There was a shout from the back of the crowd and suddenly things got louder. In an instant mayhem broke out as the crowd started shoving and hollering at each other. I was pushed into the guard. He held me up nicely, but only for a brief moment, before pushing me back. Two other guards came up beside him and started blowing whistles.
“Hey! Listen up!” the guard in front of me shouted with a booming voice. “I don’t know what y’all think you’re going to accomplish here, but this needs to stop. Now, look, I know you’re all excited but this is too much.” The entire crowd was silently staring at him. “Mr. Dunn can’t see anybody now because he’s crazy busy with the upcoming release of Mind Lash, as you all know. So if you do not have a pass or appointment, please don’t loiter here!”
The crowd murmured and scoffed. Many of them looked disappointed but the crowd started to thin out anyway. I grimaced; I didn’t have a pass or appointment but I certainly had a valid reason to request some of Hayden Dunn’s precious time. I stepped in front of the security guard and straightened up before taking off my scarf and sunglasses in an attempt to convince him to let me in. I had wanted to stay anonymous and prevent anyone from noticing me, but I saw no other way.
Once the guard saw my face his eyes lit up and his mouth fell open. Even he couldn’t deny my resemblance to Via Mace. As the security guard’s jaw dropped in shock, the other two guards were too busy making sure the crowd was dispersing.
“Look at me,” I said as quietly as possible so others wouldn’t hear. “I don’t have to say it because you can see it. I need to speak to Mr. Dunn and I would say it’s appalling obvious why, wouldn’t you?”
I expected sympathy from him. I expected the man to understand and silently step aside so I could go on about my business. But the moment his mouth opened wider and laughter fell out, I realized how foolish it had been for me to expect that. How he could find my predicament hilarious was beyond me. As if that weren’t bothersome enough, he called over his two buddies to join in on his laughter.
“Oh shit!” one of them laughed so loudly the few straggling fans turned to look at me. I was rooted to the spot as everyone pulled out their phones and clicked away with pictures. Everything and anything they said was completely lost. The sound of their voices and the shocked laughter all mixed in with the typical city sounds. It was all so loud I thought my head might explode.
I didn’t even realize when or how the few stragglers turned into a full on crowd, all jostling each other to get closer to me. Everyone wanted to see me up close, everyone wanted a million photos, and some even clamored to form a line so they all could have the pleasure of taking a picture together with me. It wasn’t until a rude man with a messy beard and greasy hair shoved his oversized body against mine and took a selfie that I snapped back to reality.
“Get away!” I cried, pushing against his arm. I stumbled to the side and was caught by the fans, some of who practically squealed in excitement at having made physical contact with the “real” Via Mace.
“Dude! I can’t believe she’s here in the flesh!”
“No wonder they were trying to get rid of us!”
“She’s even hotter in real life!”
“You think she could really kick my ass?”
There was a flurry of comments, ranging from stupidly excited to awfully crass and bordering on harassment. I couldn’t believe people were actually surrounding me, pointing at me, and calling me Via. They were all super excited, like kids on Christmas morning. Just as I was formulating an escape plan, something stopped me from moving.
That’s when I saw him.
Hayden Dunn.
He was walking through the glass doors, coming down to the lobby and toward the door.
My heart raced and my pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out the voices of everyone surrounding me. Then for a brief heart shattering moment, Hayden saw the huge crowd and motioned toward the other end of the lobby.
He’s going out back, I thought. Then he caught my eye and everything seemed to stop. Nothing else made noise and my vision wrapped up into a tunnel, everything existed only in our eye contact and from the look on his face I was sure he could see me clearly. I swallowed against a dry throat. He looked even more handsome in person; not at all like the video game geeks surrounding me.
He held up his hand to whoever was speaking to him before slowly walking toward the main doors. Two men, who I presumed to be his personal guards or managers, scurried to walk in front of him. The security guards outside stood like pillars as the two men with Hayden walked in front of him. A hush fell over the fans.
I would have been curious as to why his appearance wouldn’t have caused all out chaos had I not been there to cause it first. All eyes were on Hayden, including my own. Everyone was waiting on bated breath for our interaction.
Right then and there for everyone to see, Hayden was completely awestruck when he saw me. His baby blue eyes sparkled. He couldn’t tear them away from me. He was speechless. He was stunned. He took a step forward, the guards not failing to keep him safe, and placed his hand over his mouth.
My heart fell down a flight of stairs as I stared back at him. He had sharp handsome features and a confident demeanor that would turn heads the instant he entered a room. I was more nervous than ever to talk to him. Was it because he was staring at me like I was God’s greatest gift on earth? Or was it that he was gut-wrenchingly handsome? Whatever it was, I was nervous, but I was also angry. This was the man responsible for all this trouble I was going through. One way or another he was going to rectify the situation. Drop-dead-gorgeous or not; he was still a bastard to me.
“Wow,” he breathed, taking another step forward.
“We need to talk,” I finally announced. The crowd around us was growing even bigger. Each person had a cell phone in hand to capture our exchange, but it was nearly dead silent. Everyone wanted to hear what we were saying.
“I see,” he replied. I wasn’t sure what he meant by it. He was still staring at me as if I were a precious object to be protected at all costs. His eyes flicked up, down, and over my body as if I was something he would only see once in a lifetime.
“I think you know why,” I told him. If ever there were a time where the age old saying, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words,’ applied to a situation, this was it. Only I wasn’t a photograph; I was a flesh and blood human being with feelings and emotions.
Hayden leaned over to the man on his right. “I can’t believe this,” he said loudly and slowly. Although it was directed at the man he had no qualms about announcing it to the entire crowd. “Would you look at that? My creation has come to life, Jones.” His brilliant white teeth flashed in a stunned smile.
I was disgusted. He had the gall to speak about me as if I weren’t there, standing directly in front of him. Despite the anger coursing through my veins, I made a mental note of Jones’s name and appearance. Hayden took a couple more steps forward until he was standing close to me. He even went so far as to extend his arm and reach out for my chin. Gently, he grabbed ahold of my chin and started moving my face side to side to carefully study my looks. My skin felt electric the moment he touched me. His hands were warm and his touch was so gentle it was like he was afraid to break me.
“She really does look just like Via.”
That was the breaking point. The statement brought me back to the moment so I shoved his hand away, clearly annoyed and appalled by his behavior.
“Enough, we need to talk. In private.”
I failed to notice all the people recording the exchange on their phones. While I was focused on getting my much needed meeting with the elusive and devilishly handsome Hayden Dunn, our meeting outside had already started to become major fodder on the Internet.
Now, the whole world was going to know there was a real life Via Mace lookalike in San Francisco.
Chapter 4- The Meeting
Compared to outside, it was rather quiet inside the building. But I still felt like I was i
n the middle of the chaos. It was impossible to ignore the stares of the people milling around the lobby or standing behind reception desks. I was glad to step onto the elevator with just Hayden Dunn. My heart rate was slowing as I listened to the sounds of the elevator make its way up. I couldn’t help but peek over at Hayden from the corner of my eye. For a moment I thought I saw him looking at me, but his eyes must have been a bit faster than mine because I wasn’t sure.
My eyes wandered to where the little numbers lit up with each passing floor until it finally came to a halt on number 14. His office was on the fourteenth floor, out of fifteen, in a premium office location. I felt annoyance well up deep inside me again from the familiar feeling that this man had found his great success by stealing my identity in some way. The elevator doors smoothly slid open. I let out a quiet sigh as he motioned for me to step out first.
The receptionist’s eyes landed on me and a loud gasp fell from her mouth. She covered her mouth with her hand, but the damage had already been done. This was getting old for me real quick.
“Marisa,” Hayden Dunn said in a somewhat reprimanding tone, as if he were reminding her to maintain a certain level of professionalism. He swept past me to lead the way down a hallway. I gave his backside a quick up and down look as he walked ahead of me. Every confident and sexy step this man took irritated me even more.
The office wasn’t nearly as cold and modern as I had expected. In fact, it wasn’t cold at all. The space was welcoming and decorated without making it seem too homey. Whoever had taken the reigns on the interior design of the space had really struck the perfect balance.
We walked to the end of the hallway and turned a corner to walk toward a large door on the opposite corner. There were large windows on either side of the door. I figured it must be his personal office, but I couldn’t be too sure since there were blinds drawn and I couldn’t actually see inside through the windows. He pushed open the door and stepped inside. He held the door open for me and I quickly followed in behind him.
As I passed him his deep woodsy scent tickled the back of my nose. Cinnamon? Sandalwood? I couldn’t quite tell, but whatever it was it made me take an extra-long sniff.
His corner office was quite impressive and I noticed it looked a bit more like a comfortable haven of sorts than a workspace. It matched the other parts of the space, but his office was even more comfortable and inviting without being over the top in either respect. The colors were bold, but not overpowering and the décor was in line with a sort of minimalist theme. I pushed away the thought to ask him who he had hired as an interior decorator. I wasn’t there to make friends with the man, much less feed his ego in any way, shape, or form. I was there to clear the entire situation up with him.
“Have a seat,” he told me, motioning over to the sitting area.
There was a couch and two armchairs around a glass coffee table. I took a seat on the armchair nearest me and draped a leg over the other. My eyes followed him as he walked to sit on the couch. I noticed he was careful not to sit too close to me. That was something that gave me both relief and a little disappointment. My mixed feelings towards this man were already starting to drive me crazy. I tried to shake the thoughts out of my head. At least he had the consideration of not wanting to make me feel uncomfortable, but it wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things.
His eyes were twinkling and his stare was unwavering as he looked at me. His gaze constantly flittered up and down my body and across my face. I shifted uncomfortably and looked around his office, awkwardly trying to avoid his looks rather than actually having any interest in observing my surroundings. So much for not feeling uncomfortable. If this was any other man in any other situation I’d be completely irked out by him obviously looking me up and down. But I knew this situation was different.
“Wow,” he whispered.
It was clear the whisper wasn’t intended for me to miss. I turned to look at him and tilted my head before asking, “What?”
His eyes were positively sparkling and he made absolutely no effort to mask the sheer glee of taking in my appearance without pause. He was practically gawking at me, but not in a sexual way. He looked at me as if I were some kind of work of art. There was some strange part of it that made me feel special, even though I still felt uncomfortable about the whole thing. In fact, it had easily become the most uncomfortable day of my life. And the day wasn’t even over yet.
He covered his mouth and shrugged his broad shoulders to convey his speechlessness. Usually his mannerisms were smooth and confident, but the way he shrugged his shoulders was a tiny bit goofy. It was a small detail, but it gave me a little insight on him. Maybe he really was just a common gaming geek under all that sexiness. After a few more moments, though it felt like an hour to me, he crossed his hands on his lap and smiled.
“This is just unbelievable you know? I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing one of my creations come to life!”
I groaned. Now I was really fed up with the situation, but mostly with him. He was so self-absorbed and completely clueless. If it was an act that would only piss me off even further. Either way, it was bad and I was done with it.
“Listen,” I spoke up angrily. It must have caught him off guard since he jerked his head back and his look of awe morphed into one of shock. I, however, didn’t care. “I am not one of your creations come to life. I am a real, live person. A person who’s been alive much longer than your little creation.”
“Yes, I realize that. I just meant–”
I held my hand up, effectively silencing him mid-sentence. “I don’t care what you meant or what you’re going to pretend you meant. I’ve had enough of all this. I am very much a real person and as a real, live person with feelings and a job and relationships, your damn game is causing too much trouble for me. I’ve had it!”
“What do you mean? I’d think you’d be flattered to–”
“Excuse me?” I lurched forward in my seat. I could feel my face burning and the anger coursing through my veins. All I could think about were the hundreds of gawking faces I had to deal with the past couple days, my angry boss, and my disappointed brother. I was quickly getting pissed off and I was starting to wonder how I would hold back from eventually slapping the thoughtless man in front of me—even if his handsome looks made my heart flutter.
Actually, at that point I wasn’t sure if my heart thudded inside my chest because of him or because of the whole situation he had caused. Either way it was his fault and it caused the frustration inside of me to boil over.
“You are a self-absorbed, entitled, short-sighted man. Why on earth would I be flattered? Your little game has caused me nothing but trouble and that needs to change.”
“Trouble? What trouble? You’re practically a celebrity now!”
I slammed my fist down on the arm of the chair. “A celebrity? Are you kidding me? According to you I’m barely a real person. This Via Mace character has done nothing but negatively affect every aspect of my life, including my career. I can’t even walk down the street without being pestered. You need to take care of this. I demand you do something about this mess. I never–”
“You demand I do something? What, exactly, do you want me to do? If you think I’m going to cancel my contracts to prevent the game being released, you’re crazy.”
“Oh, I’m crazy?” I was nearly shrieking.
I stood up and paced back and forth behind the chair, taking in deep breaths as I tried to calm down. This wasn’t the behavior I had in mind when I decided to get a meeting with him. I wasn’t the type of person who thought things could be accomplished through attacks and screaming fits, but I had also never experienced anything like this.
It certainly didn’t help that I found him to be entirely too flippant about the whole situation right from the start. Taking a final deep breath, I took a seat and looked him dead in the eye.
“I apologize for my outburst. I am, however, completely appalled by your attitude toward this. I didn’t come
here for you to fawn over me being some sort of in-real-life version of your so-called creation. I came here because I cannot, for the life me, understand how or why this happened. It has only been a couple of days and it has already caused too many problems for me.”
Hayden finally seemed to be taking me seriously, but I was quickly distracted from that by something I didn’t even notice in his office– a large television behind his desk, on which had the news. My fingers curled up in a tight fist. All of my efforts to calm down were shattered in an instant. There on the TV screen was a clip of me outside his office building followed up by a side-by-side comparison of me with Via Mace.
Hayden noticed the direction of my gaze and turned to look at the television. When I turned back to face him, face scrunched up and red with anger, I saw the panic in his eyes.
Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance Page 16