Nice Girls Finish Last

But Lena was battling bone-deep disappointment and bubbling anger. He should have told her about this yesterday. Instead he’d toyed with her. He’d let her make a total fool of herself.

‘I have a presentation.’ He pulled a flash drive from his pocket and placed it on her desk. ‘Some slides and footage of the last few camps. It explains everything and only takes a few minutes to watch.’

She ignored it. ‘When did you want to run this programme?’

‘Next week.’

Her jaw dropped; she was stunned that he’d be that disorganised. ‘Leaving it to the last minute, aren’t you?’

He inclined his head and looked directly at her. ‘It was scheduled for our usual place but that’s become unavailable—fire gutted the main training room in the weekend. So I guess I’m throwing myself on your mercy.’

Mercy? Seth Walker had never needed anyone’s mercy—he’d be the one to grant it.

‘I can’t be influenced by any personal—’ she broke off, scrambling for an appropriate word ‘—connection we’ve had.’

‘Of course.’ He was totally smooth. ‘I know that you wouldn’t deny these boys this opportunity because of any awkwardness between us. Anyway, there isn’t any awkwardness, is there?’

She was the one to study the desk then because she couldn’t answer that. She wasn’t feeling awkward, she was feeling insanely disappointed that he hadn’t come to see her for her.

Of course he hadn’t. And why should she mind when she’d told him it was over? But she totally minded. She wished her body had listened as well as he had.

‘It’s a good PR opportunity for the team, to be seen giving something back to the community, right?’ he said.

‘We have many good PR opportunities,’ she answered curtly. ‘The team already spends hours on community and charitable projects. Perhaps it’s you who’s really seeking the PR op?’

‘I’m not in any of the pictures, nor is my company logo.’ He grinned. ‘I prefer to keep under the radar media wise. In fact my involvement with the programme is conditional on my lack of involvement with the publicity angle.’

Lena swallowed, knowing she was being backed into a corner.

‘I spoke with Dion and, while he’s happy for us to be at the stadium, you’re the person who needs to let us have access to the team.’ Seth’s gaze speared her; he seemed to take up all her visual space.

‘It’s not me,’ she denied. ‘All I can do is put your request to management and get back to you.’

He leaned back in his seat, looking a lot as if he were a panther and she the hapless creature on whom he was about to pounce. ‘But Dion said you were the key. If we get you onside it would basically be a done deal.’

If ‘we’ get her onside? He was the only one present—so it was if he got her ‘onside’. Was this why he’d been so ready to accept her invitation last night? Had it been a case of sweetening her up so she’d say yes to this? Oh, now she was humiliated. Anger simmered, too.

‘Nothing’s a done deal,’ she said, falling back on the icy armour she’d honed over the last eighteen months. ‘I can make you no guarantees. You’ll have to wait until I’ve reviewed the request and spoken with my superiors.’ She stood, wanting this interview to be over so she could lick away the stings in private.

‘Of course.’ He followed suit and rose from his seat.

Politeness required she see him out. She’d failed to do that in her home this morning. Now she was determined to be nothing but professional—pride dictated it. But it was in stony silence that she walked towards her door.

‘Don’t come out to the lift. I’m sure you’re very busy.’ He smiled—too intimately.

She lifted her chin. ‘It’s no problem.’

His grin flashed wider as if he didn’t believe her. ‘Lena—’ he stopped just inside her doorway ‘—just so you know, I don’t prostitute myself.’ He leaned closer, spoke in an all-out purr. ‘Not even for a good cause.’

She couldn’t move.

‘What happened last night was between us and has nothing to do with this.’ Now he bit.

‘What happened last night is finished,’ she said firmly.

‘You think?’ His lashes dropped; she could feel the sweep of his gaze down her skin as if it were the stroke of his finger. ‘Who are you trying to convince—me or you?’

Oh, he was arrogant and she had the urge to best him somehow.

‘Because, in case you hadn’t figured it out already,’ he continued softly, ‘you can ask me to dine on you again any time you like.’

Dine on her? Heat flared in her cheeks over the crudity of his comment. And the veracity: she had asked, more than once, and he’d licked every inch of her body—inside and out. Just as she’d sucked the proof of pleasure out of him. Her skin burned, not just from anger but also attraction—still that insane attraction to his physicality. And his amusement. For once more laughter sparkled in the depths of his blue eyes, inviting her to laugh with him. Except she couldn’t. She couldn’t move, speak, think….

It took her catatonic brain long enough to realise she was panting. She snapped out of it, marched back to her desk and swiped up the flash drive—to do something with her damp, shaking, desperate hands. ‘I’ll take a look and get back to you.’

‘Here’s my card.’ Remaining where he was, he held it out—so she had to walk back towards him to get it. ‘I forgot to give you my details this morning.’

She had his every detail imprinted on her body. She could still feel his weight, still see the shades of tan on his skin, the whirls of hair on his chest—the arrowing down to his fantastic masculinity. She knew every intimate detail already; she didn’t need more.

She took the card by a corner edge and quickly moved to the open door to avoid any closer contact. ‘I’ll be in touch,’ she said brusquely.

He nodded—too casually—and sent her a brilliant smile. ‘I really do appreciate your time, Lena.’

She turned her back on him and gritted her teeth to hold in the snarl of pure frustration. But she couldn’t say no to his request and he knew it. The team tried to agree to most team-access requests—especially if youth or children were involved. She had to treat this proposal as she would any other—because if their night together ever became public knowledge it would look so dodgy. In truth it looked dodgy either way.

Damn Seth for putting her in this position. He should have been honest with her in the first place. She ground her teeth harder still. Men never were honest—not until they’d got what they wanted. She tossed the flash drive onto the desk and sat down to fire off the relevant emails. Yes, she’d recommend this to management, but only because there was no reason not to and because Dion had already given permission for them to be on-site. It was off-season, the boys were only playing a couple of friendlies in the next fortnight, there was none of the cloak-and-dagger secret-training stuff that happened around finals time.

But while she’d say yes, she’d avoid the pitch completely next week. She’d catch up on the filing or something so she wouldn’t even have to see him. She swallowed her disappointment and stoked her small pocket of pride. She had no intention of having to deal with him direct ever again.

CHAPTER SIX

THE next morning Lena cleared her emails. It was all organised. She’d had confirmation messages from Andrew, the social worker for the charity. Nothing from Seth himself. Of course not—he’d got what he wanted already. Grimacing, she picked up the box of sponsorship goodies that had arrived for the totally spoilt team. She’d leave them in their lockers; the boys should be on the pitch already, ten minutes into training.

‘Coming through!’ she called just in case, but the change room was silent and empty. She started unloading the box, chuckling when she saw that it was the two best-looking stars of the team who had the specially wrapped, larger freebie packs.