Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (183 page)

He didn’t care about anything else.
 
He needed to be with her.
 
He didn’t care if it messed up his
relationship with Billingsley, hell, he didn’t care if he got kicked off the
Heat.
 
All that mattered to him in
that moment was Alyssa.

He reversed direction and drove to the gym, deciding to take his
stress out on the weights.
 
When he
got there, he changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and then sat down at the bench
press.

He was covered in sweat, when Chad came into the gym half an hour
later.

“Yo,” Chad said.

“Yo.”

“Where have you been?”

“Nowhere.”
 
Jay
shrugged.
 
Usually he would have
told Chad all the salacious details about what had gone on last night.
 
But he didn’t want to.
 
It was between him and Alyssa.

“Going out with that Jessa chick tonight,” Chad said.
 
“She called me about five times, and so
I finally caved.”
 
He grinned.
 
“You want to get in on it?
 
You could invite Alyssa?”

“What are we, in tenth grade?” Jay asked.

“No, but I know how much you liiiikkkee her.”
 
Chad started making kissing noises on
his hands.

“Bye,” Jay said, walking out of the gym and heading toward the
showers.
 
But when he was halfway
there, he realized Chad might be onto something with this double date
idea.
 
He could ask Alyssa about it,
make it sound totally innocent, like it was going to be four friends just
hanging out together.
 
He thought
about calling Alyssa’s hotel room right then, but he didn’t want to take the
chance that she wouldn’t pick up.
 
And besides, he’d see her at practice in a little while anyway.

Feeling better, he got in the shower.
 
And he made sure he kept the water extra
cold.

~Chapter Nine~

Alyssa sat in the dugout, her notebook out in front of her,
wondering when Isobel was going to call her about her column.
 
What she’d turned in this morning had
been decidedly unscandalous.
 
No
fights.
 
No drama.
 
Just a straight column about how much
she’d enjoyed watching the game last night.
  
Isobel was definitely going to be
pissed.
 
A lame column about
watching baseball definitely wasn’t going to get the web traffic up.

Alyssa sighed.
 
She
watched as one of the players, Matt Hollsten, took some practice swings with
the bat.
 
She doodled a flower in
the margin of her notebook and wondered what she could write about.

There was a tap on her shoulder, and she jumped.
 

She turned.

Jay.
 

He was standing there in his uniform, looking fresh and clean.
 
“Hey,” he said, giving her an easy grin.

“Hi.”
 
She shifted on
the bench and tried not to look at him.
 
If she did, she was afraid she’d do something crazy, like kiss him.
 
She wondered if the other players could
tell they’d had sex.
 
The thought of
it made her feel hot all over.

“Look, I’m sorry about this morning,” she said.
 
“I didn’t mean to be rude, it just
– ”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, waving off her apology and sitting
down next to her.
 
“I
understand.
 
You need to be worried
about your job.
 
But what about a
group outing?”

“A group outing?”

“Supposedly your friend Jessa is going on a date with Chad
tonight.
 
I was thinking we could go
along, keep an eye on them.”
 
She
opened her mouth to protest, but he rushed on.
 
“You could make sure she didn’t do
anything she might regret.”

Jessa had texted her already this morning, crowing about her date
with Chad.
 
She’d asked Alyssa if
she wanted to meet up later and go shopping at La Perla.
 
“For something totally skanky” Jessa had
said.
 
Alyssa very much doubted that
Jessa was getting into something she would regret.

“Of course, you don’t have to,” Jay said.
 
“But it would make a good column.”

“Column?”

“Yeah.
 
You know, you
could say you went to kind of watch your friend, make sure she was okay.
 
Write about how girls kind of lose their
shit when they’re around professional athletes.”
 
He leaned in close to her.
 
“Do you have any experience with that
kind of thing?”

Heat flooded her body and rushed between her legs.
 
“What kind of thing?”

“Losing control around athletes.”

“No,” she said, moving away from him.
 
“But you might be right.
 
I wouldn’t want Jessa getting into any
trouble.”

“Of course not.”

“And it
would
make a
great column.”

He nodded.
 
“So I’ll
call you later and let you know the details.”
 
Then he leaned in close to her and
whispered in her ear,
 
“I was going
crazy thinking I wasn’t going to be able to see you again.
 
I missed you all morning.”
 

He got up and loped out across the field, and Alyssa sat there,
trying to calm her beating heart.

***

Jay was nervous.
 
He’d
never been nervous before a date before, but he was nervous about this
one.
 
He wanted Alyssa to know he
was for real, he wanted her to know that he would do whatever it took to make
things work with her.

He met her at her hotel, although she’d insisted that he stay in
his car and not come inside.
 
She
didn’t want anyone seeing them together.

She appeared wearing a sky blue summer dress, her hair loose and
flowing around her shoulders.
 
The
flimsy fabric clung to her curves, and she didn’t appear to be wearing a bra.

“Wow,” Jay said when she got in the car.
 
“You look beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she said, pulling the seatbelt across her chest and
buckling it.
 
“So where are we
going?”

“A restaurant called Shiver,” Jay said.
 

Shiver, in direct contrast to its name, was hot inside, and
decorated in tones of red and black.
 
It didn’t look like the kind of place Jessa would pick, which became
apparent when they got shown to their table.
 
Jessa was sitting there with a scowl on
her face.
 
She was wearing a red
dress that plunged down so far you could see her belly button.

“He’s not here,” she said.

“Jay, this is Jessa,” Alyssa said.
 
“Jessa, Jay.”

“Hey,” Jay said.
 
He
could tell already that Jessa was crazy.
 
He could also tell that Chad was going to get very, very lucky tonight.
 
Her cell phone rang, and Jessa picked it
up.
 
“Chad!” she crowed.

“Great,” Jay said brightly.
 
He pulled a napkin off the table and set it across his lap.
 
He could already tell what was about to
happen.
 
He’d been to this rodeo
before.
 

He listened to Jessa’s side of the conversation, not surprised at
all when she announced that Chad couldn’t get away, that she was just going to
meet him at his hotel room.

“His hotel room?” Alyssa asked, looking confused.
 
“Why would he have a hotel room?
 
Doesn’t he live here?”

Jay bit back a smile as he watched Alyssa realize what the hotel
room was about.
 
A way to have sex
without Jessa knowing where Chad lived.

Jessa didn’t seem to notice.
 
In fact, she was up and out of the restaurant in about five seconds.

“So,” Jay said.
 
He
opened up the menu and scanned it.
 
“What looks good?”

***

Alyssa couldn’t believe it.
 
Here she was, determined to keep her distance from Jay Havens, and now
she’d somehow ended up on a date with him.
 
Although, if she were being completely honest, she hadn’t really tried
that hard to stay away from him.
 
She’d come here with him, even allowing him to pick her up.
 
And she’d spent all afternoon shopping,
looking for the perfect outfit to make her look sexy, but not like she was
trying too hard.

“We should get champagne,” Jay said.

“How come?”

“To celebrate.”

“What are we celebrating?”

“Our first date.”

“This isn’t a date.”

“Yes, it is.”
 
He
grinned.

“No, it isn’t.”

“Dinner, champagne, you looking sexy as hell in that dress… What’s
not a date?”

She sighed and shut her menu.
 
“Jay,” she said.
 
“I …I had a
really great time last night.”

“Me too.”

“And I don’t…I mean, I can’t…we can’t…” She took a deep breath and
tried again.
 
“I can’t be hanging
out with you like this.
 
I told you,
if anyone finds out, I could lose my job.”

He reached out and took her hand, entwining his fingers with
hers.
 
“Alyssa,” he said,
 
“we have a connection.
 
I haven’t felt like this in a really
long time.
 
No, actually, forget
that.
 
I haven’t felt like this
ever.”

She looked into his eyes, wanting to believe him.
 
“Me neither,” she admitted.
 
“But I have a job, and I can’t… I can’t
just give that up.”

He nodded.
 
“I would
never ask you to do that.”

“Then you see why it’s so hard.
 
I mean, I just met you.”

“And you don’t trust that I’m for real.”

She shrugged.
 
“Can you
blame me?
 
I mean, you got married
to a stripper in Vegas.”

He laughed and shook his head. “She wasn’t a stripper.
 
She was a dancer. I keep trying to tell
people that.”

But she wasn’t laughing.
 
In fact, she suddenly felt really, really sad.

“Hey,” he said.
 
He put
his finger under her chin and tipped it up, then kissed her softly.
  
“Let’s not worry about any of
that, okay?
 
Let’s just enjoy
tonight.
 
Do you want to do that?”

She thought about it.
 
She did want to just enjoy the night with him.
 
They were here.
 
And even if someone saw them, she could
always tell Isobel that he’d asked her out to dinner so he could give her an
exclusive on the PR problems he was having.
 

So she nodded.
 
And then
she opened her menu.
 
“Champagne,
definitely,” she decided.
 
She
smiled.
 
“And maybe some caviar.”

~Chapter Ten~

This time, when they got back to the hotel room, there was no
waiting.
 
No teasing.
 
No pretense.