by Teagan Kade
Settling into the chair next to her desk, we waited for the audience noise to quiet, which took a bit longer than I expected. Georgie leaned over and said into my ear, “The ladies sure do seem to like you.”
I smiled wider. That was part of the image, after all—Shaun the ladykiller. The screams and yells from the crowd did have a distinctly feminine tone to them. I waved again and they finally started to settle.
“Shaun, it’s a real pleasure,” Georgie said.
“Thanks for having me,” I replied.
“You are the biggest name in boxing right now. That must feel pretty exciting,” Georgie said as she expertly scanned the notes lying flat on her desktop while appearing entirely focused on me.
“It was something I found I was good at pretty early on in life, and I’m lucky that I get to make money doing what I love, every day.”
“That’s the All-American dream, to be sure,” she said with a nod. “You’ve had quite a streak ever since you started your latest tour. Five knock-outs since the initial fight that resulted in a tie in Chicago. It seems like you’re back on your game in a big way.”
“I’d like to think so.” I crossed my leg up onto my knee. No matter what I had told the PA, I was nervous. There were a few hundred pairs of eyes staring at me from the audience and millions more behind the lens of the cameras that felt like they were practically in my face. I resisted the urge to put my hand up to block them out.
I caught sight of a familiar face just off to stage left. I saw Tori give me a thumbs-up with a small smile. Instantly, I relaxed. She went over the questions with me a million times giving me pointers on different inflections and wording so I would come off as polished but not practiced. Relaxed and not stiff. Warm and not distant. She was a hell of a teacher.
“With so much going on in the ring, it must be pretty frustrating not to have things going as smoothly in your personal life,” Georgie said, adding a shrewd smile.
I felt my face muscles stiffen even though the smile was still glued to my face. This wasn’t one of the questions we had rehearsed.
“My personal life has been great. I’ve had an opportunity to do a fair amount of charity work in the last couple of months that has been especially rewarding,” I said, deciding it was better to stick to the script. This appearance was going to be my first national platform for the work I had been doing in little doses on a much smaller scale all across the country.
“Of course, it’s made quite a splash,” Georgie agreed.
“Leukemia is a devastating disease, and we need more voices as we search for a cure,” I said. I tried to see if Tori was paying attention to what was happening, but she had moved out of my line of sight. I grasped wildly at straws because I had no idea what was happening. “My sister was one of the lucky ones. I’m fortunate she is still part of my life today.”
“Speaking of important women in your life, how’s your love life these days? It was the number one question on our Twitter feed when people found out you were going to be one of our guests tonight. Inquiring minds must know,” Georgie said with a chuckle.
I stared at her. Because I was so close to her I could see the layers of make-up caked on to make her appear more youthful, not to mention the brittleness of her expression. It matched the emptiness in her eyes. It dawned on me I was being set up for something. That was the only reason Georgie would decide to go off script without telling me. She had something else far juicer planned, and I was nothing but a dying fish flopping around on the line as she reeled me in.
“My charity work keeps me busy when I’m not training for my fights,” I said. I heard a collective groan go up in the audience. I sensed they were hanging on my every word, and that wasn’t the answer they wanted.
Georgie wasn’t about to let me go. “Come on now, Shaun. Stop being so humble. You’re a good-looking fellow. Surely there’s got to be some special lady out there that you’re smitten with,” she said, adding a lewd wink.
I shook my head slowly. There was a part of me that wanted to shout from the rooftops I was seeing somebody special, that she was amazing, but that’s not what Tori would want. Right now the only place she was willing to let me claim her was in bed. And I was so pussy-whipped I let her box me out of every other part of her life without putting up much of a fight at all.
I cleared my throat. “No. No one special.”
Georgie clucked her tongue. “That sounds incredibly lonely. It wasn’t all that long ago it seemed like you never lacked for company, if you wanted it.”
Now I felt the rise of anger deep in my chest. Anyone who had read the gossip rags on me would totally pick up on the insinuation I drugged women to get them into bed. I was about to say something when Georgie managed to quiet the crowd, who had been laughing hysterically at her commentary.
“Now, this is interesting.” She held up a piece of poster board. I saw that there was a grainy, black and white picture on it. My stomach twisted as I recognized what it was. It was taken from a distance down one of the hallways at one of the random hotels where we had stayed on the tour.
My face was recognizable despite the distance because I was facing the camera. With my shirt entirely unbuttoned, and my shoes in my hands, it was obvious what I had been up to inside the room. Tori’s back was to the camera, which I said a silent prayer of thanks for. Her long dark tresses hung in a wild mane down her back, and she was pushed up on her tiptoes with her arms wrapped around my neck, in the midst of a passionate kiss.
It was my least favorite part of the night or early morning hours—the time when I had to leave Tori’s room and return to my own. There had been a part of me that wondered why we bothered with the pretense of separate rooms at all. It wasn’t as if I ever slept in mine, but Tori had insisted on it for appearances sake. Just like she had insisted on keeping every part of our lives separate and above board whenever there was a chance the rest of the world might see.
Why was she so adamant about that? I know she said she’d get in trouble with her boss, but it wasn’t as if this was some casual one-night stand. I liked Tori more than I was ready to admit, even to myself just yet. I wanted her to let me in.
But as I sat there under the harsh lights of the studio confronted with the reality of what we had so desperately been hiding, I knew this wasn’t the time to stand up and speak my truth. If Tori had told me before I came on stage she wanted what we had to be something more, I would have spoken my truth, to hell with what happened. But every time I brought it up, she wanted it pushed under the rug like some dirty little secret.
I forced my cheeks back into the fake smile. It had become ingrained on my face. “Well, what can I say, Georgie? Looks like I might have gotten caught with my pants down.”
She laughed, just as I expected her to. “So, you’re saying this isn’t a special lady that has won your heart?”
I looked directly into the camera. “For the record, I am unequivocally single.” I shrugged. “You can’t blame a guy for taking a pretty girl home every now and then to blow off some steam after a big fight, can you?”
Georgie started fanning herself with the picture. “Honey, I’ll make sure you have my number next time you’re looking to blow off some steam.” She laughed again, and I joined her, even though the rattle through my chest felt like physical blows.
I refocused on what Georgie was saying and refused to think about if Tori even cared what I had said about her and about what I thought we had. If she was so intent on keeping it a secret, so be it. She just became another one of Shaun Nichol’s hallmark one-night floozies.
Chapter Eleven
Tori
I never expected to feel so hurt at Shaun’s casual dismissal of me. It was what I would have asked him to do, and he played the part perfectly. In my mind, though, I was still reeling from the shock of seeing a picture of the two of us show up on national TV.
Seething inside, I knew I was going to have a few choice words with Georgie after the show. That wasn’t ho
w things were played. You didn’t scoop a story in front of a national audience without some heads up. Georgie had been a two-bit entertainment reporter for one of the Hollywood rags for over a decade before she became legit. She had a nose for the most sordid kind of news, and I had heard rumblings that she still let loose every now and then when she had a guest on her show she had deemed tabloid press-worthy. I had thought we were beyond all of that in Shaun’s case.
Instead, we had taken a hundred steps back because he had just admitted to a one-night fling on national TV. That was the old bad boy image reemerging that I had so carefully been trying to put to bed.
That was the thing about spending so much time with him when there was no one else around. We had loads of sheet-twisting sex, but we also spent a lot of time just talking. We’d order room service, turn on old movies, and talk for hours on end.
It wasn’t like I believed Shaun was shallow, per se, it was just the things he keyed into and how sensitive he was to the world around him constantly astounded me. I could only think it came from feeling responsible for taking care of his sister and watching her struggle through her treatment. Shaun had always felt responsible for her wellbeing.
And far from being an uneducated muscle head, he was articulate, smart and so observant that sometimes it was spooky. It was as if he was a silent observer, watching everything around him and categorizing it into its place once he thought he understood it.
He had even gotten me to open up in a way I never had in any of my past relationships, brief as they’d been. I had always been so focused on my career that wasting energy on a lowlife who intended to wine me, screw me, and dump me within a matter of weeks had always been wholly unappealing. It hadn’t been worth the effort to let them get to know me better.
“He’s a real champ, don’t you think?” In my shocked stupor, I completely missed Nigel appearing next to my elbow.
“A champ,” I said. “You know anything about that little stunt Georgie just pulled?”
“Why would I have anything to do with that?” he asked with a wide-eye side glance at me. “PR is your area of expertise, remember? Shaun told both of us in no uncertain terms you are the expert. You are the one in charge. If shit hits the fan, that’s all on you.”
The way he said the words made it sound as if he was amused, that there was some secret undertone to them that I was missing.
“I am the one in charge,” I repeated after him, but there wasn’t any bite in my voice. I was watching everything I had been working for with Shaun come apart at the seams. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time in a worse place. Millions of people were watching.
Turning my attention back to the spectacle on stage, I saw that Georgie had somehow maneuvered herself even closer to Shaun. The woman was making a fool of herself in a painfully obvious attempt to flirt with him. Jesus, she was old enough to be Shaun’s mother.
“What in the fuck is she doing now?” I said to no one in particular.
“Reading love letters to Shaun sent in by viewers. She’s guaranteed to have at least three or four marriage proposals in there. Isn’t that a hoot?” Nigel said with a smirk.
Shaun kept tugging at the tie around his neck. It was clear that despite his attempt to recover from Georgie’s earlier blindside, he was uncomfortable and flustered. Georgie wasn’t letting up one iota, though. I wildly tried to think of anything I could do to save him.
“That’s the Shaun I know,” Nigel said, leaning toward me. His breath smelled like onions. I wrinkled my nose wishing I had nose plugs. “A little bit off-balance. A little bit awkward. Just one step away from blowing his load, physically or metaphorically.” Nigel chuckled at his joke, but I didn’t join him.
Things were starting to click into place now. The look on Nigel’s face when he saw Shaun and I together that first night in Des Moines in the elevator. The way he had blended into the background without even a peep of protest after that first blow-up on the bus. This wasn’t the first time Nigel had given up the goods on Shaun. Now I was positive of it.
“You gave her the picture, didn’t you? All along, I’ve been wondering how the paparazzi would know where Shaun was, but it was because you told them, wasn’t it? You’re playing a game with his image, aren’t you, Nigel? All of this bad press starts and ends with you.”
Nigel grabbed my elbow and dragged me toward backstage. I tried to shake him off, but he was stronger than he looked.
As soon as he seemed confident we were alone, he rounded on me. The look of pure hatred in his expression caused me to take a step backward.
“I’m sorry, I think you’re confused about who your client is. The press, any press, good or bad, starts and ends with Shaun. I don’t tell that kid what to say or how to act. He does that all on his own, and in case you haven’t noticed, the guy has a bit of a temper. Lucky for him, I’ve managed to round up a nice portfolio of sponsors who don’t mind the ‘bad boy’ image so much. In fact, it’s something that plays nicely with their products and services if it isn’t too far over the edge.”
“You’re setting him up,” I said. I was shocked. I knew that Nigel was despicable, but I had no idea his betrayal of Shaun went this deep. “You’re feeding him to the wolves, for what? A pay-off? A fistful of cash?”
Nigel’s beady eyes bore deep into mine. Although I was at least an inch taller than him, his presence seemed to loom over me. “How long you been in this biz, sweetheart? Let Uncle Nigel tell you how this works. Shaun makes money, a lot of money, but most of that comes from his sponsors. The paydays from his fights are peanuts compared to what they’re paying him. Without them, he’s broke as shit. My job as his agent is to always produce the fattest paychecks for him possible so he can continue to live the life he’s become accustomed to.”
“He uses the money to pay for his sister’s medical bills,” I said, barely managing to keep my voice at an appropriate level. “They just found out last week her cancer is back, and it’s spread. No insurance company would touch her with a ten-foot pole because she had a pre-existing condition. That’s why Shaun wants the money, and you know it.”
Nigel waved everything I said away. “As his agent, I’m entitled to a portion of his income for managing his affairs. There have been some lulls since Rio. I’ve had to supplement it. But like I said, Shaun’s sponsors want him to be in the press wearing their logos, eating their food, drinking their liquor, driving their cars or whatever. They don’t want him smiling and making nice with a bunch of people that would never be caught dead buying what they’re selling.”
“They’re cancer survivors!” I exclaimed. “And not only is it good for his image, but he enjoys it.”
“Shaun is a pretty face paid to say whatever you put in his mouth. Don’t get me wrong. Your personal coaching…” his eyes wandered down my body in a way that made me feel dirty, “has clearly been very effective. But now it’s time for you to go home and let the big boys play the game the way it’s supposed to be played.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I felt the vibration of my phone in my pocket. “Dammit.” I pulled it out. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the text message on the screen. It was from Kevin.
You slut. Loved the nightie. Can’t wait to hear all the details. xoxoxo
“Everything okay?” Nigel asked. That smug note was in his voice again.
“It’s just the office. It’s nothing,” I said, putting my phone away before he could read the message.
“Yes, the office, which is where you should be from now on. Definitely not here. You’re clearly not cut out for this line of work, love.”
My chin rose. “What are you insinuating?”
“Oh, given the new free time in my schedule now I’m not responsible for Shaun’s media appearances, I’ve had plenty of time to do a bit of homework on Kommen and Russell. I even had a chat with a few former employees there. Female employees who got a little too comfortable with their clients,
if you know what I mean.” Nigel waggled his eyebrows at me.
The man was disgusting. “What exactly are you saying?”
Nigel shrugged. “It would be such a pity for a young, pretty thing like you to be tossed out in the cold for something so innocent. I mean, you’re single. He’s single. Really, there should be no harm in it, right? But considering you handle all of his press, one would have to wonder how authentic all of his other talking points were too, don’t you think?”
“Are you threatening me, Nigel?” I needed to hear him say it. My heart pounded so hard I was sure he could hear it.
He dug inside his suit jacket and pulled out a photograph. He handed it to me. My mouth dropped open. This one wasn’t taken the same night as the one Georgie showed. It was just a few nights ago. When Shaun was telling me goodbye, he had pulled me into the hallway. I got upset with him because I was wearing nothing but a barely there silk nightgown.
In this picture my face was in view of the camera, and the strap of my nightgown had fallen down in a moment of distraction, namely Shaun’s lips on mine.
“You have beautiful tits, Ms. Ellis,” Nigel said, licking his lips.
I slapped him hard across his face without thinking. I could see the outline of my hand on his mottled skin. It felt good. Nigel worked his jaw for a moment and then smiled at me again. It was full of cruel promise.
The blood drained from my face. I was going to be sick. It was bad enough Shaun had just dismissed me out of hand in front of America. In this picture, though, I looked like little more than a two-bit hooker flaunting her wares for the world to see.
“What do you want?” I whispered.
“Like I said. Scurry back to where you came from. Send someone else more suited to the job. A man perhaps, someone who wouldn’t be so likely to give over to temptation. I’d say quit altogether, but that would make Shaun a bit too suspicious, wouldn’t it? You do this and I won’t send this picture along with my full report of all of the inappropriate, lewd behavior I’ve personally witnessed to one Martin Paterson along with every other hiring manager at every single PR firm across the country.”
