Dirty News (Dirty Network Book 1)

by Michelle Love

  I was going to head back up there and get her to talk to me, but when I walked out of the bathroom, I saw her leaving the building. So I hurried to catch her before she managed to leave.

  Just as I got outside, I saw her waving down a cab and shouted, “Lila, wait!”

  She put her hand down and turned to look at me. Her hair was down; she’d curled it, and the blonde locks sparkled in the sunlight. Her lips were cherry red, matching the silk blouse she had on, which was tucked neatly into an A-line navy colored skirt. Red heels finished out her amazing look. I found it hard to breathe for a moment; she was that devastatingly beautiful.

  “Duke, where’d you come from?” she asked, but stood right where she’d been.

  I made it to her, my hand picking up a soft curl. “Your hair looks so pretty like this.”

  She gently pushed my hand away. “Thank you, but you shouldn’t be playing with it, you know.”

  “We should talk.” I balled my hand into a fist at my side, even though it desperately wanted to move through her soft curls and play a while.

  Looking behind me at our building, she started walking away from it. “We shouldn’t talk right here, though. Let’s take a walk.”

  I stepped in beside her, not knowing where we were heading. But she was right; we couldn’t exactly stand right there where Artimus or anyone else from the station might see us.

  “So, were you really sick yesterday or what?” I asked her.

  She glanced at me sideways. “Kind of.”

  “Can I ask why that was?” I ran my hand over hers, taking it.

  She stopped and looked at our clasped hands. “Please let go of my hand, Duke.”

  I was quick to release her, but I couldn’t deny the sting I felt at her words. “Lila, do you regret what we did yesterday?”

  “Very much so,” came her quick reply.

  Now my heart was really hurting. She might as well have plunged a knife into it. “I’m sorry to hear that, Lila. I really am.”

  “I have to be honest with you, Duke.” She began walking again, and I went along with her. “You and I are competing right now. What we did was a bad idea, especially with this job between us. Not to mention that we could both be fired if we got caught. I need the job Artimus has already given me, whether I get the anchor position too or not. I need the weather gig. And I’d venture to say that you need the sports job too.”

  She was right. We both needed our jobs. Financially, I’d be fine without it, but I needed it for my sanity. And getting caught could’ve been grounds for firing us both. If Lila got fired, she’d have to leave New York. That would mean leaving me, anyway.

  “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should be regretting it too,” I saw the pain in her pretty blue eyes as I said the words.

  She chewed on her lower lip, looking conflicted, as if she were fighting something inside that rebelled against the way things had to be. “I think it’s for the best to regret it.”

  “My main regret is that now that I’ve tasted you, it only makes me want you more.” I took her hand, pulling her into a small shop so we could get off the street.

  The way she looked at me told me more than any words could’ve. She wanted me too. “Duke, I overheard you talking to Artimus yesterday, and that’s what made me sick.”

  I had to laugh as I pulled her along with me through the aisles of an old bookstore. I kept at it until I found two towering bookcases that would hide us from prying eyes.

  Pressing her against one of the bookcases, I pinned her in, running my hand through her hair as I breathed her into my lungs. She made me feel high with only her presence.

  Her eyes were on my lips, and I knew she wanted me to kiss her again. I eased closer, little by little. “No one has to know, Lila.”

  “Don’t, Duke.” Her wishes had been spoken. She wasn’t allowing me to kiss her.

  As hard as it was to take her rejection, I knew she had valid reasons for stopping me. “If we weren’t working together, then would this be okay?”

  “It doesn’t matter. We are working together, so it does.” Her eyes dropped to stare at the floor.

  “You know, I overheard you this morning talking to Artimus too. I heard you tell him how you thought I was too old to last long as the anchor.” I watched as her eyes moved to meet mine.

  “You heard that?” She looked a little sick when I nodded. “I know that might seem like a low blow, but what you said to him yesterday was a low blow too. I’ve told you before that I’ve never competed with anyone over anything. I’m just following your lead here, Duke. You cut me, I cut you back.”

  “I really, really hate this.” I turned away from her. She did have a point. She was watching me, listening to me, and learning how to fight dirty.

  To say I wasn’t proud of myself would’ve been an understatement. I was embarrassed by what I’d said to Artimus to try to gain the upper hand.

  “Me too,” she agreed. “But what are we supposed to do about it?”

  I had no idea. But I knew I had to come up with something. This was messing us up, and we hadn’t even gotten started yet. “Let’s get something to eat and talk about things.”

  “I don’t know,” she whispered.

  “Don’t you trust yourself with me?” I reached out, grazing the back of her hand with my fingertips.

  “If I’m being honest, then no, I don’t trust myself with you. You have an effect on me that kind of takes my brain out of the equation.” She smiled shyly as she leaned back on the bookcase.

  “You do that to me too. That hasn’t happened to me before. Has it happened to you before?” I moved my fingers up her arm, then ran a chunk of her hair around one finger.

  She shook her head slowly as she looked into my eyes. “It’s a damn shame that Artemis has this rule. If things were different, I could imagine exploring this attraction we have for one another.”

  So, there it was. We did share an attraction, and the only thing stopping us was work. I had to find a way to make that a non-issue. But if I quit, I was sure Lila wouldn’t be happy with me.

  “Sneaking around won’t cut it for you, will it?” I had to ask, just in case she’d consider it. If we snuck around a little, then came forward with things if we got really serious with each other, I thought Artimus might have no choice but to let us have a relationship.

  “I’m not a liar. It’s not impossible for me to lie, but it is hard. And it’s not something I generally like in others, so I try not to do it myself.” She looked away as if what she’d said wasn’t as angelic as I thought it was. Every new thing I learned about her just reeled me in more.

  “You’re better than most people, you know. Just one more thing that makes you so damn special.” I took her hand, pulling it up to my lips and kissing it with a soft kiss. “Is there anything about you that’s not attractive?”

  “Tons of things, but I keep them hidden,” she said with light laughter in her sweet voice.

  Viewers would love her, and I knew that. But I wouldn’t pull out of the race for the job. I’d stay in it for her, so she could win it fair and square. But I would be a better role model for her, since she was looking to me to learn how to compete.

  Her stomach growled, telling me she was hungry. “Come on, let’s go get something to eat. I’m buying, and you’re eating.” Holding her hand, I pulled her along with me.

  “I guess I’ve got no choice, do I?” she asked as we left the bookstore.

  “No, you don’t. I skipped breakfast, so I’m pretty much starving to death. And I hate to eat alone.” I let her hand go once we were back out on the street. No reason to tempt fate and get us caught in something that might get us fired.

  But how long could I actually go without having her in my arms?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lila

  The pancakes we ordered at a nearby café hit the spot, and my noisy tummy finally shut up. I hadn’t planned on talking to Duke at all that morning. Heading into the office, my plan had
actually been the exact opposite—I’d wanted to avoid him at all costs.

  When he’d called out my name, my had heart leapt, taking over once more. My brain had taken a backseat, and I’d forgotten all my good intentions about setting my mind to forgetting about him and this thing between us.

  But I couldn’t forget about Duke—that was clear to me now. It just wasn’t in the cards. His every little touch sent sparks all through me, and as we sat there at the little table, eating pancakes together, I knew I wouldn’t be able to ignore him or the spark we had.

  “Can I ask you why you wanted this job in the first place?” I asked him, because I wanted to know more about this man my heart couldn’t seem to let go of.

  Putting his syrupy fork down on the plate, he nodded. “I want this job because I don’t think many opportunities will come around for a guy like me. I’ve played ball all my life. I’ve never had any other job, other than football. I’ve got this agent who’s been trying to get me work for the last few months, and the jobs he’s come up with are sad, to say the least.”

  “So, there’s just not that much out there for a man like you then, is what you’re saying?” The thought made me feel sad for him.

  I had the world at my fingertips. With a supportive family to see me through, I could go anywhere and do anything. But Duke wasn’t like me. His opportunities were limited—or at least he thought so.

  “A lot of jobs just wouldn’t be sustainable for me. You see, I live with pain every day from the surgeries I’ve had from when I was still playing.” Duke ran his hand over his shoulder. “This shoulder was my first surgery, and I had hoped it would be the last, but I wasn’t that lucky.”

  Sympathy filled me for the poor guy. “So, you’ve got a lot of scars then?”

  “I’ve got quite a few of them.” He looked at me with a smile on his handsome face. “A lot of people have it worse than I do. I know that. But the fact is, the chronic pain makes it difficult to do a lot of things.”

  “You should let me interview you, Duke.” I couldn’t help revisiting that thought I’d had when we first met. He’d had an interesting career, and he had a fan base out there. “Not like a video interview, just a written one. I could sell it to a newspaper, or a magazine. It would spark interest in you again, and it would help me get my name out there too. What do you think?”

  Placing a couple of twenty-dollar bills on the table, he got up, holding out his hand. “I like that idea a lot. How about you come home with me and we can do the interview there? I’ve got a laptop you can use to write the article.”

  Taking his hand, I agreed. I knew it might be difficult to keep things from getting out of control, but something was leading me in that direction, and my brain wasn’t having a fit about going either.

  From the moment I stepped into his apartment, I felt a shift in the energy around us. We were finally all alone, and no one would see or hear a thing we did. The tension in the room let me know that both of us were a little afraid of that.

  I took a seat when he pointed at a nice dark leather sofa. “Have a seat.”

  “I’d like to see your scars, if that’s okay.” I knew what I was asking would only stoke the fire that had been building inside me the entire ride over to his place.

  “Let me change into something else then. I’ll be right back. The laptop is on the desk over there; feel free to fire it up.” He left the living room, and I got up to grab the computer.

  When I opened it, I found his background screen was a picture of his football team. There he was in the back row, standing out even in a sea full of muscle-bound men. He was by far the best looking. And that was saying something, as there were a lot of good-looking men on that team.

  I put the computer down when he came back in wearing only a white robe. “I thought this would work the best. Is this okay with you?”

  “It’s fine with me.” It was more than fine. I wanted to really get to know Duke Cofield.

  He pulled the robe down to expose his shoulder. A rigid scar marred the tanned skin there. “This is where I had the first surgery.”

  “Can I touch it?” I asked as he took a seat.

  He nodded, and I got up and went to him. Standing in front of him, I moved my hand over the rough surface. “That had to hurt.”

  “It still does.” He moved the robe a bit, showing me a scar on his side. “This is where they went in to fix a punctured lung. My ribs were broken, and one stabbed me there.”

  I looked into his eyes as I moved my hand to run over that scar. My hand began to shake as I thought about how close I was to him, and about how close he’d come to death. My body felt hot; I think I even started to sweat a little.

  When his hand closed around mine, holding it against his skin, I fell helplessly for him. “Duke, can I kiss you?”

  He nodded and I moved in closer. Our lips touched, his hands moving to my waist as he pulled me to sit on his lap, facing him. The robe was still covering him, but I could feel his cock swelling beneath me.

  I had no idea how we’d manage to hide this thing we had between us, but I sure as hell couldn’t stop it from happening. Nor did I want to.

  His hand slid up my thigh as our mouths began the search for the ecstasy that our bodies now demanded. The way his hand felt on my skin promised me things would be phenomenal as we went further.

  My skirt was scrunched up to my waist within seconds. His lips left mine to run up my neck then I felt his breath warm in my ear as he asked, “If we go any further than this, I need to know if you’re on birth control or not, because I don’t have any condoms right now.”

  Silently, I thanked God that I’d gotten on the pill right about the time I turned eighteen. “No worries, I’m covered.”

  “Thank God.” His hot mouth moved back down my neck, all the way to the hollow just below my throat. “Would you like to move this to the bedroom then?”

  “I would like that.”

  His strong hands moved to my waist, and he lifted me up as he stood. Duke might live with pain, but he still had the strength of five men, in my opinion. “Wrap your legs around me and hang on.”

  I did as he said, resting my head on his shoulder and nibbling on his neck as he took me to his bed. He sat me down on the edge of the large bed and then stood in front of me. My body nearly burst into flames when he took the robe off, leaving him naked in front of me.

  I couldn’t help myself, I had to run my hands all over his chiseled pecs, down the ladder that separated each and every abdominal muscle he had, to his erect cock, which was standing proud and ready for me.

  He had one tattoo on his wide chest, just over his left pec. The helmet from the New York Jets was inked there to remind him of his glory days as a professional football player. “Nice.”

  He caught me looking at the tat and ran his hand over it. “You like that?”

  I nodded as he leaned down toward me. He unbuttoned my blouse then pushed it off my shoulders. Unhooking my bra in the back, he pulled that off too. “Goddamn, those are perfect. I knew they would be.” He cupped my breasts then pushed me back against the mattress, crawling onto the bed with me. He kissed one nipple tenderly, his hand massaging the other breast. His teeth nipped at it and then tugged, teasing me for a few minutes before he sucked it into his mouth, making my stomach go tight.

  A moan escaped me, unable to be held back. “Duke.”

  His hands were on my waist again, and he took his mouth away from my tit to kiss his way down to where my skirt began. He found the zipper on the side and pulled it down, shimmying the skirt down my legs. Only my panties remained, and he looked up into my eyes as he pulled them off with his teeth.

  My heart pounded as I watched him, and his blue eyes held mine as he tossed the panties away then kissed my inner thigh as he moved back up. His mouth moved to kiss my cunt with a hot, wet tongue that explored my heated folds. I moaned and fisted the blanket underneath me as his tongue went into me. He ate me with long, wet strokes until my legs we
re shaking. Only then did he move his tongue out of me to lick and suck on my swollen clit. That sent me over the edge, and I screamed with the intensity of the first climax he’d given me.

  As my cunt pulsed, he moved up my body, then thrust his fat cock into me. “Yes!” he growled. “Come all over me, baby.”

  I raked my nails up his back as he began to move, stroking my already aroused cunt, making the orgasm go deeper and longer than I knew was possible.

  His body was strong and beautiful as he held his torso off me. I wanted to feel his weight on me. I pulled him down to kiss me, my boobs squishing beneath his chest.

  I ran my feet up and down the backs of his legs as he pumped into me. In and out, he thrust over and over, and then changed it up abruptly. He leaned into me, his pelvic bone rubbing against my clit with every deep thrust. In no time at all, he had me coming for him again. “Duke!”

  I could barely breathe, my body was so overwhelmed with blissful pleasure. I’d had no idea sex could be this good. I had to wonder if the guys I’d been with had been doing it wrong or something. No one had ever gotten this much out of me before. And Duke wasn’t even done yet.

  “Yeah, baby.” He kissed my neck, then bit at my earlobe. “Ready to get a little rough?”

  I hadn’t ever gotten rough before, but I had a feeling that I’d very much enjoy getting rough with him. Panting like an animal who’d been chased through the forest by a wolf, I answered, “Please.”

  The laugh that came out of him then was deep, husky, and sexy as hell. He pulled out of me then flipped me over, pulling me back to get on my hands and knees. He pushed the top part of my body down to the bed. One loud slap had my ass pulsing, and he gave me another before shoving his cock into me again.

  He thrust into me hard, slapping my ass over and over as his pumps continued. I couldn’t believe how much I loved it. My body was doing things I’d had no idea it was capable of. And when he commanded me through a clenched jaw to come for him, I exploded around his massive cock, screaming his name as I did.

  He owned me then. I knew in that moment that I was ruined for any other man—and I knew it without a doubt.