Team Niklas (The Saints Team #3) (2 page)

“I need to lie, bit dizzy,” he
mumbled. He held out his hand for the ice pack and I gave it to him and watched
as he pressed it against his face.

“Doc should know about this,” I
said, concerned, and with the quick reflexes Nik had developed from being a
central midfielder, he grabbed my wrist, assuming I was going off to call, when
I was really justifying my actions.

“It’s okay,” he said, and pulled
me down beside him. “Just stay next to me for a minute.”

I pulled away and grabbed the red
cotton blanket from the end of the sofa—another excellent color choice for the
occasion—and brought it up and over Nik to his waist given the ice was chilling
him. I sat on the ground beside him, watching him. I instinctively rubbed his back—I’m
very supportive of the ill—and scanned his face.

“How did this happen?” I asked.

He kept his eyes closed and shook
his head slightly. “Don’t know, it just did. It’ll be over in a minute.”

“Shh, just relax, you’re not going
anywhere,” I said. I’m sure he wanted to hear that earlier, not now when he was
groggy and bleeding. I noticed some scars on his chest. I hadn’t noticed them
before, maybe because his tattoos run over some of them, but I could see now
they were small and he had quite a few. Strange. Not the best time to ask him
about it while he was bleeding.

Ten minutes later, I heard the
buzzer to my apartment and jumped up to let Chris in. The team takes all player
injuries very seriously, especially when we’re talking the big contracted stars
like Nik. I showed him through to the guest room. Nik groaned on seeing him but
the doctor said I was right to call.

“It’s nothing,” Nik was muttering
to the doctor. “Sah-sha shouldn’t have bothered you.”

“Let me be the judge of that.
Sasha did the right thing,” Chris was saying. “Look at me, Nik.”

I left them alone while I went to
get Nik some water. He might be staying the night after all, in the guest room.
I doubted he could climb the stairs to my loft in his current condition and I’m
guessing he weighed more than I’ve ever pressed so I wouldn’t be carrying him.

When I got back, the doc had
righted him on the sofa and propped him up in sitting position, several of my
decorated pillows behind him. The colors in the guest room really were working
well for brides and nose bleeds; good to know I got that right. Nik was still a
bit pale and he accepted the water and drank. Doc was taking his blood
pressure. The next minute, there were two paramedics at the door and Nik was
going out on a gurney. He was protesting but looked groggy.

“Should I call anyone?” I said,
half to Nik and with a glance to the doc.

“No,” Nik answered quickly and
tried to rise.

Doc pushed him back on the gurney.
“Nik, I’ll meet you at the hospital. Just relax, you’re not getting out of going,”
he said, and gave the paramedics’ a nod.

 “Thanks for calling me,” Doc
said, turning to me.

“But what happened? Is it
serious?” I asked, watching them wheel Nik out.

 “His blood pressure is really low.
That’s probably why he’s dizzy. I suspect it’s nothing to worry about but they
can observe him overnight just to be on the safe side and release him in the
morning,” he said. “Sorry to ruin the date.”

I shook my head. “He came over to
get a suit adjusted.”

Doc gave me a look that said he
hadn’t heard that one before. I saw him out and went to clean up the room.

That was the third strange
encounter now with Niklas Wagner. If I was him, and for the good of his career,
I’d be keeping as far away from me as possible.

Chapter 2

I got to work around the usual time and walked into
the Saints administration office which was at their playing grounds. It made it
easier on match day if you forgot something, plus when the boys trained on the
oval some afternoons it was great to check their progress too—uh huh, well
that’s what we girls tell ourselves while we check out their form. I carried a
bag of Nik’s clothes with me; I kept the suit to adjust it but I had his jeans,
runners and sweatshirt to give to Alice to take home to him.

I walked past my boss’s office and
called out good morning. Jim, the Marketing Director, was great—mid-forties,
wiry, funny, and as bosses go, I got lucky. I got around the corner to the
partition area and stopped dead.

“What the…? Did I miss a meeting?”
I looked from Alice to Kay. Alice beat me in half of the time but Kay never,
ever beat me in. Kay was in her late thirties, a mom of two and a big lady—she
looked after the club memberships.

“School holidays darling,” she
said, with a grin. “The hubby has a week off too. I swanned out of the house
this morning as though I was in my early twenties and only had myself to worry
about,” she said, teasing us both.

“Holy crap, not sure I’ll recover
from the shock,” I said, hitting my chest to restart my heart. I turned to face
Alice. “And why are you here early?” I glanced at Miss Fashion-plate. I loved
my fashion designing but Alice just loved to shop. We were well placed opposite
each other in the office. She even surprised me once by ordering one of my
designs online under an alias and wearing it to a Saints’ function. She was a
good chick.

“I spent the night at Tom
á
s’s place,” she said of her Saint’s player and Latin lover
boyfriend, “… and he had training at six. So I’ve been up, done hot yoga,
showered, changed and here I am. I’ve done a day’s work already. I love your
hat,” Alice said, “truly suits you.”

“It’s the Parisian influence
today,” I said, patting it.

“Sasha always looks fabulous,” Kay
said. “I forget to notice. I’m so used to it.”

“Thanks you two, you’re too kind.”
I smiled and removed my small-brimmed cream-colored wool hat which just
happened to match my belt and shoes. I love hats and gloves; I wish women still
wore them every day, so I’m doing my bit to keep hats alive.

“Where’s the coffee van?” Jim
yelled from his office next door to us. It didn’t require an answer, he yelled
random things often during the day and we had learned to ignore him.

I sighed and sank behind my desk, stretched
down my navy and cream striped, ribbed top and spread out my short pleated navy
skirt so I didn’t crease it too much—so tricky sitting in pleats.

“Now Sasha, down to business… what
did you do to my housemate last night?” Alice frowned. “Nik still wasn’t home
when I left.” She gave me a sly look. “Did you have a good night?”

I logged into my computer before
looking over at her. I could feel Kay was waiting in suspended animation for my
answer too.

Alice didn’t know Nik had already
asked me out to dinner on Friday night and she was still working at getting us
together. I should put her out of her misery, but it was more fun playing her
along.

“As obvious as your attempts are to
set us up, Alice my dear,” I said in the most formal accent I could muster for
the occasion, “we did not have a lovely romantic night together. Even though
for some, adjusting a tall, handsome, fit man’s suit could count for foreplay,
especially taking an inside leg measurement, that wasn’t the case last night.”
I held up a bag of clothes. “Speaking of which can you give these back to Nik
please?”

I saw Kay reach for a piece of paper
to fan herself and Alice just looked bewildered.

“If he didn’t stay the night and
you have his clothes, where is he and is he naked?” Alice looked seriously
worried now, as though I would kick Nik out on the street in nothing… imagine
the stampede.

Before I could respond, we all
stopped to pause as we heard the familiar loud footsteps of The Russian coming
en-route to his office next door to ours where the Saints’ forward ran his
business—
Security Saints
. I’m pretty sure The Russian’s business partner
and Saint’s defender Eddie Mosley did most of the work.

“Where’s the coffee van?” The
Russian asked, all six-foot-five of him stomping past.

“Morning Russian,” Alice and Kay
said in unison.

“Gee Russian, good to see you.
I’ll place a call and find out where the hell she is since you’re now in,” I
said. I had such a big mouth.

I saw his lips twitch into a smile
or a smirk, it could go either way really—The Russian was very hard to read.

“Morning ladies. By the way Sasha,
I picked up Nik from outpatients this morning after I brought some clothes up
for him to wear home. You need to be a bit gentler with the Kaiser in future.” He
strode off this time with a definite sneaky smile on his face.

“What happened?” Alice asked.

“Thank God,” Jim yelled out and I
guessed what that was about. I turned to glance out the window as the coffee
van pulled in.

“Coming?” I asked Alice. I jumped
up, and spent a few minutes getting Kay
and Jim’s order
to avoid the Spanish inquisition—or in this instance the German inquisition—as
Alice followed me out of the office to the van to help with the team’s coffee
hit. For the love of coffee, The Russian was in front of me in the queue again.
He gave me another smile.

 “How did you get in front of me?
You didn’t even pass my desk!” I wailed. Every single time he beat me to the
van, and it was infuriating. “You suck, Russian,” I told him, which just made
him laugh.

“I just happened to have walked
around to see Shayne when it arrived, which is very close to the exit.” He gave
me a satisfied look.

 “I’ll be verifying that story
Russian,” I told him. Shayne the football manager and I worked closely
together, so he’d spill. Alice and I suspected that The Russian got a
pre-arrival text from the coffee lady herself. Somehow he’d charmed her into it—I’m
a journalist, I’m not letting this go, I will investigate; I have my ways.

As we waited in line we heard the
familiar sound of a motorbike and Alice’s face lit up as Tomás arrived on his
black Ducati, looking divine in leather. This job was so hard—so hard to
concentrate on the real work at hand—which reminded me I had a couple of press
releases to write this morning and I had to wash down some media speculation
about Niklas arriving in an ambulance to emergency last night. Damn him for
making work for me.

Tomás parked his bike, turned it
off and walked towards us, saying hello to The Russian at the start of the queue
until he got six places down farther to us.

“Al...iss, long time no see,” he
teased her, his hand going to her shoulder. He wasn’t allowed to kiss her at
work—Alice was new and she was keen on keeping up professional standards. I’d
been there a while now so whatever, they knew me.

Tomás noticed me next. “Hello Sass…sha.”

“Morning Tomás,” I said, smiling
at his lovely sexy pronunciation of my name in his Spanish tongue. We moved one
place forward again in the coffee queue.

“I heard you put the Kaiser in
hospital last night,” he said, and made a tsk sound with that very same tongue.
“You’ll have to go softer on him from now on, he’s not as tough as me or The
Russian,” he said, as The Russian walked down the line towards us with coffee
in hand.

“What happened?” Alice asked again,
turning her attention to me.

Tomás grinned. “Got to see Shayne.
I’ll catch you on the way out bella,” he said to Alice, and walked into the
building with The Russian.

I shook my head. And just to make
my day, guess who pulled in to our parking lot next in his navy blue VW sports
utility with his surf board strapped to the roof racks? Yep the sickie himself,
Nik. Just kill me now… I glanced to the office to gauge whether I could get
back in there before he alighted. No such luck. He got out of his vehicle and I
had to hand it to him, he looked good, really good. He must have gone straight
from the hospital home to change and to the beach—he had red-print board shorts
on, a gray loose long-sleeve t-shirt and white sneakers. His short hair looked
ruffled where it had enough length to hold the sand and sea. He looked good
enough to lick. He greeted the remaining five office staff in front of us
ordering coffee and stopped in front of Alice and me.

Alice looked up at him, squinting
her eyes. “I just heard you were in hospital last night. I thought you were sleeping
over at Sasha’s… are you okay?”

“I’m fine, it was nothing.” He
smiled at her and then turned to me. “Hello Sah-sha, sorry about last night. I
promise to do better next time.”

I grimaced, knowing the remaining
office staff in the line would all think we were on.

“It wasn’t a date, so no big deal,”
I said, with a shrug. “But yeah, most guys don’t bleed for me.”

“I like to go that extra mile,” he
said. His tongue licked his lower lip and it was all I could do to not knock
him to the ground and suck it. Alice nudged me back to reality, as the queue
moved up closer to the prize coffee machine.

“Nik, if I were you, I’d get right
away from me… we’re about to enter the boiling milk zone.”

He shuddered, held up his hands
and stepped back.

“I’ve got to catch up with Doc,
but I’m telling you Sah-sha, we’re not jinxed,” he said. “Friday?”

“Mm,” I said. “Maybe.”

“Come on, really?” He extended his
hands in front of him. Then he must have remembered where we were and that we
weren’t alone.

“We’ll talk,” he said with a
departing look. It sounded more like an order than a request.

I saluted and clicked my heels
together.

Nik glanced back. “I saw that.” He
waved a finger at me as he entered our reception area.

Alice laughed beside me and then
hit my arm. “You didn’t tell me you had a date with Nik?”

“Didn’t I?” I frowned. “Mm, must
have slipped my mind. Besides, I haven’t said yes to the date yet, I’m thinking
about it.”

“You’re a strange one Sasha,” she
said, narrowing her eyes at me.

 Brenda, the CEO’s personal
assistant who was ahead of me in the queue, had turned to watch Nik enter the
building. She touched my arm. “Wild beasts would have to keep me from a date
with Niklas, oh my he’s something,” she said.

“We haven’t had wild beasts attack
yet, but don’t tempt fate, Brenda,” I warned her and she laughed. “Can you make
mine a double shot please?” I asked Wendy our coffee van lady as I finally
arrived at the top of the queue. I gave her Kay and Jim’s order too. Then I
went back to thinking about Nik. It’s a good thing he is gorgeous or I’d make
that suit so tight in all the wrong places he’d never sit comfortably. I smiled
at the wicked thought; good grief, what was wrong with me?

*****

Back at my desk, I drummed up a statement that
diffused any rumors about Nik being taken to the hospital overnight—a flat
comment from the football manager just to shut it down. Then I whipped up a
press release promoting this Sunday’s game which included information on the
Saints, our current injury list, the Chicago Cats that we were playing against,
how many times we’d won and lost against them in the last five years and other
bits and pieces. I would send it out today to get interviews and interest for
the week kicked off, and then send an updated version again on Friday with the
current team list for the weekend.

I swanned around to see Shayne who
signs off on my press releases and he had Nik, Tomás, and young striker Harry
in his office. Lucky bastard. I waved the paper at him and told him I would
come back. I could feel the eyes of all three men observing me, especially Nik
who had an expression on his face as though he knew me better today having been
in my apartment... maybe he did.

“Hey Sash, all good, leave them
with me and I’ll get them back to you in thirty minutes,” Shayne said. Ah
Shayne, so lovely—a former player who was still great eye candy and so sweet. I
smiled and thanked him, pushing my way through the wall of muscled men in his
office. I could barely squeeze in or squeeze out. The workplace hazards I had
to put up with; it was disgraceful. Inching my way out, I returned to my side
of the building and flagged with Jim that I was whipping over to do a quick
stock take of merchandise. We might need some new stock before the weekend’s
game—well that was my story, I really just needed to breathe some air that Nik
wasn’t sucking in at the same time. Plus, I didn’t want a date debate in the
office. This way, I would be out of the office if Nik did a loop past looking
for me. I’m brilliant the way I come up with solutions sometimes.

As I did my stock take, I thought
about Niklas Wagner—he was like a dog with a bone. I wasn’t convinced he really
was that interested me. Hell, he could have his choice of women. I think he couldn’t
understand why I wasn’t falling at his feet so he had to keep gnawing away at me.
If he could conquer me, so to speak, he’d probably lose interest.
Good luck
buddy because I’m onto you and frankly, I’m busy.

I didn’t want to go out with a
player and I needed another bossy boyfriend like I need another pair of black
high heels—you know how it is, certain heel lengths suit some outfits better, hell
I must have at least eight pairs. Is that too many? I must ask Alice.

I was doing just fine at the
moment, enjoying my space, loving my Saints’ work, having time to design and
sew after hours and feeling good about myself. I didn’t have time for a guy. Yep,
I was just where I wanted to be—feeling on top, in charge, focused, and happy. Just
had to get Nik out of my head since he’d somehow managed to work his way in
there. Damn that hot body, sexy smile, crystal blue eyes and big dick! Yep,
doing a great job of not thinking about him.