Page 30 of Pursued by the Player

“You got him to agree to put his face on the line, of course.”

“It…” She glanced around at the expectant faces. “It never came up.”

“No matter, I’m sure you will get his approval eventually.” Kennedy pocketed his phone. “When you do, be sure to send him around to legal to sign the paperwork.”

Mel cleared her throat. “I don’t think—”

“I just got off the phone with Hansen and managed to convince him to hold off on the new designs until next spring,” Kennedy said.

“What?” Joel pushed back his chair and stood. “You want us to work for her?!”

“You can’t,” Greg whined. “We have been working day and night on designs.”

Kennedy made a noise of dismissal. “It can wait. That kiss changes everything. We have to strike while the iron’s hot.” He rubbed his hands together. “That’s why I want the two of you to work with Mel on this project. Do whatever she says.”

“What?” Greg stood as shock blanketed his face. “You can’t.”

“I can.” Kennedy’s amused expression turned serious. “And you will do it if you want to keep your job.” He glanced at Joel. “We’re a team, remember. This is an incredible opportunity.”

“About that, Mr. Brach. Jett really isn’t into fashion. I don’t think he’ll go along with this idea.”

“First name basis, are we?” He grinned. “Girl, you just keep doing what you’re doing and get me that signature.” He turned to Greg and Joel.” You two, come with me. We need to plan an ad campaign that will sweep Los Angeles off its feet.”

“But Mr. Brach, I’m not going to use him to get ahead, talk him into something that he’s not interested in. I can’t. I won’t. If you make me, I’ll quit.”

“Listen honey; you don’t know what he might be interested in. All you have to do is ask. And I expect you to be very persuasive. And if you can’t be, I’ll find someone else who will. Don’t think you’re not replaceable. Think long and hard about what you want out of your career before you make any rash decisions. Have a report of your progress on my desk by the end of the week,” Kennedy said over his shoulder as he left the room.

“Better get to that,” Greg mumbled as he gathered his things. “Chop, chop.”

“Don’t mess it up,” Joel added as the men left the room. “Or better yet do, and we’ll pick up the pieces of your failed career.”

Mel leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. Shit. How did things get out of control so fast? She had no idea what to tell Jett. If this contract was like the rest, it would give Kennedy the right to use Jett’s name and likeness in exchange for a pittance in royalties. There was no way he was going to go along with this. Not that she would want him to. She didn’t want him to think that she was dating him just to get him to sign a contract.

But she had to get him to sign the contract, didn’t she? Her job was at stake. She hated the situation Kennedy put her in and wished it was anyone else who was closing this deal but her.

Sighing, she pulled out her phone and started to text Jett’s number, then stopped. No, she wasn’t going to do this. Jett has been the one good thing that has happened to her in months. For the first time in her life, things were going her way romantically, and she didn’t want to mess it up with talk about contracts and fashion shows. She wasn’t going to bring it up to Jett, no matter what her boss wanted her to do. Kennedy was going to have to find another way to manipulate people because she wanted no part of it.

Which left her job. She was going to need to tread carefully around Kennedy and the gruesome twosome for a while. This project was going to require some finesse if she wanted to keep her job. Stalling would only work for so long. What she needed, was a plan.

Standing, she gathered her things and went back to her cubicle to think.

* * *

It had beenan amazing two weeks. Jett whistled to himself as he changed in the locker room for practice. Not only was his team winning, but his relationship with Melody was hitting the fast lane. The woman was ah-mazing in bed. He had never met anyone so compatible. Just thinking about all of the kinky places they had sex over the past week was giving him a raging hard-on.

Not only that, but she had taken an interest in baseball. It was incredible. Jett had taken her to the stadium for some private lessons, and she had been in the boxed seat for his big game. They had celebrated his win with an old-fashioned sundae and some very contemporary sexual positions. He had even stuck around long enough to make her his famous pancakes in the morning.

The craziest thing about it wasn’t that she wanted sex, but that she wanted sex with him. She was totally into the man, not the famous baseball player. As a result, he had shared things with her about his past, things that he had never told anyone. She responded in turn, telling him about her happiness over her friend Liv and how growing up she had always been a little weird, a little different, making it hard for her to make friends. She was more interested in doing well in school and making something of herself than she was with boys and parties. She’s always loved fashion and knew since she was a little girl that she was going to be a designer someday, and she’d never lost her focus. It wasn’t until meeting Liv that she realized how important having a best friend was. She’d even opened up about her struggles at work and how her coworkers lived to make her life miserable. When she would call him upset over something they had done it took every ounce of restraint he had not to interfere, to teach them a lesson, but she insisted she could handle herself and that she wanted him to stay out of it, so he did. But the fierce protectiveness he felt for her was unlike anything he’d ever felt for a woman before…

There was no doubt about it; Jett was falling hard for her. She was so different from the superficial and greedy women he had dated before. Mel didn’t want anything from him, not his name, nor his money. She just liked spending time with him. It was refreshing. Exhilarating. Sometimes at night, when he was holding her close, Jett felt that she might even be the one.

Jet continued whistling as he closed his locker and headed toward the exit.

“Jett Gorski, well well.”

He stopped and turned toward the last row of lockers to find two tall, thin men staring back at him.

“Do I know you?”

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