I wanted to shove mine up this prick’s ass, but I couldn’t start a fight five minutes after I walked away from Aspen. She’d be pissed and I wasn’t going back on our deal—not after this morning. Not after we shagged like we did.
He sat across from me and started unlacing his boots.
Practice was going to suck.
Two hours later, I headed out of the stadium. Aspen was waiting for me by the gate along with a pack of reporters. I had showered and wore the suit she had chosen for me. The collar was itchy. I tugged at it, trying to breathe. I missed my T-shirt.
She smiled as I grew closer.
“How was practice?” she asked.
“Brilliant.”
Her hand fit perfectly through my arm as if she belonged next to me. She grinned up at me.
“That’s all?”
“How did things go out here?” She was going to try to do damage control on the reporter incident from yesterday. I wanted to know if she was as good as Rick at cleaning up my image.
“I think I made some progress,” she whispered.
“Then it sounds like we’re both keeping our end of the deal.”
Alex and Taylor started answering questions about practice.
“Why don’t you join in?” Aspen whispered. “It will help. Just smile and try not to punch anyone, okay?”
I chuckled. I could never make those kinds of promises.
“All right,” I agreed.
I strutted forward and stood next to my teammates. I looked over my shoulder at Aspen. She had shoved me straight into the lion’s mouth.
14
Aspen
I wanted Lachlan to believe I could make his problems go away. But I didn’t have that kind of power. The man had boozed and slept around until I was the only one standing behind him. If his plan didn’t work, I wouldn’t be here anymore either. This fake relationship could blow up in both our faces.
I tried not to think about the line I had crossed with him this morning. Or the line I had agreed to cross with him every night of the Olympics.
I had a lot of work to do while he was at practice. I had to get ahead of the story before Karen found out I was the British star’s girlfriend.
As soon as Lachlan walked into practice I called her.
“Aspen, what’s going on?”
“Hi, Karen. Can we speak for a few minutes?”
I didn’t have a plan on how to tell my boss that I was going to be a publicity girlfriend. She didn’t need to know the rest of our deal.
“How is
Rio? Did you find Kenzie?”
“Yes.” I bit my lip. “I sure did.”
“Good. And is he going to make some changes? I’ve had stockholders blowing up my phone all morning. They want us to let him go.”