Page 90 of Back in Black

He could see that doubt blossom in her demeanor and pressed his point.

“Gillian Noode is a woman hired to do a job. No way should she be a target for WAVS.” He put his hands on his hips. “Look at it this way, Audrey. You’re sleeping with a fighter who will defend the sport to anyone. Does that mean that a crew of reporters and cameramen should converge on you, dig through your past, and invade your privacy?”

She paled. “No.” Shaking her head, she repeated more strongly, “No, of course not. But it’s not that easy, Brett. This is Millie’s story. She’s excited about it and, given her history with Drew Black, she feels totally justified in exposing every aspect of his life. This is the big bomb she’s been waiting for to . . .”

“Get even?” Even he hated how that sounded. “And using an innocent woman to do that is okay?”

Audrey wrapped her arms around herself and paced away.

“You realize, of course, why this is important to me.”

She glanced at him with empathy. “Your past?”

“My dad caused more damn scenes than a circus elephant on the loose. I could never bring anyone around to our place, even after he split, because I never knew what shape my mother would be in.” God, he hated talking about this, but he needed Audrey to understand. “I know what it is to be publicly humiliated.”

“You were a child, Brett. No one would ever fault you for your parents’ . . . shortcomings.”

He almost laughed. Fault him? No, most wanted to put him up on a fucking pedestal for surviving it.

Brett decided it was time to lay it out there. “Bottom line here, honey: I can’t be involved with trashing Ms. Noode. I won’t be. Not even by association.”

Her head snapped up and her brows came down. “Meaning your association with me?”

“Meaning your association with WAVS.” He caught her shoulders. “Protest the SBC and Drew all you want, hate him for what you think he is. I can deal with that. Drew can deal with that. But if your group uses Ms. Noode just to hurt Drew, then how can you point the morality finger at anyone else?”

“You’re giving me an ultimatum?”

“I’m telling you how I feel. I’ve been on the hot end of scandal, and it sucks. I can’t condone doing that to anyone else. Not for any reason.”

“That’s not what I do.”

“It’s what Millie will do if you don’t kill this story.” She rubbed her head. “I have to think about all this.” Rigid and offended, she turned away. “But for now, I really do need to go or it’ll be a moot point, because Millie isn’t going to wait on me forever.”

Brett hesitated, but damn it, he didn’t want to drive her home in strained silence. Pulling her around for a quick hug, he said, “I’m sort of missing you already.”

Her frown eased away. In a sincere whisper, she said, “Same here.”

CHAPTER 15

WHILE Gillian showered and changed clothes, Drew returned phone calls on his cell and took a self-guided tour around her modest home. They’d made it out of his place with only one return-reporter trying to snag a scoop. The guy wore Coke-bottle eyeglasses and a wrinkled dress shirt, but he knew his MMA. He asked some great questions, to which Drew replied, “I’ll be doing a press conference later. Give your card to the lady and she’ll let you know the time and location.”

When he started to take a photograph, Drew stepped in front of Gillian and blocked him. “None of that or you’ll be uninvited. Got it?”

The lanky kid scowled. “For sure you’ll call me?”

“And give you dibs on the first question after I’ve explained things.” Drew stretched out a hand. “What do you say?”

The kid accepted his hand.

He had a knack for handling the press—when he didn’t let his temper get in the way too much. He’d be tested today, Drew knew, because the first jackass to insult Gillian would get cut out of the loop—for eternity. He didn’t give a fuck if it was ESPN. He wouldn’t let her be hurt by this.

Since the early morning nooky, she’d been in good spirits. He intended to keep things that way. And thinking about it, how she’d felt and tasted and sounded in her lust . . . yeah. It might have left her relaxed, but it had damn near made him shatter with the effort to keep control.

Taking her like a marauding fiend afterward hadn’t really been part of the plan. Not that she’d complained.

In fact, about the only time Gillian complained was when he knew he had it coming. And then she came at him full-go, never whining or teary-eyed the way some women did. Gillian had more than her fair share of feminine wiles, but she didn’t use them to manipulate.

Drew could hear the water running in her bathroom, and he pictured her naked, wet, suds sliding over all those full curves . . .

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