In the Fast Lane (Fast Series Book 1) (20 page)

“Like you should talk.”

“I didn’t suggest otherwise, but you didn’t answer the question. Is this something serious?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. It’s not serious. It’s fun, and it’s for right now. We’ll see where things go when we aren’t around each other day in and day out with no other options.”

“No other options...” Claudel muttered. “I never expected you to play the whore, Jessi.”

Jessi took a deep breath. She wasn’t a slapper. Once she had gained her composure, her voice was calm but deadly serious. “I don’t deserve that, especially from a womanizing player like you. I’m done. You’ve lost access. Talk to Allie about how you want to wrap the piece up. I really don’t care what you do with it.”

Jessi left the pool abruptly but calmly. She was seething inside and probably shaking, but if she kept moving, no one would notice. She would be damned if she let Claudel think he’d rattled her.

As she rounded the corner, she ran smack into Sawyer.

“Everything okay? You’re walking with a purpose there, Jess.”

“Oh. Sorry! I didn’t see you. Yeah. Everything’s fine,” she lied. There was no reason for Claudel to talk to Sawyer, but if he breathed a word of what he saw in the hallway, there would be hell to pay.

That made her nervous. Claudel hadn’t been told “no” by very many people in his life. Jessi was quite possibly the only one to do so. This time, she’d pissed him off. She wasn’t entirely sure what Claudel would do now.

“I’m heading to weights. You should know that I cut off the exposé thing with Claudel. He’s got enough footage, and I am really trying to focus on Canada now. It’s just getting to be a little too much. I told him to talk to Allie. She’ll work out the rest.”

Jessi decided to leave it at that. She didn’t want to tip him off. Sawyer would go off if he found out the underlying reasons for her decisions. He’d, of course, be furious with Claudel and cut off all access, which wouldn’t be good for the team in the long run. U.S. Swimming needed press, pure and simple. There were certainly bigger jerks than Claudel in the media business, and she could deal with this.

There was also a very good possibility she and Dalton could get some of the spillover of Sawyer’s wrath. He had specifically told them not to flaunt their relationship while she was training. Grabbing Dalton’s junk in the hallway was probably considered flaunting. She had no doubt Sawyer would fire Dalton—friend or no. Dalton would never forgive her, and Jessi was not ready for their...relationship...to end just yet.

“Lemaitre okay with that?” Sawyer asked a little dubiously.

“Probably not, but he’ll get over it. He’s a swimmer too. He understands. He’ll pout a bit, but he won’t push it.”

“All right. I’ll talk to Allie later today to see how things are going. If there’s an issue, I’ll handle it. You focus on getting your head where it needs to be. I’ll see you in weights in a sec.”

Dalton, Jessi knew, would not acquiesce so easily. He might, however, be too preoccupied with his job to do much about it. She lifted every weight that had anything to do with strengthening arms and then proceeded to do as many sit-ups as she could. She had been hoping that the session would end before she could make her way to legs, where Dalton was stationed. It did, but Dalton was on a mission and ruined her hopes for a non-conflict kind of afternoon.

“All right, guys. We’re done in here. Head to the caf for lunch. Pruitt, you need to finish up legs before you go.”

Once they were alone, Dalton let go of his composure.

“What did he say to you?” he demanded.

“Hey! Aren’t I supposed to be working on my legs? Questions like those throw me off focus.” Jessi smiled sweetly at him.

“Don’t dick around, Jessi. I saw the way he looked at you—and me. There is no way that prick didn’t give you a hard time.”

“And what if he did? It doesn’t matter—”

“If he said anything to you, I swear I’ll—”

Jessi reached up and cupped his check. His chiseled jaw tensed in her hand. “You’ll do what, Coach? Hit him? Threaten him? For better or worse, Claudel is in the media. You’d come out looking like the bad guy, and I don’t like that. Besides, Claudel doesn’t matter. Not to me and not to you. I took care of things. I won’t have to do any more interviews with him, so let’s just focus on Canada. I’m willing to focus on sex too, if you think that would stop you from grinding your teeth. I hear it’s relaxing.”

“Please,” Dalton said dismissively. He was still upset, but apparently willing to play along. “Sex with you is a lot of things: hot, sweaty, naughty. Sometimes even sweet, though you usually ruin that by biting me in some explicit place. What it is not, however, is relaxing.”

“Really? You seem to fall asleep pretty easily afterward.”

“Yeah, when I’m not pushed up against a broom or tripping over water buckets.”

“Hey,
I’m
the one who’s getting pushed up against things, and you don’t hear me complaining, do you?”

“No. No, I don’t. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you have a fetish for being pushed up against walls, Jessi Pruitt. Now stop being a smart ass. You really do need to work on legs, and that’s going to give me a boner as it is.”

Jessi giggled. It was going to hurt like hell when it was over, but despite the drama and the whole “illicit affair” thing, this was turning out to be the most fun she’d ever had in a relationship. In a life that had been full of hard work, she decided savor the moment.

Chapter 21

Jessi continued her schedule—and forced celibacy—for the next week. On Tuesday, Allie called her into her office.

“Hey, Jess, have a seat.” Allie had been shuffling through the cherry wood filing cabinet. It was one of those really nice ones that looked like furniture rather than office equipment. Allie was like that. Everything was polished and in place. Today, her thick, slightly wavy brown hair was billowing around her shoulders like a Pantene commercial. Jessi silently cursed the woman. She would give anything for a day without curls.

“I got a call from one of the local news stations. There are rumblings about unprofessional relationships between swimmers and coaches on the U.S. Team.

Jessi stomach dropped. “Since I’m sitting in your office, I assume those rumblings include stories about me.”

“Pretty much exclusively.”

“Huh.”

“Is there anything I should know about before I answer them?”

Jessi wasn’t ready to answer her yet. She had a few questions of her own first. “Does Sawyer know?”

“I haven’t been able to reach him yet. Just so you know, if this were any other situation, I’d come to you first, but this is Sawyer’s show. I’m responsible for his image too.”

“Of course.” Jessi had known going in things could get dicey. She’d gambled anyway—with Dalton’s job, Sawyer’s reputation, and, perhaps, her heart. It looked like the time to pay her dues had come. “If you could set up an appointment with Claudel Lemaitre, I think I can figure out just what is being said.”

“Okay. I can do that. Before I do, I need to know what is going on.”

Jessi bowed her head. This was going to be hard. “Allie, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. This is what I do. I’m not here to judge. I’m here to fix this. Now tell me Jessi, what is going on?”

“I’m sleeping with Dalton McKinney.”

Allie blew air out of her nose. “Okay. Who knows about this—other than you, Dalton, and apparently Claudel Lemaitre?”

“Sawyer knows too. But he thinks we put a hold on things until the Games are over.”

“Have you?”

“Yes. But Claudel saw me...doing things...with Dalton in the hallway.”

“What kind of things?”

Oh God, she didn’t want to elaborate. What had been fun and sneaky just turned tawdry and immature. “I was feeling him up.” She bit her lip and turned away, unable to look Allie in the eye.

“Was he doing anything to you?”

“No.”

“Clothes were in the right places?”

“Yes!”

“Jessi, I have to ask.”

“I was propositioning him, okay? Sawyer caught onto us. He said we had to stop. I didn’t think he had any business telling me how to handle my personal life, so I decided to take matters into my own hands...so to speak. Also, I...”

“Was horny,” Allie finished for her.

“Well, you’ve seen the man!”

Allie smirked. “Yes, I have. Again, I’m not here to judge you. I just need to make sure I have a handle on the situation.”

“That pretty much brings you up to speed. Claudel saw us and got upset. I took him to a separate room to talk. He said some crappy things. That’s when I pulled the plug on the interviews.”

Allie was silent for a moment. “Okay. This is how we’re going to proceed. We need to get Dalton and Sawyer up here. They need to be aware of the situation.”

“Allie, no. Sawyer will fire Dalton.”

“Actually, I don’t think he has grounds, based on what you’ve told me. You, on the other hand, might be guilty of sexual harassment—”

“
What
?”

“Jessi, I’m kidding. From the sound of things, it was pretty consensual groping.”

“Kind of,” Jessi grumbled.

“What?”

“Well, it’s just that Dalton was trying really hard to respect Sawyer’s mandate. He was uncomfortable with me coming on to him.”

“Good. That makes it easy to save his job. Besides, Sawyer isn’t going to blame Dalton for this. He might, however, be pretty upset with you.”

“I can handle that. It was my fault.”

“Okay then. I’m going to call the gentlemen now.”

Jessi cringed, then waited in agony as Dalton and Sawyer were tracked down. Dalton arrived first. He looked at Jessi, then fixed his gaze on Allie.

“What’s going on here?”

“Dalton, please have a seat.” Allie stood and motioned for him to sit in the chair next to Jessi. “We’re just waiting on Sawyer.”

“Really?” He looked at Jessi. “Anything you want to tell me before he gets here?”

Jessi looked up from her folded hands. “Claudel is leaking our relationship to the media.”

“I’ll fucking kill him.”

“Dalton, I’ll handle this,” Allie said in an authoritative voice. “He’ll be here this afternoon to meet with us. Nothing good will come from you flying off the handle.”

“Can he do this?” Jessi asked. “I mean, we weren’t doing anything. Isn’t there something against this?”

“Not officially. Other than common decency, there’s really nothing keeping him from reporting what he saw.”

“We know the man is running low on that,” Dalton replied dryly.

“Yes. But not on ego,” Allie pointed out. “We have things to broker with him. We just need to wait for Sawyer to make sure everyone is on board with whatever plan we come up with.”

Jessi looked over at Dalton. He stared straight ahead, looking furious. She reached her hand out to touch him, but he waved her off.

“Not now, Jessi,” he said gruffly.

She returned her hand to her lap and waited for Sawyer. Once he’d been tracked down, it didn’t take him long to arrive in Allie’s office. He walked through the door without sparing a glance for Dalton or Jessi.

“Sawyer, thanks for coming,” Allie said calmly. “Please, pull up a chair.”

“I’m fine, thanks.” He folded his arms over his chest.

“All right,” Allie began. “You’re aware that Dalton and Jessi have a relationship?”

Sawyer made a derisive noise in his throat, but didn’t say anything.

“Claudel Lemaitre got wind of their romance and is leaking it to various media outlets. So far, it’s mostly entertainment media, but it will spread. We need to put a spin on it before the story gains too much momentum.”

“Just how did he become aware of their relationship?” He gave Dalton and Jessi a dark look.

“He saw us in the hallway,” Dalton stated matter-of-factly.

“Goddamnit, McKinney! What the fuck did you not understand about keeping your hands off of her until the Games were over?”

“You’re right, Sawyer. There’s no question. If you’d like, I’ll resign.”

“What? No!” Jessi jumped up from her seat. “Sawyer, this was my fault. I pushed him against a wall...and stuff. He wasn’t even touching me. In fact, he told me to stop. Claudel just happened to walk by at that moment.”

Sawyer looked down at her dispassionately. Then he cut his eyes to Dalton. “Would you like to file a harassment suit?”

“Ah, no,” Dalton replied. “I’ll be fine.”

“Really, Sawyer? A harassment suit?”

“Yes, Jessi. At least one of us has to be serious here. There are a lot of ways this could go bad. I want to make sure U.S. Swimming is covered if it does. That’s my job. As a responsible grown up, I take my job seriously.”

Jessi stared at him in shocked silence. She’d never heard Sawyer talk like that to her. All she could see in his eyes was extreme disappointment. A tear fell down her cheek in embarrassment.