Page 35 of Pursued by the Player

He continued walking past the men’s sign and straight toward his locker.

“Hey, what’s a woman doing in here?” someone said.

“Lady, wait outside.”

“Not until Jett talks to me.”

“I don’t want to talk to you,” Jett said as he opened the door to his locker. “You can’t be in here, Mel. Just go.”

“Please.” Jett glanced up at Melody and saw the hurt in her features.

“Come on man, get her out of here. We need to change,” Diaz said.

Jett sighed and closed his locker door. “Come on.” Grabbing her arm, Jett steered her back out into the hallway.

“What do you want?” He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.

She stared at him and wrung her hands. “Look, I. . .”

“I don’t have all day.”

“Yes, of course. I just wanted to say that I was sorry. I never intended—”

“To manipulate me?”

“I didn’t manipulate you.”

“So you just went out on a date with me because you liked me?”

“Yes!”

“It had nothing to do with your job.”

“No.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s true.” She sighed when he flashed her a skeptical look. “Okay, after the kiss in front of Black Towers, after the media frenzy and everything, my boss thought it would be a good idea to exploit our relationship and use it to promote our new clothing line.”

“I knew it.” Jett pushed off the wall and waved his hands in the air. “So you asked me out on a date.”

“No! Didn’t you hear me? My boss wanted to exploit you, not me.”

“So you stopped him.”

“Well, no. Not exactly.”

“No. You just followed along because it was easier, not necessarily because it was the right thing to do.” When she didn’t immediately respond, he made a noise of disgust and rubbed his hand over his face. “I thought you wanted to go out on a date because you wanted to spend time with me.”

“I did.”

“So you could learn more about me and manipulate me.”

“No!”

“Now you know all about my past. What are you going to do, blackmail me?”

“Of course not. I’d never do something so cruel.”

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