He’s only going to run around on you. Do yourself a favor and stop before you get hurt. You’re a smart, lovely girl. Don’t let him break you.”
“Jack Carson will never break me.”
“I hope so, Leah. Just…consider my advice. End this before it gets too serious, for your own sake.”
She was right, more than she realized. I excused myself and marched to my office. My emails dinged with a dozen new requests for information, interviews, statements, and explanations. My first priority was spinning the accident and details of Jack’s latest indiscretion.
But I couldn’t do it now.
Jack’s plan wouldn’t work. We had to stage a breakup before the lie spiraled any further out of control.
I took an early lunch and raced to the Rivets’ practice facility, slipping through security with a flash of an issued badge courtesy of Ironfield’s star, trouble-making quarterback. Usually publicists didn’t get access to the field, but most publicists handled normal clients—clients who showed up on time, did their jobs as best they could, and managed their sponsorships with an ounce of professionalism.
I stormed through the tunnels and onto the field. The team wasn’t in training camp yet, but the players were encouraged to return to standard practices and exercises in preparation for the season. I thanked my lucky stars Jack was back where he belonged. He could make a spectacle out of himself on the field instead of in a bar, public restroom, concert venue, or roadside accident.
I didn’t recognize the receiver who caught the pass in the end zone, but he circled around the goal posts and walked beside me on the sidelines. His dreads clacked with crimson beads, matching his eventual uniform once the guys donned pads to practice. He grinned. It was a nice smile, but I knew where his goodwill was aimed.
“Hey, there, baby. I was hungry for something sweet.”
He was a worse flirt than Jack. I wasn’t in the mood. Didn’t stop him from trying.
“You’re the little drop of chocolate I’d love to—”
Caleb West, the largest man on the team as well as the gentlest teddy bear they signed, thundered from the sidelines to my side. He carried a water bottle and nearly chucked it at the receiver’s head.
“Whoa.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “She’s too good a girl for you. Beat it, rookie.”
The receiver scowled, took his chances, then bolted when Caleb took a step too close.
“Thanks,” I said.
“No problem, little lady.” Caleb grinned. “You’re not here for me, are ya?”
“Not today, but do you remember you have a radio show tomorrow afternoon, broadcasting live from the new sushi place on fifth?”
“Yes, ma’am. Looking forward to it. Bringing my kids so I can see their faces when I give them raw fish. They still haven’t forgiven me for squid ink pasta.”
“Why can’t all my clients be like you?”
He laughed. “You here to kick Jack’s ass?”
“Changed out of my heels into flats to do it.”
Caleb pointed to the crowd of players running exercises. The men were working on a feat of strength that ached my abs just watching.
“Give him hell…but leave him in one piece?” Caleb said. “We’d like to make it back to the championship.”
“A quarterback doesn’t need both kneecaps, does he?”
Caleb sauntered away, shunning me as a hellcat. He had no idea.
I picked a cautious path between segments of the team completing their conditioning exercises and running laps. Now was the toughest time for the players. Eighty men competed for fifty-three active roster spots—every one of the players bigger, badder, and built stronger than the last.
Jack was no exception.
In the hot July morning, he shed his shirt and sweated with every completed rep of his crunches. He didn’t take a break or a breath before flipping onto his stomach and leading his men in a variety of push-ups that only tightened every muscle in his absolutely flawless form.
His entire body was ripped, bulging with muscles, tattoos, glistening sweat.
Perfect.
I forced myself to remember that the striking body I admired belonged to the arrogant and infuriating man who dared to tangle with me.
He was lucky he was so damn big—one of the largest quarterbacks in the league. If he were just one foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter…I might have taken the chance to stomp really hard on his toes.
The rookies collapsed against the turf. An offensive lineman fell too. Jack counted off another five one-armed pushups before letting his men groan against the field. Now was my chance.
“Jack.”
The bastard grinned like he won the lottery while getting blown by a porn star. He waved.
He made no attempt to move. The entire offense stared at me like I was a piece of meat Jack was about to drag back to his cave. I was so glad my skirt was knee-length and respectable.
“Jack? I need to talk to you.” I smiled at the quarterback coach consulting with his other specialized personnel. He shrugged—that same hopeless resignation the coaches shared when Jack Carson was causing a scene. “Please?”
He leaned to the player next to him, the team’s real criminal and the absolute worst influence on Jack. Bryon Washington was a gifted running back, but if he wasn’t careful, he’d spend the best years of his career behind bars—where he belonged. He and Jack laughed like I was the punchline to their own secret joke. Bryon whistled and outlined my figure with a wave of his hand.
Enough of this.
“Jack-ass! Come here!”
The team hooted. Jack rose to his feet. “The little woman calls. See the shit I put up with?”
“Now.”
“I pay her to abuse me like this.”
“Not nearly enough.”
Jack took long strides to reach me, his signature swagger. He wasn’t flirting. He was baiting me, like he always did. Waiting for the moment I’d snap and he’d have his fun.
It ended now.
“Hey, Kiss.”
Jack sauntered before me. He rubbed the sweat from his face with a towel, but he didn’t bother to cover his chest. I wasn’t used to seeing him without a shirt, and I tried my hardest to not admire the dozens of tattoos and colorful ink cradling his muscles. It was just another reminder of his misbehavior and arrogance and how unbelievably built he was…
His voice rumbled deep inside me. “Couldn’t stand to be away from me?”
My eyes snapped up to his. I cleared my throat. “We need to talk.”
“Uh-oh.” He got off on teasing me, but at least he wasted billable time. “Trouble at home, Mrs. Carson?”
He laughed, that cocky baritone always at my expense. I forced him away from the field. He followed me to the tunnels leading from the grass to the locker room. The practice facility was too busy for this kind of talk—coaches and staff and players beginning their workouts. Half the team funneled between the field and the recently renovated, two-story weight room. I had to keep my voice down. That only encouraged Jack to tease my temper.
He stretched his arms, every motion bulging muscle on top of muscle. “Think we could talk inside? I’m kinda bruised from the accident. We could sit in the spa tub together.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“Would you prefer the hot tub in our honeymoon suite?”
I poked a finger into his chest, instantly regretting touching his heated, fiercely defined body. A shiver trembled from the tip of my finger all the way through me, centering in a very wrong place.
“You have no idea what you’ve done,” I said.
Jack glanced me over, amused. “I got us out of trouble.”
“No. You got you out of trouble. You put me in the middle of all of this!”
He provoked me with an impish arch of his eyebrows. “You’re not breaking up with me, are you? Come on, Kiss. I’m a great catch.”
“I don’t want to be your fake girlfriend.”
“So…you wanna be my real girlfriend?”
“Screw you, Jack. Can you be serious for ten seconds?”
“Who says I wasn’t serious, Kiss?”
Enough of this. “For like, one minute, can you possibly think about anyone other than yourself or your little play-maker?”
He took offense when I pointed at his mesh shorts. “Hey. Don’t call him little!”
“You could have gotten me fired today!”
I held his stare. His blue eyes practically crackled, bright and full of energy. It might as well have been plutonium. He was too dangerous to let near.
“You told a lie that might have cost me my job,” I said.
“Did Jolene fire you?”
“No.”
Jack groaned and headed to the locker room. “Then what’s the problem? Just relax, Kiss.”
I was not letting him get away. The last time I challenged him at the practice facility, I’d chased him through the halls and into the steam room. He’d dropped his towel and exposed not only himself, but the entirety of his offensive line. I still couldn’t look those men in the eye.
I grabbed his arm and forced him to pay attention to me. “The problem is you lied to the league president. He wants you out of the game, and he’ll do anything to get his way.”
Jack’s glance cut through my indignation. Hell, his stare penetrated me completely, like he tore through my clothes and surveyed everything mouth-watering beneath. But his appraisal wasn’t another way to flirt.
He looked at me like he planned to strip me down.
Like he wanted me.
A couple more seconds under his dominating stare, and I might’ve let him.
Why the hell did I face him instead of yelling at him over the phone? I wasn’t prepared to confront a man as handsome or frustrating as this trouble-maker with his wandering, mischievous eyes.
“So…you came here…” His voice lazily murmured, as though he knew the shivers it’d cause. “Because you’re concerned? You think I’m going to get tossed out of the league?”
“Yes.”
“And here I thought you were paid to worry about me.”
Bastard. “My career depends on your career, Jack. On your behavior.”
“Why?”
“Because if you get thrown out of the league, I’ll lose my chance to be fast-tracked to a partner in Jolene’s firm.”
“Well, sorry I nearly killed myself in a car accident last night, Kiss.”
He made me sound heartless. I took a breath. “Look, Jack. I know you like to play these games, but that’s over now. You told the president you were a changed man because of me. If you get expelled from the league for doing something stupid or immoral now, I’ll lose more than my job. You’ll ruin my reputation too.”
Jack didn’t understand, didn’t even try. “Why do you care what people think of you?”
“It’s my job?”
“No. You’re supposed to care what people think of me. So what if people call me a jerk? So what if I go out to a party?”
“It matters because it’s going to reflect on me as a person. I’m supposed to be your long-term, committed girlfriend.”
“Then break it off.”
He tried to leave again. I followed, taking two steps to his every stride.
“Then Frank Bennett has every reason to force the Rivets to cut you. This relationship is the only way you stay in the league.”
“That so?”
“Yes. And that means you have to calm down and lie low for the duration of…whatever this is. Do you understand? This is your last chance.”
He stopped, deep in the tunnel separating us from the action of the field. His arms crossed. Every tattoo practically pulsed with the heat coursing under his skin. It radiated from him, pressing into me, stealing my breath. I looked up to meet his gaze as he stepped closer.
His voice lowered, a deep, grumbling promise of suppressed wildness. “Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m not. I’m protecting myself.”
“This is a dangerous game, Kiss.”
“But it can work.” Was I really trying to convince him of his own stupid idea? “People will believe we’re a couple if you behave yourself. I mean…we have a close, professional relationship already.”
Jack laughed. “This isn’t my definition of close.”
“Because we work together while fully clothed?”
“Takes the fun out of the meetings.”
“Well, there’s our story. It’ll make sense that, over time, our relationship developed into something…more.”
“Like booty calls?”
“Like love, you freak.”
He grinned. “Right. Love. I can buy it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Have you ever even told a girl I love you before?”
“Have you ever fucked a stranger without exchanging names?”
“No!”
He shrugged. “Guess opposites attract.”
I’d grind my teeth into dust before the day was out. “I’m setting ground rules.”
“Kiss—”
“First, you don’t call me Kiss.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Pet name. I like it better than Darling.”
I was losing the big picture. I exhaled. “Fine. Call me whatever you want. But you will follow these rules.” I pointed at him. “You are going to behave at all times. You will not embarrass me. No acting out, no late night parties, no womanizing, no doing anything that would constitute cheating.”
“What?” His eyes widened. “So I can’t go out with my friends. I can’t meet women. I can’t have sex with anyone…” A sly smile encouraged every thought I didn’t want him to have. “Unless you plan on fulfilling those needs?”
I ignored the implication. “That was my next rule. No screwing with me—literally or figuratively.”
“Why the hell would I agree to this?”
Did he have any blood left in his head? “Because you want to keep your job. You want to win a championship and make that hundred million dollar contract. This is the only way. Get through this season without incident, and we’ll see what happens.”
He set his jaw, the hard angles clenching as tightly as the muscles in his chest. “Fine.”
“It’s for your own good. I’m keeping you on a leash.”
“Only if you promise to toss a collar on me too.”
I didn’t trust Jack’s tone, as if the arrogant trouble-maker already lured me to his bed and had his way with me.
Wasn’t going to happen. No way, no how.
And I hated myself for even imagining the briefest of fantasies.
“Will you promise to behave?” I asked.
He stepped closer, his voice low, tightening everything deep inside me. “You promise to punish me if I don’t?”
“Be serious…” This was never going to work if he got me so flustered.
Jack edged me close to the wall, his gaze hot and entirely too familiar. “I’ll agree…with one condition.”
“And what’s that?”
“I want to see if we have chemistry together.”
“I…” My hands pressed against the cool cement, the only relief I had from the heat suffocating me in Jack’s oppressive shadow. “We can pretend.”
“You can’t pretend a connection. It’s gotta be real. We gotta feel it.”
His body moved close. Too close. I might have reached out, touched the sweat-dazzled muscles that he’d worked and pumped and strained in practice to build a body of utter perfection. I wished he had a shirt on. It was too difficult to focus on him while his feral form raged inches from my own.
I took a harsh breath, sinking deeper against the wall. It didn’t protect me from him. It didn’t stop the twisting heat in my belly. Low. Raw.
God, why did he have to be an attractive jerk?
Jack’s voice heated like caramel and burned just as hot. “If my job rides on this, and your reputation is at stake…we gotta make sure it’ll work, right?”
I accidentally licked my lips. “How do we do that?”
“Kiss me.”
Panic.
I couldn’t kiss this man. I couldn’t even breathe. He was an arrogant, cocky bastard with the most beautiful body I ever saw and eyes that seared through my common sense.
I parted my lips.
Made a joke instead.
“I…I can’t bill you for that time.”
“I’ll consider it a signing bonus.” Both of his arms straddled the wall to my sides. He had me pinned without a touch, and I wasn’t going anywhere. “One kiss. And we gotta make it realistic. People have to believe I’m wild about you, that I’d do anything for you…” The act seemed to drop. His voice turned solemn. “They have to believe that I’d give up everything to spend one night with you.”
My stomach flipped. He didn’t mean the words, but I hadn’t heard anyone promise something so lovely since before my heart was crushed and broken by Wyatt.
“Let me kiss you,” he whispered. “Earn that nickname so it doesn’t just mean how dark and tasty your skin is.”
This was out of control.
Way beyond where anything was meant to go.
I intended to storm the field. Yell. Berate. Punish.
Not part my lips and tilt my head.
“One kiss,” I said. “And then you do as I say.”
“You hold the leash, just tug on it a little and I’ll come…”
This man was absolute trouble.
And I knew it.
So why did I nod?
Jack gripped me close, pushing his body into mine and pinning me against the cool concrete. The wall became the only thing grounding me to the world besides his strength and the fierce grip of his hands.
His rippling muscle pressed against me, and I felt petite and fragile within the shadow of his bulk. I gasped, but that gave him the opportunity to capture my kiss and take it for his own.
My mind paralyzed. My heart would crack my ribcage.
And my body?
My body exploded into shivers. Every tremble, every stolen shudder raked over my form and twisted within my core. Within seconds I panted, feasting against the dragging nibble of his lips. Heat and sin and every naughty and terribly dangerous feeling I ever hid from Jack Carson flooded through me.
Kissing him wasn’t just a mistake…it was a complete surrender to a man who pocketed panties and broke hearts. He treated passion like it was another game to play and girls were a literal score.
And I wanted more than a kiss.
His tongue swirled over mine.
His hands grasped my hips.
And a hardness pressed into my leg—raging, fierce, and demanding.
He didn’t get to take those girls home last night, and every ounce of his sexual frustration pent up inside him. It turned him into a wicked beast. I was glad he didn’t have his fun with them.
Not because I worried about his reputation.
Not because of the impending disaster from his accident and the league.
Because that meant he kissed me instead.
This was bad. I meant to pull away, but my fingers only grasped his tighter.
I was good at my job, but I didn’t have the talent to lie and pretend like I hadn’t felt that chemistry he demanded.
Our kiss broke as my breath escaped in a timid gasp. Jack teased with a knowing, terrible glance.
Jack pulled away, trading a kiss for his smile. “Go out with me tomorrow night.”
“Out?”
“Easiest way to prove we’re a couple is if we are seen together.” He retreated, tensed and loaded, as though he faced an entire charging defensive line instead of wild-eyed me. “You and me. Out on the town. I’ll take you to a club.”
“I—” I didn’t dance. I couldn’t talk now either, which meant I couldn’t call him back as he returned to the field. “We can’t just do your normal hangout. You have to prove you’ve changed.”
He hesitated, thinking it over, his eyes brightening as he accepted the challenge.
“Okay. Then tomorrow, you’re gonna have the night of your life. Fancy food. Music. Fun.” He met my gaze, and I wished I had the ability to catch my breath after his kiss. “Be ready. You’ll love the Jack Carson experience.”
Yeah. I probably would.
And that was exactly what I feared.