The Sports Star at the Chatsfield

by MELANIE MILBURNE

  Step behind the hotel room doors of The Chatsfield, London…

  This is so not how Alice Hammond planned on spending her birthday. Not only has her own father stood her up, but now some guy has sat down next to her at The Chatsfield bar and started teasing her! Ok, he’s the seriously gorgeous captain of a top football team, but he’s also the most arrogant man Alice has ever met, and storming off is the only option!

  But when she accidentally switches phones with Angus it’s time to track him down, and when the hunt leads to his hotel room, Alice might be in for a birthday treat after all!

  The Sports Star at The Chatsfield

  Melanie Milburne

  Contents

  Cover

  Blurb

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  About the Author

  Discover The Chatsfield

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  I was on to my second mimosa by nine-fifteen… that’s p.m. in case you’re wondering. I have my fair share of problems but thankfully drinking isn’t one of them. I was sitting in the swanky bar at The Chatsfield Hotel in London waiting for my father. We meet here every year on my birthday, May 15th.

  That’s another thing I should clarify. We meet here on the years my father actually remembers, which makes it about one in two. Last year he forgot so this time I wasn’t taking any chances. It wasn’t that I was all that fussed about my birthday. Dad never buys me a present. He hands me a cheque. He’s been doing it every year since I was twelve. He handed my mum one on that occasion too, but that was part of the divorce settlement. I suppose I should be grateful the amount has kept in line with inflation, but there is still a little girl inside me who longs to hold a gift that her father has personally chosen for her.

  You might ask, why does my father hand me a cheque in the days of electronic banking? Good question. The answer is for show. He does the same thing every year… well, every second year. He sits down, orders a Manhattan, and once it’s down in front of him with a bowl of crisps – which he shouldn’t be eating because of his cholesterol – he opens his wallet and selects a crisply signed cheque and hands it to me with a big cheesy grin as if he’s handing me the key to eternal happiness.

  I play the game. I glance down at the amount written there and gasp in shock/delight/surprise and thank him for being so generous, yadda, yadda, yadda. I smile inanely and ask him about his latest girlfriend, holiday, golf handicap, etc.

  Yes, I know. It’s nauseating.

  I wouldn’t have bothered texting him to remind him this year but I had to see him about another matter. My father was getting married. Remarried. Now, before you start thinking I’m one of those kids who got seriously traumatised by their parents splitting up, and for years and years secretly fantasised about them getting back together, think again. I was cool about it. I’m still cool about it. They should never have married in the first place. They only did it to please their parents when they accidentally got pregnant with me. I’m the product of a one-night stand. It doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as honeymoon baby, does it?

  But I digress.

  My dad at the age of fifty-seven was getting married.

  So? You might ask. Lots of divorced men remarry in middle age. Fine. Good on them.

  But they’re not marrying my BEST FRIEND!

  Argh, I want to vomit when I think of my dad with Sophie. She’s the same age as me. Twenty-five. I mean, what is he thinking? He’s thirty-two years older than her. I still can’t believe it. Sophie called me a couple of days ago to give me the heads up. I had no idea. I think that’s what I found the most upsetting. How could I be the last to know my best friend is shagging my father?

  Former best friend.

  How could I share anything with Sophie after this? She knows too much already and now she’ll probably blab it all to my father. All those confidences, all those whispered secrets and shared insecurities.

  But not if I stop this before it goes any further, hence the father–daughter drinkies at The Chatsfield.

  I glanced at my watch and frowned. If my father didn’t show up soon I’d have to buy another drink. I never have more than two standard drinks. Never. Long story, but to summarise: a friend of a friend’s eighteenth birthday party, delicious punch loaded with alcohol, sex in the cloakroom with a guy I didn’t know. I’m glad the memory of it is only patchy. Call me overly sensitive, but I hate thinking about that night. I’m so pathetic that every time I hear the number eighteen I get a horrible feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. The thing that annoys me the most about recalling that night is it was the first time I’d stood up to my father. I mean really stood up. Disobeyed him outright. He’d grounded me for being rude to one of his girlfriends. I forget her name now but you have no idea how awful she was. Nice as pie when my dad was around but as soon as he turned his back she would have a go at me. Dad wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to explain. That’s what made me rebel. I hate that he took her word over mine. Who the hell was she to call me fat? I had PMS, damn it. I always get a little bloated.

  But anyway… where was I?

  Oh yes, The Chatsfield bar was filling up with late night patrons. The Beautiful People: models, actors – both stage and screen – sports stars and movers and shakers from the corporate world. I scanned the crowd for any sign of my father but he was nowhere to be seen. I suddenly wished I’d chosen a less crowded venue, but the thing about The Chatsfield is it’s so darned gorgeous and sumptuous I can pretend I’m someone uber sophisticated, instead of a mousy little museum curator who spends most of her time with medieval artefacts.

  I positioned my drink just so next to my phone and evening purse on the little table in my two-person nook, and draped my wrap over the back of the vacant seat in a proprietorial manner just in case anyone got any ideas about pinching my father’s chair before he got the chance to sit on it.

  I looked up to see a tall dark-haired man in his late twenties enter the bar with a group of noisy young men behind him. Bachelor party? I wondered. I watched as they approached the bar. I suspected they were already half tanked by all the joking and smiling and jostling that was going on. The friendly camaraderie amongst them made a tiny pinch of resentment pull at the lining of my stomach. I wasn’t without friends…well, I was one down now that Sophie was about to become my stepmother, but I didn’t have a football team of them.

  The dark-haired man was the last to collect his drink from the bar. It looked like mineral or soda water in the glass, which made me wonder if he was the designated driver. Or maybe he was pacing himself. After all, it was only nine-thirty at night. That was ridiculously early for the nightclub crowd.

  I found it hard to drag my eyes away from him. My eyeballs felt like they were magnetised to track his every movement. There was something vaguely familiar about him. I wondered if he was a male model or something. Perhaps I’d seen him in a gossip magazine when I was at the hairdresser’s. He was six foot one or two with an athletic build that spoke of hours of endurance training. His hair was wavy rather than curly and it was long enough for the ends to brush against the collar of his shirt. It looked like he had combed it recently with his fingers because I could see the deep grooves in between the strands. He was clean-shaven with an olive complexion, but when his eyes met mine I was surprised to find they weren’t the brown I was expecting but a deep and unusual shade of slate blue.

  He gave me a long appraising look that made every inch of my flesh lift up in goose bumps. His gaze had an intensity about it that made me feel as if he were picturing me naked. It wasn’t a sleazy look, not by any mea
ns. It was like an alpha wolf sighting a potential mate. I even saw his nostrils flare ever so slightly as if he were checking the air for my scent. I was glad I’d splurged last week on that bottle of Ellie Saab.

  I sat up straighter in my chair, every cell in my body on high alert when he left his friends and came towards me with a smile on his face. Now, I’m not one to be charmed by a smile, but I can tell you my pulse rate shot up like I’d just bolted up ten flights of stairs. I’m not the sort of girl guys walk over to in a bar. I could sit in a bar all night and no one but the waiter would speak to me. I’m like wallpaper. I fade into the background because that’s where I feel most comfortable. I glanced around behind me to see if he was coming to speak to someone else. Nope. I was sitting against the back wall.

  ‘Are you using this chair?’ he asked.

  I was about to say I was expecting my father to join me when I realised how pathetic that sounded. Nine-thirty on a Saturday night and the best I could do was a drink with my father? What if he went back to his friends and sniggered about the dowdy girl in the corner who couldn’t land herself a man? Believe me, it’s happened before. ‘I’m meeting someone,’ I said instead, with a little lift of my chin for emphasis. ‘He’ll be here any minute.’

  ‘No problem.’ He smiled again which made my heart rise and fall like it was strapped into a rollercoaster. ‘Have a good one.’

  I watched as he turned back to his friends who had by this time taken over most of the quieter area of the bar. They were lounging about like they owned the place. One even had his feet up on one of the tables. I rolled my eyes and picked up my drink, resettling in my chair like a broody hen settles on a clutch of eggs. I know. I can be petty at times but really. Some people.

  I made my second drink last another half an hour while I watched the blue-eyed man and his friends get more and more rowdy. They were telling bawdy jokes – which to tell you the truth were side-splittingly funny – but I wasn’t in the mood to laugh. My father still hadn’t shown up and he hadn’t responded to any of my texts. Also – and this was the part that was the most annoying – I kept seeing the blue-eyed man glancing from time to time at the vacant chair and lifting one of his dark eyebrows questioningly. I ignored him, of course.

  The waiter came over and took my glass off the table before I could snatch it back up and pretend I was still drinking it. ‘Would you like another, Ma’am?’ he asked.

  I know it’s been done to death but I really love that movie When Harry Met Sally so I said the immortal line (but I changed the gender) as I nodded in the blue-eyed man’s direction. ‘I’ll have what he’s having.’

  ‘Angus Knight?’ the waiter said.

  My stomach dropped like it had been kicked off the roof of The Chatsfield. ‘Kick’ being a pertinent word considering I had just realised who the blue-eyed man was. Angus Knight, the newly appointed captain of the Yeatswood United Football team. International playboy extraordinaire. He had so many followers on Twitter he made the Pied Piper look like a recluse. I hadn’t recognised him with his clothes on. Erm, I mean his street clothes. I was used to seeing him darting around a football field in shorts and a team shirt with the number seven on it. Did I happen to mention seven is my lucky number?

  ‘Ma’am?’

  I blinked at the waiter who was still waiting for my answer. ‘I’ll have a soda water. Thank you.’

  ‘Would you like me to ask him to autograph one of The Chatsfield’s coasters for you?’ the waiter said. ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.’

  ‘No!’ I felt my face flush as my voice came out like a squeaky toy. ‘I mean, thank you, but I’m not an autograph hunter.’

  I have no time for groupies. What are they thinking trailing after sports stars as if they’re some sort of royalty? So what if Angus Knight can kick a football? So what if he earns millions of pounds every year and has done since the age of seventeen when he was plucked out of obscurity from a council estate and thrown onto the world’s stage?

  Fame has a bad effect on most people; even the most level headed ones. They nearly always end up with a sense of entitlement. They expect special treatment wherever they go. They don’t have time for ordinary people. They surround themselves with sycophants and status seekers and yes-men and women who worship them like a craven image.

  I’m way too sensible for that sort of nonsense. Whenever I feel the slightest bit intimidated by someone who’s famous I think of them in their underwear.

  But right then when Angus Knight turned and looked at me that tactic didn’t have quite the same effect. A vision came into my head of him in nothing but a pair of close-fitting briefs with every contour of his hard, toned body spectacularly outlined…

  I was so shocked at my X-rated thoughts I jerked back in my chair so forcefully it almost toppled over backwards. I gripped the arms to rebalance myself, my heart rate soaring, my cheeks furnace-hot at the thought of everyone in the bar seeing what I was wearing under my off the peg little black dress. I said I was sensible but that doesn’t mean I don’t like sexy underwear. Mind you, I guess there’s not a lot that’s sensible about a hot pink thong, but I hate VPL (visible panty line) so I always wear a thong under this particular dress.

  Angus left his mates to saunter over again. I didn’t care for the lazy smile that curled his lips upwards. It was as if he knew where my mind was straying. I could see it in the sparkle of his deep blue eyes as they meshed with mine. ‘Your date stood you up?’

  I ground my teeth so hard I was sure I was going to have stubs instead of incisors. Why had he automatically assumed I’d been stood up? Was it something about me that said: desperate and dateless? Did I have a sign on my forehead saying: loser? I put up my chin again, but I had to anyway on account of him being so tall. ‘He’s been unexpectedly detained,’ I said. ‘I just got a text from him.’

  One thing you should know about me. I am a terrible liar. In the school of dishonesty I am a total failure. I do all the things cops take note of when they’re interviewing someone who’s guilty. I touch my face with my fingers. I fidget. I can’t maintain eye contact. I sweat.

  It’s totally pathetic.

  I could feel myself blushing. It was like a hot tide moving up from my neck to the roots of my hair. I wished I’d ordered another drink so I could hide my face in the glass. Not that a champagne flute is a great hiding place or anything, but still…

  Angus Knight pulled out the vacant chair, and without asking me for permission, sat down. His legs were so long he had to spread them either side of the dainty little coffee table. He reminded me of a giant in a doll’s house. I glanced at his muscle-packed thighs. He was wearing black trousers and a light blue shirt that made his eyes all the more noticeable.

  I gave him a school mistressy sort of look to counter my ogling of him. ‘Do you mind? My fath – erm, friend is going to show up any–’

  ‘I’ll keep it warm for them.’ He put his phone on the table next to mine as if he were settling in for the evening.

  I pursed my lips and continued to glare at him. Overly confident people annoy me. I guess it’s because I’m not confident myself. I envy someone who can breeze into a room and take charge. Who doesn’t sit on the sidelines with butterflies and bees and sharp-winged bugs flapping inside their stomach, worrying someone might come over to speak to them. Some people compensate for their shyness by being overly friendly and talking too much. I compensate by being taciturn and sullen. Or at least I do now. Since the birthday party, I mean.

  Angus leaned forward so his tanned forearms were resting on his thighs. It gave me an even closer look at his gorgeous eyes. The iris was a kaleidoscope of varying shades of grey and blue with a fine ring of sapphire as if someone had taken a calligraphy pen and carefully outlined the circumference. ‘What does he do?’ he asked.

  ‘He?’

  ‘Your date.’

  I looked at him blankly for a moment. I can’t remember the last time I had a date. Well, I can but I choose not to. It’s an
other long story. But three words sum it up: Blind date. Disaster.

  I quickly moistened my lips. It drew Angus’s eyes to my mouth, which was ironic because I was doing all I could not to stare at his. Dark stubble surrounded it in a way that made my fingers want to reach out and touch it to see if it felt as sexily raspy as it looked. He had a well-defined mouth, with an evenly shaped top lip and a lower one that was fuller. It was the sort of mouth a single girl like me fantasises about kissing. It’s not that I haven’t been kissed. But the thing is none of them have lived up to my expectations. I know I’m a little idealistic. I guess I’ve watched too many romantic movies or read too many soppy romances, but I’ve always wanted a guy to take his time when he kissed me. To brush my lips with his… to get a feel for them before gradually increasing the pressure. To gently explore my mouth with his non-slimy, non-alcohol soured tongue, making me feel comfortable enough to do the same to him.

  To tenderly hold my face when he kissed me.

  See? Told you I was idealistic. Who kisses like that these days? It only happens in the movies.

  ‘He does have a job, doesn’t he?’ Angus asked, jolting me out of my daydream.

  ‘He’s a CEO of marketing company,’ I said, keeping things as vague as I could. My father was pretty well known in corporate circles so I had to be careful.

  The waiter came over at that point. ‘Mr Knight, would you and your date like fresh drinks?’

  ‘Oh, I’m not his date,’ I said quickly which produced a wry smile from Angus. ‘I’m waiting for someone.’

  ‘My apologies.’ The waiter smiled and turned to Angus. ‘Mr Knight? Another soda water?’

  ‘I’m fine for the moment, thank you.’

  I had to give it to him. He had a really nice smile. He could be the poster boy for a celebrity dentist. Not just because his teeth were even and white but because every time he smiled it involved his eyes. I’m a sucker for people who smile with their eyes. I guess because I’ve spent most of my life watching my father smile with only half of his face. Before you start thinking I have father issues, I don’t. I just don’t like the way my father pretends to be interested in my life when I know behind that plastic smile he’s probably thinking of the next exotic holiday he’s going on.