Take Me (16 page)

Why had she been dancing with Dax like that, with her hair all wild, totally letting herself go? Every time he was around her, she was guarded. Except when he was kissing her. Then she hadn’t been guarded. Well, not completely. He’d sensed a certain hesitation on her part, but he could also sense the want, simmering underneath her frosty exterior.

He decided to he needed some kind of exercise to work off what he was feeling.

That and a cold shower. So he took a car to Lerner Field, and then head down to the team gym. Chad was already there, running on the treadmill.

“Yo,” Chad said. “I didn’t think I’d see you here so early.”

Jay grunted a response. Chad was his best friend, but Jay just wanted to be left alone. He wanted to run, to push his body until his lungs burned and his legs were on fire. He had to get Alyssa out of his head.

“Of course,” Chad went on, seemingly oblivious to Jay’s disinterest. “I didn’t think I’d be here either. But I spent the night with Jessa.”

Jay didn’t know who Jessa was, and he didn’t care. Chad had a different woman every single night, which wasn’t really of note when you were a major league baseball player. Hell, even some of the married players were known to mess around once in a while. Their wives either turned the other cheek, or had an arrangement worked out.

That kind of arrangement wasn’t for Jay – that’s why he never got involved. He had his fun, but honestly, who wanted the kind of responsibility that a relationship entailed?

“Yup,” Chad said. “Spent the night with Jessa all right.”

“Who’s Jessa?” Jay asked, only because he knew if he didn’t, Chad would end up bugging him for the rest of their workout.

“Alyssa’s friend.”

At the sound of her name, Jay’s head jerked up. He hopped on the treadmill next to Chad. “You were at the club with Alyssa last night?”

“Restaurant,” Chad corrected. “Yeah. And her friend Jessa was ready for it.”

“So you saw her with Dax then?”

Chad frowned. “Jessa wasn’t with Dax.” He said it like that very thought was completely ridiculous. “I just told you she was with me.”

“Not Jessica,” Jay said.

“Jessa,” Chad corrected.

“Whatever,” Jay said, knowing that her name didn’t matter, since she’d be forgotten about by tomorrow. “I meant Alyssa.”

“Oh, yeah, Alyssa was with Dax,” Chad said. “They were dancing, I think. I don’t know, it was a little fuzzy after the tequila.”

Jay sighed, not believing that this was the source he had for what really went on last night. He’d read the New York Post article – studied every single detail. It had claimed that Dax and Alyssa had been canoodling all night, that there might even be a blossoming romance between the two. But he knew more than anyone that the Post could get things completely wrong. They could claim someone was breaking up when they were about to get married, they could claim you were having sex when you were having a business meeting.

“Did she seem like she liked it?” Jay asked. “Dancing with Dax like that?”

“Of course she liked it,” Chad said. “The Heat is on the move!” He grunted a little bit, and then held his hand up to give Jay the opportunity to give him a high five.

Jay looked at him in disgust, then pushed the speed on his treadmill up from four miles an hour to seven.

He started to run, letting his muscles warm up, letting the morning flow out of him. He pushed the speed up to eight miles an hour, and started to lose himself in the run.

After a few minutes, Chad said, “So you like her.”

“What?”

“You’re interested in her. In Alyssa.”

“No, I’m not,” Jay scoffed.

“Jay,” Chad said, “the last time you acted like this was over Marti.”

“Acted like what?”

“Like you want to rip the head off any guy who even looks at her.”

“First,” Jay said, “don’t ever mention Marti’s name again. And second, I’m not interested Alyssa Cotler.” He reached down and put the ear buds of his iPod into his ears, and then turned the treadmill up even more, letting the music echo and pound through his ears.

Chad didn’t know what he was talking about. Alyssa was nothing like Marti.

Marti had been ruthless. Jay and Marti dated all through college in Texas, and right before he was about to be signed to his first major league deal, he’d proposed to her. But Marti had turned him down. She didn’t want to be a baseball player’s wife. She didn’t want to have to travel all the time, from city to city. Marti wanted to settle down, to have kids. Which she’d done, about a year after they’d broken up, with some insurance salesman named Hal.

Jay had vowed to never get involved with a girl like Marti again. Those kind of girls would never be into the kind of lifestyle his job necessitated, so why would he set himself up for heartbreak? So instead he went for the party girls, the girls who were into him for his fame and his money, the ones that didn’t put pressure on him, that knew enough to take it for what it was – a couple nights, or weeks, or months of fun, no commitments, no strings attached.

It had been working out perfectly. Well, not perfectly, Jay thought, as he pounded his legs to the music. There was the girl who he married in Vegas, and all the partying.

And of course it was a pretty empty existence. But every time he started to feel lonely, Jay reminded himself of the fact that having ties and loyalties to a woman only led to problems. Bad problems.

By the time his session at the gym was over, Jay felt better. Obviously he wanted what he couldn’t have – and since Alyssa Cotler was off-limits, that was all this was. He needed to stay away from her, or else he was going to be in big trouble.

***

Alyssa sat in the dugout later that night, her notebook open in front of her, her pen poised to take notes. But all she could concentrate on was Jay Havens.

He was at bat, his arms crooked perfectly. She admired the way his hands gripped the bat, the way his uniform hugged his body. She thought about what they’d done in her hotel room earlier, how he’d kissed her and how she’d wanted him to throw her down on the bed and do whatever he wanted. A rush of electricity and heat pulsed in between her legs, and she quickly looked back down at her notebook.

The page was blank. She was supposed to be taking notes on the game, about what was going on in the dugout, but it wasn’t going so well. First, the guys seemed like they were on their best behavior, not wanting to swear or spit or whatever it was that baseball players were supposed to do. Second, she kept getting distracted thinking about Jay Havens. And third, Jessa kept texting her, asking her if Chad had mentioned her, or when Jessa could come by to “guarantee he would ask her out.”

Alyssa didn’t want to have to be the one to break the news to her that if you had to come by so that a guy would want to ask you out after he slept with you, your romance probably wasn’t on the best ground. Also Chad had been flirting with a reporter from ESPN for the past hour. He was over to the side, trying to hide it from Alyssa, but at one point she’d seen the poor girl pull down the top of her shirt and show Chad the small heart tattoo she had on the top of her breast.

Alyssa looked down at her paper and wrote, “Chad got ESPN reporter to show him her tattoo.” Something told her Isobel wasn’t going to be too pleased with that. She needed something more.

The crack of the bat sounded across the field, and Alyssa looked up to see Jay start to run the bases. He ran fast and hard, his arms pumping and his face showing total concentration. He slid into second base seconds before the throw, and the crowd went wild.

Jay pulled off his batting gloves, and Alyssa thought about the way his hands had felt on her earlier. She swallowed. Hard. There was heat pulsing in between her thighs, and she turned away from him, trying to calm herself down. Why was it they always said to think about baseball when you were getting worked up? Baseball was about the sexiest thing that Alyssa could think of right now.

Her phone rang, and she rummaged around for it in her bag, then moved out of the dugout so as not to disturb the players. Not that they really cared. After she’d eviscerated Jay in her first blog, no one would dare say anything to her. It was kind of funny, all of these big baseball players being afraid of what she might write about them.

“Hello?” she said, standing in the short tunnel that led down to the dugout. She leaned against the wall.

“Alyssa!” Isobel yelled. “Your column’s getting a great response. From the readers, and the board.”

The board was the board of editors. Alyssa had never had contact with them directly, but from what she could tell, Isobel was terrified of them.

“Thanks,” Alyssa said. She’d kept this morning’s column light, talking about how the picture in the New York Post had been taken out of context, and how she was getting a taste of what it was like to live in the public eye. She’s thrown in some bullshit, too, about how she’d hurt her knee and how all the players had been super nice to her.

“But I have to warn you, they weren’t pleased about seeing that picture,” Isobel said. “If you hadn’t written such a great post, I’m not sure what they would have done.”

The threat was implicit – Alyssa would have lost her job. Isobel was always implying that Alyssa was going to lose her job. Alyssa didn’t know if it was because she actually could lose her job that easily, or if it was just a scare tactic. She didn’t care to find out.

“I understand,” Alyssa said.

“Under no circumstances are you to be fraternizing around with the players. I won’t have some kind of scandal happening, like that shit with Brett Favre and the sexts.”

Alyssa had no idea what she was talking about, but she said, “Of course not, Isobel.” She swallowed hard and tried not to think about kissing Jay Havens in her hotel room this morning.

She hung up the phone and headed back to the dugout, trying to calm her beating heart.

***

The Heat won 7-2, and the mood in the locker room was one of jubilation.

Players were celebrating, and Jay Havens was getting ready for a night on the town.

He’d already decided exactly what he was going to do. Dinner at Koi, followed by drinks at Sliver, and then who knew? He always liked to play the after party by ear. Maybe he’d rent a hotel room in Manhattan, bring the party there. Or maybe he’d pick up some gorgeous woman while he was out tonight. A blonde. A blonde who looked nothing like Alyssa Cotler.

He’d been distracted during the game, not being able to keep his mind off her.

He’d had a great game only because every time he was at bat, he’d poured all his anger toward Dax into his swing.

“Good game, man,” Dax said, walking by him and giving him a fist pound.

“Yeah,” Jay said, deliberately keeping it short. Dax seemed to be waiting for something, probably for Jay to tell him that Dax had had a good game, too. But Jay didn’t want to give the fucker the satisfaction. Dax didn’t get the hint. He just stood there, waiting. Jay sighed. “You, too,” he said finally, hoping Dax would go away. But he didn’t.

“You think? I felt like I could have been hitting a little stronger.”

It was bullshit. Dax had hit a homerun and a two RBI triple. He was fishing for compliments. “I can work with you a little,” Jay said. “Give you some tips.”

“Thanks, man,” Dax said. But his tone wasn’t genuine. The guy was such a tool.

Jay felt kind of like punching him in his stupid face.

“Or,” Jay said, “you could try to get some more sleep. Less partying.”

Dax grinned. “You saw the New York Post article, huh? Must have been a little weird, to not be the one everyone’s talking about for once.”

“No,” Jay lied, “I didn’t see the article. I just thought you seemed a little tired today.”

Dax’s smile faltered for a moment, but he got control of himself quickly. “I was out with that reporter,” Dax said. “Not the hottest piece of ass, but there’s something about her. The whole doe-eyed, upstate vibe, you know? Nice rack. She was grinding on me like she couldn’t get enough.” He grinned. “I’m making it my mission to sleep with her before she leaves.”

“I doubt that’s going to happen,” Jay said. It came out sharper than he’d intended.

“We’ll see,” Dax said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “Anyway, I’ll catch you later, man.”

Jay could feel his blood boiling. How could that asshole talk about Alyssa like that? Saying she wasn’t that hot, that it was going to be his mission to sleep with her?

That motherfucker.
Forget about Alyssa Cotler,
Jay told himself, slamming his locker door shut. He was going to go out and have a good time.

His cell rang, and he looked at the caller ID. Steve. He thought about sending it to voicemail, but if he did that, Steve would just be even angrier when he finally did talk to him.

“Yo,” Jay said, cradling the phone against his chest. He started to make his way out of the locker room, high fiving some of his teammates on the way. “Dinner at Koi, boys,” he told them. “My treat.”

“You better take that back,” Steve said through the phone. “Otherwise there are going to be a lot of disappointed baseball players at that restaurant.”

“Why?” Jay asked.

“Because I need to see you. Now. I’ll meet you at Fratelli’s in ten.”

“No,” Jay said.

“Yes,” Steve told him. “Be there.” And then the line went dead.

~Chapter Seven~

Alyssa left the game by herself and walked back to her hotel. The air was warm, and she was in a good mood. Dax had asked her if she wanted to grab some dinner after the game, but she’d declined. The last thing she needed was her picture showing up in the paper again. Then she’d really be in trouble with Isobel.

When she was safely back in her room, she stood by her bed and looked out the window. It was nine o’clock. Late enough, but early by New York City standards. She wondered if Brooklyn counted when they said New York was the city that never slept.

She considered going out, doing something to enjoy the city, but the thought of wandering around by herself seemed a little exhausting and kind of pathetic. And she was already tired from the day, and dusty from the dust in the dugout.