Redhead Blitz (3 page)

“No, they’ll get used to the real me a lot faster this way.”

Heidi laughed.
 
“Okay, I give.
 
So, are there some fantastic fringe benefits working for the school?”

Although
Gigi
was sure that her small-business-owner friend was talking about insurance, paid holidays and things of a more practical nature, Sean Fitzgerald’s handsome face flashed in her mind.

“Well—”

“Uh-oh, I know that tone.
 
I thought you said he didn’t seem interested.
 
And I know your taste in men doesn’t include guys old enough to be your father.”

“Not him.
 
I met another guy in his office before the interview started.
 
And unless someone expects me to work blindfolded, I’m going to drink him in like a strawberry daiquiri.”

“
Gigi
—you promised.
 
No more dating guys from work.
 
You go on a few dates, realize they’re not
the one
and then you have to quit because they aren’t satisfied with keeping your relationship platonic.”

“I have no intention of getting involved with anyone here.
 
As a matter of fact, I’ve decided to take a hiatus from men altogether.”

“Uh-huh.”
 
Heidi sounded skeptical, and she had a right to be.

Gigi
had dated at least a dozen men and gone through five jobs in the last two years.
 
But this time she was determined to stick to her guns.
 
She would not get involved with anyone until she was settled in her new job, and even then, that wouldn’t include Sean Fitzgerald or anyone else from the school.
 
“No law against looking, and that’s all I’m going to do.
 
Look.”

Her declaration was met with silence.

“Really.
 
It would be impossible not to, Heidi.”

“That cute, huh?”
 
Heidi’s tough-love facade began to crack.

“Ooh, baby.”
 
Gigi
leaned her head back against the lumpy vinyl headrest and closed her eyes.
 
“Killer smile, sun-streaked blond hair, blue eyes, and downright drool-worthy muscles.”

“Did you happen to get a name to go with this perfect male specimen?”

“Why?
 
Are you already bored with
Rafe
?” she teased.
 
Heidi had just married the man of her dreams, and
Gigi
had never seen her friend happier.

“You know better.
 
I’d just like to know if this Adonis is real or a figment of your imagination.
 
Oh God, he’s not a student, is he?”

Gigi
laughed.
 
“Give me a little credit here.
 
He’s definitely of age and most definitely real.
 
As a matter of fact, it would make my job a lot easier if he
was
imagined.”
 
She swept the pad of her thumb over her fingertips, recalling the spark of electricity she’d felt when Sean had taken her hand.
 
“I’ll be more productive if he isn’t in and out of the athletic office too often.”

“Does he have to be?
 
Who is this guy?”

“I think it’s probably a safe bet that the head football coach is in the office on a regular basis.”
 
She didn’t dare admit she was already looking forward to that possibility.

“Did you say head football coach?”

“I did.
 
Sean Fitzgerald is his name.
 
Do you know him?” An unexplainable flicker of jealousy made her sit tall.

“Yes.
 
I told you about him, remember?
 
He brought his car into the garage a few weeks ago.
 
It was beautiful and pristine—a sixty-three, split-window Corvette.”

Gigi
dropped her phone, all feelings of jealously forgotten.
 
Her head slowly turned until she faced the black sports car as, in slow motion, she blindly groped around the floorboard.

“
Gigi
?
 
Are you there?”
 
Heidi’s voice finally broke through to her consciousness.

She grasped her phone and raised it back to her ear.
 
“This sensational car, was it black?”
 
Her voice wasn’t much more than a squeak.

“Yes.
 
Why, did you see it when you were there?”
 
Heidi sounded giddy at the possibility.

“Maybe...”
 
Gigi
hoped that by some miracle this was just a similar car.
 
Again she twisted to her left, looking for some feature that might identify the neighboring car as someone else’s.
 
“Did this car have a weird thingy going down the middle of the back window?”

“Yes, that’s the split window.
 
Oh,
Gigi
, isn’t it just perfect?”

Suddenly queasy, her gaze flicked between her bright yellow
junker
and the Corvette.
 
Her forehead dropped to rest against the steering wheel.

“It
was.
”

Chapter Three

The glow of a white paper fluttering under his windshield wiper drew Sean’s attention when he reached the parking lot.
 
He almost swallowed his tongue when he saw
Gigi
Thompson’s name, phone number and the words
CALL ME
written across the top.
 
When they’d met earlier she hadn’t shown any outward sign of being interested, but here she was, already issuing an invitation and supplying her phone number.
 
True, he hadn’t been able to get the sexy redhead out of his thought, but damn,
this
was the closest thing to torture he could imagine.

He unlocked the driver’s door, carefully set his duffle on the passenger seat and studied the note again.
 
Large, bold letters with sweeping curves.
 
Handwriting as hard to ignore as the woman.

Call me
.
 
Sean’s fingers itched to yank his cell phone out of his bag and follow orders.
 
But right after he’d been hired, Al had given him a ten-minute speech on the unprofessionalism of intra-office romances.
 
He’d wondered where the hell that had come from until he’d heard about the “big scandal” from Fred Cook, the basketball coach.

Seems last year, Sean’s predecessor had become romantically involved with the varsity cheerleading advisor and she’d gotten pregnant.
 
Problem was, both of them were already married and the woman’s husband had undergone a vasectomy after their last kid, so he knew she’d been unfaithful.
 
The whole thing had blown up last spring.
 
Two messy divorces, enraged parents, confused kids.

Glad I wasn’t around during all that.
 
It hadn’t totally blown over either.
 
Al had reiterated the same basic message this afternoon.
 
He’d gone out of his way to stop by the field to tell Sean and his assistant coaches that
Gigi
would be starting in the athletic office tomorrow.
 
If anyone gave her more than a glance, they’d have Al breathing down their necks.
 
Asking her out would be as suicidal to his career.

Shit.
 
He adjusted the crotch of his sweats, then ran both hands through his hair.
 
He hadn’t had a
decent
date since he’d gotten to Ohio and sorely missed the steady diet of sex he’d enjoyed before the move.
 
George, his elderly next-door neighbor, had mentioned fixing him up with his niece, but after hearing she lived in the hills of the neighboring county and carved sculptures with chainsaws, Sean had politely declined.
 
Heidi had looked promising until Joe Rafferty had called and said they were engaged, of all things.
 
Tina Lewis, his realtor’s daughter, although pretty, had spent their entire date talking about her six “kitty-cats.”
 
He wasn’t scoring, and unfortunately, neither was his football team.

Sean folded the paper and stuffed it inside an exterior pocket of his bag.
 
He started his car and smiled to himself at the low rumble of the engine.
 
Turning on the lights and pulling out of the parking lot, he headed home.
 
Along the commute, he wondered at his continued bad luck.

Must be payback time for something really shitty I did.
 

Just when he had to concentrate his focus like never before, totally sexy but off-limits
Gigi
Thompson lets him know she’s interested.
 
Double shit.
 
In that red suit and heels, man oh man.
 
He shifted in his seat.

She radiated an aura of eroticism that seemed instinctive rather than calculated.
 
And, he suspected, impossible to mask.
 
Even dressed in a nun’s habit,
Gigi
Thompson could make a man grovel.

Had Al not given her the same speech about the taboos of intra-office dating?
 
And, if he had, what the hell was she thinking, tucking her number under his windshield wiper?
 

Sean passed the city limits sign and accelerated, trying to restrict his speed to only ten above the limit.
 
As desperately as he wanted to call her, he couldn’t.
 
He wouldn’t.
 
Although his libido was screaming, “She wants you, big guy,” his job had to be first priority.
 
His free time was going to be filled with writing lesson plans, formulating game plans, grading papers and babysitting Butch
Turnell
.

Shit, shit and shit.

“Hello.”
 
His dick twitched at the deep and seductive voice.

Sean, fresh from the shower and dressed only in a pair of drawstring cotton lounge pants, opened the front door wider.
 
Gigi
Thompson stood on his porch.
 
Taking his movement as the invitation it was, she silently made her way inside, continuing through the hallway and toward the living room.
 
Afraid that if he spoke she might disappear, he wordlessly closed the door and followed her.
 
Her hips swayed under her belted trench coat, and the clicking of her black stiletto heels on the hardwood floors echoed the ticking of the antique schoolhouse clock on the wall.

She crossed to the middle of the room and turned to face him.
 
“Yesterday, when we met, I knew I had to have you.”
 
Gigi
raked her gaze slowly down his body, and his dick immediately tented against the cotton of his pants.

“Well, here I am.”
 
He took two predatory steps toward her and stopped, mimicking the visual examination she’d given him.
 
The khaki coat, with its closed lapels, covered her from neck to shins. “Aren’t you a little warm in that?”

Her glossy red lips formed a seductive smile.
 
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
 
She pulled her hands out of the deep pockets.

He took another step forward and stopped, into this game as much as she.
 
“So why don’t you get rid of it?”

Gigi
slowly untied the fabric belt, parted the plackets and let the garment slide off her shoulders.
 
Underneath, she wore only a translucent red bra and panties.
 
“I got the feeling you liked red.”

Oh, yeah.
 
Her form-fitting red suit and heels had been the sexiest interview ensemble he’d ever seen.
 
“I’m liking red more and more each day.”
 
Sean closed the distance between them, never releasing her gaze.
 
When he raised one hand to brush her pebbled nipple, she closed her eyes and sighed.