Brooklyn Heat (22 page)

“You’re such a liar.”

“Seriously!” he said.

She propped herself up on one elbow, her dirty blonde hair falling over her shoulders. Her eyes looked sexy and smoky, and she looked at him seriously. “You’ve never told a woman she was amazing?”

“No,” he said. “Incredible, yes. Amazing, no.”

She hit him playfully on his shoulder. “Okay, okay,” he said, laughing. “Just kidding. You don’t have to hit me.”

She bit her lip then, and swallowed hard. “Listen,” she said. “I don’t usually do things like this.”

“You’re such a liar.”

She smiled, but she looked nervous. “I don’t,” she said. “And so I would appreciate it if you don’t mention this to anyone.”

“Why would I mention it to anyone?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “Having sex with the reporter? Isn’t that something that would make good locker room conversation?”

“Not really.” He rolled over and pulled her back closer to him. “We talk about way more scandalous things in the locker room than that.”

“Really?” she asked. “Like what?”

“I can’t tell you,” he said. “It’s classified.”

He started to kiss her neck again, and she climbed on top of him. He looked at her, her hair spilling over the tops of her breasts, her cheeks flushed with excitement.

“God, you are so beautiful,” he said.

And this time, when she slid her body down onto him, he didn’t try to slow her down.

***

Alyssa woke up the next morning, blinking in the early morning light of her hotel room. Next to her, Jay slept soundly, his arms around her.

They’d slept like that all night, him behind her, holding her close.

A wave of regret washed over her. She thought about last night, the things she’d said, the things she’d done. Her face blushed bright red. What the hell had she been thinking? Having sex with him, letting him do all those things to her! How stupid. It was the same thing she’d done with her ex-boyfriend Joel, getting all worked up over a guy, forgetting that she had her own life. And if she’d thought Joel had been bad, that was nothing compared to Jay. Jay was a professional baseball player. It definitely wouldn’t be easy to keep her writing dreams alive while dating him.

Not that they were going to be dating. He was a playboy, pure and simple. Which was another reason what she’d done last night had been supremely stupid.

The hotel room phone rang, and Alyssa looked at it. She was almost afraid to pick it up, scared that it would be some kind of paparazzi or reporter, asking her what she’d been doing with Jay Havens.

But it wasn’t. In fact, it was almost worse.

Isobel.

“Well, I see you’ve been sleeping in!” Isobel crowed through the phone. “And I don’t have a column from you yet, so I’m assuming that you haven’t done it?”

“Um, well…” Alyssa was trying to keep voice down, as not to wake the sleeping Jay. She wiggled out from under his arm, and he turned over in his sleep, mumbling something. He talked in his sleep. Alyssa thought that was absolutely adorable. And totally unexpected.

Although a lot of things about Jay were unexpected. Like how soft he’d been with her last night. He’d held her in his arms all night, waking up in the night to kiss her lips and pull her closer.

Even when he’d been making love to her, he’d been strong but gentle.

Alyssa shivered, remembering how he’d made her come.

“Hello!” Isobel shrieked. “Your column?”

“Right,” Alyssa said. “I was just…putting the finishing touches on it.

I’ll have it over to you asap.”

“You better,” Isobel said. And then the line went dead.

Alyssa placed the phone back on the receiver.

“Hey,” Jay said from beside her, a lazy grin playing on his lips.

“What are you doing way over there?”

He pulled her back into the bed, and she felt his erection against her back. He started to kiss her neck.

“I have to start working,” Alyssa said. She was careful to keep her voice steady and powerful. How many other women had he done this to?

Was he going to tell anyone? Was she going to lose her job?

Oh God, oh God, oh God.

“That’s okay,” Jay said. “I’ll order coffee. And then when you’re done writing, I’ll take you to breakfast.”

He pulled the sheet down off of her, exposing the tops of her breasts.

“Are you going to write anything about me?”

“No,” she said, and pulled the sheet back over her tightly. Obviously he’d seen it all last night, but in the light of day, it felt different. More exposed. “And I can’t go to breakfast with you.”

She was getting out of bed now, the sheet still wrapped around her.

She walked into the bathroom and threw on a pair of jeans and a sweater.

“Sure you can,” Jay said. “We’ll go after you work.”

“Jay,” she said. She stood in the middle of the room, and it was taking all her self-control not to run back over to the bed, slide in next to him, and let him ravish her the way he did last night. “I can’t… I mean, we can’t go to breakfast together. If anyone sees me with you, well… I could lose my job.”

“You won’t lose your job,” he said. “That’s crazy.”

“I will,” she said. “My boss told me that I had to stay away from the players, that I couldn’t… get personal.”

“That makes sense,” he said, nodding. “But this is different. This is me and you.”

She didn’t say anything. She wanted it to be different, she wanted more than anything to believe that they were going to be together. But her pride wouldn’t let her go there.

“Isn’t it?” Jay asked.

She didn’t say anything. She saw his jaw harden, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought that he was upset. But that made no sense. Why would Jay Havens be upset that she was kicking him out of her hotel room, that she couldn’t see him anymore? He could have any woman he wanted.

“Jay – ” she started.

“No,” he said, holding his hand up to keep her from saying anything else. He picked his clothes up off the floor. “I get it.” He pulled on his jeans and t-shirt. And then he left.

***

Jay was pissed. At Alyssa, but mostly at himself. He’d let himself go last night, really go for the first time in… well, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been like that. Maybe ever.

And then this morning, Alyssa had thrown him out of her hotel room like he was some kind of hooker. Maybe it was karma, he thought as he drove angrily towards his Brooklyn apartment. He’d spent numerous mornings kicking women out of his apartment. And now it was happening to him. His heart constricted as he thought about her, about how much he wanted her. He felt like right now he would do anything for her. He couldn’t explain it. It was crazy, because he hadn’t known her that long, but he just knew. She was the one for him.

He didn’t care about anything else. He needed to be with her. He didn’t care if it messed up his relationship with Billingsley, hell, he didn’t care if he got kicked off the Heat. All that mattered to him in that moment was Alyssa.

He reversed direction and drove to the gym, deciding to take his stress out on the weights. When he got there, he changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and then sat down at the bench press.

He was covered in sweat, when Chad came into the gym half an hour later.

“Yo,” Chad said.

“Yo.”

“Where have you been?”

“Nowhere.” Jay shrugged. Usually he would have told Chad all the salacious details about what had gone on last night. But he didn’t want to.

It was between him and Alyssa.

“Going out with that Jessa chick tonight,” Chad said. “She called me about five times, and so I finally caved.” He grinned. “You want to get in on it? You could invite Alyssa?”

“What are we, in tenth grade?” Jay asked.

“No, but I know how much you liiiikkkee her.” Chad started making kissing noises on his hands.

“Bye,” Jay said, walking out of the gym and heading toward the showers. But when he was halfway there, he realized Chad might be onto something with this double date idea. He could ask Alyssa about it, make it sound totally innocent, like it was going to be four friends just hanging out together. He thought about calling Alyssa’s hotel room right then, but he didn’t want to take the chance that she wouldn’t pick up. And besides, he’d see her at practice in a little while anyway.

Feeling better, he got in the shower. And he made sure he kept the water extra cold.

~Chapter Nine~

Alyssa sat in the dugout, her notebook out in front of her, wondering when Isobel was going to call her about her column. What she’d turned in this morning had been decidedly unscandalous. No fights. No drama. Just a straight column about how much she’d enjoyed watching the game last night. Isobel was definitely going to be pissed. A lame column about watching baseball definitely wasn’t going to get the web traffic up.

Alyssa sighed. She watched as one of the players, Matt Hollsten, took some practice swings with the bat. She doodled a flower in the margin of her notebook and wondered what she could write about.

There was a tap on her shoulder, and she jumped.

She turned.

Jay.

He was standing there in his uniform, looking fresh and clean. “Hey,”

he said, giving her an easy grin.

“Hi.” She shifted on the bench and tried not to look at him. If she did, she was afraid she’d do something crazy, like kiss him. She wondered if the other players could tell they’d had sex. The thought of it made her feel hot all over.

“Look, I’m sorry about this morning,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be rude, it just – ”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, waving off her apology and sitting down next to her. “I understand. You need to be worried about your job.

But what about a group outing?”

“A group outing?”

“Supposedly your friend Jessa is going on a date with Chad tonight. I was thinking we could go along, keep an eye on them.” She opened her mouth to protest, but he rushed on. “You could make sure she didn’t do anything she might regret.”

Jessa had texted her already this morning, crowing about her date with Chad. She’d asked Alyssa if she wanted to meet up later and go shopping at La Perla. “For something totally skanky” Jessa had said. Alyssa very much doubted that Jessa was getting into something she would regret.

“Of course, you don’t have to,” Jay said. “But it would make a good column.”

“Column?”

“Yeah. You know, you could say you went to kind of watch your friend, make sure she was okay. Write about how girls kind of lose their shit when they’re around professional athletes.” He leaned in close to her. “Do you have any experience with that kind of thing?”

Heat flooded her body and rushed between her legs. “What kind of thing?”

“Losing control around athletes.”

“No,” she said, moving away from him. “But you might be right. I wouldn’t want Jessa getting into any trouble.”

“Of course not.”

“And it
would
make a great column.”

He nodded. “So I’ll call you later and let you know the details.”

Then he leaned in close to her and whispered in her ear, “I was going crazy thinking I wasn’t going to be able to see you again. I missed you all morning.”

He got up and loped out across the field, and Alyssa sat there, trying to calm her beating heart.

***

Jay was nervous. He’d never been nervous before a date before, but he was nervous about this one. He wanted Alyssa to know he was for real, he wanted her to know that he would do whatever it took to make things work with her.

He met her at her hotel, although she’d insisted that he stay in his car and not come inside. She didn’t want anyone seeing them together.

She appeared wearing a sky blue summer dress, her hair loose and flowing around her shoulders. The flimsy fabric clung to her curves, and she didn’t appear to be wearing a bra.

“Wow,” Jay said when she got in the car. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you,” she said, pulling the seatbelt across her chest and buckling it. “So where are we going?”

“A restaurant called Shiver,” Jay said.

Shiver, in direct contrast to its name, was hot inside, and decorated in tones of red and black. It didn’t look like the kind of place Jessa would pick, which became apparent when they got shown to their table. Jessa was sitting there with a scowl on her face. She was wearing a red dress that plunged down so far you could see her belly button.

“He’s not here,” she said.

“Jay, this is Jessa,” Alyssa said. “Jessa, Jay.”

“Hey,” Jay said. He could tell already that Jessa was crazy. He could also tell that Chad was going to get very, very lucky tonight. Her cell phone rang, and Jessa picked it up. “Chad!” she crowed.

“Great,” Jay said brightly. He pulled a napkin off the table and set it across his lap. He could already tell what was about to happen. He’d been to this rodeo before.

He listened to Jessa’s side of the conversation, not surprised at all when she announced that Chad couldn’t get away, that she was just going to meet him at his hotel room.

“His hotel room?” Alyssa asked, looking confused. “Why would he have a hotel room? Doesn’t he live here?”

Jay bit back a smile as he watched Alyssa realize what the hotel room was about. A way to have sex without Jessa knowing where Chad lived.

Jessa didn’t seem to notice. In fact, she was up and out of the restaurant in about five seconds.

“So,” Jay said. He opened up the menu and scanned it. “What looks good?”

***

Alyssa couldn’t believe it. Here she was, determined to keep her distance from Jay Havens, and now she’d somehow ended up on a date with him. Although, if she were being completely honest, she hadn’t really tried that hard to stay away from him. She’d come here with him, even allowing him to pick her up. And she’d spent all afternoon shopping, looking for the perfect outfit to make her look sexy, but not like she was trying too hard.

“We should get champagne,” Jay said.

“How come?”

“To celebrate.”

“What are we celebrating?”

“Our first date.”

“This isn’t a date.”

“Yes, it is.” He grinned.