Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (175 page)

They stayed like that for a moment, not saying anything, Jay’s blue
eyes intent on hers.
 
And then, as
if he were sensing her desire and had decided he wanted to drive her crazy, he
started to make little circles on her lip with his thumb.
 
She closed her eyes to try to get
control of her senses, and when she opened them, he was leaning against the
wall across from her, his fingers still on her lips, his eyes still locked on
hers.

She froze, and his fingers moved down, over her lips, down her
neck, and onto her collarbone.
 
One
fingertip dipped below the top of her sweater, and slowly and lazily grazed the
top of her breasts.
 
She swallowed,
hard, her whole body on fire.

She wanted to move toward him, to put her lips on his, to feel him
pull her against his body.
 
But the
way he was looking at her told her she needed to stay put, that if she moved
toward him, he’d stop her.
 
He
wanted to tease her, he was
enjoying
teasing her, and she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.
 
But God, she wanted him.
 

He grinned at her, his fingers still moving lazily around her
breasts.
 
And then, finally, he took
a step toward her.
 
His tongue
licked his top lip, and Alyssa closed her eyes and waited for the kiss.

She felt his chest against hers, and one of his hands was on the
back of her neck, the other still making a drowsy pattern over her
cleavage.
 
She could feel his breath
on her skin, and his mouth started moving up, closer to her ear.
 
God she wanted to turn her head, she
wanted his lips on hers, she needed to kiss him, she needed to –

“They’re gone,” he whispered, and then pulled away from her.

She opened her eyes, feeling as if she’d been slapped.
 
They’re
gone?
 
What the
hell?
 
She took a deep breath, and white-hot
rage boiled up inside of her.
 
First
at him, and then at herself.
 
But,
as with so many things that had happened tonight, she didn’t want to give him
the satisfaction.
 

“Thank God,” she said easily, hoping he didn’t notice the way her
voice broke, and that he wasn’t close enough to hear how fast her heart was
beating.
 
She forced herself to
smile.
 
“We should probably get back
to Brooklyn.
 
Last thing we want is
another run-in with crazy fans.”
 
She walked out from between the buildings and waited for him to unlock
the car.

~Chapter Four~

Jay woke up at six o’clock the next morning to the sound of
knocking on his apartment door.
 
Jay
had an apartment in Brooklyn, where he stayed during the season.
 
And although not as nice as his downtown
Manhattan loft, or the home he had in the Bahamas, it did have a doorman who
didn’t let people up unannounced or make a habit of pounding on his door.
 
Those kinds of things didn’t tend to
happen at a twelve million dollar penthouse, even if it was Brooklyn.
 

Which meant it could only be one person.
 
Chad.

“Go away!” Jay yelled.
 
But then he heard the front door opening.

“Hey,” Chad said, walking into his bedroom. “Are you awake?”

“Obviously not,” Jay said, turning to look at his friend.
 
“How did you get in here?”

“You gave me a key, remember?
 
So I could feed the fish when you were in Mexico last year.”
 

Jay sighed, cursed himself for thinking that installing a full-wall
aquarium would be a good idea, and then rolled over.
 
He buried his head in his pillow and
wished for Chad to go away.

There was a thunking sound, and Jay opened one eye to see Chad
setting a coffee down on the nightstand next to him.
 
Well.
 
At least that was something.
 
He reached out and grabbed it, downing a
big gulp, then sat up in bed.

“What are you doing here?” Jay asked.
 
Not that Chad needed a reason.
 
Chad was a notorious early riser, which
didn’t make much sense, since he was a bigger partier than Jay.
 
But it didn’t matter what time Chad
stumbled home from the clubs at night, he was always awake by six am.
 

“Came to hang out before practice.”
 
Chad took a sip of his own coffee.
 
“And to talk to you about Alyssa
Cotler.”
 
He grinned.
 
“Some number you did on her yesterday.”

At the thought of Alyssa, Jay was suddenly awake.
 
“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“What she wrote about you.”

“Chad, it’s six o’clock in the morning, and you’re here, obviously
waking me up, so why would I have any idea what she’s written about me?”
 
He was already reaching for his laptop.
 

“I don’t know,” Chad said.
 
“But if you were intent on pissing off Billingsley, wow, did you do a
bang up job.”
 

Jay typed in the web address for The Juice, wondering what Alyssa
had written.
 
He knew he’d fucked it
all up with that little maneuver he’d pulled behind the bookstore.
 
The problem was, he hadn’t been able to
help himself.
 
Something about that
girl had him all confused.
 
He
didn’t like her, or at least, he thought he didn’t.
 
Which wasn’t even a deal breaker –
he’d been with a lot of women that he didn’t really like.
 
Most of them, actually.
 
But Alyssa wasn’t even his type physically.
 
She was curvy and dark-haired, and he
usually went for the lithe, blonde model types.

But her body had been so close, and her curves had been pushed up
next to him, and he’d loved the look on her face when he’d been running his
fingers over her skin.
 
He’d loved
teasing her, wanted to tease her all night, but he only if there was going to
be some sort of payoff.
 
And there
hadn’t been.
 
At the end of the
night, she’d hopped out of his car and gone up to her hotel room alone, even
though he’d offered to walk her up.
 
When he’d gotten home, he’d lain awake for at least an hour, thinking
about how bad he wanted her and trying to ignore his erection.

He shook his head now and tried to clear his thoughts.

“So are you going to read it?” Chad was asking.

“I don’t want to,” Jay said.
 
But his curiosity got the best of him, and before he could stop himself,
he was clicking through to Alyssa’s column.
 
Bad publicity didn’t usually bother him,
and so he tried to keep his expression blank while he read it, so that Chad
wouldn’t know that anything was up.

It was worse than he’d thought.
 
She’d torn him apart.
 
She hadn’t mentioned their little moment
behind the bookstore, thank God, but she’d talked about his car, his sunglasses,
the way he’d ordered caviar in an effort to impress her, and how she’d gotten
the feeling he was hoping she wouldn’t eat it.

It was all true of course, but he felt himself starting to get
angry.
 
How dare she?
 
He’d been nothing but nice to her,
taking her out to dinner, showing her around the city, taking her to the
bookstore.
 
Granted, it had been so
that he could get on her good side, but she didn’t know that.
 

Although, Jay thought, he supposed she might have figured it
out.
 
But still.
 
That moment behind the bookstore hadn’t
been all him.
 
He’d seen it on her
face.
 
She’d wanted him just as much
as he wanted her.
 
Hadn’t she?
 
Suddenly, he wasn’t sure.
 
And he didn’t like the way it made him
feel.
 

“Fucking Alyssa Cotler,” he muttered under his breath.

“Yup,” Chad said agreeably.
 
He’d produced a bag of trail mix from somewhere, and was munching on
it.
 

“So how pissed is Billingsley?” Jay asked.

“Pissed,” Chad said.
 
“I
talked to Kylie this morning, and she said he came in huffing and puffing.
 
There’s going to be a meeting after
batting practice.”

“Fuck him,” Jay decided.
 
And fuck Alyssa Cotler.
 
He
was sick of being Mr. Nice Guy.
 
All
it did was bring him grief, obviously.
 
It was better when everyone thought he was an asshole.
 

***

Alyssa made sure she was awake early, even though she’d had a hard
time falling asleep the night before.
 
Once she’d gotten out of Jay Havens’s car, she couldn’t calm down.
 
It was like her whole body had been
charged with electricity. She’d written her column, sent it to Isobel, and then
she’d lain awake, flipping through the channels on the TV and watching
infomercials until after two in the morning.
 
When she’d finally fallen asleep, she’d
been so nervous that she was going to miss her seven o’clock wake up call that
she’d kept startling awake, looking at the clock.

Finally at six forty-five she decided to give up, and reached over
and grabbed her Blackberry.
 
She had
an email from Isobel, which said the column had required few edits, was
fabulous, and was now live.

Alyssa swallowed, suddenly nervous.
 
When she’d written it, she’d been angry,
pissed off that Jay Havens thought he could have her in some back alley and
tease her like that.
 
But now, with
the early morning light streaming in through the crack between the curtains, and
the prospect of having to face Jay and the rest of the Heat at their practice
this morning, she just felt anxious.

She took a deep breath and stumbled out of bed and into the
bathroom.
 
She cranked the shower as
hot as it could go, and stood under the warm stream, letting the hot water
soothe her tense muscles.
 
After
about twenty minutes, she was feeling better, and wrapped herself in a warm
towel.

She opened her suitcase and surveyed what she’d brought.
 
She’d been instructed to dress
comfortably, so she settled on a pair of nice jeans and a dark green wrap
sweater.

There was a knock on the door, and for a second, for some reason,
Alyssa thought it might be Jay.
 
She
thought of him again, last night, the way his tongue had licked his lips, the
way he’d been looking at her, like he was daring her to stay away from him.

Screw you,
Alyssa thought and opened the door.

“Alyssa Cotler?” the man at the door asked.
 
He was wearing a bellman’s uniform, had
shaggy dark hair, and was holding what looked like a shirt box.

“Yes?”

“Sign here please.”
 
He
held out a clipboard, and Alyssa signed obediently.
 
She tipped the man, then brought the box
into her room and set it down on the bed.
 
The return address was stamped with the Brooklyn Heat logo, a bullet
sliding through a circle with a tail of red fire trailing behind it.
 
Probably some kind of welcome package.

When she opened it, a Heat uniform fell out, along with a
note.
 
She picked it up.

Dear Alyssa,

We are so excited to have you
with us for the next week.
 
Please
wear this complimentary uniform for our first day together.
 
We’d love to have you post pictures on
your website!
 

So looking forward to meeting
you.

Sincerely,

Dax Reynolds, Captain, Brooklyn
Heat