The Hot Corner

by Amy Noelle

  “And I told you it was a good one, and clearly I was right. You’ve reconnected with your ex, you’re making tons of money, you’re getting incredible word of mouth for the book, and you’re getting free publicity all over the place. It’s so much more than even I imagined.”

  “I don’t like the publicity.”

  “Well, get used to it. You’re dating one of the most wanted men in the world. You’d get it regardless, so you may as well benefit. Now, stop whining and tell me what the man candy is doing for your birthday.”

  I pouted. “Nothing. He forgot.”

  “Well, it has been a long time. You should remind him, make him feel like shit and get you an awesome present.”

  “I don’t want to remind him. It’s just another day.” And he should have remembered on his own.

  “You’re missing out on an opportunity for a guilt present. Guilt presents are awesome. They’re usually expensive to make up for forgetting, there’s a lot of groveling and begging for forgiveness, and he’ll be nice to you for several days in fear that you’ll throw his gaffe back in his face. Take advantage. Have I taught you nothing?”

  I laughed. “I take it you have personal experience with this?”

  “Hell yeah. Rich forgot our fourth anniversary. He was going through a big promotion at work—totally stressed out—and forgot completely. Where do you think I got my diamond tennis bracelet? He remembered our fifth, let me tell you.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me. Poor Richard.”

  She laughed. “He’s doing just fine.”

  “I believe you. And I’m not shooting for a guilt present. He forgot. It’s no big deal. He wants me to spend the night in his hotel room, but—”

  “Do it!” Bec shouted, and I held the phone away from my ear. “I bet his room is awesome. Steal a robe for me.”

  “Won’t that be blurring the professional lines even more than we have already?”

  “The line is nothing but a smudge now. You may as well erase it completely and have a little fun. And I want the robe. And the toiletries. I’m not joking.”

  I laughed. “I can’t steal a robe for you. I’m sure Brad would have to pay for it.”

  “And he can more than afford it. Come on, Dani. It’s your birthday, even if he forgot it. The least he can give you is a few good orgasms.”

  “Now there’s a birthday present,” I muttered. “I think you’ve been talking to Pam too much.”

  “She is the best! She’s going to let me rep her biography. Can you say bestseller? The woman is a trip. And the men she’s been with! Think of the stories she can tell. You ought to think about branching out from athletes. I’m sure she’d love to work with you—have you write her bio.”

  “Ha! Let us remember that one of the men she’s been with is mine, and I’ve already had to endure some painful conversations about him. I don’t know that I need further details.”

  “It’ll be totally salacious, and Brad’s not even close to being the headliner. Think about it.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I looked at the clock and winced. “I’ve gotta go.”

  “Okay, have fun and get that birthday sex.”

  “Will do.” I disconnected before she could respond. I didn’t need any more birthday advice.

  If nothing else, I was excited to be going to Wrigley Field for the first time. It was one of those stadiums everybody has heard of, whether they like baseball or not. I took in the old-time sign, the excited chatter of the fans, and the smell of roasting hot dogs as I walked up to the entrance.

  My seat, not surprisingly, was over on the third base sideline. I didn’t know how he managed to get me such an awesome seat at an opposing team’s stadium, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The wind swirled around the stadium, and I was glad I wore a jacket. Chicago wasn’t exactly Los Angeles in April. I took out my phone and snapped a couple of photos to send to my brother. He’d have loved to visit Wrigley.

  The Cubs were warming up, so Brad was nowhere to be seen. It was a good time to head in for a hot dog and a beer, but before I even left my seat, I heard someone calling my name.

  “Excuse me, Danielle Pierce?”

  An usher was at my side, and I smiled.

  “That’s me.”

  He whipped off his hat with a flourish, and I noticed that he wasn’t alone. There were four of them, all dressed in red-and-white striped jackets. Before I could ask, they launched into a jazzy version of “Happy Birthday,” complete with bows. I felt my face turning red as everyone around us took in the show.

  “Mr. Reynolds asked that we give you these.” The front man handed me a baseball, while another gave me a cupcake that had a baseball on it and the words Happy Birthday. I managed to thank them despite being both mortified and touched by the public display. Once they departed, I focused on the ball.

  Did you think I’d forget? Happy birthday, Red.

  I had to laugh. The man was good. I tucked the ball into my jacket pocket and peeled the wrapper off my cupcake. I took a bite of the white cake and let out a moan when I tasted the raspberry filling. No, he didn’t forget. How he’d had the time to find my favorite cupcake was beyond me, but I was thrilled.

  He was making it impossible for me not to fall for him again. The new Brad still had a lot of the old Brad in him, and I was blown away by both. He was even more attractive now, the confidence no longer putting me off like it did when we’d first reunited.

  “So are you going to spend your birthday with me?”

  My breath caught as I looked down to see him right in front of me, grinning. “How could I not? Thank you for the cupcake.”

  “And the song?” he asked, laughing when I shook my head. “Hey, it was better than me singing it to you over the PA. I looked into that, you know. Had we been at home, I could have done it.”

  “Then I’m eternally grateful we’re in Chicago,” I said, and he laughed all the harder. “I doubt you’ve learned to carry a tune since I last heard you sing.”

  “I don’t think you were overly concerned with my lack of singing talent back then.”

  No, I hadn’t been. We’d been dancing at some party and he’d crooned in my ear as his hands moved up and down my back. In between the lyrics, he’d thrown in some dirty suggestions of what we could be doing, and we’d left the party right after the song ended.

  “Do you remember?” he asked, jarring me back to reality and another stadium full of people.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want to relive that night?”

  I shivered. “Yes.”

  “Consider it done.” His smile was triumphant. “Now do I get my kiss, or what?”

  I eyed him for a few moments before shrugging. “Oh, what the hell?” I leaned toward him, but instead of meeting his lips with mine, I mashed a little piece of cupcake against his mouth. He chuckled and licked his lips clean.

  “It’s good.”

  “It really is. Thank you for that.”

  “There’s more where that came from. See you after the game?”

  “Yeah.” I leaned forward again, this time giving him a quick kiss. “Better win for my birthday.”

  Brad’s wicked grin flashed. “I already did, Red. I already did.”

  “Lucky girl,” someone said from behind me, and I had to agree. This had the makings of the best birthday ever.

  Chapter 21

  The man was impossible to say no to when he wanted something. Before the day was over, he had me agreeing to stay at his condo, against my better judgment. Bec had no problem with it, the publisher wasn’t exactly upset with our very public romance, and I just didn’t have the strength to say no when he turned that pleading green gaze on me. His lips and hands and the rest of his body were hard to resist as well, but his sweetness was my undoing.

  After the game, we went back to his hotel and he surprised me with a steak dinner, flowers, candlelight, and champagne. I knew he hadn’t had to do much more than call the front desk to arrange i
t, but it still touched me. Of course, Brad had been confident enough to assume he’d win me over to staying in his room. The old mixed with the new yet again.

  We sat on the couch, and he pulled out a small box. I opened it to find an infinity link diamond bracelet.

  “I can’t, it’s too much. We’re too early into our relationship for gifts like this.”

  “I always told you I couldn’t wait to give you diamonds and forever. It’s been nearly a decade, Dani, let me have this.”

  “We were in a different place then.”

  “And you don’t think we’re headed to that place now?”

  The hurt in his voice tore at my heart.

  “I don’t know where we’re headed yet. There’s still so much we have to figure out, and maybe you’ll hate me after we do, or maybe I’ll hate you.”

  “I couldn’t hate you when I tried before. How could I possibly hate you now?”

  But he could and it scared me. I almost wanted him to have cheated on me all those years ago at this point, because then I would have been right and justified for walking away. And maybe an idiot for finding myself in the same situation with the same man again. I could handle that a lot better than if I had ruined everything instead. I could forgive Brad; hell, I already had. I didn’t know if I could forgive myself.

  “Maybe you should hate me,” I said.

  He shook his head and pulled me into his arms. “On your birthday? What kind of present would that be?”

  “Not much of one, but . . .” He silenced me with his lips and moved me into a dance that had no music but was beautiful just the same.

  “Happy birthday, Red.”

  I couldn’t ruin the moment with long ago questions. He carried me to bed and made long, slow love to me, leaving me spent and boneless and ready to declare my love for him. Neither of us had said it yet, but I was pretty sure we were both falling hard and fast. A man didn’t give a woman a present like he’d given me if he thought it was just a passing fling. I caught him running his fingers over the links when I woke up the next morning. When I asked what he was doing, he just smiled and kissed the top of my head and told me it looked good on me.

  When we arrived back in LA, he parked his car in front of the condo while I stared out the window.

  “Earth to Red, come in, Red.”

  I shook myself out of memories and focused on the man who starred in them. “What?”

  “You look like you’re a million miles away. Anything you’d like to share?”

  “Not really. Just thinking.”

  “Having second thoughts?” He kept his tone light, but I saw the way his brows furrowed. I reached out to smooth the frown line away.

  “Not at all.” Third and fourth thoughts, maybe, but not second ones. And I wasn’t regretting the decision to stay with him either. I was nervous about it, but that was normal. “I was thinking about my birthday, actually.”

  A wolfish grin lit up his face and I socked his shoulder. “That was a good birthday. You’re going to have a hard time topping it for mine.”

  See? There it was. His birthday was over ten months away. He was planning for the future, even though we hadn’t talked about what happened after I finished the book. Honestly, I could leave at any time. I’d conducted most of my interviews. I’d seen what I needed to see when it came to road trips and home games. The rest was just spending time with Brad and getting to know him better, and it could be argued that I knew him plenty well at this point. But still I needed more. I needed to know about his father, and we needed to discuss us.

  “I’ve got time to plan,” I said, unable to stop myself from returning his smile. I thought I was being noncommittal; he thought I was commenting on the future. Who knew which was which?

  “That you do, but first things first.” Before I knew what was happening, I was swept off my feet in the hallway outside his condo.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Carrying you across the threshold, what does it look like?”

  My heart fluttered. “We didn’t get married, Brad.” Though I’d pictured it a thousand times before, and he’d always held me just like this whenever I’d imagined our wedding night.

  “No, but I finally got you to move in. That seems momentous enough.” Before I could argue the point, he opened the door and deposited me inside before stepping back out to get the rest of my bags.

  Oh well, nothing to be done about it now. I walked into the living room and burst out laughing. “What did you do in here?”

  The normally immaculate living room finally appeared lived-in. More than lived-in. It was a mess. Clothes were piled on the couch to the point we couldn’t even sit on it. His toiletries were littered over the coffee table, along with keys, a half-eaten orange, and several empty cans of soda. There were shoes in the middle of the room and boxers on the recliner. “Those better be clean,” I said as Brad entered the room with my bags, laughing.

  “I just thought I’d make you feel at home.”

  I picked up a picture of Pam that had somehow made its way onto the end table. “With pictures of your exes lying around?”

  Brad shook his head. “I asked her to come in and make the place look more homey. I guess she thought I needed pictures.”

  He did, badly, but still. I looked closer at the picture and saw that she’d stuck a note on the back of it.

  To my favorite would-be lesbian lover, welcome home. Feel free to remove my picture. You might just have a present behind it.

  I smiled as I unhooked the back and removed Pam’s photo. What was behind it made me gasp. Brad came up behind me and looped his arms around my waist.

  “Now, that’s more like it,” he said.

  It was a picture of the two of us at the game in Chicago. I was smashing the cake against his lips as he laughed at me. We looked like we were lost in our own little world, which, of course, we had been.

  “Where did she get that?”

  “Cameras are everywhere, baby.” He took the picture from me and set it in the center of the mantle above the fake fireplace. “There. It’s perfect.”

  And it kind of was. “That’s more than I can say for the mess in here.”

  Brad chuckled and kissed me soundly. “I just wanted you to feel at home here.”

  I couldn’t help it. I melted. “You’re here, how could I not?”

  “How about we go check out the bedroom?” Brad suggested, nipping my earlobe as he steered me down the hallway.

  “How about we do?” I shot him an inviting smile as I picked up my makeup case where he’d dropped it. “I need to put my clothes away.”

  “That is not what I had in mind,” he said, pouting, but hefting my big suitcase and medium one easily.

  “I know.”

  I marched down the hallway, where more pictures of the two of us now hung on the walls. Where Pam had gotten them I couldn’t say, but there was one from mini-golf that must have been taken by the paps because we were kissing and completely unaware of the cameras. There were a couple from other games I’d attended, us smiling at each other as Brad leaned on the fence, and one from the charity ball—our first event together—where we looked beautiful but rather stiff.

  “Pam’s been busy.”

  “Yeah, she was more than happy to help.” Brad tossed my suitcases on the bed. “She said she was going to clear out some drawers.” He pulled open a few and they were empty. “What the hell?” He opened more drawers and scowled. “Where are my clothes?”

  I laughed as I piled a stack of underwear and bras and carried them to place in the top drawer. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.”

  He stomped over to open the closet and grimaced. “About half my stuff is here. Damn it.” He hurried out of the room as I continued unpacking, laughing to myself over Pam’s idea of assistance. He came back in, his eyes narrowed. “She put all my shit in the guest room. Not cool.”

  “I guess she thought I needed more room than I do.” Most of my stuff was back
in Jacksonville, of course. And I wasn’t moving it here, yet. “I’ll help you bring your stuff back in.”

  “Thanks. Remind me to take back the key I loaned her and change the locks, will you?”

  He threw himself down on the bed and started going through my clothes. “You don’t have enough stuff. We should go shopping.”

  I batted his hand away from my suitcase. “I have what I need, and now that I have easy access to a washing machine, I’ll be fine.”

  “If you say so.” He held up a black silk nightgown that had magically appeared in my room after one of Pam’s visits. “Why haven’t I seen this yet?”

  “Because I usually don’t bother with clothes when you’re around at night.” I took it from him and shoved it into a drawer.

  “Good point. But now that you’ll be living here . . .”

  I laughed and put my shirts away. “Yes, I’m sure I’ll wear it for you.”

  He smiled happily as I emptied my other bag and placed the medium into the large before putting them in his closet. “Now, how about you get out of those clothes and we’ll celebrate you being here the proper way?”

  “How about you show me where I can set up my computer and have some office space?”

  “All work and no play make Dani a dull girl,” he said, running a hand over my ass as I passed into the bathroom with my toiletry bag.

  “All play and no work make Dani late for book deadlines,” I called over my shoulder. “And since it’s your damn book, I’d think you’d be more supportive.”

  “Since it’s my book, it can wait while we—

  Brad appeared in the doorway just as I was pulling out a box of tampons. His eyes went wide and he turned around without a word.

  I giggled as I finished putting my stuff away. “Still not over the trauma?”

  “A guy just doesn’t recover from such things.” He turned back around, arms crossed. “Are they gone?”

  “They’re put away, yes.”

  “Good. Come on.” He led me down the hallway into an office. “You can set up anywhere in here. I don’t use the computer for more than e-mail, so if you need to move it, no big deal.”