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Authors: Joy Fulcher

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BOOK: The Playboy's Princess
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“Where did she go to school?”

Shit. He didn’t know
anything
about Jade or her life. He had her cell phone number and an address in the valley, but apart from that, he knew nothing about her. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to get more information. The conversations they’d had on the phone hadn’t really gone into much personal detail, concentrating more on setting up the plan than getting to know each other.

“Ahhh…we’ve only just met, so I don’t know much about her yet,” he said honestly.

“Oh, well, I’d love to meet her,” Laura pushed.

“When the time is right. Just let me get to know her and see if it’s something that might turn into a relationship. There’s no point in you meeting her if we only have one date and don’t like each other.” He knew he couldn’t seem too eager. He’d never brought a girl home before because there had never been anyone he’d been interested in longer than a few dates. He needed to make sure he wasn’t acting out of character, or his parents would be suspicious.

“I suppose you’re right.” Laura sighed. “I just want to see you happy, Andrew. I want you to know love.”

“Well, maybe this girl is the one,” he said, smiling.

His mother patted his knee and nodded her head. “I hope so. May I tell your father?”

“Sure,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “But there’s not much to tell yet.”

His father was going to have to find out about Jade some time, so it didn’t matter if it was sooner rather than later. And, to be honest, Drew would rather not have to tell him himself, because he knew the mocking look he would get. His dad would assume Jade was just another girl that Drew was only semi-interested in and wouldn’t take it seriously.

Well, Drew would show him. In a few months, they would be married, and Drew would have access to his own money. But, up until that point, he still had to support himself, and that meant charity work. He’d tried his best to think of something he could do, but working in a soup kitchen or volunteering at a church weren’t really things that would hold his interest. He knew his mom would have some advice as she’d been doing charity work for years, and he’d been waiting for some time to bring it up.

“Mom, can I talk to you about something?”

“Of course, honey,” she replied, her hand still on his knee.

“Dad suggested I do some charity work, and I wanted your opinion on what I should do.”

“Well,” she said, titling her head. “There are lots of different things you could do. I do charity work for homeless youths mostly, but I’ve also done fundraisers for AIDS research and animal shelters. The key is to find something you enjoy doing and see if you can find a way to help someone by doing it. You know, I believe many of the high schools take on volunteer sports coaches. Would that interest you?”

“That sounds perfect,” Drew said, liking the idea. It wouldn’t even feel like working. Sports was something he could definitely help kids with.

“I think I actually heard of a school in south LA that’s looking for a basketball coach. I could put in a call for you if you’d like.”

“That would be great, Mom!” He kissed her cheek and stood up. “I think I’m going to have an early night.”

“Good night, dear. Oh, and Drew?” Laura called as he walked down the hallway toward the large mahogany staircase that lead up to the wing of the house where his bedroom was.

He stopped and turned back to look at her, cocking an eyebrow in question.

“I have a good feeling about this Jade.” She smiled.

“Me too.” He laughed as he made his way upstairs.

After a quick shower, Drew pulled on a pair of old sweat pants and lay down on his bed. He hadn’t been able to get Jade out of his head. It was a conflicting feeling. Part of him was happy about that; it would make their ruse all the more realistic, but at the same time, he didn’t want to
actually
develop feelings for her. Yes, they would be married, but they had to keep it professional. The last thing they needed was for either of them to develop feelings and ruin the whole plan.

No, he would make sure this stayed a business arrangement. It shouldn’t be too hard; all they had to do was stay focused.

He wiggled down into a more comfortable position on the bed and closed his eyes. His mother would probably have arranged for him to start
work
by tomorrow, so he wanted to get in as much sleep as he could.

Hours later, he rolled over, and his arm slipped around something warm and soft. He half-opened his eyes and saw a large mess of red curls. Breathing in deeply, he recognized Jade’s sweet scent and smiled.

“Jade,” he breathed softly as he snuggled in closer to her back.

His fingers traced figure eights on the silky skin of her stomach as he lightly peppered kisses on the back of her neck. She hummed in contentment, reaching her hand back to run her fingers through his hair. Arousal swept through his body, and his hands traveled up her torso to lightly stroke the underside of her bare breasts.

Jade pushed her hips back against his hardening length, causing him to hiss at the contact. Drew had no idea how she’d gotten into his bedroom, but he wasn’t going to fight it. She seemed to be as into this as he was, and they could just put it down as a bonding exercise.

“You like that?” She laughed as she wiggled her hips over his cock, causing more friction than he was ready for, and he let out a soft grunt.

“Shhh, don’t wake the baby,” she whispered as she rolled over to face him, her eyes seeing right into his soul as she sleepily smiled back at him.

“Baby?” Drew questioned, confused.

“Margaret…our daughter,” Jade said slowly. “What’s up with you?” Her hands gently cupped his face.

Drew froze. They had a daughter…named Margaret, after his grandmother? He didn’t remember that, and come to think of it, he didn’t remember Jade coming into bed either, let alone her being naked.

Drew looked around the room as the soft dawn light filtered through the windows. They weren’t in his parents’ house. From the look of it, they were lying in Gran’s bedroom in the house she’d left him. How had they gotten there?

He broke out of Jade’s grasp and sat up. Suddenly everything went dark. He blinked a few times and looked around the room again. He was back in his own room at his parents’ house. He turned to look down at the bed, but Jade was nowhere to be seen. The only remnant of her being in the bed was the throbbing erection in his lap.

He groaned loudly and fell back onto the pillow, swinging his arm over his eyes. The dream was so intense and realistic that he could still slightly smell her in the air. He had to put a stop to dreams like that right away.

A shrill whistle blew from across the court, and Drew jumped. He was usually comfortable in basketball courts, but that was when he was playing with his friends and the only pressure was to win. Now he had a group of young boys staring him down.

“Okay, guys, this is Drew. He’s going to be coaching you for the rest of the season. Let’s all give him a huge Tigers welcome!” the teacher called with more enthusiasm than should be legal.

The boys all stared at their new coach. None of them looked impressed.

“Uh…hi?” Drew said, feeling like an idiot. He had no idea how to talk to kids.

“What a dick!” a young blond boy scoffed, and the rest of the group started to laugh.

Drew noticed one boy in particular who stood back from the others a little. He was tall and looked to be about sixteen years old. His shiny black hair was tied back in a loose ponytail, and his clothes were ratty and slightly too big for him—like hand-me-downs. In fact, when Drew looked around, all the boys appeared to be wearing second-hand clothes.

“Let’s get started,” he said, trying to put as much authority in his voice as he could, and pointed at them. “You, you, and you are on one team, and you, you, and you are on the other. Go!”

They all stood around for a minute, looking at each other as if deciding whether or not they were going to accept Drew as their coach. He knew he would have to take some action if he was going to lead these boys, so he grabbed the ball, dribbled it up to the hoop and did a slam dunk.

“Are you ladies coming or what?” he yelled.

All the boys smiled at each other and raced out onto the court. The teacher nodded and clapped Drew on the back before handing him the whistle and heading back into one of the classrooms.

The game began, and Drew had to admit those boys could play. He was sure if he was up against them, he would have to play at his best to win. He had to break up two almost-fights, and he blew his whistle more times than he could count for traveling and contact. Those boys played rough, but they were good.

As the sun started to set, Drew began to get tired. His shirt was soaked with sweat, and he could feel it clinging to his back. All he wanted to do was go home and take a shower. He looked at his watch and saw it was almost six. They’d started playing straight after school at three, so that was three hours of coaching—not too bad for his first day.

He blew the whistle loudly to get everyone’s attention.

“Okay, next hoop wins!” he said loudly. Luckily the game was tied, so it made the boys play even harder, trying to get that final basket.

Drew ran up and down the court as the ball was thrown from one end to the other and back again. The blond boy who had called him a dick threw the ball hard, trying to get it to one of his teammates at the other end of the court. The ball flew over the hoop, past the fence and out onto the street.

“Ouch!” a woman yelled, and everyone on the court froze.

“Shit. You hit someone, Dave,” one of the boys said.

The tall boy with the black ponytail raced out to collect the ball, and Drew followed him, ready to apologize to the poor woman. When he got outside the fence, he was stunned to see Jade standing there, rubbing her head and talking to the boy.

“Jade?” he asked.

“Drew?” she replied, sounding just as shocked as he felt.

“Are you okay?” he asked. He reached out to her, but pulled his hand back.

“Yeah. I’m fine. I’ll probably have a headache, but I’m not injured,” she explained as she continued to rub her head.

“We’re really sorry,” the kid said as he took the ball and ran back onto the court.

“What are you doing here?” Drew asked her, wondering if she was there to see him.

“I live just down there.” She pointed down the street.

“Oh. I’m coaching basketball here now. Hey, what are you doing tonight?”

“Apart from holding an icepack to my head?” she said with a warm smile. “I’m meeting some friends for a late dinner, but I have some time before that.”

“If you don’t mind waiting for a few minutes, I’d love to walk you home so we can get to know each other a bit more.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” she said and followed him into the school grounds.

Drew pointed to the bleachers around the court and asked her to take a seat while he packed up. When he got back over to the group of boys, they were all laughing and staring at Jade. One of them whistled as Drew got closer.

“Is that your woman?” the whistler asked.

Drew looked over his shoulder at Jade and then turned back to the boys.

“Yes, that’s my girl,” he said, smiling. It was surprising how nice it was to say out loud.

“She’s a slam dunk, coach!” Dave said loudly.

All the boys started wolf-whistling and making obscene gestures in Jade’s direction. Drew was surprised by how much it bothered him.

“Okay, that’s enough. Dave, you just scored yourself pack-up duty. Gather up the balls and make sure they get put away in the sports shed. I’ll see you all at three tomorrow.”

The boys all nodded and cheered—all except Dave, who grumbled as he collected the scattered basketballs lying around the court.

Drew turned to walk over to Jade but noticed one boy not joining in on the horseplay with the other kids. The tall boy with the black ponytail that Drew thought held a lot of promise kept his distance from the others. He walked slowly toward the gate and paused to let a group of the boys pass him. Drew wondered why he wasn’t fitting in.

“Hey, kid,” he called out.

BOOK: The Playboy's Princess
6.06Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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