Game On (23 page)

“Let me just help you get into bed,” she
said quietly. “Then I’ll let you get some rest. Unless, of course, you’d like
me to stay?” She slipped her hand inside his shirt, caressing his chest.

Ryan grabbed her wrist. “No, you’d better
go. Now.” Nothing about this woman turned him on, yet certain parts of his
anatomy apparently hadn’t received the memo that he was off the market because
they begged for the same attention. “I’m not interested.”

Her eyes fell to the bulge in the front of
his jeans. “Really? You could have fooled me.”

“Look, you’re a beautiful girl,” he said,
trying to placate her. “But the fact is, I’m in love with someone else. Bri’s
the only woman I want.” Whether he would ever have her seemed like a moot
point. Suddenly a warm body in his bed was no longer enough to satisfy him.

“She must be something special,” she said,
moving behind him to strip his shirt off. “Tell me about her.”

Ryan closed his eyes and pictured Brianna.
What could he say that would do her justice? “She’s gorgeous, smart, sexy.
She’s my best friend…”

“That’s so sweet,” she said, stroking his
bare shoulders. “What does she do?”

“She’s a lawyer.”

“Wow,” she said, whistling soft and low.
“Impressive.” Gliding her hands over his ribs, she was still standing behind
him when she reached for his belt buckle. “Tell me more. What makes this girl
the
one
?”

Ryan could barely keep his eyes open as he
muttered, “She’s incredible.” He heard rustling behind him, but by the time he
felt her lacy bra brushing against his bare back, he could barely make it to
the bed.

***

“I wanna know where he is, Johnny.” Brianna
set her hands on her hips and glared at the one man she hoped she would never
have to see again. Ryan usually had pretty good judgement when it came to
friends and acquaintances, but Johnny had always been the exception. “I know
he’s still here. His car’s out front.”

“How do you know I didn’t have someone take
him home?”

“I stopped by his house before I came here.
He wasn’t there.”

Johnny reached for her hand, but she
stepped back, just out of his reach. Just the thought of letting him touch her
made her skin crawl. “I want to see him now!”

“According to him, it’s all over between
you two,” Johnny said, sliding into a leather booth.

She had no choice but to ease in across
from him if she wanted answers. “I don’t believe he said that.” At least she
prayed he hadn’t. Was he really willing to throw away everything they could
have, everything he claimed to want, just because of one argument?

He shrugged. “You can believe whatever you
want. He said you don’t trust him. How the hell can you expect to have a
relationship without trust?”

She rolled her eyes. “As if you’d know
anything about trust, or relationships, for that matter.”

“I can’t deny you’re right, but we’re not
talkin’ about me right now. We’re talkin’ about you and Ryan.” He covered her
hand with his, but she quickly withdrew from his touch. “I hate to tell you
this, darlin’, but he’s upstairs with one of my waitresses right now.”

Brianna felt like someone had knocked the
wind out of her. “Ryan wouldn’t do that,” she said, shaking her head in denial.
“Just because we had a disagreement, he wouldn’t jump into bed with another
woman.”

“Wouldn’t he? Then why do you suppose he
came here of all places?”

She couldn’t answer that. She didn’t even
want to think of the implications.

Johnny tipped his head to one side,
watching her closely, obviously hoping to see a crack in her veneer. “Why don’t
you go on up and see for yourself?” He pointed to a set of stairs. “Right up
there. Turn right. It’s the door at the end of the hall.”

Brianna stood, but her legs felt shaky as
she made her way across the crowded club and up the stairs. She knew Johnny was
lying. Ryan would never do that to her. He loved her; he wanted to be with her,
only her.
He’d said so mere hours ago. Sure, the old Ryan may have acted
impulsively.
He
may have seduced the first woman who caught his eye, but
that was before…

She stood on the outside of the door Johnny
had directed her to, her trembling hand on the knob as she strained to hear
sounds coming from inside. She raised her hand to knock, but that would imply
she actually believed he was in there with a woman, which she didn’t.

Turning the knob, she took a deep breath
and threw the door open. “Ry…”

A tousled blonde head popped up from under
the covers. “Hey,” she said, pulling the blankets up to cover her breasts.
“What the...”

Brianna stared at Ryan’s face, relaxed in
sleep. He didn’t even stir when the woman next to him raised her voice.
She
must have worn him out,
she thought bitterly. “When he wakes up for round
two, you can tell him he’ll find my letter of resignation on his desk, and I
never want to see his face again.”

The blonde looked at the man sleeping
beside her. “I’ll give him the message.”

***

Ryan rolled over and his head pounded in
protest. Groaning, he pulled the pillow over his face to block out the light
streaming through the window.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” a feminine
voice whispered in his ear.

He tossed the pillow aside and prayed to
God this was a nightmare. “Jesus,” he groaned, glancing at the curvy blonde
cozying up next to him. “What the hell happened here last night?” The last
thing he remembered was asking her to leave, but a visual of his reaction to
her undressing him popped into his head. “No,” he said, sitting up as he held
his head in his hands. “No, this can’t be happening. I wouldn’t have done this.
Goddammit!” he shouted, his head protesting.

“Relax,” she said, stroking his back.

“Get the hell out of here,” he muttered. “I
can’t even look at you right now.” It wasn’t her he didn’t want to face. He saw
Brianna’s face and his stomach clenched. Any hope he had of making her his was
gone. Unless he could make her understand…

“Does your girlfriend work for you?”

He lifted his head to look at her. “Yeah,
why?”

“Then it was her who popped in to surprise
you last night.” She winced. “Too bad she was the one who got the surprise when
she found us in bed together.”

Ryan jumped up, taking the top cover with
him. “Are you telling me…” Of course that’s what she was telling him. “What did
she say? How did she react?”
As if he didn’t know.

“Let’s see…”

Ryan wanted to grab her and shake the
information out of her. “Just tell me what she said.”

“Not much,” she said, shrugging. “Just that
you’ll find her letter of resignation on your desk and she never wants to see
you again.”

“No,” he whispered, sinking down at the
foot of the bed when his legs gave way. “No, I can’t lose her.”

Natasha scooted down the bed and laid a
hand on his back. “Maybe you can talk to her, make her see that it was just one
night,” she said quietly. “That I was a mistake.” She sighed. “Guys like you
always think I’m a mistake.”

He stopped thinking about Brianna for half
a second when the blonde at his side reminded him that Brianna wasn’t the only
victim of his drunken stupor. “I’m sorry about last night. I had way too much
to drink. I never should’ve…” A thought occurred to him and he frantically
reached for the jeans he’d worn. Just as he suspected, he hadn’t had any
protection with him. He hadn’t wanted to be tempted to make love to Brianna,
knowing the special weekend he was planning for her was only a few days away.

“What’s wrong?” Natasha asked when he began
stripping the bed, looking for some evidence that he hadn’t been as
irresponsible as he feared. “What are you doing?”

He got down on the floor, looked under the
bed, and turned the metal wastebasket upside down. No condom wrapper. “Please
tell me we didn’t have sex without protection.”

A guilty look passed over her face and Ryan
threw the waste basket against the wall. “Son of a bitch!” he shouted.

She jumped at the impact of metal bouncing
off drywall. “Take it easy,” she said, holding her hand up.

He pulled his jeans on over the black
boxers he still wore. He didn’t give much thought to the fact that he was still
partially clothed. “We’re goin’ to get the morning after pill. I’m not takin’
any chances.” He had enough problems without having to worry about a kid he
didn’t want with a woman he could barely stand to look at without thinking about
how much she’d cost him.

She sighed as her shoulders slumped. “That
won’t be necessary.”

“Like hell,” he said, pulling his shirt on
before sticking his feet into his boots. His pounding head protested every
move, but he didn’t care. He had to take precautions against this mistake
before he could think about how he was going to convince Brianna to forgive
him.
She had to forgive him.
He refused to allow himself to believe it
was over for them. “I don’t wanna hear any of your excuses. Look, I’m as much
to blame for this as you are, but-”

“No, you’re not.” She tipped her head up to
look at the ceiling. “You didn’t do anything, Ryan.”

“What the hell are you talkin’ about?”

“We didn’t have sex. Johnny just wanted me
to set it up to make you think we had. I don’t know whether he was expectin’
your girlfriend to show up or not, but-”

Ryan raised his hands. “Hold on a minute.
Johnny set this up?”

“Yeah,” she said, pulling her legs close as
she set her chin on her knees. “He said you were feelin’ bad ‘cause you got
into it with your girlfriend. He wanted me to make you feel better. I told him
that I have a boyfriend, that I wasn’t interested in sleeping with someone
else.”

Ryan’s hands curled in to fists. “What did
he say to that?”

“He said I didn’t have to sleep with you. I
just had to make it seem as though we did.”

“I’m gonna kill him!”

***

Ryan spotted Johnny sitting at the bar
chatting up the pretty bartender. “You have ten seconds to tell me why I
shouldn’t kill you.”

Johnny spun around, holding his hands up
when he saw the look in Ryan’s eyes. “What’s-”

Ryan gripped the edge of the bar as he got
in Johnny’s face. “I know what you did, asshole.”

Johnny’s face drained of color as he stole
a glance at Natasha. “Look, I don’t know what the hell she told you, but she
can’t be trusted.”

Ryan grabbed him by the throat, grateful
there were no bouncers in sight to pull him off. “I’m gonna give you thirty
seconds to come clean. If you don’t, they’ll be moppin’ your blood off this
floor.”

“Relax,” he squeaked, holding his hands up
in submission.

Ryan released his hold just enough to allow
him to start talking. “I’m waitin’.”

“You’re my friend. I knew you were in a bad
place last night. I thought Natasha could make you feel better, help you get
over Brianna.”

Ryan squeezed harder, exerting just enough
pressure to restrict his airflow. He didn’t intend to hurt the man. He just
wanted to send him a message about what happened when he played God with
people’s lives. “Try again. The truth this time.”

He sputtered and reached for his throat,
his eyes widening in surprise when Ryan tightened his grip yet again. He tried
to push Ryan off, but since Ryan had fifty pounds and half a foot on him, they
both knew who would come out on top in a power struggle. “Fine,” he gasped,
reaching for Ryan’s wrists. “I’ll tell you.”

“One more chance,” Ryan said, thrusting a
finger in his face. “And you better tell me what I want to hear this time.”

“I wanted a shot with Brianna,” he said,
trying to ease back on his bar stool. “I was hopin’ she’d come here, see you
with Natasha, and need a shoulder to cry on.” He stood up, trying to move out
of Ryan’s reach. “I figured it may as well be mine.”

“You set me up so you could sleep with my
girlfriend?” Ryan said, backing him into the bar. “Is that what you’re tryin’
to tell me?”

The bartender and Natasha shot nervous
looks back and forth, but neither woman attempted to intervene.

“You gotta understand,” Johnny said,
holding his hands up to ward off the attack he assumed was forthcoming. “I’ve
had a thing for that girl for years. I thought this might be my only chance
to-”

Ryan reared back and cracked him in the jaw
with a left hook, putting all of his weight into the blow. Seeing the blood
trickling down his face and the look of shock and fear in his eyes didn’t give
Ryan the satisfaction he hoped it would. There was a time when pummeling his opponent
would have made him feel good, but he knew the only way he would find
satisfaction today would be if Brianna welcomed him back into her arms.