The Perfect Catch

by Shania Tyler

  “I was attacked last night, Tessa,” I told her, “If it hadn’t been for Major, I don’t know what I would have done.”

  “Oh, my god! Are you all right? What happened? Wait! Don’t tell me! I’m coming right over!” she babbled into the phone, and I felt my headache coming back three-fold. I really didn’t need this right now. I just needed to get to work and forget all about all of it, especially Major. Yet thoughts of him were still swimming around in my head, and I was sure I could still smell him on me even though I’d showered.

  “Don’t worry about me,” I told her quickly as I unplugged my phone and grabbed my handbag. “I’m just on my way to work.”

  “You are going in to work?” she protested. “Shouldn’t you be going to the police station or something?”

  I knew she was right, but I just wanted to forget all about what had happened and go on with my life.

  “It was just some drunk guy who got a little bit too touchy-feely,” I told her with a sigh and again I found myself wondering what might have happened if Major hadn’t turned up and rescued me. “It was no big deal, and Major handled things anyway.”

  “Did you go home with him? What happened?” Tessa questioned. I really wasn’t in the mood for those questions. I knew where her mind was going. It was going in exactly the same way mine had been going when I’d woken up next to him this morning.

  “Yes, I went home with him,” I said shortly. “No, I didn’t sleep with him. I have no intention of sleeping with him. He is my employee.”

  “He’s one hot employee.” Tessa laughed. “And his friend was pretty cute, too. You always seem to have the right contacts. Maybe if you aren’t going to give him a go, I will take my chances with him.”

  My heart jumped into my throat. When I closed my eyes, I imagined an image of Tessa cozying up to Major and it made me feel nauseous. The bile that rose in the back of my throat was bitter and made me gag.

  “Please don’t put me in that situation,” I sighed. “You would put me in the middle of it all if anything went wrong.”

  Tessa sighed then as though she knew that I was right, and I knew that I had gotten away with it this time. There was no way I could tell my best friend that I didn’t want her to try things with Major because I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing him with someone else. I couldn’t even bring myself to say it out loud.

  “Why are the good ones always off limits?” I could imagine her disgusted face as she busily painted her toenails on the coffee table or put on her lipstick in the mirror as she readied herself for work. She was never one for going out with a single hair out of place.

  “Because you would eat them alive,” I laughed as I remembered the way she had flitted from guy to guy, determined to get what she wanted before throwing them to the curb.

  “Anyone would think that I was a black widow or something with the way you talk,” Tessa joked.

  “I definitely wouldn’t put it past you,” I assured her. “Look, Tessa, I’ve got to head off to work. I’ll give you a call later, okay?”

  “Sure, sure, you be careful controlling yourself at work today.” I could imagine her biting her lip as she spoke, daring me on to doing something. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  “That’s not much then.” I laughed. “I’ll speak to you later.”

  “Bye, sister,” she called just as I ended the call, and I rolled my eyes as I placed my phone into my bag.

  * * *

  19

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  CHAPTER NINETEEN

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  Major

  You can’t fight this. You know you want me.

  Yet another message from that crazy ass bitch, Shauna. I slammed my phone down onto my desk and ran my fingers through my hair. The last thing I needed on top of all this was to be thinking of Ruby, but it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, there was no way I would be able to push her out of my mind. She was there at the forefront of everything even as I flicked through the piles and piles of paperwork that Bill had left mixed and matched together, leaving me feeling as though I didn’t know which way was up.

  I glanced at my watch and saw that it was almost time to begin training when I heard the sound of knuckles rapping on the half-open door. My heart beat faster for a moment as I imagined Ruby pushing her way in, but when I looked up to see the pretty boy face of someone who looked oddly familiar, I was overly disappointed.

  “Can I help you?” I asked as I sat a little straighter in my chair. Something about the look on this guy’s face told me I wasn’t going to like why he was in my office.

  “So, I’m not sure if you remember me but my name is Scott Hardy,” the guy explained as he helped himself to the chair across from my desk. “My friends call me Scotty but you can call me Scott.”

  “And here I was hoping we could be friends.” I glared back at him. There was something overly aggressive about him and I didn’t like the way he had come into my office. He was clearly here for business. “What can I do for you, Scott?”

  I recognized his name, although I couldn’t quite pin it down and the truth was, I didn’t really care. He looked over groomed, pompous, and not at all the kind of guy I would like to get involved with.

  “So, I hear that you have a thing for your boss.” Scott laughed and rubbed his thumb against his bottom lip as though it was sore. “You know you really should be more careful about who you let take your picture.”

  “I’m not sure what you are talking about.” I shook my head even as the dread began to fill my stomach. I had no idea who this guy was, yet he seemed to know far more about me. I didn’t like that. I didn’t like not knowing who my enemies were. I suppose that came with my job, knowing my opponent was what I had to do for every game, and it followed me into my personal life.

  “This is what I am talking about.” Scott pulled his phone from the inside of his jacket then and I felt my heart sink. An online gossip site showed a picture of me with my arm wrapped around Ruby’s shoulder as we left the Black Orchid the night before. “If I had known that you were going to sleep with the boss, I never would have put your name forward to her in the first place.”

  “I’m not sure what you did to get where you are now, but I assure you I have not slept with anybody to get to where I am.” I shook my head and looked away from the phone. I didn’t need to see that crap. Hell I didn’t even have any idea how they managed to snap the picture and get it to print so soon. They must have been working through the night to get the job done. I suppose I had to admire the press their determination to be the first to publish on a story. It was just a shame their stories were always so off the mark.

  “So, did you rip her dress or did she do that herself in her frantic efforts to seduce you?” Scott sounded bitter, and I suddenly wondered what kind of relationship he had with Ruby to be getting so uptight about something like this in the first place.

  “Who the hell are you again?” I asked him with a raised eyebrow. There was no way I was going to rise to what he was saying to me. I could clearly see that he’d come here to start a confrontation. I wasn’t about to fall into that trap again. I’d been there and done that before and I’d ended up losing my job.

  “I’m Ruby’s boyfriend,” Scott snapped, and my heart sank deep into my stomach. Bile rose in the back of my throat. I was sure that my face must have gone ten shades paler, if that was even possible, and I struggled to stop myself from shaking in anger. I remembered the night before and how she’d felt on top of me, how she’d cried out in the shower when she’d come, how I’d taken her back to my place because I didn’t want her to be alone after she was attacked. Little did I know that she had somebody waiting for her back home, and she wouldn’t have been alone. Why hadn’t she told me?

  “Look, I’m a very busy man, and I can see that this is going nowhere,” I told him in an effort to change the subject. “I’m not sure w
hat you came here looking for, but if it was some reassurance then you can be reassured that I did not sleep with your girlfriend, and I have no intentions of ever doing so in the future.”

  Those words hurt to say, and I didn’t have a clue why. Not only was Ruby my boss but I had also just learned that she was off the market. That was two strokes in the off-limits box and yet still I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

  “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a team to go and drill,” I told him as I pushed myself to my feet and headed for the door. I pulled it open and gestured for him to leave in the hopes that he would get the hint.

  “This isn’t over, you know,” he promised me as he slipped out of the room and I followed him, locking the door behind me. “I know you are sleeping with her, and I will prove it.”

  I suddenly felt the desire to really sleep with Ruby just so that what he was saying was true. I felt targeted, judged and demeaned. At least if I had been sleeping with her those feelings would have been justified.

  “Get your facts straight before you come over next time, okay?” I suggested to him before I began to make my way down the hall, shoving my keys into my pocket as I went. I could feel Scott’s eyes on me the entire time and I barely managed to stop myself from turning around to check on his whereabouts. I wouldn’t put it past a guy who thought his girlfriend was cheating on him to come flying at me from behind. The last thing I wanted was a right hook to the back of the skull.

  When I made it to the other end of the corridor without incident, I was relieved for a moment. That was until I turned the corner and found Ruby walking right toward me. My heart sank a little bit further as I saw her beautiful face turn upward into a brilliant smile. “Major, I’m glad to see you here bright and early.”

  I knew instantly from the sound of her voice and the way that she smiled that she was putting on a front for the receptionist who sat across the room at her desk. From the way Ruby was still wearing her jacket and handbag, I could tell she’d only just arrived. Greeting your coworkers first thing in the morning was only natural, yet everything about Ruby’s demeanor in that moment was faked.

  “I thought I’d get a head start and get us one step closer to winning the Super Bowl,” I explained to her as I passed. The last thing I wanted right now as to be caught in the middle of the lobby talking to Ruby when Scott turned up behind me. “Gotta run. The boys will be on the field waiting for me.”

  “I’ll stop by later to see how practice is going,” she assured me. “Let me know if you need anything in the meantime.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” I quickly slipped through the door on the other side of the room and made my way to the field. I sighed as I realized that from now on I was going to have to avoid Ruby like the plague, especially if I was ever caught alone with her. The last thing I needed was a repeat of Shauna. Were all women lying, cheating whores? I was angry with myself for even thinking of Ruby like that, but the truth was that I clearly knew little to nothing about her.

  The second I walked into the stadium, I knew it was simply going to be one of those days. The second Wills saw me coming he gave me a disapproving look and turned to whisper something to a couple of his roommates. The last thing I needed right now was another ‘how big is your dick?’ contest with the star quarterback.

  I tried to ignore the unease that filled me whenever I saw him glaring at me or so obviously talking about me and called out, “All right, guys, are we ready for another good practice today? Let’s see if we can get these moves nailed before we go home tonight.”

  “You mean like you nailed Ruby last night?” one of the guys called out and I felt my heart squeeze in my chest. The mention of her was bad enough. The fact that it seemed the whole team had seen that picture, just as her boyfriend had, made me feel as though I had been transported back in time. It was happening all over again. Perhaps I just wasn’t cut out to be in the game anymore. It seemed all I ever did was get into trouble.

  “Guys, you should know better than to believe everything you read online,” I told them as the team began to huddle up on the edge of the field for a team talk.

  “So, that wasn’t a picture of you getting all cozy with Ruby that I saw then?” Wills questioned as the other team members allowed him room to get to the front of the crowd. “Because I could have sworn that it was, and it looked to me like she had those beautiful assets of hers well on show for you.”

  I gritted my teeth as I remembered the way that Ruby’s dress had been ripped open by her attacker. I suddenly wished that I’d zipped up my jacket around her just so that there was no way anybody could have seen the damage done.

  “You would do well to remember that Ruby is your General Manager, and she deserves way more respect than you are giving her right now,” I reminded him in an attempt to get him off the subject. I could only imagine how Ruby would feel if she turned up and heard what they were saying about her. I had no idea why I felt a need to protect her from that but something deep inside left me in doubt over what everybody was saying about her. Even what Scott had said didn’t feel as though it was adding up. If I had found out that my woman was cheating on me, I wouldn’t have been so calm about it. I’d have killed the guy and probably her, too, for betraying me in such a way.

  The truth was that at that moment, as I stood glaring at Wills, I felt as though I wanted to kill somebody and it wasn’t because I was being accused yet again. It was because I felt as though Ruby had lied to me, betrayed me, and demeaned me. I felt as though she’d led me on. Hell, she’d fucked me and the only thing that had stopped it from happening a third time had been the fact that we needed to go to work. I suddenly felt cheap and nasty, and I hated what I might have felt like had I broached the topic of attempting a relationship.

  Damn it. Would you stop thinking like that? I snapped at myself as I again remembered myself buried deep inside the beautiful body of that woman. The thought of her tight little pussy wrapped around my cock was almost enough to make me quiver but it was the anger I felt at being accused yet again that caused me to shake violently.

  “Can we just get on with practice, please?” I asked politely. I hadn’t risen to Scott’s confrontation and there was no way I was going to rise to Wills’ either.

  “I bet that is what she said when she climbed on your cock last night, isn’t it?” Buddy, the center, laughed and several of the other players guffawed with him. Back in my college days, I might have thrown myself at him and beat the living daylights out of him for even confronting me, let alone dragging it on like this. Buddy and Wills and the other guys were pushing my buttons more and more with every passing day, and I knew it wasn’t going to be long before I had to do something about it.

  “Like I said,” I growled, glaring at the center, “let’s get on with practice. That is if you guys want to win the Super Bowl this year?”

  There were a few grumbles at that and finally, the hubbub about me and Ruby began to settle down a little. I knew that at some point it was going to come up again but, for now, I was simply relieved at the quiet. Even if it wasn’t going to last very long.

  * * *

  20

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  CHAPTER TWENTY

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  Ruby

  I was more than a little uneasy as I made my way to my office that morning. It wasn’t just the fact that I’d seen Major in the lobby that made me feel that way but the way that everybody seemed to be eyeing me up. A couple of men who passed me in the corridor looked me up and down which might have been the same old same old if it hadn’t been for the way that they began to murmur to each other in hushed tones as soon as they’d passed. I wasn’t at all sure why, but it appeared that I was the gossip at the water cooler this morning and the fact that I didn’t know why made me feel more than a little unsettled.

  I was already suffering from the world’s worst hangover. The last thing I need
ed was everyone looking at me as though I was on exhibition at the local museum. Lucky for me, my office was secluded, and I was able to shut myself away in there where I could avoid everybody’s gazes, at least until I figured out what the hell they were gossiping about so that I could set them all straight on the matter. No doubt they were talking about something to do with the team, and it really had nothing to do with me personally at all. I was the figurehead, the one who got blamed when something went wrong with the Buckskins. I was used to that by now. Yet I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was something more sinister than that.

  Focusing on my work was all I could do until I figured out what that was, and I was ready to do just that when I turned up to the door of my office. My entire body filled with dread when I saw the envelope that was taped to the door. I instantly recognized the handwriting and I gulped sharply as I pulled it from the wood.

  I slipped inside my office before opening the envelope and instantly wished that I’d simply shoved it into the trashcan.

  Ruby,

  Meet me for dinner tonight at Lukas or the rumors that are going around are only going to get worse.

  He hadn’t signed his name, but I didn’t need him to for me to know who it was. There was no doubting that this was Scotty’s handwriting and only he would threaten something like that just to get me to go to dinner with him. I shivered at the thought of sitting across a table from him again, and I couldn’t help but wonder what rumors he was talking about.

  My office suddenly felt all too small, and I headed back out into the corridor. I needed some fresh air and an extra-large coffee if I was going to get through today.