Fire ignited deep inside me. It clenched so hard I almost fainted.
Involuntarily, my eyes fluttered over his body.
If he had an ounce of fat on him, I couldn’t see where. The muscles in his stomach rippled with every exhale. His broad chest and shoulders looked like they could tear a tree out of the ground with ease. His long legs had the grace and power of a racehorse.
In the center of his ripped chest was a large tattoo. A roaring lion. His every deep breath clenched his chest muscles and seemed to make the lion’s mouth roar. It called to me.
Truly, here was a king among men.
And it scared the crap out of me that something deep inside me longed be taken for his queen.
“Oh shit,” a voice from behind said.
I turned and saw Ed, his mouth hanging open, a blank stare in his eyes. There was a pained mixture of shock and horror on his face. The camera hung limply from his shoulder.
Still mostly pointing at us.
With the little red light flashing.
The camera filming it all.
The camera streamcasting it all.
* * *
It was no surprise ending up in a conference room with Pablo Garcia, President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and my ultimate boss, despite the fact that I’d never met him and, before the streamcast went out, he’d had no idea who I was.
He knew my name now.
Ed sat next to me with his head in his hands.
Leonardo Cruz sat across the table wearing a sleek black suit. He leaned way back in his chair with his hands locked behind his head, like he didn’t have a care in the world. At one end stood Mr. Garcia and at the other end sat the head coach of the Spanish national soccer team.
Both of the big boys were present.
“What the hell were you thinking, Ms. Young? Are you so eager to lose your job?” Mr. Garcia said.
I stared at the smooth, lacquered wood table. No way was I going to meet his fiery gaze.
“No, sir. I was going for an interview.”
“Marketing tells me your job was to film Chorizo al Carbon, not Chorizo al Leonardo. His pecker is now the biggest story in soccer news!”
Leonardo chuckled. “To be fair, Pablo, it’s always been a pretty big deal.”
Mr. Garcia turned to Leonardo. The nuclear chill of his focus shifted away and gave me space to breathe.
“Don’t you start! If you’re the best this nation has to offer, then we are a sorry bunch of assholes indeed!”
“You said it, not me.”
Leonardo arched a brow at me, like we were in on the joke together.
I wasn’t in on any such thing. I was in on saving my job, if that was even possible at this point.
What a stupid, terrible, idiot mistake. What was I thinking?
Coach rubbed his temples. “Please, Leo. You’re not helping.” He looked to the other end of the table. “What are we looking at here, Pablo?”
“You’re asking me? If it was my decision, he’d be kicked off the team and banned from any European league.”
Mr. Garcia turned to Leonardo. “Your bullshit antics have cast a shadow over my legacy for too many years. I don’t care if you are El Leon, the hero of the people. You’re a disgrace and a blemish on my reputation and on all of Spain.”
“Hold on a Goddamn—” Leonardo started.
Coach swiped a flat hand in his direction. “Stop! Don’t end your career just to get in the last word.”
He turned back to the only the man in the room who had the power to do that. “Level with me, Pablo. Leo’s the best striker in the world. We need him to bring home the Cup.”
Mr. Garcia ground his teeth together so hard they squeaked like a fork on a chalkboard.
“I want the World Cup as much as any other loyal Spaniard. But I will not win it at the cost of my reputation or the reputation of this nation.”
Leonardo raised his hand. “So, uh, do I get a damned chance to defend myself? Or do you already have the rope hanging from a tree outside?”
Mr. Garcia leveled a cold glare at him. “If I leave you to die swinging in the wind, remember that you were the one who knotted the rope.”
He then turned to me. “Ms. Young, you are no longer employed with my organization.”
Leonardo jumped up. “Come on! Don’t take your petty anger out on her for what you think are my mistakes.”
“What I think are your mistakes? I know what your blunders are. The whole damn world knows because Ms. Young here thought it would be a good idea to streamcast it live.”
Leonardo looked at me and I blushed so hard I thought my cheeks would melt. He grinned.
“Yeah, that was an awkward moment for both of us.”
He didn’t act like he shared that sentiment in the least.
Mr. Garcia’s face burned red. If he’d been a cartoon character, steam would’ve blasted out his ears. “Awkward? The world saw Spain’s premiere player getting an erection!”
“All it takes for ratings to shoot up is the right stimulus,” Leonardo said as he looked at me with a mischievous grin.
Mr. Garcia barreled on. “And might I add that we are still verifying the ages of those blonde bimbos you were about to screw! As well as the brunette your equally depraved teammate, Rodrigo Romero, was taking advantage of.”
Leonardo threw up his hands. “I wasn’t about to have sex with them! Jennifers were there to show off their new tattoos.”
“Jennifers?” Mr. Garcia asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” Leonardo said. “The point is, I couldn’t have been about to do anything with them.”
Mr. Garcia slammed his hands on the table.
“Don’t fuck with me, Leo!”
“I’m not.”
Garcia looked at Coach.
“Why can’t he settle down with one girl? Any girl. Any of them would love to be the chosen one. He had his wild days. They should’ve been over long ago.”
Coach nodded. “I tell him that all the time.”
Mr. Garcia turned back to Leonardo and straightened his shoulders. “I’m afraid you’ve screwed up one too many times, Leo. With no reason to believe your behavior will improve, I have no choice but to—”
“I said hold up a second!” Leonardo shouted. “You’re not listening!”
“I’m done listening to your excuses.”
“It’s not an excuse. And trust me, you want to hear this.”
Everyone at the table focused on him, the center of attention. He seemed to grow under the warmth of the spotlight.
Leonardo turned to me.
“Ms. Young, do you want to break the news? That is your job, after all.”
My brows furrowed together in confusion. I had no clue what the hell he was talking about, but I’d play along if it meant saving my job.
“Uh, no. No, you go ahead and say it.”
I prayed he had some amazing excuse that would somehow make it all go away, that would put this disastrous episode of my life behind me.
Doing puff pieces on aceitunas and albodingas didn’t sound so horrible after all.
“Fine,” Leonardo said. “I’ll say it.”
He looked between Mr. Garcia and Coach, drawing out the tension, making them almost beg for it.
“Ms. Young and I,” he said, “are dating. She came down to meet me in the locker room because I promised her an exclusive interview.”
Mr. Garcia fell back in his chair with a thump. His mouth hung open in shock. I was pretty sure mine did too.
After another minute of stunned silence, Garcia cast a suspicious look toward me.
“Is this true?”
My heart raced and blood pounded in my ears. It sounded like I was standing in front of a giant speaker at a rock concert. My palms poured sweat and my belly flopped like a fish tossed up on the beach.
I couldn’t speak.
“Of course, it’s true,” Leonardo said. “Can’t you see the headlines now? Leonardo and . . .”
<
br /> He looked at me, silently begging to jump in any time I was ready, with right this second being optimal . . .
I jumped.
“Alexis. A match made in heaven,” I said.
“Alexis,” Leonardo said as he nodded. “I’ve loved that name since the first night we met.”
Ed stared at me in shock. He didn’t know what to believe. I flashed a warning glare to keep quiet.
Coach filled the desperate silence.
“Let me be the first to congratulate both of you. Leo, you’ve always needed a stabilizing influence in your life. Alexis, I hope you’re the girl to provide it.”
Mr. Garcia shushed everyone to silence.
“I pray this young lady changes your life, Leonardo, because I swear to the Lord above, I will have your balls if you fuck up again.”
My eyes wouldn’t blink. They stared at Leo in a daze.
What just happened?
CHAPTER FOUR
Alexis
I slept horribly last night. Between nightmares of getting fired and other dreams of a more heated nature, the bags under my eyes were packed for a trip to Hawaii. I dumped milk into a bowl of cereal and then scooted my bowl over to make room for the nearly empty carton.
I didn’t do the cooking thing, and the cramped kitchen equipped with two hot plates didn’t exactly inspire me to learn the art.
Megan’s voice came from around the corner in the living room. “So you’re dating the hottest guy on planet earth. Is that what you’re saying? Because that’s what I’m hearing.”
I took three steps and exited the kitchen, walked through the breakfast nook, and ended up next to Megan. She had her foot hiked up on the coffee table admiring the neon-pink nail polish she’d just applied to her toes.
“No,” I said. “We’re not really dating. It was a lie he threw out to save both of our necks.”
“Whatevs, Sister. You’re dating him. He said it.”
“No we’re not!” I replied.
“Why do your words sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher over the phone? Waah waaah waaah wah waaah waaaaah.”
I rolled my eyes as hard as the bags weighing them down allowed.
“It’s a front. That’s all. And we’ll ‘break up’, I did air quotes with my fingers, as soon as it doesn’t look suspicious.”
Megan smiled at her toes and turned to me.
“So you’re dating him,” she said. “That is so awesome! He is a luscious hunk of man candy.”
She wasn’t lying about that.
“Did you see him after the game yesterday?” she asked.
“Uh, yes. That’s how this whole thing started.”
“No, I’m talking about when he ripped his shirt off and gave it to that kid in the crowd.”
“Oh, yeah, I saw it on TV.”
“I saw it too, in glorious HD. His abs practically cut lines in the screen!”
“You should see them up close.” I said it before I realized I shouldn’t have.
“I knew it!” Megan screeched. “You’ve got a crush on him! You wanna have his babies!”
“Shut up! You’re crazy!”
“Oh please, Sister. You’ve got the hots for him.”
I stared at my cereal like it was the most interesting thing in the universe.
“Don’t get weird about it,” she said. “You need some manflesh in your life. I know…what happened… knocked you down hard, but you have to get back on the ride at some point.”
“I’m focusing on my career. That’s what matters.”
“Yeah, at least you’re not working a crap waiting tables job like me.”
“Megs, we’ve been here less than six months. Your break will come.”
“I sure hope so,” she said. “I didn’t take on a buttload of debt so I could be a professional server with an International Business degree.”
“Give it some time, girl,” I said.
“I will,” she said. “I might be too little career, but you might be too much. All career, all the time. You could stand to get a little hot beef injection on the side.”
I glanced at her and grinned. “It wasn’t little.”
She practically kicked the coffee table over as she jumped up. “I knew it! You wanna take a bite out of that Oscar Meyer Weiner.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“Let me get my laptop,” she said. “The Federation took the clip down, but not before it had been pirated and copied to a million other sites. Let’s watch it. I love the part where you yank on his dong!”
“No! Oh my God! I don’t want to see that!”
She put her hands on her hips and cocked it to the side. “Really? You don’t?”
A hot squirming in my belly told me I was lying through my teeth. I’d been tempted to search for it a hundred times last night, but couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“I have to pee first. But then we’re going to watch it and zoom in and pause on the good parts!” She bounced into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
My mobile buzzed on the edge of the table. I nearly dumped my cereal over as I lunged for it.
Mr. Garcia. Not the call I was hoping for.
Did I just think that?
I wanted to keep my job, so I had to answer.
“Hello?”
“Ms. Young?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a few minutes to speak?”
“Well, it’s pretty early—”
“Good. I want to get on the same page with respect to how best to deal with your relationship with Leonardo.”
Our relationship?
More like the ridiculous sham that barely got us both out of the fire but inevitably promised to blow up in our faces.
That relationship?
I didn’t say that.
“Okay.”
It was best to stick to short answers when anything that came out of your mouth would be a total lie.
Megan called from the bathroom, “Tell Mr. SweetCheeks I said hello!”
“Who’s that?” Garcia said over the phone.
“Nobody.”
The toilet flushed and it was all too loud in the living room.
“What was that?” Garcia said.
“Nothing.”
“It sounded like a toilet flushing.”
“It was a shower starting next door. Paper-thin walls.”
“Listen, we need to be on the same team here.”
Megan called, “Does he have a hottie friend I can meet?”
“Leave me alone already!” I shouted.
“Excuse me?” Garcia said.
Oh crap! Double crap!
“No, sir. Sorry. Go on, I’m listening.”
“Here’s the thing. We have to control how your relationship plays out in the media.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that this relationship could be the best thing that ever happened to Leo. He needs stability and I need him to turn over a new leaf.”
“Okay.”
“Let me be candid. If you can keep him on the straight and narrow, your days of filming plates of food are over. The sky will be too low a limit.”
“Are you talking about a promotion?”
“I’m not talking about anything yet. Prove to the world that he isn’t a shitbag any longer and you and I will have a big future to talk about.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it for now.”
“Well, thanks for—“
“One last question, if you have another minute.”
“Maybe later—“
“What do you see in the guy? I mean, he has his moments, but he’s a giant prick.”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
Although after what I saw last night, I agreed.
So I lied for my career.
“He has a sweet side that most people don’t get to see.”
“Really?”
“Absolutely.”
“We’ll talk later.”
&nbs
p; “Okay. Thanks, Mr. —“
The line went dead.
What a schmuck.
Megan threw open the bathroom door.
“Did you hook me up? Tell me we’re going on a double date. I promise to try not to drool on your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!”
“He is.”
“He’s not!”
I pinched my eyes shut.
“It was Pablo Garcia. He promised me an amazing career if I can turn Leonardo Cruz into a nice guy. ”
“Do you have a leprechaun tucked up your koochie that I don’t know about?”
“What?”
“I’m talking about the big career opportunity dating the hottest guy on the planet. Who does that ever happen to?”
I twisted my mouth up and shook my head.
“It doesn’t matter. It won’t work.”
“Why?” she asked.
“There’s no chance in hell he’s ever going to play nice. Not with anyone. And definitely not with me.”
Megan dropped down onto the couch next to me and clicked on a link on her phone. The video from my interview began playing. She tilted it sideways to make it bigger.
I watched in horrified fascination as the whole debacle played out.
Lord, he was gorgeous. Look at that V! Muscles on top of muscles!
Megan paused it when my hand was wrapped around Leonardo’s shaft.
“What did it feel like?” she asked. She made a donut hole with her fingers. “Was it like this big?”
I stared at the screen. My heart pounded in my chest. The fine hairs on my arms prickled up.
I wanted to hold it again.
My brain nearly split in two.
This whole thing was ridiculous!
Were we really going to go through with it?
Fake dating so I could keep my job (and maybe get a better one!) and so he could keep from getting banned from the only thing he truly loved?
It appeared we were going to try.
* * *
It turned out that getting around the Camp Nou stadium was much easier with an official escort. Girlfriends and wives of the players had their own special section of front row seats. From there, they could admire their partners during practice without getting in the way. I sat at the edge of the section and did my absolute best to ignore the tittering questions and endless gossiping going on around me. I was the newest shiny thing and so, of course, all of them wanted to know everything about me.
Balls: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (A Cruz Boys Novel Book 1) Page 4
