Fourth Down and Dirty: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (21 page)

“She really does
look
just
like Via.”
 

That was the
breaking point. The statement brought me back to the moment so I shoved his
hand away, clearly annoyed and appalled by his behavior.

“Enough, we need
to talk.
In private
.”

I failed to notice
all the people recording the exchange on their phones. While I was focused on
getting my much needed meeting with the elusive and devilishly handsome Hayden
Dunn, our meeting outside had already started to become major fodder on the
Internet.

Now, the whole
world was going to know there was a real life Via Mace lookalike in San
Francisco.

Compared to
outside, it was rather quiet inside the building. But I still felt like I was
in the middle of the chaos. It was impossible to ignore the stares of the
people milling around the lobby or standing behind reception desks. I was glad
to step onto the elevator with just Hayden Dunn. My heart rate was slowing as I
listened to the sounds of the elevator make its way up. I couldn’t help but
peek over at Hayden from the corner of my eye. For a moment I thought I saw him
looking at me, but his eyes must have been a bit faster than mine because I
wasn’t sure.

My eyes wandered
to where the little numbers lit up with each passing floor until it finally
came to a halt on number 14. His office was on the fourteenth floor, out of
fifteen, in a premium office location. I felt annoyance well up deep inside me
again from the familiar feeling that this man had found his great success by
stealing my identity in some way. The elevator doors smoothly slid open. I let
out a quiet sigh as he motioned for me to step out first.

The receptionist’s
eyes landed on me and a loud gasp fell from her mouth. She covered her mouth
with her hand, but the damage had already been done. This was getting old for
me
real
quick.

“Marisa,” Hayden
Dunn said in a somewhat reprimanding tone, as if he were reminding her to
maintain a certain level of professionalism. He swept past me to lead the way
down a hallway. I gave his backside a quick up and down look as he walked ahead
of me. Every confident and sexy step this man took irritated me even more.

The office wasn’t nearly
as cold and modern as I had expected. In fact, it wasn’t cold at all. The space
was welcoming and decorated without making it seem too homey. Whoever had taken
the reigns on the interior design of the space had really struck the perfect
balance.

We walked to the
end of the hallway and turned a corner to walk toward a large door on the
opposite corner. There were large windows on either side of the door. I figured
it must be his personal office, but I couldn’t be too sure since there were
blinds drawn and I couldn’t actually see inside through the windows. He pushed
open the door and stepped inside. He held the door open for me and I quickly
followed in behind him.

As I passed him
his deep woodsy scent tickled the back of my nose. Cinnamon? Sandalwood? I
couldn’t quite tell, but whatever it was it made me take an extra-long sniff.

His corner office
was quite impressive and I noticed it looked a bit more like a comfortable
haven of sorts than a workspace. It matched the other parts of the space, but
his office was even more comfortable and inviting without being over the top in
either respect. The colors were bold, but not overpowering and the décor was in
line with a sort of minimalist theme. I pushed away the thought to ask him who
he had hired as an interior decorator. I wasn’t there to make friends with the
man, much less feed his ego in any way, shape, or form. I was there to clear
the entire situation up with him.

“Have a seat,” he
told me, motioning over to the sitting area.

There was a couch
and two armchairs around a glass coffee table. I took a seat on the armchair
nearest me and draped a leg over the other. My eyes followed him as he walked
to sit on the couch. I noticed he was careful not to sit too close to me. That
was something that gave me both relief and a little disappointment. My mixed
feelings towards this man were already starting to drive me crazy. I tried to
shake the thoughts out of my head. At least he had the consideration of not
wanting to make me feel uncomfortable, but it wasn’t much in the grand scheme
of things.

His eyes were
twinkling and his stare was unwavering as he looked at me. His gaze constantly
flittered up and down my body and across my face. I shifted uncomfortably and
looked around his office, awkwardly trying to avoid his looks rather than
actually having any interest in observing my surroundings. So much for not
feeling uncomfortable. If this was any other man in any other situation I’d be
completely irked out by him obviously looking me up and down. But I knew this
situation was different.
 

“Wow,” he
whispered.

It was clear the
whisper wasn’t intended for me to miss. I turned to look at him and tilted my
head before asking, “What?”

His eyes were
positively sparkling and he made absolutely no effort to mask the sheer glee of
taking in my appearance without pause. He was practically gawking at me, but
not in a sexual way. He looked at me as if I were some kind of work of art.
There was some strange part of it that made me feel special, even though I still
felt uncomfortable about the whole thing. In fact, it had easily become the
most uncomfortable day of my life. And the day wasn’t even over yet.

He covered his
mouth and shrugged his broad shoulders to convey his speechlessness. Usually
his mannerisms were smooth and confident, but the way he shrugged his shoulders
was a tiny bit goofy. It was a small detail, but it gave me a little insight on
him. Maybe he really was just a common gaming geek under all that sexiness.
After a few more moments, though it felt like an hour to me, he crossed his
hands on his lap and smiled.

“This is just
unbelievable you know? I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing one of my
creations come to life!”
 

I groaned. Now I
was really fed up with the situation, but mostly with him. He was so
self-absorbed and completely clueless. If it was an act that would only piss me
off even further. Either way, it was bad and I was done with it.

 
“Listen,” I spoke up angrily. It must have
caught him off guard since he jerked his head back and his look of awe morphed
into one of shock. I, however, didn’t care. “I am
not
one of your creations come to life. I am a real, live person. A
person who’s been alive much longer than your little creation.”

“Yes, I realize
that. I just meant–”

I held my hand up,
effectively silencing him mid-sentence. “I don’t care what you meant or what
you’re going to pretend you meant. I’ve had enough of all this. I am very much
a real person and as a real, live person with feelings and a job and relationships,
your damn game is causing too much trouble for me. I’ve had it!”
 

“What do you mean?
I’d think you’d be flattered to–”

“
Excuse me
?” I lurched forward in my
seat. I could feel my face burning and the anger coursing through my veins. All
I could think about were the hundreds of gawking faces I had to deal with the
past couple days, my angry boss, and my disappointed brother. I was quickly
getting pissed off and I was starting to wonder how I would hold back from
eventually slapping the thoughtless man in front of me—even if his handsome
looks made my heart flutter.

Actually, at that
point I wasn’t sure if my heart thudded inside my chest because of
him
or because of the whole situation he
had caused. Either way it was his fault and it caused the frustration inside of
me to boil over.

 
“You are a self-absorbed, entitled,
short-sighted man. Why on
earth
would
I be flattered? Your little game has caused me nothing but trouble and that
needs to change.”

“Trouble? What
trouble? You’re practically a celebrity now!”

I slammed my fist
down on the arm of the chair. “A celebrity? Are you kidding me? According to
you I’m barely a real person. This Via Mace character has done nothing but
negatively affect every aspect of my life, including my career. I can’t even
walk down the street without being pestered. You need to take care of this. I
demand you do something about this mess. I never–”

“You
demand
I do something? What, exactly, do
you want me to do? If you think I’m going to cancel my contracts to prevent the
game being released, you’re crazy.”

“Oh, I’m crazy?” I
was nearly shrieking.

I stood up and
paced back and forth behind the chair, taking in deep breaths as I tried to
calm down. This wasn’t the behavior I had in mind when I decided to get a
meeting with him. I wasn’t the type of person who thought things could be
accomplished through attacks and screaming fits, but I had also never
experienced anything like this.

It certainly
didn’t help that I found him to be entirely too flippant about the whole situation
right from the start. Taking a final deep breath, I took a seat and looked him
dead in the eye.

“I apologize for
my outburst. I am, however, completely appalled by your attitude toward this. I
didn’t come here for you to fawn over me being some sort of in-real-life
version of your so-called creation. I came here because I cannot, for the life
me, understand how or why this happened. It has only been a couple of days and
it has already caused too many problems for me.”

Hayden finally
seemed to be taking me seriously, but I was quickly distracted from that by
something I didn’t even notice in his office– a large television behind his
desk, on which had the news. My fingers curled up in a tight fist. All of my
efforts to calm down were shattered in an instant. There on the TV screen was a
clip of me outside his office building followed up by a side-by-side comparison
of me with Via Mace.

Hayden noticed the
direction of my gaze and turned to look at the television. When I turned back to
face him, face scrunched up and red with anger, I saw the panic in his eyes.

“Please,” he said
in the most calming voice he could muster.

“Fuck!” I shouted,
once again standing up to pace back and forth. I took longer strides, covering
most of his office, my heart rate spiked through the roof. I looked out the
large windows with the great view, but there was nowhere and no way for me to
step out for a breath of fresh air.

I felt trapped and
my head started to spin as a result of it. I went to grab on to the back of the
armchair but my hand slipped and I felt my body start to collapse as if I were
in slow motion. I didn’t even realize when Hayden’s arms wrapped around my
shoulders, holding me up, until I was staring into his eyes. After a few moments,
everything came back into focus. I drew in a deep breath. Even though he was
the person that had caused me so much pain and stress, it felt good to be
touched. His touch was gentle and caring. With his help I was able to go back
to my seat.

“Are you okay?” he
asked.

I was weary to
take any sign of niceness from him seriously, but I nodded anyway and took the
glass of water he offered me. I practically drained it in one gulp. I set it
down on the coffee table and weakly mumbled thanks before rubbing my temples
for about a minute. I needed some time before we resumed our conversation.

“I don’t even know
your name,” he finally said.

I paused and
looked up at him. He had a point. Then my thoughts shifted into uncertainty.
Did I really want to give this man more information on me than he had? After
all, he already knew far too much about my physical appearance than anyone
could have imagined.

 
“Alice
McClane
,” I
muttered. I saw a strange look in his eyes, but it vanished just as quickly as
it had come so I chose to dismiss it. I had bigger things to worry about than a
fleeting expression.

Out of the corner
of my eye I read a headline on the TV. A photo of Via Mace was still visible on
the bottom of the screen. The headline was about a possible movie deal in the
works based on the game.

“Is that true?” I
wasn’t really sure if I wanted to know, but the question had already been
asked. I was barely able to breathe as I waited for an answer.

Hayden nodded and
rubbed the back of his head. “It’s not as simple as that, though. Really.” I
couldn’t tell if he was trying to reassure me for some reason. “Listen, maybe a
drink might help? Can I offer you a drink?”

I looked at the
clock, but it didn’t matter. It was morning, but everything was so screwed up
anyway that I figured maybe a drink would help. “To hell with it,” I muttered.

“What was that?”

“Oh, yes. I need a
drink.”

He nodded and
stood up, walking over to open a cabinet in the wall-to-wall bookcase behind his
desk. Inside was a glass pitcher with a golden brown liquid along with four
clean glasses. He poured some of it into a glass, grabbing it and the pitcher
to bring back to me.