Playing in SECRET (Corrigan & Co. Book 9)

by Crystal Perkins

  “We do. She’ll be safe.”

  “Thank you, Audrey. I mean it.”

  “Oh, the pleasure’s going to be all mine, Blake.”

  Not if I can help it. I never in a million years thought that a threat to my daughter’s safety would bring Audrey back into my life. I’m not glad it happened this way—my daughter is more important to me than anything else—but I can’t say I’m sorry about it. I’m going to prove to both of us that I’ve changed, and tonight is the perfect place to start. Having her in my bed will hopefully come later.

  Chapter 1

  Blake

  I check my reflection in the elevator mirror at least fifteen times on my way up to Audrey’s apartment. I’m acting like a teenage boy on his first date. Scratch that, I was never nervous on dates when I was a teenager, which is part of the problem. I never had to work for anything—or anyone—when I was younger. Or now. I was the BMOC back then, and I’m currently one of the biggest movie stars on the planet. Panties drop when I enter a room. I know it, and I’ve definitely taken advantage of it.

  I don’t regret most of what I’ve done. I’m a red-blooded American male, and I wasn’t going to turn down sex of any kind with the girls or women who offered it. Does that make me an ass, or a douche? Probably, but like I said, it’s never really bothered me.

  Audrey, though, she’s bothered me. If I have just one regret, it’s that I didn’t take her to prom. I honestly wanted to—or, at least, a part of me wanted it. Not a big enough part to make me risk my popularity, or Misha. And I can’t regret that I was with Misha, because I got Jeanne. No one, and nothing, comes before my daughter. Especially not her mother, who is more concerned about the slowing down of her career than the pain Jeanne feels for basically being abandoned by her.

  Fuck Misha, though. Or in my case, don’t. She’s tried to win me back, going so far as to sneak into my bedroom, but it’s no use. I’m not attracted to her anymore. I honestly hadn’t been for years before I ended things for good. It was just easier to go to bed with her than to find someone who wasn’t trying to use me for my fame. She was only using me for my fame, but I was too stupid to see that until it was almost too late. My daughter paid the price for my stupidity, and I’ll never let that happen again. The locks on every property I own have been changed, and I only see Misha in public. She disgusts me, and if she hasn’t gotten the hint by now, I doubt that she ever will.

  All thoughts of Misha, and any other woman I’ve ever met my entire life, go out of my brain when Audrey opens her door. I have no brain cells left. None. She’s got on some kind of silk top that looks like a scarf that covers about as little as an actual scarf would. It’s blue with some black and grey mixed in. As she walks out into the hall in front of me, I see that there’s no back, save for a thin string that matches the one in front. So basically, this little piece of string below her braless tits is all that’s between me and those luscious globes she’s got on full display.

  Speaking of globes, her perfect ass is encased in a tight black pencil skirt. I can’t move. No joke. Every bit of blood in my body has pooled into my rock hard dick, and I’m stuck to the floor. Audrey and her “fuck me” heels have no problem walking, while I just want to beg her to go ahead and do it. Fuck me any way she wants it.

  “Is there a problem, Blake?” she asks with that slight accent that has always made my heart race.

  “You look good enough to eat, and I’m feeling pretty ravenous right about now.”

  She looks down at my crotch, which is somewhat hidden by my suit jacket, and smirks. “You’ll be taking care of that all by yourself. Or with one of your groupies,” she says with a shrug.

  “Groupies? This is our reunion, not a movie premiere.”

  “You had groupies in high school, and I doubt they’ve grown out of it,” she says, looking me over from head to toe.

  “You like what you see, Audrey?”

  “No,” she tells me, walking over to remove my tie and unbutton my shirt a little. “Better. You looked too formal.”

  “I always wear a tie.”

  “I’m not formal tonight, so you wearing one makes it look like we didn’t plan to go together to the party.”

  She has a point. We need to look like a couple. Misha loved dressing up as much as I did, so that was never a problem. Audrey’s going to dress up, too. Just in a different way. A sexy, and hot different way that will probably keep me hard 24/7, and also keep me on my toes as how to best complement her clothes with mine. Or rather, how my stylist can best complement them.

  “Got it. We’ll just have to remember to send pics of what you’ll be wearing to my stylist so she can coordinate.”

  “You can’t pick something out yourself?”

  Um, no. “I could try, I guess.”

  “Does someone wipe your ass for you, too?”

  “That’s not fair, Audrey,” I say, grabbing her arm. “I have to take care of my daughter, worry about remembering my lines, get wherever I’m needed all day, every day, and smile every time I walk out the door. I also do my own stunts. So excuse me if I don’t really care what I’m wearing and would rather let someone else pick the color of my tie.”

  “I’m sorry, Blake. I shouldn’t have been so bitchy. You’ve just been the poster boy for my anger for so long now. I don’t know how to be nice to you.”

  “Did you throw darts at my poster?” I ask, joking.

  “Yes. And I used pictures of you and your friends for target practice during my training.”

  Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that; although, I guess I should have been. “I truly am sorry.”

  “I want to believe that you are, it’s just twenty years too late.”

  “I know. Can we maybe start over?” I ask her as we climb into the backseat of the car I hired for tonight.

  “No. I think your daughter is great, and I take my job very seriously, but you and me? Never going to happen.”

  “Haven’t you heard that you should never say never?”

  “Why me? Why now? If it’s because you can see my curves, and I don’t have braces or thick glasses, then you should just move along. Because inside—where it counts—I’m still that same teenage girl you never gave a second thought to, the science nerd you and your friends thought nothing of hurting. I may have gained some confidence, but I haven’t changed. I won’t change who I am.”

  “I thought of you.”

  “Of how to torment and humiliate me, maybe, but not me. Because if you had, you wouldn’t have done it. Any of it.”

  We’ve arrived at the restaurant on the beach where the party is, and she reaches for the door. I stop her. “We have to get out together.”

  She closes her eyes and nods. “We do. I know. I just…I forgot for a moment. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.”

  I see the sorrow in her eyes, and I don’t know if it’s because she’s upset about forgetting her job, or if it’s because she was remembering what we did to her. What I did to her. Either way, I’m going to do everything I can to prove to her that even though she hasn’t changed, I have. I don’t follow the crowd, and I would definitely never hurt her—or anyone else—intentionally again. Well, maybe the bastards who are after Jeanne, but not anyone else. I also try not to throw my celebrity around; although everyone, including Audrey, knows we’re having our reunion in late winter instead of early fall because of my schedule. I couldn’t leave a set to be here, and no one seemed to mind. Then again, I didn’t ask.

  * * *

  Audrey

  I can do this. I. Can. Do. This. I just have to think of Blake as some random guy I’m assigned to help, and not the one I’ve been partly in love with for more than half my life. Because if I don’t, there are only two outcomes to this situation I’ve found myself in. Either I’m going to fall for Blake, and then find out he’s the same asshole he’s always been, which will crush me yet again. Or I’ll fall for him, and he’ll be the guy I’d always dreamed he would, and when he walks away this time,
it won’t just crush me—I’ll be annihilated. Because the one thing I’m sure about is that this is all temporary. The movie star doesn’t end up with the chemistry nerd, not in real life at least.

  “You ready?” he asks me, and I look up to see that the driver has opened the car door.

  “Yeah.”

  I adjust my top a little, and then put a hand to the fabric, holding it in place as I climb out. I know I shouldn’t have worn it, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m walking into a room full of sharks, and if I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that asserting my power first is the best way to throw them off the scent. Not that I couldn’t handle them now—I wouldn’t even bat an eye—but high school is over, and anyone who still wants to play those games isn’t worth my time.

  Blake exits behind me, and his hand goes to my back like it belongs there. I see us briefly in the reflection from the window, and my heart clenches at how good we look together. How good he looks with his jet black hair, his bright brown eyes, and that dark stubble covering the lower part of his face, making me want to rub various parts of my body all over it. No, I do not want to do that. I don’t. Much.

  I focus on the reflection of myself instead. I know I’m beautiful. It took me a long time to see it, and accept it, but I know it now. Together we make a striking couple.

  “You sure you’re okay?” he whispers in my ear.

  “Yes. I was just thinking that we look good together,” I tell him honestly.

  “Does this mean you’re going to give me a chance?”

  “No,” I say with a laugh. “Looking good together is very different from being good together.”

  “Audrey, I just need a chance. Just one.”

  He looks so earnest, and I’m feeling a little vulnerable, so I say something neither one of us is expecting. “You have one. Don’t blow it.”

  His eyes go wide, and that movie star smile takes over his face. Oh God, what have I done? I want to backtrack. I even open my mouth, but he covers it with his fingers. “Challenge accepted.”

  He holds out his hand, and I place mine in his as the seventeen-year-old me jumps up and down inside, and the thirty-seven-year-old me wonders if this is the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life. There’s no going back, though. Not when all conversation stops as we walk in together. I know it’s not because anyone recognizes me—they just didn’t expect Blake to bring anyone else here, not with Misha in attendance as well. From the times I’ve looked him up, I know he never brings a date to a function that she’ll also be attending. I’m pretty sure it’s because they still hook-up, but that’s not happening tonight.

  “Shit,” I say, realizing that I’m already getting possessive of him, when he’s not really mine.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks, stopping in the middle of the room, and pulling me sideways to face him.

  “I was just thinking something I shouldn’t have.”

  “Are you going to tell me?”

  Why not? “I was thinking that tonight, at least, you wouldn’t go home with Misha after an event. It’s not my place to decide that.”

  He looks genuinely confused. “I haven’t gone home—or anywhere else in the way you’re implying—with Misha in over five years.”

  “Oh. You never take a date to events you’ll both be at, so I just thought…I mean, it’s not my business.”

  “I don’t take dates to those events for two reasons. One, the headlines would be crazy, and no one deserves to be subjected to that. And two, while I don’t ever want Misha in my life—or bed again—she’s still the mother of my child, and deserves some respect.”

  Wow. That’s just—wow. If he keeps proving what a good guy he is, I’m going to be in even more trouble than I thought I was already. “And tonight?”

  “Tonight, I’m with a woman who I want to be seen with, and who I respect more than almost anyone else in this world.”

  I search his face, and see that he means what he just said. “We should probably start walking again. They’re all staring.”

  “You’re ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  “No one’s going to mess with you, Audrey. No one. I won’t allow it.”

  “Even Misha?”

  “Especially not that bitch.”

  Chapter 2

  Blake

  I meant what I said to Audrey, and as we walk over to my “friends” from high school, I know I’m going to need to stand by it. The guys are all looking at her as if she’s their last meal, while the women look like they want to gouge her eyes out. I’d love to see them try, because that’s one thing I know I wouldn’t have to help her with. From everything I’ve heard about the Society, they’re the biggest badasses in the world. Does that make Audrey even hotter? Fuck yeah.

  “You brought some hooker to our reunion? Real classy, Blake.”

  I start to answer, but Audrey beats me to it. “Sorry to disappoint you, Misha, but I’m a world-renowned scientist, not a hooker. And this is my reunion as well.”

  “Scientist? You’re Audrey Sanchez, aren’t you?” my best friend—from high school and now—Jesse, asks her.

  “That’s me.”

  “Wait? No. There’s no way you’re Asexual Audrey,” Misha says with a laugh. “I mean, I guess you could’ve had a bunch of work done.”

  “Listen, bitch...,” Audrey starts, but I interrupt.

  “There’s absolutely nothing fake about Audrey. Nothing,” I say as I lean down and leave a trail of kisses on Audrey’s neck.

  I’m not sure if it’s okay, but I feel the need to protect her now, the way I didn’t twenty years ago. If she punches me, I’ll just roll with it. She doesn’t, though. She reaches up and runs her fingers through my hair, pulling me closer to her.

  “Again, I’ll say it. How Classy. Not.” Misha says with venom in her voice.

  “You wouldn’t know class if it draped itself all over you,” Audrey snaps back, holding my head to her neck as I smirk.

  “Says the science nerd who probably never gets out of her dusty old lab.”

  “I’ll be sure to let Reina Corrigan know that you think she’d have me work in those type of conditions.”

  “You work for Reina Corrigan?” Misha asks, and I know she’s impressed. She’s been trying to get a job as a spokesperson for the Corrigan Foundation for years.

  “Yes, and that’s why you never will. You should really stop trying, because my friend will never give you a job.” She lets go of me, and moves a few steps away. “I’m going to see my high school friends now, Blake. Let me know when you’re ready to leave.”

  Wait, what? “I’ll go with you.”

  “It’s fine,” she says, leaning over to kiss my cheek. “You should visit with you friends.”

  “Maybe for a few minutes, but then I’m coming to find you.”

  “You really don’t have to.”

  “I want to.”

  She smiles at me like I passed a test, and I know I’ve broken through her wall just a little more. “Okay,” she tells me before walking away.

  “Seriously, Blake? You’re with her?”

  “It’s not your business, Misha, but yes.”

  “Not my business? Our daughter lives with you, or have you forgotten that?”

  I move right up into her personal space, and don’t even try to keep the sneer off my face. “You are the one who seems to forget our daughter. Unless you need her for some good press, that is. I can’t imagine anyone better for her to have around than Audrey. She’s not only brilliant, but she’s gorgeous, too. Just like our girl.”

  “Wasn’t she with Ares Dixon at the picnic earlier today?” one of the guys asks.

  “Yeah. They’re good friends. He brought her, but she went home with me.”

  “Of course she did. Just as desperate for you as she was in high school,” Misha says.

  “Listen to me, Misha, because I will only say this once. I’m with Audrey, I want Audrey, and only Audrey, and if you don’t d
o a better job of hiding the bitch we all know you are, I’ll make your life even more miserable than it already is.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Hey, speaking of earlier, what was going on with those guys trying to grab your daughter?” one of the guys asks.

  “I don’t know. It was weird. I hired extra security for her now, though, just in case.”

  “Wasn’t Audrey fighting them. I didn’t know who she was, but now I’m sure it was her.”

  “Oh yeah. She knows martial arts, so she jumped in to help.”

  “Again, because she wants you.”

  “Where were you when it was all going down, huh Mish?” I ask, effectively shutting her up, because we both know she wasn’t trying to help Jeanne, that’s for sure.

  I’ve had enough, and I walk away from them all, but Jesse catches up to me. “I’m glad you finally made it happen.”

  “What did I make happen?” I ask, genuinely confused.

  “You and Audrey. You liked her back in high school, I know you did. You just let yourself get too scared to do anything about it.”

  “I didn’t think anyone knew that.”

  “I’m not your best friend for nothing. Just don’t fuck it up this time. We all have blame to share for how we treated her, but you were the worst.”

  “Um, wow. Best Friend of the Year talk going on.”

  “You know what I mean. The prom stunt devastated her. She didn’t deserve that.”

  “No, she didn’t. Trust me, I’m going to do everything I can to prove to her that I’ve changed. I don’t care what anyone else except Jeanne thinks, and she loves her.”

  “Of course she does. Audrey is the perfect example of what she can be—totally hot while not pretending to be anything she’s not.”

  Well, Audrey is pretending, but not in the way he thinks. She definitely doesn’t hide her brains, and she does work for Reina Corrigan. Just not in the way she presented it to Misha. I have no doubt she meant what she said about her never getting a job, though. Even from the little time I spent with her, I can tell that Reina is loyal to the women who work for, and with, her. I don’t want to be on her bad side, that’s for sure. I tell Jesse I’ll see him soon, and head over to where I see Audrey sitting with her friends.