Playing for Hearts (27 page)

A small part of her could almost feel sorry for him. She took her laptop from him, set it on the table, and crossed her arms. “Okay, you've got ten minutes to say what you think is so important you had to interrupt my perfectly fine day.”

She rarely invited anyone into her private room. Despite living in a hotel, she'd made the place her own. Plants lined the floor near the patio sliding door leading to the balcony. She'd bought fabric and covered the couch and chair with a floral print to brighten the room, and placed a few large wicker baskets around the sparse area that held her personal belongings. She might live in a hotel, but she needed her books, her CD's, and her sketchbook of the plans she was drawing.

She tilted her head and studied him. “Well? Are you going to tell me why you came to see me?”

Dominic's brow wrinkled and he stared at her before catching himself and walking across the room to peer out of the window. She waited. Her experience with Dominic usually caused her to become defensive, and him to lay everything out on the line.

Ever since he'd come to Cottage Grove — at her friend Shauna and her boyfriend, Grayson Schyler's request — he'd set out to sweep Diana off her feet. He was dominating and bossy, and no matter how many times she explained she wasn't interested in going out on a date, he became more determined to get her to change her mind. She had no idea how to get through to him.

She was not interested in dating him. Brent Thiegher, her college boyfriend, acted the same way. She'd dated him for over a year, despite knowing he was a flirt. All she saw was a star quarterback, sexy, popular, and smooth talker. One month after she broke up with him, knowing she'd never be happy in a relationship with him, she found out he'd seen three other women while they were supposed to be exclusive.

She eyed Dominic. He was a pro hockey player, sexy, popular, and a smooth talker too. Normally he had no problems bossing his way into a conversation. Today, his quietness unsettled her. Where was the charm? The flirting? The massive dose of self-confidence?

She moved over and sat on the edge of the couch. The subdued attitude bothered her. Something must've happened to —

She jumped to her feet. “Oh my God, is Shauna okay?”

He turned around. “Of course. I'm staying at Grayson's house. I saw her this morning before she went to work.”

She sat back down. “And Grayson is okay too?”

“He's fine.” Dominic walked across the room and sat on the other end of the couch, well away from her.

“Why are you back?” She gripped the cushion underneath her, knowing she sounded bitchy but unable to stop. Dominic needed no encouragement from her, or he'd assume she'd changed her mind about him. He'd be wrong.

She had no desire to go out with him. None. Ever. Not even if he begged. Okay, she might like to see him on his knees. Maybe then the women would stop throwing themselves at him if they saw a little humbleness thrown in with his huge ego.

She inhaled, catching a hint of spicy cologne. Her stomach fluttered, and she shook her head to snap out of finding him attractive. “Are you going to answer my question?”

He leaned forward and planted his elbows on his knees. “I need your help.”

He joked. Her burst of laughter dwindled, until she frowned. This man had everything going for him. Fame, skills, wealth, and not to mention any woman he wanted at his fingertips. Why would he need her help?

All he had to do was ask people, and anyone would help him. He was famous. He even had a security team he usually took with him when out in public who helped him keep his distance from all the women who ran after him. She'd seen him handle himself just fine when he was around his friends.

“Come on, Dominic, talk. You're taking up my vacation time.” She crossed her legs.

“Has anyone told you that you're pushy?

“All the time.” She shrugged. “Why?”

“It's very attractive.”

She snorted. “The answer's no.”

“You don't know what I was going to ask you,” he said.

“Let's see … ” She swung her foot back and forth. “You're going to ask me out. That's what you do every time you see me, and my answer is still no.”

He sighed and sat back, staring straight ahead and not looking at her. She studied his profile. His jaw twitched and he ran his hands along the length of his thighs. She gulped. Long, hard, thick thighs a woman could dig her nails into.

“Hockey season has started and I'd like you to come and stay with me at my place,” he spoke quietly.

She shook her head in surprise. “So you're skipping dating and going straight to sex. The answer's still no. You do nothing for me.”

God, she was a liar. He could do a lot for her, but thinking about
it
was different than actually doing
it
.

“Please.” He shifted and faced her. “The women are affecting my playing. I have a company who keeps trying to steal my towels. I can't even sleep at night, because the coach said I have to make them all go away. I don't know how. You're the only one who can't stand me.”

“Why do you think I can help you or I'd want to help? I don't even like you because you think everyone wants you.”

“They do.” His brows lowered and he sighed.

She shook her head. “That's why you irritate me.”

“I have a proposition for you. I want you to pretend to be my girlfriend. Maybe you'll scare the women away. They're the source of my problem. They won't leave me alone. Day and night, they're finding new ways to get close to me. I need them to go away.” The sincerity written on his face showed her he wasn't joking around.

“Get real.”

He shook his head. “You don't get it. If I can figure out why you don't like me, I can use that knowledge to get the cologne company off my back. That will also make the women disappear from my life and leave me in peace, so I can concentrate on playing hockey.”

“Cologne?”

“They think my sweat turns women on and want to bottle my … smell.”

She stared. “That's disgusting.”

“You're telling me. Try having your boxers stolen when you slip into the showers after practice or someone trying to lift your luggage at the airport.” He stood and paced the room. “I can't stand it anymore.”Her phone rang. She walked over and looked at the screen.
Yes!

Mr. Dogger already needed her.
Goodbye, vacation. Hello, Ferriday house.
“Hang on a second. I need to take this.”

She pushed the button. “Hello, Mr. Dogger. How are you?”

He rattled in her ear in short sentences, his voice rising. She grinned and shimmied around the table. “I'll be happy to help you. That'll be double time. I'm on vacation, remember?”

She disconnected the call and squealed. Halfway to the door, she remembered Dominic and paused. “I'm sorry. I need to go back to work. Good luck with your problem.”

Dominic hurried over and blocked the door. “I'll pay you five hundred thousand dollars to spend the next two weeks with me at my home, so I can continue to play hockey.”

Her head snapped back and she blinked. A half a million dollars?

“You're joking.”

“There's nothing funny about my life.” He dropped his arms to his sides. “You're my only hope, or I'm going to give up hockey completely and go back to Russia. At least there, I can live in peace. I'm desperate, Diana.”

There was no denying he had money, and she knew how much playing hockey meant to him. She bit down on her bottom lip. With that much money, she could quit her job, buy the Ferriday house, and be open for business in no time. Best of all, she'd be debt free and wouldn't have to take out a loan, which would make her parents proud of her.

But she'd have to put up with Dominic for two weeks. She'd end up killing him within three days. She ground her teeth together. It would test all her patience, but she would have more than enough money if she survived staying with him with her sanity intact.

She didn't have to think twice. The Ferriday house was her dream. “I'll do it.”

Dominic's adrenaline kicked into high gear, but he hid his elation over Diana's willingness to help him. Finally, he would have her to himself and she couldn't keep running away and turning him down.

He stood at the top of the employee stairwell, waiting for Diana to come back from kicking the women off the floor of the hotel and informing her boss of her change of plans. He grinned to himself. The first time he caught a glimpse of her at the fundraiser, she'd taken his breath away with her overconfident attitude that made her sexier than hell.

The first time he saw her she'd stuck her nose in the air and turned her back to him when she caught him staring. The result of someone, a woman, snubbing him shocked him into action. He couldn't get her out of his head.

He fumbled over introducing himself, and came right to the point of demanding she go out on a date. It wasn't until Grayson and his friend Juan informed him you don't order a woman to go out to dinner that he'd received his first lesson about the opposite sex.

She started as a challenge to him. A beautiful phenomenon that held the key to his troubles, and gave him hope of changing his life around. The one woman who made him work hard to catch her.

So he politely asked her to go out with him again. Six times. She went from turning him down with an I-don't-think-so to rolling her eyes and walking away without a word. Each time she rejected him, her refusals turned him on more.

Now he was desperate. He wanted her, and he wanted her bad.

Since meeting her, his life careened out of control and he realized he needed her. She gave him confidence that he could end his nightmare of attracting woman the way brokers bet on hockey games. Without her showing him what he could do to turn off his charm, he'd kiss his career goodbye and end up living back in Russia.

He loved his homeland, but hockey in America was his life. He lived and breathed time on the ice, competing, and rigid play. The advantages of staying in the United States outweighed going back home and playing in the minor leagues or worse, retiring and becoming a coach.

He wasn't ready to call it quits. The lack of excitement would bore him in a month.

Diana slipped through the doorway, grinning. “All clear. The women are out of the building and walking to the grocery store after I hinted you'd gone out for shaving cream.”

He bent over and picked up her purse, handed it to her, and motioned for her to lead the way. “Great. My security team is parked behind the hotel to draw the crowds to the back, while one of the guys parked my car in front of the main entrance. Hopefully, we can make a clean break.”

“Smart. They'll never think we're going out in the open. It might buy us more time,” she said.

Her soft blond curls bounced with each step. The fire in her hazel colored eyes challenged him. He found himself wanting to tease her, just to have her nail him with that killer look she always threw his way.

He'd tried to stay away and respect her wishes, but during the last couple of months, he found himself thinking about her constantly. She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.

She had him feeling like a beginner in the dating world. When he'd arrived in the United States, he'd quickly learned it was the home of the free. Women asked
him
out. Women paid for
his
dinner. Women slept in
his
bed. Before he knew how it happened, women consumed
his
life.

It was hard for a man to say no, but he'd learned rather fast that saying yes wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Even his friends laughed about his problems. No one took him seriously, but he'd reached his limit. And, now that his coach had given him the ultimatum to lose the women or leave the team, he was desperate. He wanted to be left alone.

Outside the hotel, Dominic nodded at his security team. He placed his hand low on Diana's back and refused to let her shrug him away as he ushered her to the rental car. He planned to head straight to the charter plane and get out of Cottage Grove before news hit the airwaves that he was leaving.

“Wait.” Diana braced herself in the doorway of the car and turned around. “I can't go for two weeks with only my purse. I need to pack and find someone to water my plants for me.”

He held out his arms. “I'll buy you anything you need.”

“Oh no you won't.” She smacked him square in the chest with the back of her hand. “Move.”

He backed away. Damn. He liked the way she bossed him around and got all in his face.

She marched across the street, holding her hand out in front of her when a car approached. He shook his head in wonder, watching the vehicle slow down and come to a stop. She gave no more attention to the traffic, hopped up on the sidewalk, and disappeared inside a one story blue building.

The sign above the door read Cottage Grove City Hall. He closed the car door, walked around the front fender, and slipped into the driver's spot. Grayson's fiancée and Diana's best friend, Shauna, worked at the City Hall. He'd wait and if she didn't come back out in a few minutes, he'd go get her. The longer he stayed in one place, the bigger chance the women would find him.

He chuckled. The sound in the empty car surprised him. Had it really been that long since he'd heard the sound of his own laughter?

Movement in the rearview mirror caught his eye. He whipped around in the seat and groaned. He'd run out of time.

The women walked four abreast and five deep. He'd rather face two pair of blueliners with only three minutes to go in the game than be at the mercy of the gang of women headed his way.

Thankfully, the shaded windows of the vehicle protected him from the women's view. Unable to go out and help his security team talk sense into the crowd, he waited. Anger grew and he tapped his fist against the steering wheel. This was ridiculous.