Suddenly the door was flung open.
"Have you seen this yet?" her father asked in a hard voice as he waved a newspaper clipping in the air.
She frowned. "I don't know. Let me see it."
He wadded the paper into a ball and threw it at her. It was the most unprofessional thing she'd ever seen him do. Holding on to the tenuous thread of her pride, she fished it out from beneath a row of chairs and smoothed it out. Her father flicked the light on and she blinked in horror.
Last night at a benefit for the San Francisco Aquarium,
unrestricted free agent JP Jesse told us that his new
agent is "one hot babe." Which begs the question: Exactly
how close is the lovely agent with her new client?
Angered by her father's low opinion of her taste in men, she said coldly, "JP is my client. That's all. I'll talk to him about watching his mouth."
"I don't want to see something like this in the press about one of my agents ever again. Understood?"
"Understood."
Her father was right, and she'd been skating on thin ice with Dominic for too long. She had to decide between being with Dominic and being his agent. Given that Dominic didn't want to be her "real" boyfriend, the choice was easy. Now she just had to tell him that they were through.
A few hours later, she knocked on Dominic's front door. Opening it, he kissed her as if he were dying of thirst and she was water. Following him into the kitchen, her heart in her throat due to what she had to say, she noticed that he had a faint limp. One of the hardest-working guys on the Outlaws, Dominic pushed himself every day, both on-season and off.
"How was practice today?"
He pulled ingredients out of his stainless steel Sub-Zero refrigerator. "A bitch. Like always." He grinned. "You want to know what got me through?"
She had a sinking feeling that whatever he said was only going to make it harder for her to break things off.
He pulled her against him. "Thinking about the next time I take you, someplace you aren't expecting to make love. The way you're going to have to swallow your moans of pleasure so no one in the next room hears how hard you're coming."
She swallowed hard. Just as he leaned in to kiss her, she said, "I watched JP's game tapes today."
Dominic stiffened and released her. She hated how cold she felt without his heat. "What'd you think?" "I'm not—"
Her purse started vibrating on the counter. She unzipped it and reached for her cell phone, checking the caller ID.
"It's JP." She was pleased at how furiously Dominic started to chop the celery as she clicked her phone open.
"Ms. McKnight?"
She rolled her eyes. At least he wasn't calling her babe anymore.
"You're not on a hot date tonight, are you?"
She glanced up at the gorgeous man standing five feet away, busily preparing a gourmet dinner for her. She most certainly was.
"No, I'm not."
"Good," JP said, sounding like a little kid who'd just been given his favorite treat. "I need your help with a very important decision."
"What is it?" With a guy like JP, it could be which shirt to wear.
"I'll tell you when you get here," he said.
The signal went dead and she held her phone away from her ear and stared at it.
"What's the little punk need now?" Dominic asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know. But evidently it's urgent."
Dominic looked her in the eye. "Don't go."
More than anything, she wanted to stay here with Dominic. But she couldn't do that. She had to tell him they were through. Done. Over.
Yet she couldn't spit it out yet; everything in her heart rebelled against it. She'd tell him soon.
"I have to go."
"Stay," he urged, moving toward her.
But if she let him touch her, she'd never be able to get away. And once she was naked in his bed, she'd never be able to tell him to get lost. Soon someone in the business would find out about them and share their dirty little secret with the world. JP would demand a new agent because he was pissed at her for not showing up, and it all added up to one thing: nothing. If he touched her, she'd be left with nothing. No hot sex and no clients.
"He's my client. He needs me."
Dominic snarled. "He needs a babysitter."
"Then that's what I need to be." She threw the door open and practically ran down the hall to the elevator, and pressed the red button over and over. She really needed to stop leaving Dominic's condo like this.
When Melissa got out of the cab at JP's house, she was surprised to see several cars parked in his huge driveway. Suddenly she wondered if she was being played.
JP's front door was partially open and she walked in without knocking. Several very thin girls with fake breasts and tight, skimpy clothes were lounging in the living room, and they glanced at her dismissively. Melissa pulled her shoulders back. She was proud of her curves. Apart from sheer genetics, she enjoyed food too much to ever look like these women.
JP appeared at the top of the stairs. "My number-one woman is finally here!"
This was why she never dated guys her own age; they were so immature.
"Come upstairs," he said.
"Do you need us, too?" one of the other women asked in a breathy voice.
JP grinned at his harem. "Why don't you girls play a little strip Twister while you wait for me?"
Melissa nearly burst out laughing when the girls actually started rooting through JP's things for the game.
She followed JP down the hall to his bedroom.
"I had that bed specially made," he boasted.
"Great." Fatigue washed through her. It had been a long week. "What do you need, JP?"
He led her into an enormous walk-in closet. "I want a big endorsement this year."
She nodded. "I'm going to get you one. As soon as we find a team." A player like Dominic was an easy sell to advertisers. He was a good-looking guy who consistently won games and stole women's hearts. JP, for all his talent, might be a mere flash in the pan. Advertisers weren't willing to shell out the big bucks on a guy who might not be playing next season.
"Since I'm here, you and I might as well have a little talk."
JP flipped through a dozen identical black shirts. "Whatever you have to say is what I want to hear."
She said firmly, "JP, you need to get serious about your playing, about the reality of your prospects."
He shot her a glance. "I thought that was your job."
She nodded. "It is, but you need to help me out by keeping your mouth shut." She handed him the newspaper clipping. "I'm not your 'babe.' I'm your agent."
He cocked his head. "But I meant this as a compliment."
"I appreciate that, JP," she said in a softer tone, "but it makes us both look bad."
He looked at her with respect. "I like that you're willing to come over here on a Friday night and tackle my ass. And actually, I was wondering about your friend."
"Alice?"
His face lit up. "I can't figure her out. And I like a woman I can barely keep up with."
Oh? Judging by the women downstairs, what JP really liked were women he could run mental circles around.
"You think she'd come out with me tonight?"
"No."
He looked at her like a puppy she'd just kicked. "Call her. Ask her."