Page 33 of Matched with the Player

Let alone take a bus to Pittsburgh in the first place. It would be one thing if she was making contact with a buyer interested in having her spy on him. In that case, maybe a bus would have been discreet. But anyone who traded in expensive secrets did so anonymously, not on film.

“She made an announcement to the other passengers that she’s filming this for her social media content.” Wyatt rolled his eyes, clearly unimpressed. With his tie askew and one jacket lapel flipped over to show the felt lining beneath, he seethed into the camera while the knucklehead next to him kept leaning into the shot. “She passed around waivers for us to sign, so I had to come up with an excuse.”

“Why didn’t you sign, man?” the joker in the seat next to Bob asked him, as if he’d been part of the conversation. “Her idea sounds cool. I’ll bet it gets a million hits.”

“What kind of video?” Isaac had thought about the mystery woman all day. First, he’d had to research her. But also because she’d said they made the perfect couple.

A sex goddess swathed in silver had asked him out but he’d been too busy worrying she was a spy to notice, let alone say yes.

Dumb. Ass.

“She started an account called Diva No More.” This from the helpful Joe in the seat next to his so-called head of security. The guy leaned all the way into the camera frame so that his face was superimposed sideways on top of Bob’s. “She’s making content that will show her leaving behind the hoity-toity life to become a regular girl. Her words, man. Not mine.”

A scuffle ensued around the camera as Bob told the guy to mind his own business. For a few minutes, Isaac couldn’t see anything and he suspected Bob changed seats.

Diva No More? Isaac remembered their conversation about Stacy’s father trying to buy her a boyfriend. Her insistence that she needed to make her own mistakes. Could she have gone a step farther today? Cut the ties to the domineering dad?

Her life didn’t sound like a cover for a corporate spy. This potential social media influencer seemed like a sweet, sexy dream girl he’d been too blind to appreciate last night. Now that he’d researched her background, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him from seeing her again.

“Sorry about that-” Bob began.

“I just need to know what she’s doing in Pittsburgh,” Isaac interrupted, wondering how to meet up with her without it being too coincidental. His home office in Philly was 300 miles away. He could call for a plane and beat her there, but he didn’t want to look like a stalker.

“I can tell you it doesn’t have anything to do with our competitor,” Bob kept his voice low even though he’d changed seats and didn’t seem to have an eavesdropper. “She’s already announced to the whole bus that she’s going to the Phantoms’ game to write a column on fan-style for the newspaper.”

The style column was her regular job. Isaac wondered how her new social media account would fit in with it, but he agreed with Bob’s former seatmate- the idea could be a hit. Stacy’s whole personality was camera-ready. She’d be sought after by ten times the number of guys who probably already wanted her.

And that was assuming the matchmakers her father hired didn’t try to snag her first.

The thought steeled Isaac to do what he’d wanted to do yesterday. To try a do-over with Stacy.

“Make sure she gets to her hotel safely.” He didn’t like the idea of thirty-odd strangers on a random bus knowing her whereabouts. “I’ll take over for you in a couple of hours. I’m on my way to Pittsburgh.”

Chapter Ten

Marissa was in such a hurry to be with Kyle that she bolted out the back door into the alley behind the nightclub.

“Wait up.” Kyle practically tripped her in his hurry to get in front of her.

He put his big, muscular body between her and the outside world. She didn’t mind that she stumbled into his back. He was fun to hold onto, for one thing. And for another, she thought it was kind of charming that he wanted to protect her.

“It’s okay.” She grabbed a railing on the landing outside the door where two steps led to street level. “I was just in a hurry to get to the hotel.”

“Me too, but this is still a dangerous neighborhood.” He tucked her under his arm, keeping her body glued to his as he hurried her toward the limo. “You can’t just prance out into some dark alley alone.”

She might have protested the idea that she’d pranced anywhere. Except that she heard the worry in his voice. Felt his heartbeat racing against one ear where he held her as she caught the scent of him.

Her chest squeezed with unexpected warmth. The driver opened the door for her and Kyle ushered her into a vehicle that could have held at least ten more people.

Kyle exchanged words with the chauffer that were beyond her hearing. Probably instructing him to take them to the team hotel. Or hers. It didn’t matter to her where they went, as long as they excised this raucous heat that had been building inside her since the last time they were together. She just hoped being with Kyle eased the ache for him. The attraction that had started out as so physical and out of control was starting to take on a new dimension.

He’d urged her to take this trip with him, insisting she’d be helping him out, even though she knew darn well he could have hired a publicist to place an article in the paper a whole lot more inexpensively than what he’d paid toward her mother’s medicine. She would repay him one day. But it helped her so much right now. It touched her that he’d given her pride a way to accept his help without feeling too guilty. Obviously, Kyle had a giving nature, a trait that was apparent in the way he volunteered time to charity, sought ways to help underprivileged kids and even helped her mother. The warmth she was starting to feel for him didn’t have anything to do with garden variety lust.

“I told him to bring us to my hotel,” Kyle explained as he slid into the seat beside her. “I’m on a floor away from the rest of the team.”

A smoky blues tune played on invisible speakers while white lights ringed the roof, dimming slightly once the driver closed the door. Shut behind blackout glass, Marissa’s heart hammered wildly and her skin tingled with the memory of how he’d made her feel earlier today at the carriage house. She’d been so busy since then – making plans for the trip and contacting reporters – that she hadn’t had time to think about what this new shift in their relationship meant. But he’d been so good to her. So considerate and incredibly thorough when he’d touched her.

Kyle leaned forward and for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her. But he reached past her for a remote control on the seat beside her.

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