Page 13 of Throwing the Curve

Peyton scowled at him. “It’s not like I asked for this to happen.”

“Right, you’re innocent in all this,” he muttered.

Peyton pinched the bridge of her nose like she was trying to gather her patience. “Can we not—” She took several long breaths, then opened her eyes and looked at him. “Seriously, why are you and Kirsty here?”

“What you wanted just Andy? Cuz having him come down here alone wouldn’t have raised some questions for Carmella?” Ryan stepped further into the room. He scanned her office, trying to get a better feel for the woman in front of him. Photos covered the walls. Most of them were of groups of kids playing various sports, but some were pictures of Peyton and her staff.

“Oh my god, I’m an idiot.” Peyton paced around the room. “Of course that would have. Crap.” She spun back around when she got to the wall. “Thanks, I guess.”

Jesus, that sounded sincere.“Looks like our little fake dating thing is going to last a little longer.”

Peyton’s eyes snapped open wide as she gawked at him. “What do you mean?”

Ryan leaned his hip against the edge of her desk. “Andy announced to the entire team today that you and I are dating, and now Kirsty can’t wait to run with it for the team promo crap.”

“Oh my god, no.” Peyton flopped onto the chair and dropped her head back. Her blonde hair draped over the back of the seat, almost touching the floor as she stared up at the ceiling.

“It’ll be fine. We’ll figure it out,” Ryan said.

“You seriously want to do this?” Peyton stared at him.

“Not really, but I don’t think we have much of a choice at the moment. There’ll be too many questions if we say we aren’t dating after all this shit today.”

Peyton dropped her head into her hands. “How is this my life?” she groaned.

“Maybe because you fucked a married man,” Ryan muttered.

Peyton’s head snapped up. Her cheeks flushed with anger as she glared at him. “We never had sex,” she growled. “And I didn’t know he was married.”

“Married or not, you can’t tell me you weren’t dating him for what you could get out of him,” Ryan said. Look at her. She was a knockout, there was no way a girl that looked like her would date a guy like Andy if he wasn’t an athlete.

“My god, you’re a jerk.” Peyton pushed her hair off her face, and Ryan scowled when his eyes followed the movement. What the hell was wrong with him? He was not supposed to be attracted to her. He hated women like her. Women who were relentless in their pursuit of athletes and didn’t care who they hurt in the process. Been there, done that. And had his heart shredded for his efforts. He knew all about women who would use guys like him to get what they wanted and here she was again, willing to use him to help herself and her program.

“What is it you think I got out of dating him?”

Ryan glanced around her office. “I don’t know. Maybe this nice little contract for your organization. I mean, you must have done something to sweeten the deal for them to choose you.”

“Oh my god, you can go to hell,” Peyton seethed.

“What? Are you honestly telling me that wasn’t part of the draw of dating Andy?”

“So first I’m a home-wrecker, and now I’m a whore?” Peyton asked. He could practically see her vibrating with the effort to hold in her rage. He was surprised lasers didn’t shoot right out of her blue eyes as she drilled him with a disgusted glare.

“Come on, I know the guy. Why else would you be dating him?”

“He was nice and sweet, which is more than I can say for you.”

“Nice? Come on. Andy? He’s many things. A sweet guy isn’t one of them,” Ryan scoffed. Andy was an asshole, through and through. Could this woman really not tell how fake Andy was when he was trying to get something?

“He was sweet to me, all right.” Peyton sighed. “God, I was stupid.” She rubbed her hand back and forth across her forehead. “Look, I get you don’t like me any more than I like you but…” She wrinkled her nose like she smelled something off-putting. “This partnership means everything to these kids and now that we have it, I intend to do everything I can to keep it.” She chewed her inner lip as she contemplated Ryan. “I hate to ask you this, but can you go along with the fake dating thing for a little while, so it doesn’t screw things up because I really don’t need any bad PR before this thing even gets off the ground.”

A knock sounded at the door a moment before Andy stuck his head into the office. “What’s taking you so long?” he asked.

“We were just working out some details. But I think we’re done, right?” Peyton asked as she looked at Ryan pleadingly.

Shit. Looks like he was fake dating a woman who hated him. This was going to be awesome.

Peyton walked toward the door and Andy grabbed her arm. “It’s good to see you, baby,” he said.

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