Team Niklas (The Saints Team #3) (5 page)

ME: Nite Ad. I love U 2. U R my
favorite ex-hubby

And then I put the phone on silent
and dropped back into bed. Six hours until morning.

Chapter 6

I had to bite the bullet and go and see The Russian—this
wasn’t going to be pretty. Given he was in charge of Saints’ security and I had
a media gathering today where Adam the ex-husband-photographer and Niklas the
Saints’ star recruit might both be present, ‘
Houston, we have a problem’
or
could have one.
The Daily
only said a photographer would be there, they couldn’t
say who. Of course Nik would be present in all his German glory, wearing his
Saints’ suit and glaring at me like I was the fish that tugged off his line and
swam away. I wasn’t sure Nik would restrain himself if he had a chance to
return the favor to Adam and smack him in the head. Seriously when did my life
become complicated again? I was doing so well only last week.

I rang
The Daily
again to
see if they could confirm who they were sending but the pictorial editor was
out. Damn him. I was just about to go in and see The Russian when Alice arrived
. She gave me a glance which said she had seen Nik
this morning.

“Morning
Sash and Kay.” She dumped her gear and fell onto her chair. “Okay, Sash, let’s
talk.”

I
grimaced.
Here it comes
.

“What
the hell did you do to my housemate now?” she asked.

Kay
drew a sharp breath. “Oh no, you didn’t have to call the doctor again for Nik?”

I
sighed. “If Nik could get it into his big, handsome, German head that I’m not
interested in men at the moment and stop dropping around to ask me out, he’d be
a lot safer,” I said.

But
wait there’s more, it gets better, because then The Russian stomped into our
office partition area—all imposing six-foot-five of him, blocking the light.

“Sasha,
we need to talk,” his voice boomed. “I just saw the Kaiser; you gave him a
black eye?” I saw a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Yeah,
ha ha. Kay and Alice gasped and my boss Jim appeared from around the corner on
hearing all the chatter.

“Sasha
couldn’t even reach his eye,” Jim contributed.

I
smiled gratefully. “Thank you, boss, you’re right, I didn’t give him a black
eye,” I said, as all heads turned back to look at me. “It’s complicated. I’ve
told Nik it’s better for his health to stay away but do you think he listens?
No, he dropped in and so did my ex-husband who just became my ex—he was
delivering the divorce papers and he took a swing at Nik because my ex is a
dickhead, then bolted so luckily Nik didn’t open fire, but I wasn’t expecting
either of them.” I stopped for breath.

“You’ve
been married before?” Alice said.

Before
I got a chance to cover that base, The Russian spoke up. He shook his head.
“Right, I’m going to have to ban him from going near you.”

“Yes,
please, that would be great,” I said.

“You
can’t stand in the way of true love, Russian,” Kay contributed, picking up her
tea and sipping it as though she was in the middle of watching a soap opera.

“I
agree,” Alice added, “you ban Nik from being near Sasha and all you will
achieve is making Sasha more desirable to him.”

“True,”
Jim piped in, “you always want what you can’t have until you get it, and then
it’s not such a big deal.”

“Hello,”
I said, aloud, “I’m sitting here! I’m not a German
Wiener
that Nik’s craving.” I shook my head.

“Wiener,
that’s a sausage isn’t it?” Kay asked.

I
sighed. “Russian, tell him to stay away, Kay it’s not true love and yes it is a
sausage, Alice, there’s plenty of groupies out there for Nik, and boss, I’m
going to go over and prepare for the media conference.”

I
heard Jim chuckling as I rose, grabbed my press kits, and departed to the media
room where we held a media briefing before home match days. It was in the
building next door and let me escape for a while so they could all talk about
true love and sausages without me present. I hadn’t given The Russian the full
picture and I would have to do that sooner rather than later. The media
conferences ran for about forty-five minutes at the most and the coach Johan
spoke along with a few of the players. It was great for me because I didn’t
have to set up ten separate interview times.

I
arrived at the room in the adjoining building, unlocked the room, turned on the
lights, cleaned the table at the front of the room and stuck four chairs behind
it. I put out some water glasses and a jug, propped the press kits near the
door and looked around. That was pretty much all that needed to be done. Usually
three or four players were required to the pre-match day press conferences so
the media could have access to them including Captain Lucas who had to be
there; they were rostered on to attend by Shayne and I knew Nik was one of them
this week. I opened a few of the windows and pulled back blinds to let the
natural light in. I glanced out through the window to the parking lot and saw
Nik’s SUV. He was here—probably inside showing everyone his bruised eye and
getting sympathy, poor baby. Next to his VW was Captain Lucas’s Ferrari and I
recognized our midfielder Josh’s Audi. Good, I like the lads to be here before
the media and not keep them waiting.

I
heard a noise and wheeled around. Nik was standing in the entrance way. My hand
went straight to my heart. “You scared the hell out of me,” I said, breathing
out.

He
smiled and walked towards me. His eyes were alight with interest, his smile
gorgeous and he walked with the confident air of a man who had it all—it was a
heady mix.
Not to mention t
hat man could
wear a suit—the Saints’ uniform was cut to perfection on him. Yep I’d like to
take that inside leg measurement. Hold up, I didn’t just say that... focus.

“Hello
Sah-sha, miss me? I’ve missed you,” he teased me with an engaging smile.
Was that a dimple? No, not fair.

I
held my hands up and ordered him to stop.

“Don’t
come a step closer, Niklas,” I warned him. He stopped on the spot; it constantly
surprised me how good he was at following orders.

Nik
held up his hands in frustration and looked around. “What could go wrong now?”

I
shook my head. “You’ve got a game this Sunday, we’re not tempting fate,” I
said. “You look very... presentable by the way.”

Nik
grinned, that beautiful white teeth grin from his lovely tanned face surrounded
by his gorgeous cropped blond hair... I’d love to slip my tongue between his
lips.

“Presentable?
That’s a new one for me,” he said. “And you
Sah-sha look delectable,” he
said, the word rolling off his tongue with his German lilt. “I love that dress
on you.”

“Thanks,” I said, looking
everywhere but at him. I was wearing a lightweight crepe, long-sleeved red dress
to below my knees with black leather boots. Not one of my own designs but one
of my personal faves that I had whipped up from a Vogue pattern. I had a
matching black velvet bowler hat in the office. He walked a step towards me and
I stepped back, hitting the desk. “Not a step further,” I warned him.

The Russian walked in. “I agree, Kaiser,
didn’t we just have that chat?”

Bless you Russian, you’re worth
every cent today, not most days, but today, yes.

Nik turned his blue eyes to The Russian.
I think they changed from passionate to blazing.

“Yes we did Russian, now fuck
off,” he said.

Mm, this wasn’t going as well as I
thought. The Russian smirked.

“Come on, Nik, it’s for your own safety,”
The Russian said using his name instead of his nickname to indicate the
seriousness of the situation, I’m guessing. He put a hand on Nik’s shoulder and
Nik flinched and moved away. The Russian held his hands up in a peace gesture.
What’s that about? The man looked as though he didn’t mind being touched last
night when he wanted me on his lap.

“If you want to talk to Sasha,
you’ll need to carry a first aid kit,” The Russian joked. “We had an
agreement.” The Russian was taking this security stuff seriously.

“I told you I’d do my best not to
thump the ex-husband, but I need to talk to Sah-sha,” Nik said, staring at me
with a look that said he was hungry.

“I’m really sorry about your eye,”
I said, again, looking at the dark bruising. “Maybe you shouldn’t be here;
you’re going to get questions about it.”

“It’s fine,” he said and came another
step towards me.

“Actually, after the ambulance
statement we had to put out earlier this week, I’m thinking you’re too risky to
have at this press conference now that you’ve got the black eye as well. I
should have thought of that first thing this morning,” I said, my stress levels
rising. I held my hand up for them both to wait and I quickly pressed a direct
dial number in my contacts.

Nik shook his head and crossed his
arms across his lovely suited chest.

“Sorry buddy,” The Russian was
saying to him.

“Shayne, it’s Sasha, oh good,” I
hung up.

“What was that?” Nik asked and I
pointed to the door where Shayne had just walked into the media room. He was in
the suit pants and a white shirt, carrying the tie and jacket. The media would
be arriving in about fifteen minutes and he had to set a good example.

“What’s up Sash?” Shayne asked, putting
his phone back in his pocket and slipping on his jacket; he was always so
supportive. “Hi lads,” he said taking in The Russian and Nik. Then he saw it.
“Fuck Nik, what happened to your eye?”

“I think he should leave,” I added
quickly, “especially since we had to release a statement from the doctor about
his health on Monday night.”

Nik looked as though he’d be
ganged up on. “I’m rostered to be here, it’s not like I requested it… I had to
come off the beach, shave and get changed.”

“I know and I really appreciate
you coming, I do, but…” I said, and looked to Shayne for his thoughts.

“For real?” Nik said, looking from
me to Shayne to The Russian. “Every one of us is sporting different injuries
every week, we’re professional athletes.”

“Yeah, but a black eye begs a few
questions,” I said.

“Sash is right,” Shayne said,
“it’s risky.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, you’ve got to
be kidding,” Nik said, turning his attention back to me as though the decision
was all mine. Then Doc arrived early. He was on hand to answer any player fitness
queries if Johan the coach asked him too. The Doc came up to us and addressed
Nik.

 “How are you feeling since
Monday?” and then he saw Nik’s black eye. “What the… that wasn’t there Monday
was it?” He looked at me.

Nik threw up his hands.

“Stay still,” Doc ordered him as
he studied Nik’s face. Nik brushed him off and glared at me with a look that
had nothing to do with undressing this time. I shrugged apologetically.

A camera crew strode in behind us
and Shayne winced seeing them. “Too late now, you’ll have to stay Nik.” He
nudged our group together. “Okay, so it’s just an injury from last weekend’s
game right? Unless your ex is likely to say something?”

I saw the Doc’s eyes widen as he
took in the reason for the black eye. Crap, all this shit was not good for my
career at the Saints.

I shook my head. “I don’t know for
sure that
The Daily
is sending him, but he won’t do anything stupid
while he’s working,” I said, and silently prayed to the god of idiot men that
he wouldn’t make me a liar.

“Nik, keep a low profile,” Shayne
ordered. “Russian, keep him out of trouble…”

Nik went to protest and Shayne
held up his hand and kept talking, “Sash, you stay on the opposite side of the
room from Nik, just to be safe.”

“Right,” I said. “Oh crap.” I
looked to the door where my ex, Adam entered with his camera gear and a
journalist from
The Daily
. Nik arced up, I literally saw him expand by
about three or four inches and not where you think.

“That him?” The Russian asked and
I nodded, placing my hand on Nik’s arm.

“Who?” Doc said, trying to catch
up. He and Shayne turned to look.

“Sasha’s ex-husband who took a
quick shot at Nik last night and gave him the black eye, then bolted before he
copped it,” The Russian finished.

“Well done, big mouth,” I said,
and frowned at The Russian whose lips turned up slightly in a smile. He was one
of the girls, our Russian, loved to be amongst the gossip.

Shayne ran his hand through his
hair. “Just gets better. Nik.. hey, Nik!” he snapped, trying to get his
attention.

“Shayne?” Nik frowned and turned
to look at him.

“Not one foot in that guy’s
direction, do you understand me?” Shayne ordered. “He’s not worth getting a
charge over, or missing out on the weekend game. Understood?”

Nik nodded, returning his gaze to
Adam, his eyes narrowing. The two locked looks and I saw Adam smile.
Fucking
fantastic, just what I need
.

Nik stepped towards him and the
wall that was The Russian blocked him.

“Get him out of here and hurry,”
Shayne ordered and The Russian got a hand around the back of Nik’s neck,
keeping it friendly looking, and directed him to a different exit to where the
media was entering. Both men were tall but The Russian had a lot more weight
behind him and the element of surprise with the speedy block.

The Russian got Nik clear of the
room in time and I watched the two argue as The Russian walked Nik to his car.
I breathed a sigh of relief and looked around to see Shayne watching over my
shoulder. Doc had wandered towards the media to distract them from the circus
we were staging behind them.