Player's Ultimatum (22 page)

Of course time would tell, but she’d be back in the states before she started to show.

Instead of pul ing in the garage, Yvonne parked the car in the driveway. She only needed to run in and grab the measurements for the new wal unit Robbie wanted in the media room. When her door was suddenly snatched open, she jumped.

“Surprised to see me?”

Yvonne was a lit le more than surprised to see Paulo. She was downright fearful. There could only be one reason why he was here. She decided to clear the air.

“I guess you’ve heard about the baby rumors?” she asked as she stepped down from the car. “Wel you have nothing to worry about. Your future is stil intact. The baby’s not yours.”

Paulo pressed her up against the side of the car. His body molded against hers and she gasped. “How can you be so sure, the baby’s not mine? The last time we had sex, you slapped the shit out of me because I didn’t use a condom.”

“You’re right, but I conceived before us. I’m due at the end of October. So it can’t possibly be yours.” Yvonne regretted the lie the moment it passed her lips, but she’d already made up her mind about raising her baby on her own.

Paulo let her go as if touching her burned. Yvonne’s heart broke over the obvious rejection. Still, she strengthened her resolve to raise her baby alone.

“Congratulations,” he ground out as if speaking were suddenly a challenge.

Apparently struck with the same malady, Yvonne could only nod.

“I…I,” he paused to rake his hands through his hair. His lips moved but then he pressed them together with finality. “I better go before I say something I regret. I’l see myself out.”

Paolo stood there a moment longer and then he turned around.

Yvonne waited until he disappeared through a side door to the left of the gate wall to break down in tears.

* * * * *

“I’m going to burn in hel .”

“You’re not going to burn in hel .” Lying next to her on the bed, Robbie stretched his arms over his head. “He brought it on himself.”

“But you should have seen his face. What I did wasn’t right.”

Robbie turned over onto his stomach and looked at her. “Then why lie?”

“I lied to protect you Robbie.”

“Are you sure you did it for me, and not out of anger. Remember, he manipulated and blackmailed you.”

“No…I-I don’t know. Arrgghh!” Yvonne grabbed the nearest pillow and placed it over her head. A second later Robbie snatched it away. “I didn’t tell him because I was afraid of his reaction. So I beat him to the punch.” Robbie tossed the pil ow over his shoulder. “Afraid? He helped you create the lit le tadpole didn’t he?” Yvonne rolled her eyes. “I was afraid he wouldn’t me and the baby. And I couldn’t take that Robbie. Seeing him on a continual basis and…”

“And what?”

Yvonne turned away. “Nothing.”

“Dang girl you got it bad for him, don’t you?”

Yvonne frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You’re in love with him.” Robbie held up his hand when Yvonne opened her mouth to object. “You can’t fool me. You know I know you.”

Yvonne looked down at the bedspread, then back at him. “What am I going to do Robbie?

“As soon as the European Cup is over, you and I are going to meet with Paulo and tel him the whole thing. I’m pret y sure he won’t run to the media because we have a huge bargaining chip. You’re carrying his baby.”

* * * * *

“Hey, honey. I just called to tell you the team got here safe and I’m heading up to my room. Don’t worry about cal ing me back, you need your rest.”

Robbie sent the voice message then fished in his pocket for his room key. Once inside, he threw his sport bag on the floor. He grabbed the “welcome” basket off the bureau and began rifling through the contents.

The pre-game swag contained a dark chocolate and fresh fruits, but to his amazement, he fished out a pair of designer aviator shades, along with a brand new cell phone and wireless headphones. Making the finals at the European Cup was worth the perks alone.

Wanting to see what goodies his teammates scored, Robbie jumped up and knocked on the adjoining guest room door. When the door opened, Paolo stood on the other side wearing the free set of wireless headphones on his head.

“Hey. .um. .I.” At a loss of words, Robbie pointed over to the basket tossed on the bed.
Why was he so nervous?
He wasn’t carrying the guy’s baby. “Just wondering if you got the same basket I did.” When Paulo pulled off the headphones, Robbie noticed his hardened expression and how his normal y clean shaven appearance needed some help. The man looked as if he hadn’t shaved in days. Stil , Robbie could definitely see his appeal.

Paolo Saito possessed a dark, exotic handsomeness that could make both men and women swoon.

“Al the players on both teams receive them. It’s cheap advertising.” Robbie nodded still shocked he and Paolo had adjoining rooms. He was about to ask how he was doing, since he felt bad for the guy, but someone knocked at his door.

“I better let you go. You have a visitor.” Paulo stepped back and shut the adjoining door between their rooms. Feeling somewhat uncomfortable, Robbie walked over to his room door and answered it.

“Hey babyyy!” Chris purred, sliding through the door. Robbie barely had the door shut, before his boyfriend wrapped his arms around him and started kissing him al over his neck and pawing at his t-shirt. Starved for male attention since his absence, Robbie melted into him.

“Wha-what are you doing here?” he asked. Suddenly remembering his precarious position, he pulled Chris’s arms from around his neck.

“I’m here to support my man! Isn’t this a great surprise? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Both,” Robbie admitted, al owing his boyfriend of three years to pul him back into his arms. “But you have to go.” Chris didn’t let go. And as the taller and heavier one of the either of them, Robbie couldn’t make him budge. “Why can’t we play awhile?” Chris leaned in to whisper in his ear, ful y wel knowing it was one of Robbie’s weak spots. “Your match isn’t until Thursday. Don’t you miss me?”

Robbie groaned. He missed Chris more than life itself. Giving in, Robbie placed his arm around Chris’s waist and cocked his head to welcome him properly.

“What the fu—”

Robbie released Chris so quickly, his lover fel onto the bed, face first. “I-I…damn I was just wondering if you wanted to go downstairs for something to eat,” Paolo rushed to explain his sudden appearance at the door between their rooms.

Robbie noted Paulo’s confusion
. Who wouldn’t be if you thought your teammate was straight and engaged.
And here he was in his hotel room with another man’s tongue almost down his throat. It was time to come clean.

Before Robbie could explain, Paulo walked over to him and punched him in the jaw, sending Robbie sprawling on top of Chris.

“I thought I was a bastard. Tel Yvonne or I wil ,” he warned, “I wil not al ow you to hurt her like I did.” Paolo turned around and slammed the door between their rooms. Robbie waited to hear the lock catch, it didn’t.

Seeing this as an opening, Robbie shooed Chris out of the room with promises he’d see him later, then he walked into Paolo’s room.

“I need to talk to you about what you just saw. Chris and I have been together for three years. Yvonne isn’t really my fiancée.

She’s my best friend. I paid her to sit out her last semester of graduate school to come over here and playhouse so I can ink a lucrative contract with
Roma Internazionale
. I know you must be shocked and I ful y understand.”

“I’m not shocked. I’m angry, and it’s all self-directed.” Paulo sat down heavily on the bed and raked his hand over his mouth.

“I’ve caused al of this. Earlier in the season, I hired a photographer to fol ow you. I thought you were the reason João committed suicide. I was too short-sighted to see he’d been suffering from depression long before you earned your spot on the soccer team.”

“Seeing you with your lover, I now realize the rumors that dogged you were the very same ones that made João’s life a living hel . Instead of being his best friend, and accepting him when he came out, I turned my back on him. I helped him put a gun in his mouth.”

Dazed by Paolo’s confession, Robbie sat on the other end of the bed.

“I’m pret y sure my foolishness made your life and Yvonne’s a living hel .” Robbie shrugged. “It hasn’t been al bad. I love having Yvonne around.”

“I do too.” Robbie noted the inflection in Paolo’s voice. Seems Yvonne wasn’t the only one who had it bad.

“What do you plan to do about Yvonne and the baby she’s carrying? I’m sure you know by now it’s yours.”

“I’m going to marry her
if
she’ll have me.” Paulo rubbed the back of his neck. “But there is something I need to take care of first. I’d appreciate your silence on the matter.”

“My lips are sealed.” Robbie pretended to lock his lips.

Paolo grinned at his antics and Robbie’s libido responded.

Too bad he was her best friend’s baby daddy.

*****

Yvonne shifted uncomfortably. She was hot, jet lagged and suffering from morning sickness. To top it off she’d been stuck in her arena seat for the past hour and a half in order to beat the crush.

“Your flight from Rome over must have been hel . You look like you want to spew chunks.” Keitha patted Yvonne’s hand sympathetical y.

“We hit quite a bit of turbulence. At least I’m prepared, if I do.” Yvonne held up one of six sick bags she took from the airplane.

“The only time I got that sick was with my four pregnancies.”

“Four?”

Yvonne eyed Keitha’s wil owy frame and doubted she ever carried one not four. Maybe she had gerbils because she had the figure of a sixteen year old. She on the other already looked like she was carrying a smal bowling bal . One of the reasons why she’d started flowing shawls and bil owy dresses.

“I carried four. I might not look it, but I did and I gained more than sixty pounds with each of them. The weight is of no concern once you bring a lit le one into the world. You’l see. If you love Robbie as much as I love Freddy, you’ll want to have as many as I did.”

Highly doubtful, Yvonne mused as she turned her attention to an arena awash with a sea of yel ow, green, red and black.

Unless Robbie and Chris wanted her to be a surrogate mother, this would be her first and last pregnancy. She and morning sickness were not seeing eye-to-eye.

Thoughts of the future and her present morning sickness gave way to excitement. The crowd had come to its feet to cheer on the final two teams of the European Cup as they jockeyed onto the field.

Yvonne’s eyes locked onto Paulo. She hadn’t seen him since their confrontation three weeks ago. He hadn’t changed much.

He was stil handsome as ever. And he seemed no worse for wear after their last meeting because he laughed and joked around as the team ran through their warm-up dril s.

Eventual y, Paulo and Freddy met the captain and co-captain of the Barcelona team in the center of the field. While they exchanged what passed for handshakes, the referee threw a coin into the air and let it drop onto the pitch. Al of them eagerly looked to the coin to see who would be given the ball first. The Barcelona captain’s arms shot in the air. It was safe to say they’d won the toss.

Seconds before kick-off, the volume in the stadium rose to an almost deafening level of clamoring cow bel s and fog horns. It only increased when Paolo and his teammates lined up facing Barcelona. The bal was released and like horses in a gate, they charged toward each other.

The tackles flew in from both sides. In the first five minutes, Robbie challenged a Barcelona player with a late tackle, which earned him a stern lecture from a referee, but no yel ow card. Although it seemed like
Internazionale
had the upper hand in the first twenty five minutes, most of it was spent in variable gridlock in midfield with neither team being able to score.

Paolo and Robbie executed a stream of excellent crosses and set up a series of probing attacks and a bril iant defensive wal , which threatened to tear Barcelona apart, but none of their drives connected into a goal. By the end of the first half, Internazionale remained scoreless.

In the second half, Robbie’s influence over the game’s outcome began to grow and he came agonizingly close to opening the score in the first five minutes with a high 18-yard strike which flashed inches wide.

The Barcelona squad took advantage of the stunned
Internazionale
team by taking a bril iant run down the left flank to reach the byline. Their star forward, Antonio Sanchez kicked a low cross in front of
Internazionale’s
goal, touched off to a teammate who smashed the bal into the net.

Barcelona’s fans went wild in the stands. Their yel ow jerseys seemed to swal ow red. They jumped and cheered in wild abandon while their opposing fans sat in stunned silence.

Unlike their fans,
Internazionale
was seemingly restored only minutes later. Filled with a combination of urgency and divine inspiration, Robbie and the rest of his teammates, hit Barcelona with wave after wave of at acks. They besieged their opponents so thoroughly that for the next twenty minutes
Internazionale
only touched their own back field.

Mackie Bijou played a one-two with Paulo that resulted in the Barcelona captain cut ing into the penalty area. As Barcelona retreated, Paolo cleverly played his pass back to Bijou who powered an unstoppable drive into the top corner of Barcelona’s net.

Recovering quickly and with only five minutes to spare,
Internazionale
fought hard to double their advantage. They ran up field in hot pursuit of the other team.

After a drive remarkably deflected off the post,
Internazionale
charged back up field, once again entering Barcelona’s backfield. Robbie blasted over the bal once it was in his possession. He twisted out of danger from two mid-fielders, and then twelve yards out he set himself up for a side kick to the net.

The ball arched beautifully in the air. It looked as if it were headed straight into the hands of the Barcelona goalie. However, at the last minute the bal arched out of his reach and crashed into the net.