Going For It (Texas Titans #7)

by Cheryl Douglas

  “Take your hands off her, or I will kill you,” Blaise said, coming up behind Morin.

  “You’ll kill me?” He chuckled, his massive chest rumbling. “Man, have you forgotten what happened the last time you challenged me?”

  “I’m warning you, Morin,” Blaise said, gripping his shoulder. “Kiara is off-limits.”

  “Off-limits?” Morin turned slowly, his beady eyes boring into Blaise. “Off-limits? Who the hell are you to talk to me about respecting boundaries, Thomas?”

  Kiara didn’t know what they were talking about and didn’t care. The only thing she could think about was diffusing the situation before it turned into a blood bath. Stepping around Morin, she positioned her body between the two men. She gripped Blaise’s face in both hands and forced him to look at her. “Hon, please don’t do this. It’s not worth it.”

  “She doesn’t know what kind of low-life you really are, does she, Thomas?”

  Kiara could feel Blaise’s tension as his hard body turned to granite. “Just go, please. We can talk later.”

  “He’s leaving first,” Blaise said, pointing over her shoulder at Morin. “No way am I leaving you here with him.”

  She tried to leash her panic. “He’s my client. I told you Sabrina wants me to represent him. I can’t avoid meetings like this. You’re just going to have to get used to it.” Her voice was soft, placating, but she knew Morin was taking in every word. “This is my job, Blaise.”

  “How long do you think you can keep secrets from her?” Morin asked. “You think a sexy little thing like this doesn’t have guys lining up to get into her panties?”

  Blaise lunged for him, and Kiara screamed when her back collided with Morin’s solid chest.

  “Jesus, are you okay?” Blaise asked, jerking back. When she nodded, fighting back tears, his large hands framed her face. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

  “No, you just scared me.” She released a shaky breath.

  Blaise hauled her against his chest and stroked her hair. “I’m sorry, Ki. I never meant for you to get caught in the middle of this.”

  “But she is in the middle of it,” Morin said. “Your girlfriend is my agent, which means we’re going to be running into each other a lot. Better get used to it, man.”

  “I gotta get out of here,” Blaise whispered, gripping her hand as he led her back to his car. “If I don’t, I’m gonna kill that guy. But I’m not leaving you here alone with him.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Did you hear me?” Blaise glared at a young man who walked slowly past, checking out Blaise’s car. “I am not leaving you alone here with him.”

  Kiara knew there was no sense arguing with him when he was in that state. “Fine.” She turned toward Morin, who was only a few feet away. “Casey, we’re going to have to do this another time.”

  “Yeah, like never,” Blaise muttered.

  Morin rolled his eyes. “How’d I know you were going to say that? I gotta tell you, Kiara, I never pegged you for a submissive. Marla, sure. But not you.”

  “Who’s Marla?” she asked, glancing at Blaise. The nerve jumping in his jaw told her he had no intention of answering her, but Marla was obviously someone important. An ex-girlfriend, perhaps? A submissive ex-girlfriend? Is that the kind of woman Blaise usually goes for?

  “You mean he hasn’t told you?” Morin glared at Blaise. “Why am I not surprised?”

  “If you don’t get the hell out of here now, I’ll make you wish you had, Morin,” Blaise said, pushing off his car.

  “You forget who got taken out the last time we mixed it up.”

  “We both know you got lucky.” Blaise’s chest brushed Kiara’s back as he stepped closer to Morin. “That was our third fight, and I kicked your ass the first two times.”

  “Maybe, but I was the one who had the pleasure of taking you out of the ring for good.”

  “You son of a—”

  “Morin!” Kiara shouted. “Get out of here right now, or you can find another agent to represent you!”

  “Fine,” he said with a heavy sigh. “We both know I won this round.” Morin pressed the button on his key fob before reaching for his door handle. “But don’t forget to ask him about Marla.” He winked at Blaise. “If he doesn’t want to tell you, I’d be happy to fill you in.”

  ***

  When Kiara turned to face him, her eyes filled with accusations, Blaise couldn’t breathe. He knew she was going to ask questions he didn’t want to answer. If he told her the truth, she’d walk away without a backward glance, and he couldn’t let that happen.

  “Care to tell me what that was about?” she asked.

  Blaise was caught between the truth and a lie, and neither felt right. “You know we hate each other. Put us within a few feet of each other, and that’s bound to happen. That’s why I didn’t want you working with him.”

  “Why do you hate each other so much?” She crossed her arms as she tipped her head back to look at him. “I know boxers trash talk before a big fight, that’s part of the promo, but this hatred you have for Morin runs deep. What happened?”

  “He always thought he was better than me. I hate guys who are that arrogant.” That was a lame excuse. Kiara wasn’t stupid or naïve, and Blaise knew she wouldn’t stop until she uncovered the truth. “Why don’t we go inside and grab a quick bite now that he’s gone?”

  She grabbed his hand when he turned away. “You’re trying to distract me. You don’t want to answer my question. Why? What are you trying to hide?”

  He forced a laugh. “Girl, you’re crazy.” He’d intended to come off as playful, teasing, but he could tell by the way her eyes narrowed and nostrils flared that she wasn’t amused.

  “You want me to trust you? You tell me you love me. Prove it. Be honest with me.”

  “Baby, I don’t know what you want me to say. I already told you why I hate Morin. End of story.”

  “You’re lying to me.” She shook her head as she stepped back. “I can tell you’re lying to me. I’ve had a lot of experience with liars. All those guys who told me I was the only one while they were banging puck bunnies and—”

  “Stop,” he said, gripping her shoulders. “I would never cheat on you. I’m not like that.” He wanted, more than anything, to tell her he would never lie to her, but a lie by omission was still a lie.

  “Prove it. Start being honest with me. Just tell me why you hate him so much. Who is Marla?”

  “She’s his wife, okay?” Blaise hung his head, fighting waves of nausea. “She’s Morin’s wife. We had an affair.”

  Chapter Eight

  Kiara stared at him in disbelief, waiting for him to tell her he was kidding, but the anguish on his face told her it wasn’t a joke. “Oh, God.” She covered her mouth. “It all makes sense now. He is using me to get back at you.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you couldn’t have told me this before I signed a contract with him?” She couldn’t believe she’d allowed herself to become a pawn in their sick game.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice was low and raspy. “I know I should have, but I was scared, Ki. I was falling in love with you. I didn’t want to lose you when you found out about Marla.”

  “No wonder he hates you. I don’t blame him.” She never thought she’d take Morin’s side over Blaise’s, but she couldn’t believe he would do something so vile.

  “I didn’t know they were married.” He raked his hands through his hair, stumbling back against his car. “Marla and I had been sleeping together for months. Apparently she’d been seeing Morin too. She married him in Vegas one weekend and failed to mention it to me.”

  Kiara didn’t know a lot about boxing, but she assumed Morin had been a big enough name for his wedding to warrant some press coverage. “How could you not have known? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Marla convinced him to keep it a secret, for obvious reasons. Don’t ask me why he went along with that. I just know he did.”

  “
Have you seen her recently? Are she and Morin still married?” She had so many questions, and she could tell by his prolonged silence that he wasn’t anxious to fill in the blanks. “You know what, forget it. I’ll ask him.”

  He reached for her arm when she stepped toward her car. “Last time I saw Marla was about four months ago. She was still married to him then.”

  Four months ago. Just a couple months before he’d started seeing her. “What happened when you saw her? Did she come looking for you, or was it the other way around?”

  “We ran into each other at a bar. I was drinking a lot and…” He glanced at a couple walking past them, shooting a curious glance their way. The guy must have been a boxing fan because he whispered Blaise’s name to his partner. “I’m not doing this here. If you don’t want to go inside—”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” She couldn’t believe he expected her to have a leisurely lunch with him as though he hadn’t just imparted news that was bound to change everything between them. “Not until you tell me the whole story about Marla.”

  “Fine, at least get in the car where we’ll have some privacy.”

  She unlocked her door and slid into the driver’s seat, waiting for him. As soon as he got in the car, she said, “Start talking. I have a meeting with Dalton back at the office soon.” When he stared straight ahead instead of speaking, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

  “What the hell was I supposed to say, Ki? ‘Oh yeah, I banged Morin’s wife. Hope that doesn’t change your opinion of me.’” He looked out the passenger’s window. “I’m not an idiot. I knew you wouldn’t be able to get past something like that.”

  She wanted him to make her understand, to give her some reason to believe in him again. “You said you didn’t know she was married to him. So when you found out, you stopped sleeping with her? Right?” She wanted to believe Blaise was Marla’s victim. She closed her eyes, tipping her head back against the headrest. “Please tell me you didn’t continue sleeping with her after you found out she was married.”

  “I hated Morin’s guts,” he said, as though that justified sleeping with the man’s wife. “And by the time I found out about their marriage, I was already in pretty deep with Marla.”

  “Get out.” Her hands trembled when she pressed the button to start the car. “I don’t want to hear anymore.”

  “Please, Ki,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Try to understand. I was in a bad place. I’d lost my career. I didn’t know what I was going to do next. I despised Morin, blamed him for ending my career, so maybe I was using Marla to get back at her husband. She was using me too. Morin was horrible to her. He hurt her.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, pulling her hand from his.

  “According to her, he roughed her up. I saw the bruises, so I’m inclined to believe her.”

  Kiara rubbed her temples before reaching into her glove box for a bottle of aspirin. She tapped two tablets into her hand before reaching for a bottle of water from the cup holder between them. “I don’t believe this. Now you’re telling me that my new client is a wife beater, and you let me agree to represent him? Do you have any idea what it’ll do to my career if it gets out that I aligned myself with someone like that?”

  Kiara felt guilty for considering herself above the real victim, Marla, but she had trouble feeling sympathy for Blaise’s former lover. “The way I present myself is important in my line of work. I need to gain the respect of not only the athletes but team management as well. They need to believe that I have sound judgment, or they won’t take me seriously. Don’t you get that?”

  “I do, baby, I do.” He sighed. “I’m sorry. I never meant for you to get hurt.”

  “But you could have prevented it. You could have told me the truth as soon as you found out Morin called me, but you didn’t. You were more concerned about protecting your own ass.”

  “I was trying to protect us.” He looked tortured as his hand closed around the gearshift between them. “We were building something incredible, and I didn’t want to let Morin ruin it. He’d already ended my career. I couldn’t let him ruin us too.”

  “He didn’t ruin us,” Kiara said, trying to ignore the pain searing her. She would have time for tears later. Right now she had to be strong. “You did. You were the one who wasn’t honest with me. You kept secrets that you knew would hurt me.”

  “I’m sorry.” He leaned forward, gripping his head. “I don’t know what else to say. I made a mistake.”

  If it had only been one mistake, she might forgive him, but their situation had been created by a series of bad choices that indicated a pattern of behavior. She questioned whether she knew him at all. “You didn’t tell me what happened the last time you saw her.”

  “God, do we really have to go there?”

  “I guess that’s my answer, isn’t it?” Knowing he’d slept with Marla even after he knew she was someone else’s wife left a bitter taste in Kiara’s mouth. How could she have been so wrong about him?

  “I was drunk. Hell, I was pissed. I hated myself, the world, but I hated Morin most of all.” Distress etched lines in his face, making it appear as though it took everything in him to hold it together. “I wanted to punish him. So did Marla. So yeah, we slept together. But that was the last time we were together, I swear.”

  “And that’s supposed to make it okay?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  His broad shoulders slumped as he hung his head. “I didn’t say that. I know you must think I’m a low-life for sleeping with another man’s wife, but you gotta believe me, baby. I’m not like that. That was the first and last time I’ve ever done something like that, and I swear to you, I’ve regretted it ever since.”

  “Then you haven’t seen or heard from Marla since it happened?”

  His long exhale told her that was wishful thinking on her part. “She called me a couple nights ago. It was late. I was half asleep, told her it wasn’t a good time.”

  “A couple nights ago?” Numbness pervaded her body and took away the pain. “I spent the night with you a couple nights ago. I was there when she called?”

  “Yeah, you were asleep. My cell was on vibrate, so it didn’t wake you.”

  “The lies never stop, do they?” Her stomach roiled, making her glad she hadn’t eaten. “Is there anything you have been honest about?”

  “I was honest about my feelings for you, Ki.” His voice was thick when he said, “I’m crazy about you. You gotta believe me when I tell you I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”

  “Not even Marla?” She regretted the bitterness she’d allowed to creep into her voice. Now he knew how jealous she was of his last lover.

  “No.”

  “Did you love her?”

  He stared at the ground. “I thought I did at the time. I was a bit of a mess when I found out about her and Morin, I’m not gonna lie.”

  “You’re not going to lie?” She rubbed her forehead. “That would be a nice change.”

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked, briefly clenching his hands. “I can’t take it back. If I could, I would. But I can’t. I screwed up. Does that mean this is the end of the road for us?”

  “I can’t think straight right now. I need some time to process this.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to get back to the office.”

  “Baby, please.” He leaned over, coaxing her to face him as he touched his forehead to hers. “I love you. I can’t lose you over this.”

  “Just go, Blaise. Please. Just go.”

  ***

  Kiara was trying and failing to focus on outlining the standard client/agent contract for Dalton, who she was supposed to be training.

  “You wanna talk about it?” he asked, pushing the contract aside. “I’m a pretty good listener.”

  Kiara had been friends with Dalton almost as long as she’d known Sabrina, but she didn’t know if she was ready to confide in anyone just yet.

  “Is this about Bla
ise? Did something happen between y’all?”

  “He lied to me.” Kiara knew she wouldn’t get any more work done. Reaching for the coffee Dalton had brought her, she said, “I thought I knew him, but now I’m questioning everything.”

  “I’ve gotten to know Blaise a bit over the past few months,” Dalton offered. “He seems like a pretty good guy.”

  “I thought so too, but…” She was angry with Blaise, but she didn’t think it was fair to share his secrets. “Are there things that are deal breakers for you in a relationship? Like trust, honesty, fidelity?”

  Dalton sputtered on his coffee. Clearing his throat, he raised his hand. “Hold up a minute. Are you telling me Thomas cheated on you?”

  “No, but he wasn’t honest with me about some things. Things that could have a negative impact on my career.” If only her career was all that concerned her. She couldn’t help but think that if Blaise didn’t respect the sanctity of someone else’s marriage, he wouldn’t be capable of respecting his own wedding vows. They weren’t anywhere near that stage, but she wondered why she was wasting her time if she couldn’t trust him.

  “Hmmm.” Dalton was obviously curious but didn’t want to pry. “Did he have a good reason for not coming clean about it?”

  “He said he didn’t want to lose me.”

  “Would that have been a possibility if he’d told you?”

  Kiara felt differently now that they’d been intimate. She was more invested in their relationship. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “That’s a tough one. I know how Thomas feels. There are a lot of things in my past I’m not proud of.” He grinned. “Some have called me a bit of a man-whore, and I can’t deny it. I wouldn’t want to share my sordid past with a girl I care about.”

  Kiara knew Dalton had a point, but that didn’t make Blaise’s indiscretions sting any less. “Part of me thinks that what happened before he met me shouldn’t have any bearing on our relationship, but the other part of me thinks it speaks to the kind of man he is. I’m not sure the man who could do the things he’s done is someone I’d want to risk giving my heart to.”