by Cross,Lexi
Kendra gave me a warm, comforting smile and tilted her head. Her hair poured down like water cascading over her shoulder. I wanted to pull her to me and kiss her sweet lips, but I knew she had somewhere else to be right then. There wasn’t any time for us to fool around. We both had business to handle, and that business didn’t include each other’s bodies.
“You’re going to be fine, Lucky, and I think you know this. You’re going to pull through this. Trust your lawyers, and trust your instinct,” she said.
I wondered why she suddenly had so much faith in my ability, in my luck. It seemed to me that my luck was actually running out, but maybe things were about to turn around. Stranger things had happened to me before.
“Will do,” I told her, managing a smile.
“Bring back some of that confidence that’s so sexy,” she said, flashing a seductive smile and letting her eyes sparkle.
“Maybe when I’m feeling more confident,” I told her. I nodded toward the bathroom. “You should probably finish getting ready. We both have big days ahead of us.”
“Yes, we do.” She bent down and kissed me on the cheek before turning and walking back out of the room.
I watched her ass move as she walked away. Her body begged for my touch. My hands longed to grab her, my lips to kiss her, my manhood to enter her.
I lay back on the bed and sighed after she closed the bathroom door. I didn’t know what to do about her money or about Raven’s latest offer.
I wondered if there was a way to get money out of Raven for giving in and sleeping with her one last time. Probably not, I figured. If she had money, she would have been in either a lot more or a lot less trouble, depending on what she did with it.
I listened as Kendra started the shower, letting my thoughts drift back to her. I imagined the water running down her soft body. I wanted to go in there and take her in the shower, but I thought better of it. We had work to do, and once she was out of the house, I had to get started. I didn’t want her to know what I was going to do, but a plan was beginning to form in my mind.
I was going to get her the money she needed, and if I was lucky, I wasn’t even going to have to use any of my own money to help her. I knew that would make her happy. I just wasn’t sure how she was going to react when I put my plan in motion.
There was help right under her nose and she wasn’t even thinking about using it. I was going to ask for her.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kendra
“I think I’ve got a plan to help you,” Lucky said when I got out of the shower. He was still harping on the money I needed for Older Brothers. He wouldn’t let it go! I was pretty sure all Lucky was going to do was find a way to channel his own funds into the charity anonymously.
I had already told him time and time again that I couldn’t accept his money. It was bad enough that we were still personally involved with each other. I couldn’t allow him to be associated with the foundation, not in any way. And even if he made an anonymous donation, it would raise questions that would eventually need to be answered. Eventually, any questions would lead to him, putting me in a bind.
“You really don’t have to worry about it,” I assured him as I started getting dressed to head to the office.
My concerns over his reputation went beyond simply not wanting him to donate money to the charity. I didn’t trust him to find legitimate money for me, and I didn’t want to accept money tied to any illegal activities.
Was it from gambling? A lot of pro athletes, coaches, and other members of the league were involved in gambling rings, whether they were ever caught or not. Or was it something more sinister?
Whatever was going on with him, there was something dark behind the façade of the caring man who sat on the bed in front of me. There was some truth to his reputation. The tabloids seemed to have it right with Lucky. Women were his weakness, and it permeated his life. His desires touched every aspect of his personality and even threatened to ruin his livelihood. He said he was trying to change that. He claimed to be trying to put his old ways behind him, but it didn’t seem to be working.
“No, I think I’ve got it figured out,” he insisted.
“Okay, what’s your plan?” I asked him.
I stood back and watched him on the bed as I slid on my skirt for the day and grabbed a bra from my dresser, which had been moved into his bedroom. He kept his eyes trained on my body even as I got dressed and hid it from him.
He sat on the edge of the bed with his sheet still pulled across his lap like he still felt the need to be modest around me. His broad shoulders framed his chiseled chest and stomach. My eyes followed the curves of his muscles in his arms, the lines of his muscles in his legs. Desire was already getting me wet between my legs while I stared at him.
I imagined the thick length of flesh resting underneath the sheet between his legs, just waiting on me to reach down and stroke it with my fingers, with my lips and tongue. He looked at me with his brown eyes, his brown, disheveled hair, and that freshly shaved face that could have been carved from stone.
He was the living statue of some great Greek god. I didn’t want to get dressed. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to let him take me again, this time in his bed. I wanted him to treat me like one of the girls he’d been in the tabloids with before I came along. I wanted, just for a moment, just to be another notch on his bedpost. Except, I wanted to be every notch he ever added again. I wanted him to treat me like a new notch every time.
It occurred to me that we were looking at each other in silence. He hadn’t answered my question. There was no plan as far as I could tell.
“Lucky?” I prodded. “What’s your plan?”
“I, uh, I can’t tell you,” he said.
“Okay, are you sure you have a plan or are you just trying to get me to call off the deal with Tommy?” I asked, reaching for my blouse.
“No, I have a plan. I’m not just trying to keep you to myself or anything. It includes getting someone else to handle the funds for me. It won’t include any of my money, if you’re worried about that. Don’t worry, I’ve got it. It’s a great plan, and you’ll be surprised at how well it works,” he insisted.
“Let’s hope so. I’m looking forward to hearing more about it when you’ve actually got it together,” I told him. I didn’t really believe he had anything, but I was willing to humor him with a smile and pretend I had confidence in his ability to get the money for me.
I had tried to boost his confidence earlier when it came to his case with Raven, but I wasn’t sure it had helped. I wished he would focus more on his own legal battles and stop worrying about my money problems. There wasn’t much he could have done to help. There was no way he was going to get me to accept his money, and I didn’t see him finding any additional funds somewhere else.
I figured his insistence stemmed from the fact that he was being so protective and possessive over me. I wasn’t even sure if I was actually going to go through with the deal with Tommy or find an excuse at the last minute. If I did that, though, there was a good chance I was going to lose the office. If I lost the office, there was a good chance Older Brothers would let me go with it.
There was always the option of letting go of the office and taking time to work with the board of directors to reboot the local chapter properly. Maybe it wouldn’t have been such a bad idea to let the dust settle, I tried to convince myself. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I did agree with Lucky that sleeping with someone to get the money wasn’t the ideal option.
He stood up from the bed as I was sliding into my shoes and throwing my suit jacket over my shoulders.
“Look, I’ve got it under control,” he said, approaching me and taking my shoulders in his hands.
“I’m sure you do, but I’ve got to run,” I replied, leaning up to give him a kiss. I placed my hands at his sides, avoiding what I really wanted to do. I wanted to grab that exposed manhood of his and stroke it until it was awake enough to get in a quickie before work.
He was distracting me from my work, and I liked it.
I had fallen for Cade Hendrix, but I still had responsibilities. I couldn’t lie around all day on what amounted to a paid vacation while the world fell apart around me the way Lucky was doing. I didn’t get the option to live the life of the playboy like he did. I knew that focusing on my problems kept him from having to worry about his own, but it was infuriating that he wasn’t taking it as seriously as he should have been.
“Alright. I’ll keep working out my plan. You’ll know when I set it in motion,” he told me, kissing me again. Our lips met and lingered a moment. I felt him pressing his bare shaft against me. His lean, muscular body begged me to stay and make love to him before going to work, but I couldn’t.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” I said, pushing myself back from him and smiling up at him. His chest was firm under my hand.
I tried to tell myself I could trust him. He had worked so hard to get through to me. As frustrating as it was to watch, he had put aside his own legal woes to focus on what I needed. I started to feel guilty again for even considering something as stupid and reckless, not to mention illegal, as the whole situation with Tommy.
I had pushed that guilt aside and convinced myself there was no other way, but I knew that if anyone could have helped me, it was going to be Lucky. No one else seemed to have the luck he did for pulling things off. No one who worked for me seemed to be trying to do anything. They were part of the problem, and a good solution for them would have been to let the charity shut down while working with the board of directors to start over.
They wouldn’t have gone for that. They had too much invested in making the program run continuously. At least that was how they acted. I didn’t intend to bring it up unless I had no other options.
I walked downstairs and grabbed my purse from the table by the front door. It always felt a little strange to leave his house alone, to walk out of it unescorted, like it was mine, too. It felt even stranger to leave alone with him there, to walk down to the front door like I owned the place, like I was staying there permanently instead of just until I got things sorted out.
I laughed at myself on the way to my car. I had moved into Lucky’s mansion in response to Tommy’s threats. He’d threatened to rape me if I didn’t sleep with him for the money I needed. Then I had allowed him into my office, where we nearly fucked on my desk. Even after realizing I was considering accepting Tommy’s offer, Lucky had still welcomed me back into his home and back into his bed.
Oh, what a tangled web I had woven. I began to question just how far I was willing to go to save the charity and my career. I was starting to question my unwavering devotion. What did I hope to gain? I wasn’t in it for the fame and fortune the way Lucky seemed to be. I wasn’t trying to see just how successful I could be. Was I really concerned about helping the inner city and disadvantaged children, or was I more worried about just tacking on another failure? What was I trying to prove, and to whom?
I got in my car and drove to the office. As I arrived, I started to consider that maybe I should have been packing up, just in case. I should have at least asked the rest of my team to pack it up. Then again, if I wasn’t expecting to have to move out, why would I have asked them to pack up?
“You still have options, Kendra,” I told myself as I looked at the ripped pieces of the contract I had drawn up for Tommy. Apparently we had left them sitting on my desk. A few of them also seemed to have fallen on the floor.
I smiled as I picked them up, not because of what the contract itself meant, but because of what had happened in the office with Lucky for the contract to get ripped and dropped all over the desk and the floor. It had been a pretty good gesture, but if I wanted to, I just had to print a new copy.
I opened my laptop and pulled up the contract. I stared at the document for a few minutes before deciding whether or not I wanted to print a new one out.
“Just in case,” I told myself out loud as I hit print on the screen. The printer came back to life and a new copy of the contract started to roll across the tray. I watched at the paper stopped at the edge.
The document was just one page, but there was a lot contained in the one page. There was a lot of protection included, and a lot of money on the line. My ass, quite literally, was also on the line with that contract. But I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through with it. Sleeping with Tommy was like stabbing Lucky in the back.
My phone rang, as if to answer my prayers.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lucky
After Kendra left, I decided it was time to put my plan into motion. I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to reach out to the people I knew would probably be able to help her the most. I didn’t have much to go on but her name. I remembered she had told me her last name was her mother’s maiden name, so I decided to start there.
I made a couple of phone calls to people we used in the network to get information on other players or people close to the league. It didn’t take long to get information back. I was able to get contact information for her parents, Gerald and Marie Isaacson. I had a phone number, and that was all I needed. My guys were pretty thorough, though, and I found out that they weren’t actually on tour or anything at the time. They were home, in between gigs. I considered myself lucky again.
I was a little nervous calling to introduce myself as their estranged daughter’s boyfriend, but I also knew they probably wanted to hear from her and were probably going to be more willing to help than she would have wanted to admit.
I sat and listened to the phone ring a few times, waiting for one of her parents to answer. I didn’t know whose cell phone number I had, but I felt pretty confident that her parents would have wanted to help her. Family was always there. As long as she had family who was able to help her, she didn’t need to worry about trying to sleep with men like Tommy, the sleazy local businessman who just wanted to get in her pants.
After a few rings, I expected to go to voicemail, but it didn’t. Her father answered finally. I made my awkward introduction, letting him know I was her boyfriend and a football player for the local NFL team.
“You have to be kidding me,” he said, laughing. “I’m sorry, son, but the idea that Kendra would date an athlete is pretty funny. You have to know she’s not that into sports.”
“Yes, sir, she’s made that pretty clear,” I said, letting myself join in the laughter a little bit.
“Well, I guess this is the best we can hope we for, huh? If we can’t expect to hear from her, at least we can hear from you. So, how is she?” he asked, and I could hear his voice changing. His amusement was leaving and being replaced but an almost somber kind of seriousness.
“Well, she’s fine, but that is what I called about. She needs some help,” I told him.
“That explains it,” he said.
“I’m sorry?”
“That explains why we’re hearing from someone all of a sudden.” He sounded disgusted.
“I’m calling you because she won’t,” I said. “She’s too proud to call and ask for help, and I wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t for something very important to her.”
He sighed. “What’s going on?”
“She’s the director of the local chapter of Older Brothers, and the foundation is in trouble,” I explained.
“What kind of trouble? Financial trouble? Legal trouble?” he asked, concern starting to trickle into his voice.
“Financial trouble.” I told him about how the last director had been arrested for embezzlement and how the charity was struggling to maintain enough funds to stay open.
“Well, Mr. Hendrix, you’re a pro football player. Why don’t you help her out?” he asked.
“I can’t. She won’t accept any donations from me, and she insists that the charity is better off without my money or my input,” I explained to him.
“It sounds to me like she really doesn’t want any help,” her father said.
“I don’t re
ally blame her for not accepting my money. I’ve been in a lot of trouble, but she won’t even let me make an anonymous donation. She also doesn’t know I’m calling you right now,” I explained.
“You must have done something pretty serious, then, if you’re going behind her back like this to try to make it right.” He laughed a little.
It was almost refreshing that my name didn’t immediately tip him off. At the same time, I knew why Kendra didn’t really like sports or athletes. Her parents obviously weren’t big fans either.
The upside was that my reputation didn’t precede me. The downside was having to explain to her father what I had done that was so upsetting. That also meant he was going to wonder why I was still involved with his daughter.
