“Well I thought it was great,” Stacy said, grinning sweetly at him.
Maggie had seen Stacy flirt with guys before, it was no surprise. She loved the attention, and she was a pretty, slender blonde, so most guys loved her attention, too. Bryan, though, didn’t even seem like he heard her speak.
“You enjoy the game?” he asked Maggie.
“It was okay,” Maggie said. “You were kind of sloppy tossing that 3-pointer under such pressure.”
Bryan chuckled and shrugged a shoulder. “Johns recovered it. No big loss.”
“It was a dumb move.”
“Sometimes you just gotta take the shot,” he said slyly.
“Yeah, and when you act without thinking, you’re lucky if it even bounces off the rim.” Maggie took Stacy by the hand. “Enjoy your evening.”
As Maggie turned to leave, dragging Stacy behind her, Bryan opened his arms wide. “What, you’re leaving?”
“You gave me tickets to the game. I watched the game.” She looked at him from over her shoulder. “I never agreed to do anything else with you.”
“I at least thought—“
“That was your fault, not mine.”
“Not even the rim,” Bryan called out, laughing.
Maggie had to turn her head away from an infuriated Stacy. No need to let her offended friend see her smile.
Bryan sat alone in his hotel room that night for the first time in a long time. That was not supposed to happen. She turned him down. She had actually turned him down. No one said no to him. Not women, not men, especially not people that worked for him! He gave her tickets to a game, gave her the extra step with the food and the flowers. It was like having dinner together without listening to her blather on about her life. Who needs that drama?
Yet, after, she couldn’t have been less interested in hanging out with him if she had tried. The thing that really confused him was that she wasn’t playing hard to get. She was genuinely disinterested in all of this stuff. This wasn’t the normal gold-diggers he was used to dealing with.
Now, her friend Stacy, she was an easy mark if he ever saw one. A part of him was tempted to just go after her since he knew he could have her, but it just didn’t strike him as something satisfying. The fact that he knew he could have her made her worthless to him. He really was losing his taste for all of this.
This Maggie chick, though, was something else. She was a challenge. He liked that. He wasn’t about to give this up without a fight. After that night, he put a plan into motion. He started by sending Maggie flowers at work with a card. He tried to call her after that, but she was busy and unable to answer. Not to be daunted, he sent out an assistant to buy her some earrings and see they were delivered. His assistant returned later that day with the earrings saying she refused them. Bryan couldn’t believe a woman would just refuse earrings, so he fired his assistant.
Knowing that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, he sent her gifts himself. Shoes, dresses from the latest trendy fashion designer, more jewelry. In a moment of frustration he even gave her some gift certificates to a local ice-cream shop. That one got him an email from her. All it said was, “Ice cream? Really?” When he replied asking if she’d have dinner with him, he didn’t receive a reply.
After a week of this, he knew he was running out of time. They were going to have to start traveling for games soon, and he wouldn’t be able to follow up on any of his advances if she were to accept. Desperate times required desperate measures and he wasn’t about to lose.
He finally called up his publicist and insisted that her assistant meet with him for lunch to discuss the details of their deal, or he’d fire her firm. The woman was at a complete loss and scrambled to do his bidding. As he knew she would. They arranged the lunch to take place the next day. When he hung up the phone, he knew he had this in the bag. He’d give her so many things she’d have to sleep with him.
Bryan walked over to the stereo and cranked up the music. He grinned at himself in the mirror, flexing and admiring his muscles. This was totally going to work. Serves her right for thinking she could refuse this!
The nerve! How dare that spoiled brat of a man stoop to such levels just to get her to go out to lunch with him. It was cute at first. She’d never admit this to him to his face since she was so mad at him she could barely see straight at the moment, but it was.
The flowers, the ice-cream seemed a bit desperate and almost like a fat joke, but she realized it was the desperate act of a man without any ideas left. Some of the presents had become a bit too lavish for her. The jewelry, the watches, the clothes. She found it odd and a bit creepy how he knew her size so well already. But now this. This was too much.
Her boss called her into the office and she was absolutely furious. “What did you say to him?” she immediately accused her, before Maggie could even get a word in. “What game are you playing? He’s one of our biggest clients. So big, in fact, that without him we don’t have a firm. If we lost him our reputation would plummet.”
What could Maggie say to that? Sorry? That wasn’t really something she should have to apologize for, and really, why should she? The guy was doting on her. She never asked for it, she never wanted this sort of treatment!
When she got to the restaurant he insisted on meeting at, she found him sitting at a table propped against the wall, his feet up on the seat next to his, chewing on a toothpick. He had the audacity to actually look proud of himself. Did he really think he won?
Maggie cut through the room, slicing between the tables like a knife through water. When she reached him, she kicked his feet off of the chair purely out of spite. “What is your deal, man?”
He held up his hands as though he was confused by her behavior. “What was that for?”
She scoffed at him. “You know very well what that was for, you jerk.” She sat down across from him and put her bag in the chair beside her. “You’re going to get me fired, you know that?”
Bryan leaned in and rested on his elbows. “You should’ve gone out with me.”
Maggie stopped and looked at his face. The self-important snot of a man was serious. “All I want to do right now is slap you. Do you understand? I want to hit you in the face until you’re physically incapable of making that smug little look you’re giving me right now.”
“Hey,” he said, pointing an accusatory finger at her, “this all could’ve been avoided if you had just agreed to go out with me the first time. It’s not my fault I had to take such drastic measures.” He smirked and leaned back against the wall again. “Girl like you, I’m surprised you think you’re worth such effort.”
Maggie slapped a hand down on the table. The silverware clanked together and she tipped over a glass. “I don’t think I’m worth the effort, I’m just not interested in a selfish jerk. There’s a difference!”
“Selfish? I gave you gold watches and clothes! How am I the selfish one?”
“You didn’t do it out of the goodness of your heart. You’re trying to bribe me into going out with you. And even now instead of coming to me like a normal person and talking to me, you had to threaten my job, my livelihood, just to get me to come here now.”
Maggie quickly glanced around the room and saw everyone staring at her. A waiter appeared at their table and asked for their drink order. Maggie just asked for some water, but Bryan got himself liquor and a couple of beers.
“Light lunch?” she asked him snidely.
He just made a face in return. She took a deep breath and pulled out the contract paperwork and set it on the table in front of her.
“Let’s just go over your paperwork and be done with this.”
“C’mon, you don’t want to talk first?”
“No,” she growled at him, “I don’t.”
He grumbled and readjusted himself on his seat to sit up straight. “Look, I just said that stuff to get your boss to make you come out with me.”
“I know!” The words nearly escaped in a shout,
but she was able to keep them fierce yet quiet enough for just their table. Then, in a soft whisper she said again, “I know. But if I go back empty-handed, my boss will fire me for sure, so I have to go back with something.”
“Can’t we just do it later, or something?”
“You’re not getting it.”
“No,” he said quickly and held a hand out to her. “I do get it. That’s my point, though. I’m interested in you because you’re not interested in me.”
“If that’s all you’re looking for you should go somewhere else.”
Bryan stopped and looked at her. Despite herself, she met his eyes and she was angry at herself for noticing it, but something changed. It was in his eyes, on his face. Something happened in that mind of his, and she saw everything he had been a moment ago… shift. “What if that’s not all I’m looking for?”
It was the first genuine, human thing he’d said to her since they first met. Just those words took the fight out of her.
The waiter returned with their drinks and said he’d come back for their food order after they’d had a chance to look at the menu. Maggie sipped her water, the cool liquid coating a mouth that had gone dry in her anger.
Finally composed again, she asked him, “What is it you’re looking for?”
“Well you know,” he began, and she saw that smugness come back to his face.
She lurched forward and slapped a hand over his mouth. “Shut it, right there. Whatever you’re about to say, don’t.” She saw his eyes go wide in confusion. When she pulled her hand back, she saw realization dawn on him and he leaned forward again.
“Sorry.” She leaned back in her chair and looked at him. “I have no interest in that guy. This one, right here in front of me. He seems real. Stick with him, or we have nothing to talk about.”
He nodded. “Got it.” Then, after a moment he looked at her through a squinted eye, as though she were the sun and just too bright to stare at directly. “I ain’t ever met anyone like you. You don’t take anything from anyone, do you?”
Maggie rapped her knuckles against his contract. “Not when they mess with my life.”
“Right,” he said, “sorry about that.” This time she heard real regret in his voice. “How about,” he said, “we start over?” He held a hand out to her. “Hi, I’m Bryan.”
“Maggie,” she said, and though apprehensive, she shook his hand.
“Maggie,” he said. “Pretty name.”
“Liar,” she said, but gave him a smile.
They started talking. For the first time, it was real conversation. As they chatted, drinking and ordering their lunch, she saw the layers of bull peel away from him like dead skin. The smug, arrogant persona she’d gotten to know all too well fell away like dead skin. They were able to talk about living in the city, all the traveling he did, and even who he was before all of this.
He got to telling her stories of his childhood, and something changed. His eyes became softer, and he grew more animated when he spoke. He told her embarrassing stories of his youth, and she actually saw him blush. Him!
It was only natural for her to share stories of her life with him, and he listened. She never would’ve figured him for it, but here was a man with proper manners and listening skills. After lunch, they discussed his contract. She helped him pick out a few things he could ask for and ways to improve what he had going on, that way she could go back with something to show for her afternoon.
After lunch, he walked her out to her car, but they decided to go use some of those ice-cream gift certificates he’d sent her. They had a good laugh about it, and continued talking. She had no idea how he did it, but talking to him quickly felt like one of the most natural things in the world. She told him about her siblings, their strained relationship, and even about her past relationships. When she became reluctant to share details, instead of forcing the issue, he instead started offering stories of his own.
He talked candidly about how he’d been treating women, how it had started, and how it all just escalated so quickly into the life he had now. Here she thought he enjoyed being such a ladies man, but truth was it was killing him inside. After hearing about all of that, it became easy to tell him about her past boyfriends. She told him about how they all ridiculed her for her weight. Each one of them, in their own special little ways, made sure she knew she wasn’t good enough for them, that their attention was the best she could hope for.
That was why she’d become so hard lately. She just wasn’t going to let anyone treat her like that again.
Then, while she was staring into her cup of rocky road ice-cream, playing around with a chunk in it with her spoon, she felt him lift her chin. She looked up at him, expecting him to give her some half-hearted compliment.
Instead, his lips met hers. The soft warmth of his lips contrasted against the cold ice-cream she’d been eating, and it felt like her mouth was on fire. After the initial shock passed, she suddenly couldn’t get his lips closer. She put her hand on the back of his head and pulled him against her.
He’d finished his ice-cream a bit ago, and wrapped his arms around her. She just dropped hers to the ground and grabbed him by his jacket. Time became lost on her. She was sure, somewhere, people were passing them by on the sidewalk, but she couldn’t be bothered by any of it. All that mattered was him, right then, right there. When he pulled back, he looked at her. She could see it in his face, and she was surprised to find she felt it too.
“Let’s go to your place,” she said.
He raised his brows at her, surprised, but he sure didn’t argue.
Walking hand in hand they went back to the parking garage near the restaurant. A city that big there was only ever parking vertically, especially near the posh place he picked twenty storeys up.
She followed him through the traffic, her heart hammering in her chest. Was she really going to do this? She knew his reputation just as well as anyone. This whole thing had been a game just to get her to sleep with him in the first place. How could she trust that all of this wasn’t just more gaming, more lies? Her phone blinked with a new text. At the stoplight she quickly checked it. Bryan had texted her his room number and said to wait before following him up. He didn’t want her being tied to him for the fear of his reputation giving her a bad one.
She wiped a hand over her mouth as though she could clean the kisses off of it. She would go back to his hotel room and tell him face to face that she wasn’t interested in him, that she wasn’t going to fall for this stupid game of his. Somehow this made her even more nervous.
To counteract it, she thought of all the stupid things he’d done so far to her, nearly losing her her job. It worked to artificially turn all of her nervousness and lust into anger. By the time they reached the hotel, she was fuming. She couldn’t remember having ever been so worked up in her life. Bryan had already reached the hotel ahead of her, so she didn’t bother with waiting.
She didn’t wait! She wasn’t one of his sluts!
Maggie practically jumped out of her car, slamming the door behind her and marched all the way through the parking garage, lobby, all the way to the elevator. When it reached his floor, her feet stomped and pounded along the carpeted hallway to his room. She knocked, practically panting through her flared nostrils.
He opened the door, his cheeks flushed, his shirt halfway unbuttoned. She did her best to ignore it and walked into the room.
“All right, look—“ she started.
He had her in his arms before she could say more and kissed her. In that kiss, all of the fake anger she’d worked up melted, and she went weak in his arms. “Damn you,” she whispered, then kissed him again.
“What?”
“I really wanted to be mad at you.”
“Mad? Why?”
She put a hand flat against his chest, her anxiety overtaking her again. “Because this is all just another trick. A game to get me to sleep with you.”
“But it isn’t.”
“How can
I know that, though?” She looked up into his eyes, searching them for any hint that her fears were well-founded.
“Because it isn’t,” he said.
He didn’t try to tell her that she could trust him, or work to convince her. That was all. It wasn’t a trick. She wanted so badly to believe him, to believe that what they had was a real connection.
“Kiss me again?”
He smiled, leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She played her fingers through his hair, pulling his face closer to hers. When he started removing her shirt, she didn’t stop him. His hands were rough from thousands of hours of basketball practice, his fingers strong as they pulled her against him. Before she knew it, they were on his bed, kissing and undressing one another.
When he entered her, all thought disappeared and she lost herself to the sensation. He was incredible. As he moved inside of her, her body flooding with warmth, her mind completely overtaken by the ecstasy of it all. The whole time he was right there, always touching her, looking at her, watching her. She’d been with men only using her to get off. Their attention was always very internalized, focused on their own pleasure, and likely imagining they were having sex with someone else. With someone more attractive.
Not him though, he was right there with her. When they both climaxed, it felt like a culmination of everything in her life up to that point. She had no idea what life would bring after this, but for just that moment, she switched off her brain and allowed herself to be happy.
ROMANCE: THE SHEIKH'S GAMES: A Sheikh Romance Page 8