Page 3 of Pursued by the Player

“Later. Did someone call an ambulance?” He looked up into the small group of spectators surrounding them. “She needs help.”

“Oh, yeah.” A woman pulled out her phone. “Can I just get a picture of you first?”

“Can’t it wait?” Frustrated, Jett curled his fingers into the sides of the injured woman’s head, causing her to groan. She probably would slap him for touching her so intimately, be he had to make sure that she was all right. He was the reason why she ran out into traffic in the first place.

He might be an asshole, but he wasn’t heartless.

“I called it in,” said someone from the crowd.

“Thank you.” Jett pushed his anger aside. His agent, Gloria, was constantly telling him to reign in his temper. He always had to smile in public, despite how crappy he felt. It was good for business.

“Did someone get the license plate of that car?” Jett asked.

The crowd mumbled and flashed guilty looks at each other.

“It all happened so fast,” someone said. “The woman came out of nowhere.”

Jett let out a long breath and returned his attention to the chocolate-haired beauty on the ground. “I know.” Apparently, she was good at that – coming out of nowhere. She had caught him completely off guard when her sweet, floral scent filled the elevator and permeated his senses, drawing his attention from his phone to her…

She wasn’t classically beautiful. Her nose was slightly hooked, her eyes a bit too wide. She was tall, taller than most girls he knew, with creamy skin softer than his down comforter back home. A bit too big to be in the fashion magazines, but the extra weight was in all of the right places. She looked as if she could take the wild, rough bedroom games he loved to play and dish it back to him in spades.

Perhaps that was why he was drawn to her in the elevator. Or perhaps it was because she had never given him a second glance. In a world where women were falling all over him for a few seconds of attention, this girl’s rejection was like throwing down a gauntlet.

The woman in question moaned, a cute, feminine sound that made Jett think impure thoughts. He had to stop thinking about sex. It wouldn’t do for some fan to snap his picture with a raging hard on.

“I found this on the sidewalk,” someone said.

Jett glanced up to see a sparkly pink heel. “I’ll take it.” He grabbed the shoe and placed it on the ground next to him as the woman began to stir.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “Don’t move. Something might be broken.”

“Don’t touch me,” she mumbled.

Jett laughed, he couldn’t help it. Even half unconscious she was fending him off. Every time this woman opened her mouth, he became more and more infatuated with her.

She swatted half-heartedly at his hands and moved away from him.

“Ma’am,” someone said. “An ambulance is coming.”

“I’m fine.” She rubbed the back of her head. “I wasn’t hit, just stumbled.” She frowned and looked around her on the ground. “Where’s my shoe?”

“Here.” Jett picked up a pink sequenced heel, turning it in the sunlight a few times he watched it sparkle as the image of her standing in front of him wearing only these shoes flashed through his mind, causing a shudder to ripple through his entire body. “I like these. A lot.” He shook his head, pushing the image from his mind as he handed her back her missing shoe. “Are you sure you aren’t hurt?”

“Yes.” Her pink cheeks grew redder by the second. “My purse,” she mumbled.

Jett straightened. “Where’s the lady’s purse?”

The crowd began picking items up off the sidewalk. Within moments, a few good Samaritans put everything together and handed it to her.

“Thanks.” She grabbed the purse and started to stand.

“Let me help.” Jett put her arm around his shoulder and straightened into a standing position.

“I said don’t touch me.” Her voice lacked the sting from the elevator, and Jett noticed that she made no move to disentangle herself.

“You need to rest,” he said.

“Hey, smile for the camera.”

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