Page 126 of Tempting the Player
* * *
Jane goes back to campus a week later. She lets me drive her and walk her from the parking lot. A few paparazzi are still staked outside her house, ready to grab photos of her to go with the news headlines about Ted’s arrest, but since she’s staying with me, they haven’t managed to get many shots. We go to the café, where she insists on buying me a coffee—mocha cookie crumble Frappuccino—and then I walk her to her first class.
“What are you going to do all day?” she asks.
After a lot of back and forth, which included Jane getting my brothers to take her side, we agreed that I didn’t need to be her shadow anymore. I want to be here, if for no other reason than I know Jane is still spooked and that people still want to take her photo. But I also get that she wants to move forward, and having me follow her around, looking over her shoulder, might do more harm than good. So, it’s boyfriend duties only from here on out. Officially. Unofficially I’ll never stop protecting her.
So, technically I’m unemployed. I told Logan I was staying here, so unless another high-profile client moves to Valley, I doubt he’s going to have any work for me.
“I don’t know. I guess I should look for a job or something.” I have enough saved up to last a while as long as I’m careful, but I need something to do, or I’ll go stir crazy.
“Oooh.” Her eyes light up. “Will you wear a suit for interviews?”
I chuckle. “Why? You got a thing for a guy in a suit?”
“Uhhh yeah. Me and most of the rest of the female population.”
“Good to know.” I drop her hand and brush her hair off her face. “I don’t think a lot of jobs around here are going to require a suit.”
“Bummer,” she says. “You could dress up and boss me around all day. We could do a little sexy billionaire role-play. I’d pay for that.”
Her professor walks into the class behind us, giving her and then me a curious look. It sounds like I’m her boy toy. I give her the good dick for free.
“I gotta go, but I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Okay.” She leans up on her toes to kiss me, then backs away into the class. “Will you be wearing a suit when I get home?”
I shake my head. But for her, there’s a good chance I might.
45
JANE
Every daythat goes by I feel a little better and my anxiety lessens. I spoke with the police a few days after the Spring Fling. Hendrick went with me. Thanks to all the stuff Logan and Hendrick dug up about the emails and texts, it was enough to press charges for assault and harassment.
I don’t feel good about it, but if it means that no one else has to go through what I did, then it will be one good thing to come out of it. I haven’t been able to bring myself to go see Mackenzie. She’s texted a bunch, and I’ve tried to reciprocate, but I don’t know what to say. Hendrick told me to give it time, so I guess that’s what I’m doing.
I walk into the Holland house and spot Hendrick in the kitchen, shirtless and sweaty like he just came in from a workout. Make that two good things to come from the situation. How different my life would be without him. In a matter of months, he’s become so important to me. He was my bodyguard, now he’s my sexy boyfriend, and whatever comes next, I hope he’ll continue to be mine.
He makes me feel grounded and loved and just...content. Like this is exactly where I’m supposed to be. Here with him. Being loved so completely makes me feel like I can have and be anything I want, but also that it doesn’t matter nearly as much. Everything but the people in my life are just movable pieces. Hendrick, his brothers, my friends, my parents...they make everything else seem possible because I have the foundation that lets me be me.
And right now, this me is quite enjoying the sight of my hot, half-naked man.
“Hey.” He chugs from his protein shake and then sets it in the sink. “Did you have a good day?”
“I did.” I drop my backpack in his room and then go into the kitchen. His shorts hang low on his hips and his muscles contract with every movement. “But I missed seeing you.”
I reach out and trail my hand along his chest and down his stomach. “I really, really missed you. Did you get hotter in the past six hours?”
“I missed you too,” he says and leans down to brush his lips over mine.
“Where is everyone?”
“Flynn had a late baseball practice, Knox is still at work, and who the hell knows about Archer and Brogan.”
“So, we’re all alone?”
His expression turns dark and playful. “Mhmm.”
