This Is True Love (Exclusive! #1) (13 page)

Amanda jogged—she actually
jogged
—into the building for a bathroom break. Fliss collapsed at the waist and clutched her knees. Her chest heaved with exertion, the air burning her lungs. Sweat trickled into places she really preferred it didn’t.

She raised her head and studied Alex. His T-shirt clung lovingly to his impressive chest. She would
not
be jealous of a T-shirt. His body still practically vibrated with tension like he hadn’t burned enough energy for three men. Obviously, beating her and Tim into the ground hadn’t improved his mood. He swigged from a bottle of water, the motion stretching the cotton of his shirt tight over broad shoulders.

He turned and caught her staring. “When Amanda gets back, we’ll play again.”

Yeah, no thanks, Mr. Hypercompetitive Man. “No need to wait,” she said with a bright smile. “Why don’t you and Pete play one-on-one? He was dying to play during our game, weren’t you, Pete?”

Pete glared at her, no doubt for throwing him to the wolf, but said, “Yeah.”

She accepted the bottle of water Tim handed her, hobbled over to lean against the building wall, and settled in to watch Alex again pretend he was Kobe Bryant in his prime. Although Pete had some admirable basketball skills of his own, the poor guy didn’t stand a chance against a fired-up Alex.

When Amanda returned, she glanced at Fliss, then made a left and sat in a patch of a grass near the court. With an undignified groan she was thrilled no one could hear, Fliss straightened and followed her. She eased down next to the other woman and stretched out her aching legs. “Hey, how are you doing?”

Amanda plucked a blade of grass out of the ground and studied it like it held the secrets of the universe. “Okay. Looks like they started without us.”

Fliss wasn’t an idiot. If she wanted to be charitable, Amanda was reserving judgment about her. If she wanted to be brutally honest, she’d say Amanda couldn’t stand her guts. But she liked people and that was simply unacceptable. “Yeah, they were ready to go, and I was way too tired to play again so soon. You’re good, by the way.”

“Thanks. I played in high school and college.”

“It showed. Pete’s pretty good, too.”

Amanda stiffened beside her. “I guess. They all are.”

Fliss tilted her head to the side, studying the men on the court. “Yeah, Tim’s a great passer and Alex can out-jump everyone and dunk like no one’s business, but you can’t beat Pete’s jump shot.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Amanda mash that poor piece of grass. “I guess.”

“How long have you been crushing on Pete?”

Amanda’s head whipped toward her, her ponytail flying behind her. “What are you talking about? I’m not
crushing
on Pete.”

Fliss made a face. “I don’t believe you. I saw you the other day when Pete and I were talking. You looked like someone stole your lunch money.”

“I. Did. Not,” Amanda said through clenched teeth.

Fliss sent a quick thank you heavenward that looks couldn’t actually kill or she’d be a steaming pile of ashes. “Sure you did, but I can see why. He’s cute, funny, and smart.”

“Then why don’t you go out with him? You’re free now. And he likes you.” Amanda plucked another blade of grass and tore it into bits.

“One, he’s not my type. Two, he doesn’t like me.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “Please. You’re Felicity Chambers. He flirts with you all the time.”

Fliss hitched a shoulder. “Eh. I can tell when a man is genuinely interested in me. He’s not. He flirts with me because he flirts with every woman who crosses his path. That’s it.”

Amanda’s shoulders slumped. “He doesn’t flirt with me.”

“Probably because you have neon lights above your head flashing ‘keep away, keep away.’ You need to flirt with him.”

The other woman shook her head. “He doesn’t think of me that way.”

So sad. So pitiful. Not on Fliss’s watch. Just because her love life was nonexistent, which was
not
a bad thing, by the way, that didn’t mean she wanted everyone else to suffer the same fate. “You’ve got to give him something to think about.”

“Easier said than done. I’ve never been good at that stuff.”

“You’re a smart woman. Alex wouldn’t have hired you otherwise. You’ll figure it out.” Fliss studied her. Smooth pecan skin, dark brown eyes with a heavy fringe of lashes. “You’re pretty, too. Pete won’t be able to resist that combination.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “If you say so.”

“I do, so say you’ll try.”

Amanda heaved a dramatic sigh. “You’re not going to give up until I agree, are you?”

“Nope.”

Amanda glared, but Fliss didn’t look away, refusing to be intimidated.

Finally, Amanda threw her hands up. “Okay, fine. I’ll try.”

Fliss clasped her hands together in delight. “Much better. I have no doubt that you’ll succeed.”

A shy smile bloomed across Amanda’s face. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Not a problem. I live to help.”

They watched Alex and Pete battle on the court in silence. Fliss hooted her approval when Pete stole the ball from Alex and went in for a dunk. She sent a cheery smile Alex’s way when he whirled toward her, his lips pressed tight.

“I guess I should apologize,” Amanda said. She tucked a strand of brown hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her right ear.

Fliss crossed her legs at the ankles. “For what? Thinking I was set on seducing Pete?”

“No, that made me sad, not mad.”

“Then what?”

“For thinking you were an airhead actress coming in to screw things up because you were bored and lonely after your divorce.” Amanda’s southern accent added a genteel panache to the insult.

Fliss snorted out a surprised laugh, then side-eyed the other woman. “Thanks for the honesty. Tell me how you really feel.”

“You’re welcome,” Amanda said with a sly smile. “Want another truth?”

“Why not? You’re on a roll.”

“You suck at basketball.”

“Aww, thanks. You’re just saying that because I blocked your shot.” Fliss patted Amanda’s leg. “It must be hard to be so short.”

“You mean when you grabbed my arm, which is against the rules. And I’m petite, not short.”

“Whatever. The shot didn’t go in. That’s all that matters.”

She met Amanda’s eyes, and they collapsed into giggles.

“Hey, Fliss,” Pete called out.

She shaded her eyes with a hand and turned to the court. “What’s up?”

“Alex beat me. You want to take another shot at him?” he asked with a smirk.

Not in this lifetime. Not with Alex still out for blood. Not when the memory of his body pressed against hers on the court was still burned on her brain.

“Nah, she’s good where she is,” Alex taunted before she could decline. “She can’t handle me.”

Fliss’s eyes narrowed, her competitive instincts overriding her good sense. She climbed to her feet, ignoring her protesting muscles, and stalked over to Alex. She grabbed the ball out of his hands. “Let’s go, smarty-pants. First to five points wins.”

Less than five minutes later, Alex was systematically backing her down toward the basket.

“What’s wrong, Alex? Afraid to shoot it against a girl?” She was talking smack, a dumb idea, but she didn’t care because he was toying with her. Again using his size to intimidate and dominate. He outweighed her by a good seventy pounds and had at least seven inches on her. All he had to do was turn around and shoot over her head. But she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Not when everyone’s eyes bored into her back, waiting to see what would happen next. She wanted their respect, and she wouldn’t earn it if she cowered to Alex.

“Of course not,” he tossed over his shoulder. “Especially since I’m winning.”

He led four to one. Game point. If he scored, game over. She refused to make it easy on him. She snuck a hand around his waist to strip the ball away. She missed her target, her palm sliding across his toned butt. The shorts, dampened by sweat, clung and molded in the most fascinating way. She couldn’t help herself. She pinched.

He leaped a foot in the air. When he landed, he turned and scowled. “Really?”

She snatched the ball away, dribbled to the very front of the basket, and made the easy shot.

“Fliss,” he said through gritted teeth.

She shrugged. “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. Four-two.”

He shot her a narrowed-eyed glance, grabbed the ball, and started backing her down again.

“What are we going to do about Phillip?” she asked.

“You want to talk about that now?” he tossed over his shoulder.

“Sure. We came out here to give our brains a chance to concentrate on something other than our immediate problems, but brains are funny organs. They’ve been trying to figure out the answer to our problem this whole time. So what is yours telling you?”

“Besides the fact that you’re crazy?”

“Ha ha. Oof,” she grunted when he backed her up another step. Her sneakers slid on the concrete, but she kept her balance. Sweat molded his shirt to the rippling muscles of his solid, wide back. Of their own accord, her eyes slid down to his truly amazing butt.
Focus, Fliss. And not on his butt
. “I’ve been thinking about where things started going wrong.”

“Me, too. As much as it pains me to admit it, I lost him when I started talking about how much money the movie was going to make.” He paused, shaking his head.

Now was her chance. She swiped again, but he blocked her hand with his right forearm.

“You’re right,” she said. “He wanted to know if we really understood his wife. We’ve got to show him that we know what made her tick. What made her special.”

“I agree, but how do we do that?” Alex turned to face her. He dribbled the ball with one hand and wiped the sweat off his forehead with the other. “We need to do something dramatic. Eye-catching.”

Fliss considered the question. A chill swept down her spine as an idea popped into her head. Should she voice it? What if he didn’t like it? Didn’t matter. If she was going to become a vital contributor to Crescendo and prove to him that she belonged, she needed to trust her business instincts. “We need to talk to the people who knew Farrah best.”

“Yes!” Alex’s eyes lit up. A huge, unreserved grin, the one that rarely made an appearance, stretched across his face. It stunned her, rendered her still. Made her wish it would never disappear. He leaped and stroked the ball through the net. “Game.”

CHAPTER NINE

Three days later, Alex opened the car door and scanned Fliss’s figure as she stepped out and joined him on the sidewalk. He pressed his lips together to hide his amusement at her attempt to dress down. Jeans and a purple button-down shirt were a good start, but it didn’t take a fashionista to note their high quality. Designer duds all the way.

She looked up at him. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Her eyes narrowed. “If you say so. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Today would go a long way to making or breaking their chances of winning the Farrah Blake movie sweepstakes. But being back in the Philadelphia neighborhood where he’d grown up was sending his stress levels, already high, skyrocketing.

“We got this.” She held out a balled hand, her lips curving into a confident smile.

He laughed and bumped fists with her. A sense of camaraderie had developed between them over the past few days as they planned the trip. They were both determined to succeed, and nothing would stand in their way. If he sometimes found himself distracted by the sweet curve of her lips, remembering how they tasted, remembering how her moans acted as a trigger to his desire, and lost track of what she was saying, well…well, nothing. He ordered himself to concentrate on business and moved on. Like he needed to do now.

He placed his hand at the small of her back, resolutely ignoring the spark of electricity that swept up his arm as soon as he touched her, and they walked up the front steps of the row house. Alex knocked on the door.

“Who is it?” a thin, reedy voiced called from inside the house.

“Alex Graham, ma’am.”

The lock turned, and a lady with gray hair styled into tight curls and a face full of wrinkles peered around the edge of the door. She stared at Alex, then craned her neck and inspected Fliss.

Alex held out his hand. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Burton. I’m Alex Graham and this is Felicity Chambers.”

The woman stared at his hand suspiciously before raising her gaze to study Fliss again. “Yes, I guess you look like the girl in the movies. I wasn’t sure you’d actually show up.” She stepped back and opened the door. “Come in.”

Alex exchanged a glance with Fliss before they followed Mrs. Burton inside the small house, which didn’t look like it had been redecorated since the eighties. Faded wallpaper patterned with green and yellow roses covered the walls. The wallpaper extended all the way into the living room and matched the green velvet sofa and love seat.