Pursued by the Player (Black Towers Book 3)

by Lauren Hawkeye

“Listen honey; you don’t know what he might be interested in. All you have to do is ask. And I expect you to be very persuasive. And if you can’t be, I’ll find someone else who will. Don’t think you’re not replaceable. Think long and hard about what you want out of your career before you make any rash decisions. Have a report of your progress on my desk by the end of the week,” Kennedy said over his shoulder as he left the room.

  “Better get to that,” Greg mumbled as he gathered his things. “Chop, chop.”

  “Don’t mess it up,” Joel added as the men left the room. “Or better yet do, and we’ll pick up the pieces of your failed career.”

  Mel leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. Shit. How did things get out of control so fast? She had no idea what to tell Jett. If this contract was like the rest, it would give Kennedy the right to use Jett’s name and likeness in exchange for a pittance in royalties. There was no way he was going to go along with this. Not that she would want him to. She didn’t want him to think that she was dating him just to get him to sign a contract.

  But she had to get him to sign the contract, didn’t she? Her job was at stake. She hated the situation Kennedy put her in and wished it was anyone else who was closing this deal but her.

  Sighing, she pulled out her phone and started to text Jett’s number, then stopped. No, she wasn’t going to do this. Jett has been the one good thing that has happened to her in months. For the first time in her life, things were going her way romantically, and she didn’t want to mess it up with talk about contracts and fashion shows. She wasn’t going to bring it up to Jett, no matter what her boss wanted her to do. Kennedy was going to have to find another way to manipulate people because she wanted no part of it.

  Which left her job. She was going to need to tread carefully around Kennedy and the gruesome twosome for a while. This project was going to require some finesse if she wanted to keep her job. Stalling would only work for so long. What she needed, was a plan.

  Standing, she gathered her things and went back to her cubicle to think.

  It had been an amazing two weeks. Jett whistled to himself as he changed in the locker room for practice. Not only was his team winning, but his relationship with Melody was hitting the fast lane. The woman was ah-mazing in bed. He had never met anyone so compatible. Just thinking about all of the kinky places they had sex over the past week was giving him a raging hard-on.

  Not only that, but she had taken an interest in baseball. It was incredible. Jett had taken her to the stadium for some private lessons, and she had been in the boxed seat for his big game. They had celebrated his win with an old-fashioned sundae and some very contemporary sexual positions. He had even stuck around long enough to make her his famous pancakes in the morning.

  The craziest thing about it wasn’t that she wanted sex, but that she wanted sex with him. She was totally into the man, not the famous baseball player. As a result, he had shared things with her about his past, things that he had never told anyone. She responded in turn, telling him about her happiness over her friend Liv and how growing up she had always been a little weird, a little different, making it hard for her to make friends. She was more interested in doing well in school and making something of herself than she was with boys and parties. She’s always loved fashion and knew since she was a little girl that she was going to be a designer someday, and she’d never lost her focus. It wasn’t until meeting Liv that she realized how important having a best friend was. She’d even opened up about her struggles at work and how her coworkers lived to make her life miserable. When she would call him upset over something they had done it took every ounce of restraint he had not to interfere, to teach them a lesson, but she insisted she could handle herself and that she wanted him to stay out of it, so he did. But the fierce protectiveness he felt for her was unlike anything he’d ever felt for a woman before…

  There was no doubt about it; Jett was falling hard for her. She was so different from the superficial and greedy women he had dated before. Mel didn’t want anything from him, not his name, nor his money. She just liked spending time with him. It was refreshing. Exhilarating. Sometimes at night, when he was holding her close, Jett felt that she might even be the one.

  Jet continued whistling as he closed his locker and headed toward the exit.

  “Jett Gorski, well well.”

  He stopped and turned toward the last row of lockers to find two tall, thin men staring back at him.

  “Do I know you?”

  “No, but you will.” The Asian man pushed off the lockers and started to close the distance between them. “I’m assuming Melody has talked to you about the terms.”

  “The terms?”

  “Of our contract,” the other man said. “I think Mr. Brach is being more than fair.”

  Jett shook his head. “I have no idea what you two are talking about.”

  The taller man frowned and shook his head. “She’s not closing the deal.”

  “No,” the other man said. “Kennedy should have sent us, not her. This is man’s work.”

  “You two are crazy.” Jett started to leave, but one of the men put his hand on his chest, stopping him.

  Jett frowned down at the hand and waited for it to retreat.

  “Sorry,” The taller one said. “Let’s try this again. I’m Greg.”

  “And I’m Joel.”

  “Mel was supposed to talk to you about your new clothing line.”

  “Wait- what?”

  “Your new clothing line.” Greg pushed his fingers through his hair. “It’s simple. You lend us your name, and in exchange, we will give you a cut of the profits.”

  “You mean to tell me that Melody wants to strike a business deal with me?”

  “Why else do you think she’s been dating you?”

  “She never mentioned it.”

  “Perhaps she was taking the subtle approach.”

  The other man laughed.

  “Jesus.” Jett turned away from the men and put a little distance between them. “This can’t be right.”

  “Oh, it is, believe us.” Greg stepped forward and held out a stack of papers. “We even have the contract to prove it.”

  Jett turned back to face them. “You want me to be the face of a clothing line?”

  “Not us, Mel.”

  “This is an incredible opportunity for her.”

  “A promotion.”

  “She will take care of the designs, the assembly, and the distribution. She just needs help with the marketing.”

  Jett shook his head. “I don’t get it. If Melody is in charge, then why are you two here talking to me?”

  “Kennedy Brach is getting impatient.”

  “He wants to close the deal as soon as possible so he can roll out the new marketing campaign.”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.” Jett couldn’t believe it. All this time he had thought that Mel was interested in him, but she was only buttering him up to ask him to put his name, his brand that he had taken years to build, on her clothing line. She wanted to ride his coattails.

  “You have to do this,” Joel said.

  “If you don’t, she could lose her job.”

  Jett rubbed his hand over his face. “Give me that.” He grabbed the contract back out of Greg’s hand. “Let me run it by my agent.”

  “That’s all we ask.” Joel turned his back to Jett and headed toward the exit. “You have until the weekend to look things over and to sign.”

  “Or what?”

  “What?”

  “What happens if I don’t sign.”

  Greg sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Then I guess Melody will have to start looking for another job.”

  “She was never very good at fashion anyway.”

  “Not like us.”

  The men laughed, and Joel waved his hand in the air. “Ta-ta for now.”

  “We’ll be in touch,” Greg said as they left the locker room.

  Jett ground his teeth as he st
ared after the men. Unbelievable. He was so damn tired of being used. If Melody thought he was going to agree to this, then she had another thing coming.

  Crumpling the paper, he returned to his locker and shoved it in his duffle bag. His phone buzzed and, after a quick glance to confirm it was Melody, he shoved that in his duffle bag as well.

  He didn’t want to deal with her right now. He didn’t want to deal with anyone.

  Jett just wanted to go and play some baseball.

  Chapter 9

  “He’s not responding to my phone calls, Liv,” Mel said as she slid into her regular seat at the café on the first floor of the Black Tower building. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Remind me again what happened, exactly?”

  “Kennedy thought I was moving too slow in getting Jett to agree to help us brand the new clothing line. He sent over Greg and Joel to talk to him. I don’t know what they said, but now Jett won’t talk to me.”

  Liv frowned and poked her smoothie with her straw. “Sounds like their visit didn’t go over well.”

  “No. Jett had his lawyer call Kennedy and say that if his name or likeness was anywhere near any of those clothes, Jett would sue.” She placed her elbow on the table and rested her head in her hands. “I need to explain that I had nothing to do with this, but he won’t respond to my texts or phone calls.”

  “Did you have nothing to do with this?”

  “Of course not.” Mel straightened and frowned. “I never brought it up to Jett.”

  “But you didn’t shoot down Kennedy either.” Liv took a sip from her straw. “You might not have pushed things along, but you didn’t put a stop to it either.”

  “Kennedy would have fired me.”

  “That seems rather dramatic.”

  “He’s a dramatic man.” She sighed. “Okay, he probably wouldn’t have fired me, but I would have gotten taken off the project, and I would have been forced to listen to the gruesome twosome gloat for the next two months until the big runway event.”

  “They’re that bad, are they?”

  “I think all three of them thrive on drama. Kennedy is positively giddy over this turn of events, telling everyone how he’s the victim, caught between a lovers’ quarrel.” She shook her head.

  “Because it’s always about him,” Liv smirked.

  “Always.” Mel giggled and took a sip of her drink. “So what do I do now? I don’t want to lose him.”

  “Why not?” When Mel flashed her a surprised look. She shrugged. “There are plenty of other fish in the sea.”

  “But not like Jett.” She leaned on the table and toyed with the end of her straw. “I felt that we connected that night, you know? It was special.”

  Liv considered her for a moment, then straightened in her chair. “You think he might be the one?”

  “The one?”

  “Like Nayo and I.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Liv worked her jaw for a moment as she thought. “Then there is only one choice left.” She took a sip of her drink.

  “What’s that?”

  “He’s ignoring you, so you need to become impossible to ignore.”

  “I’m not following.”

  Liv shrugged. “Stop using electronics to reach him. Emails and texts are so impersonal and easy to dismiss. Visit him in person and in front of his friends. Make it uncomfortable for him to ignore you.”

  “You have a point.” Mel considered her friend’s words. “If I show up at practice, he can’t run away from me.”

  “Now you’re thinking.” Liv grinned and glanced at her watch. “Damn, I’ve got to run.”

  “Back to work?”

  “No, I took the afternoon off. Nayo is waiting for me over by the docks. Some new immigrants are coming in this afternoon, and he needs my help in finding them places to stay.”

  “That’s so great that the two of you found such a great cause to work on together.”

  “Yeah, sharing a common passion for helping others has really brought us closer, and I’ve learned so much about Middle Eastern culture.” She hugged Mel and grabbed her purse. “Tell me how it turns out.”

  “I will.” Mel smiled and watched her friend exit the café. A common cause. . . As she dumped her empty cup in the trash and made her way back to work, Mel thought about their date and the passion Jett had shown for baseball and the orphanage he stayed in as a child. Slowly, an idea started to form in her mind.

  By the time she got back to her desk, she was already sketching ideas for new skirts and accessories in her mind. She had no idea why she didn’t think of this before. The concept was perfect and would show Jett how she felt about him and his past.

  It had been three days and still Jett couldn’t get her out of his mind. Things didn’t seem to add up. If all Mel wanted was to use his name on her clothing line, why didn’t she just ask him while they were out on the date? Why send her coworkers to do it for her?

  Then again, maybe that was her plan all along. By sending in others to negotiate the deal, it made her look innocent. He realized that on the date, he had revealed a lot about himself, but knew almost nothing about her. Mel was a mystery to him. An internet search showed that she graduated from a local university with a degree in fashion design and that she was still in her first job out of school. Her social media accounts were kept private and her business page held nothing of interest. He had no idea what she liked to do on the weekends or if she preferred reading or going to the movies. She had expertly manipulated him into thinking that they were sharing part of their histories together, but in reality, he was the only one forming a connection. Melody was all business.

  “Fuck!” Jet adjusted his cap as the batter hit another home run off of him.

  “You’re not on your game, man,” the coach said as he approached the pitcher’s mound. What’s going on?”

  “I’m fine coach. Just feeling a little under the weather today.”

  “Hmm…” The coach considered him for a moment before speaking. “Just make sure that you are feeling better by tomorrow night’s game. It’s important that there're no distractions. We need a win if we want to make the playoffs.”

  “I’m not distracted.”

  The coach nodded to the sidelines, where a curvy brunette was watching them. “No?”

  Mel. “I didn’t see her, I swear.”

  “Sure.” The coach crossed his arms. “Just deal with it and move on, Jett. Women like that need to be peeled off like a band aid. It hurts like hell, but in the long run, you’re better off.”

  “I don’t have a problem,” Jett said as he fisted his hands.

  “Okay, okay.” The coach glanced around the field. “That’s enough for today. Everyone hit the showers!”

  The players all started heading toward the locker room. Mel moved off to one side and let them pass, her gaze firmly fixed on Jett. Why did it feel like she could see into his soul?

  Peel it off like a band-aid.

  Jett took a deep breath and followed his team toward the lockers. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t stop his eyes from falling onto Mel. She looked beautiful in a classic white tee a pair of jeans that hugged her in all the right places. And on top of her head was his hat. The one he’d given her after the first time they were together in his limo. Just the sight of her made his heart race. How could he have been so wrong about her? Even seeing her now, knowing she was using him, he wanted to go to her and lose himself in her.

  “Jett,” Mel said as he approached. “We need to talk.”

  “Don’t have time.” God, he was such a fucking chicken.

  “Jett, please.”

  He shrugged off her hand. “I’ve got nothing to say to women who manipulate people.”

  “Ooh,” Diaz said as he passed Jett and headed toward the locker room. “That’s cold, man.”

  Jett scowled and turned his back on Mel.

  “You can’t ignore me forever.”

  “Try me,” Jett said over hi
s shoulder. He had to admit, it wasn’t his finest moment, but he had never been very good at confrontation.

  “Jett.”

  He continued walking past the men’s sign and straight toward his locker.

  “Hey, what’s a woman doing in here?” someone said.

  “Lady, wait outside.”

  “Not until Jett talks to me.”

  “I don’t want to talk to you,” Jett said as he opened the door to his locker. “You can’t be in here, Mel. Just go.”

  “Please.” Jett glanced up at Melody and saw the hurt in her features.

  “Come on man, get her out of here. We need to change,” Diaz said.

  Jett sighed and closed his locker door. “Come on.” Grabbing her arm, Jett steered her back out into the hallway.

  “What do you want?” He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.

  She stared at him and wrung her hands. “Look, I. . .”

  “I don’t have all day.”

  “Yes, of course. I just wanted to say that I was sorry. I never intended—”

  “To manipulate me?”

  “I didn’t manipulate you.”

  “So you just went out on a date with me because you liked me?”

  “Yes!”

  “It had nothing to do with your job.”

  “No.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “It’s true.” She sighed when he flashed her a skeptical look. “Okay, after the kiss in front of Black Towers, after the media frenzy and everything, my boss thought it would be a good idea to exploit our relationship and use it to promote our new clothing line.”

  “I knew it.” Jett pushed off the wall and waved his hands in the air. “So you asked me out on a date.”

  “No! Didn’t you hear me? My boss wanted to exploit you, not me.”

  “So you stopped him.”

  “Well, no. Not exactly.”

  “No. You just followed along because it was easier, not necessarily because it was the right thing to do.” When she didn’t immediately respond, he made a noise of disgust and rubbed his hand over his face. “I thought you wanted to go out on a date because you wanted to spend time with me.”