Betrayed (Dark Desires 2)

He took his hand away and the doors closed.

It was the last time I ever expected to see him or Sean again.

Sean

“Can I get you anything before I leave, Mr. Donovan?”

I looked up from the spot on the couch where I’d been spending most of my days and nights since getting released from the hospital and shook my head at the housekeeper.

“No, Maria, thanks,” I said with a smile. “Have a good night.”

“She’s hot, man,” Leon said after the front door closed. He sat next to me on the couch, rubbing his hands together. “I could tap that fine Latino ass.”

“She’s old enough to be your mother,” I said, picking up the TV remote and switching the channel to ESPN. “Let me guess, Monique has cut you off again.”

He grunted and rubbed his eyes. “That damn woman uses her pussy like a… fuck, I don’t know what. But every time she gets pissed at me about something, she cuts me off.”

“What’s she pissed about now?”

“She’s pissed because I told her not to spend a fucking arm and a leg on the fucking flowers for her fucking wedding.”

I turned my head slowly to look at him. With my shoulder still healing, I did everything slowly these days. I asked, “Were those your exact words?”

He shrugged. “Yeah, why?”

“I might understand why she’s a little pissed.”

“Fuck that, man,” he said with a heavy sigh. A brother’s gotta fuck something. Might as well be your fine Latino housekeeper.”

“You keep that monster away from my housekeeper,” I said, glancing toward his crotch. I’d seen Leon naked in the locker room plenty of times. The word “monster” didn’t really start to describe what he was packing down there.

“Hey, look, it’s you,” he said, nodding at the screen.

I glanced up at the TV to see my smiling face superimposed next to the ESPN anchor’s head. I turned up the sound.

“Still no word on when New York Kings star running back Sean Donovan will be back in the game,” the anchor said, his handsome brow furrowed, almost like he gave a shit. I knew the guy well. He hated my guts and was probably reveling in the fact that I was out for the season.

He continued, “But a new post on the Sports Insider Online website today is giving fresh insight into Sean Donovan, offering up a side of the football great that you might not have known even existed. Lou Walls is here to tell us more. Lou...”

“What the fuck…” I said, leaning in toward the screen.

The reporter spoke on-camera as stock footage of me on the field and on TMZ rolled in the background.

“That’s right, Ed. We all know the legendary exploits of bad boy Sean Donovan, from the drunken bar brawls to the viral sex videos, but did you also know that he visits children with cancer every week? Or that he donates millions of dollars to charities very year? And that he does it all anonymously? No one knew that side of Sean Donovan until today when Kate Asher’s profile of Donovan hit the web.”

Kate Asher’s beautiful face appeared in a bubble next to the reporter’s head.

“What makes this story even more interesting, Ed, is that Kate Asher actually disguised herself as a reporter from Playboy Magazine to get close to Sean Donovan, which tells me that some habits are harder to break than others. Ed, back to you.”

I switched off the TV and looked around frantically for my computer. It was on the table next to Leon. I waved at it. “Hey, hand me my laptop. I want to read what she wrote.”

“What do you care?” Leon asked, handing over the laptop. “Have you even spoken to her since Madge threw her out of the hospital.”

“No, not a word,” I said, tapping the keys to bring up the Sports Insider Online website. The story was the first thing on the screen.

I tapped the link and a new page opened with the bold headline “The Many Sides of Sean Donovan”.

The byline read Kate Asher, Sports Insider Online.