Playing in SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 9) (2 page)

I look to Reina, who
nods. “Yes, I am.”

“You’ll help my
little girl then, right? You have to help her. You’re the smartest
person I’ve ever met in my life. I need you, Audrey, please help
us.”

I want to say no. I
want to remind him of how he left me waiting for him in my lemon
yellow prom dress for hours while he was already there with his real
date. Of how his friends tormented me for the rest of the year, while
he laughed at their pranks. But I don’t. That little part of me
that will be in love with Blake Armstrong forever won’t let me.

“Yes. I’ll help
you, Blake.”

* * *

Blake

I totally get the irony
of the situation I’m in. I just had to practically beg the woman I
humiliated as a teen into helping protect my daughter. I humiliated
her because she was smart, shy, nerdy, and wore baggy clothes all the
time. My daughter is smart, shy, nerdy, and would no doubt be hiding
herself in big clothes too, if she could. Being the daughter of a
movie star and a supermodel, she has to be somewhat stylish in
public, but I try and make it as easy for her as possible.

I’d be lying if I
said I hadn’t been thinking about Audrey Sanchez more and more over
the years. Even before it became apparent that Jeanne was more
interested in books than Barbies, the memories of what I did to
Audrey haunted me. Not enough to stop me from living my life, but
sometimes at night, I’d dream of her. I’d see here face that
Monday after the prom, and I’d be up the rest of the night cursing
the stupid boy I’d been.

I’m not that boy
anymore, and she’s definitely not the girl we made fun of. Not only
is she smoking hot—which she probably always was, we just never
took the time to notice it—but she’s confident and strong, too. I
didn’t know who she was when I saw her with Jeanne, but I was
intrigued by her. Who wouldn’t be? I don’t know many women who
would just sit on the grass and talk to a little girl who was
obviously being ignored by the other kids. In fact, I don’t know
any. Her mother certainly wasn’t concerned that Jeanne was sitting
alone. And, I think with shame, I didn’t leave my friends to check
on her until I saw Audrey and Ares Dixon with her.

“What’s your
relationship?” I blurt out suddenly.

“My relationship?”
Audrey asks.

“With him,” I
explain, nodding towards Ares.

“That’s really none
of your business.”

“Actually, for this
to work, it is.”

“For what to work,
Blake? We haven’t even come up with a plan yet,” Reina tells him.

“I have one. Audrey
should pose as my live-in girlfriend.”

“Oh hell no,”
Audrey says, her eyes flashing.

“Please don’t swear
in front of my daughter.”

“Your daughter is
twelve, not five, and I’m sure she’s heard it all before,”
Ainsley says.

I was told she was
chosen to help us because she’s a big nerd, too. I’ve seen her in
the tabloids with Zack Taylor, the football god. Everyone knows that
nerds are the new sexy—I’ve even considered playing a nerd for a
new movie—but Ainsley and Audrey take it to a new level. Ainsley
doesn’t play it up, and hides it a little, but Audrey is full on
sex on heels.

“I have.”

“Have?” I don’t
remember what we were taking about.

“I’ve heard cuss
words, Dad. I’m not a baby.”

“I know, honey. I’m
just feeling a little overprotective.”

“I should’ve never
hacked into those corporations. Or taken the online tests I did.”

“You definitely need
to stop hacking, and yes, you should’ve shown the tests to me
before you took them, but the only people at fault here are the ones
who are after you.”

“Hacking’s fun.”

“It really is,”
Ainsley says with a smirk.

“Ainsley,” Reina
admonishes her, but she’s smirking a little, too.

“Back to Audrey
moving in. I think that’s the best plan. She can protect Jeanne,
and no one will question it if she’s my girlfriend.”

“I already said no.”

“You also said you’d
help us.”

She looks conflicted,
and I know I’m close to winning—at least where my daughter’s
concerned. Audrey wants to help Jeanne, but she also wants to roast
me oven an open fire. I know I deserve that, and more. I also know
that the small part of me that really was interested in her all those
years ago is still alive and kicking. I want a chance with Audrey. It
won’t be a second chance, because I never really gave her a first
one, and that may have been the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in
my life.

“If I pretended to be
your girlfriend, we’d have to go out.”

“Yes. I’d buy you
whatever you need.”

“I don’t need your
money.” Or you. She didn’t say it out loud, but it’s clear as
day that that’s what she meant.

“So, Ares?”

“I’m one of her
best friends, and I should be going.”

“Going? You’re my
date for the cocktail party tonight.”

“No, darling, I’m
pretty sure Blake here has just claimed that date.”

“He doesn’t speak
for me, and I’m not going with him.”

She looks like she
might have a panic attack, and it takes me a minute to understand
why. “I’ll be there,” I say quietly. “I promise to pick you
up, and be an attentive date all night.”

“Your promise means
nothing to me.”

“I’m not the boy
who hurt you, Audrey. Give me a chance to prove that to you. Be my
date tonight, and move into the house with us.”

“Yes, please Audrey.
It would be so much fun to have someone smart around.”

“Hey now.”

“Sorry, Dad.”

“It’s okay. I know
I’m not in your league.”

“Plus, if you’re
there, Audrey, my mom will totally freak out. She thinks she still
owns my dad, even though they’ve been divorced for years.”

From the mouths of
babes. Those words just hooked Audrey. I watch as her mouth curves up
into a genuine smile, and why wouldn’t it? I may have been a player
in the game of humiliating her, but my ex-wife was the coach, head
cheerleader, and quarterback all rolled into one. Even a saint would
want to get her back a little for what she said and did, and from
what I can tell, Audrey is no saint.

“Pick me up at seven,
Blake, and don’t be late. We can discuss my moving in after the
party,” she says, turning to Reina. “You guys have Jeanne,
right?”

“We do. She’ll be
safe.”

“Thank you, Audrey. I
mean it.”

“Oh, the pleasure’s
going to be all mine, Blake.”

Not if I can help it. I
never in a million years thought that a threat to my daughter’s
safety would bring Audrey back into my life. I’m not glad it
happened this way—my daughter is more important to me than anything
else—but I can’t say I’m sorry about it. I’m going to prove
to both of us that I’ve changed, and tonight is the perfect place
to start. Having her in my bed will hopefully come later.

Blake

I check my reflection
in the elevator mirror at least fifteen times on my way up to
Audrey’s apartment. I’m acting like a teenage boy on his first
date. Scratch that, I was
never
nervous on dates when I was a teenager, which is part of the problem.
I never had to work for anything—or anyone—when I was younger. Or
now. I was the BMOC back then, and I’m currently one of the biggest
movie stars on the planet. Panties drop when I enter a room. I know
it, and I’ve definitely taken advantage of it.

I don’t regret most
of what I’ve done. I’m a red-blooded American male, and I wasn’t
going to turn down sex of any kind with the girls or women who
offered it. Does that make me an ass, or a douche? Probably, but like
I said, it’s never really bothered me.

Audrey, though, she’s
bothered me. If I have just one regret, it’s that I didn’t take
her to prom. I honestly wanted to—or, at least, a part of me wanted
it. Not a big enough part to make me risk my popularity, or Misha.
And I can’t regret that I was
with
Misha, because I got Jeanne. No one, and nothing, comes before my
daughter. Especially not her mother, who is more concerned about the
slowing down of her career than the pain Jeanne feels for basically
being abandoned by her.

Fuck Misha, though. Or
in my case, don’t. She’s tried to win me back, going so far as to
sneak into my bedroom, but it’s no use. I’m not attracted to her
anymore. I honestly hadn’t been for years before I ended things for
good. It was just easier to go to bed with her than to find someone
who wasn’t trying to use me for my fame.
She
was only using me for my fame, but I was too stupid to see that until
it was almost too late. My daughter paid the price for my stupidity,
and I’ll never let that happen again. The locks on every property I
own have been changed, and I only see Misha in public. She disgusts
me, and if she hasn’t gotten the hint by now, I doubt that she ever
will.

All thoughts of Misha,
and any other woman I’ve ever met my entire life, go out of my
brain when Audrey opens her door. I have no brain cells left. None.
She’s got on some kind of silk top that looks like a scarf that
covers about as little as an actual scarf would. It’s blue with
some black and grey mixed in. As she walks out into the hall in front
of me, I see that there’s no back, save for a thin string that
matches the one in front. So basically, this little piece of string
below her braless tits is all that’s between me and those luscious
globes she’s got on full display.

Speaking of globes, her
perfect ass is encased in a tight black pencil skirt. I can’t move.
No joke. Every bit of blood in my body has pooled into my rock hard
dick, and I’m stuck to the floor. Audrey and her “fuck me”
heels have no problem walking, while I just want to beg her to go
ahead and do it. Fuck me any way she wants it.

“Is there a problem,
Blake?” she asks with that slight accent that has always made my
heart race.

“You look good enough
to eat, and I’m feeling pretty ravenous right about now.”

She looks down at my
crotch, which is somewhat hidden by my suit jacket, and smirks.
“You’ll be taking care of that all by yourself. Or with one of
your groupies,” she says with a shrug.

“Groupies? This is
our reunion, not a movie premiere.”

“You had groupies in
high school, and I doubt they’ve grown out of it,” she says,
looking me over from head to toe.

“You like what you
see, Audrey?”

“No,” she tells me,
walking over to remove my tie and unbutton my shirt a little.
“Better. You looked too formal.”

“I always wear a
tie.”

“I’m not formal
tonight, so you wearing one makes it look like we didn’t plan to go
together to the party.”

She has a point. We
need to look like a couple. Misha loved dressing up as much as I did,
so that was never a problem. Audrey’s going to dress up, too. Just
in a different way. A sexy, and hot different way that will probably
keep me hard 24/7, and also keep me on my toes as how to best
complement her clothes with mine. Or rather, how my stylist can best
complement them.

“Got it. We’ll just
have to remember to send pics of what you’ll be wearing to my
stylist so she can coordinate.”

“You can’t pick
something out yourself?”

Um, no. “I could try,
I guess.”

“Does someone wipe
your ass for you, too?”

“That’s not fair,
Audrey,” I say, grabbing her arm. “I have to take care of my
daughter, worry about remembering my lines, get wherever I’m needed
all day, every day, and smile every time I walk out the door. I also
do my own stunts. So excuse me if I don’t really care what I’m
wearing and would rather let someone else pick the color of my tie.”

“I’m sorry, Blake.
I shouldn’t have been so bitchy. You’ve just been the poster boy
for my anger for so long now. I don’t know how to be nice to you.”

“Did you throw darts
at my poster?” I ask, joking.

“Yes. And I used
pictures of you and your friends for target practice during my
training.”

Whoa. I wasn’t
expecting that; although, I guess I should have been. “I truly am
sorry.”

“I want to believe
that you are, it’s just twenty years too late.”

“I know. Can we maybe
start over?” I ask her as we climb into the backseat of the car I
hired for tonight.

“No. I think your
daughter is great, and I take my job very seriously, but you and me?
Never going to happen.”

“Haven’t you heard
that you should never say never?”

“Why me? Why now? If
it’s because you can see my curves, and I don’t have braces or
thick glasses, then you should just move along. Because inside—where
it counts—I’m still that same teenage girl you never gave a
second thought to, the science nerd you and your friends thought
nothing of hurting. I may have gained some confidence, but I haven’t
changed. I
won’t
change who I am.”

“I thought of you.”

“Of how to torment
and humiliate me, maybe, but not me. Because if you had, you wouldn’t
have done it. Any of it.”

We’ve arrived at the
restaurant on the beach where the party is, and she reaches for the
door. I stop her. “We have to get out together.”

She closes her eyes and
nods. “We do. I know. I just…I forgot for a moment. It won’t
happen again. I’m sorry.”

I see the sorrow in her
eyes, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s upset about
forgetting her job, or if it’s because she was remembering what we
did to her. What
I
did to her. Either way, I’m going to do everything I can to prove
to her that even though she hasn’t changed,
I
have. I don’t follow the crowd, and I would definitely never hurt
her—or anyone else—intentionally again. Well, maybe the bastards
who are after Jeanne, but not anyone else. I also try not to throw my
celebrity around; although everyone, including Audrey, knows we’re
having our reunion in late winter instead of early fall because of
my
schedule. I couldn’t leave a set to be here, and no one seemed to
mind. Then again, I didn’t ask.