In the Red Zone (5 page)

“Fine,” he said, brushing his lips against her forehead in a feather-light kiss before he let her go. “I’ll behave.”

She released the breath she never realized she’d been holding. The man was proving to be more seductive than she’d first imagined.

He opened the door to the restaurant and gave his name to the hostess. A minute later, they were being shown to their table with a crowd of gazes following them. But then, what should she expect when she was in the presence of someone like Frank Kelly? If his size and bright red hair didn’t attract attention, then his sheer charisma did. The man lit up a room as much as he electrified the football field. People noticed him.

Maybe her idea of the two of them appearing in public had some merit after all. She never got this much attention when she entered a room by herself.

He chose the seat beside her instead of sitting across from her. Once the server took their orders, he leaned in toward her. “So, now that you know you have my unwavering support, what do you say we enjoy getting to know each other?”

“You mean like on a date?”

“Did I call it that?” he asked in mock innocence.

She rolled her eyes with a smile. She had to give him points for persistence.

“Remember, this was all your idea.” He took a long drink of sweet tea. “Are you older or younger than Tre?”

“Eight months older.” She fed off his carefree air and added, “You could say we’re Irish twins.”

His grin widened. “I’ve got one of those myself. There’s eleven months between me and Gideon. I think my parents raised the white flag after that.”

“If I was your mama, I would’ve raised the white flag after you.”

“Yeah, I kind of broke the mold. I’m sure if she had to do it again, she’d just have me and none of my other brothers.”

He was so full of himself, yet in a self-deprecating way. She liked the mixture of confidence tempered with a hint of humility and found herself drawn to him even more. “Are you saying you’re her favorite?”

“Is there any doubt?”

The playful banter continued throughout the meal as he shared stories about his childhood. After they ordered dessert, he grew silent and studied her with his head tilted slightly. “Forgive me if I’m treading on something you don’t want to talk about, but what’s the story with you and Tre?”

Her back tightened. He’d been so open and cheerful about his family that she envied him. Her family was filled with enough drama and secrets to warrant a reality TV show. “What do you mean?”

“Well, for starters, he never mentioned you before Saturday night.”

“I told you. Our father had some trouble keeping his zipper up. He had a fling with my mom while he was married to Tre’s mom.”

Frank nodded, the light in his eyes telling her he was grasping far more than he dared to say. Her mixed race was something she’d dealt with her whole life. Her mom had been blond and blue eyed, so as soon as people saw Kiana, they knew her father was black. Her mother’s backwoods Georgia family shunned her for her black blood, just like Tre and some members of her father’s family had shunned her for her white blood. She’d grown up caught in the middle of two worlds, never really accepted by either.

But the man staring back at her didn’t seem to curl his lip in disgust or crack a joke about her nappy hair. To him, it seemed she was more than just her race. He looked at her as though he saw beauty and nothing more.

“So did you grow up between households?” he asked, making it sound like her parents had been divorced and sharing custody.

If only it had been as simple as that. Her father spent years denying she was his, only to rescue her when she needed him the most. “No. I lived with my mother’s family until I was eight. Then Dad took me in.”

“And his wife was cool with that?”

She nodded, the corners of her mouth rising up into a smile. She’d much rather talk about her relationship with her stepmother than her half-brother. “Denise has a big heart and raised me like I was her own daughter. She told me that she’d forgiven him and wouldn’t hold his mistake against me.”

“Sounds like a good woman.”

“She is. She’s as much my mom as she is Tre’s.”

“Is she active with the foundation?”

Kiana nodded. “As much as she can be. I think she’s still grieving over Dad, and anything associated with it seems to dredge up old memories.”

“I can see that.” The serious Frank resurfaced for a moment. “My mom went through something similar after my dad passed away, but it gets better with time. I think keeping busy with her church and bridge club helped.”

“Not to mention keeping seven boys out of trouble.”

He laughed and covered her hand with his own. “Are you saying I’m trouble?”

“Most definitely.” She found herself leaning closer and closer to him until their lips were inches apart.

“But only the best kind, right?”

He had no idea how correct he was. She knew the danger of giving into temptation, and yet her lips longed to touch his. Her mind cautioned that one kiss would be the beginning of a slippery slope, but her body decided it would be worth the risk. She closed her eyes and closed the gap between them.

Frank’s lips were firm and demanding from the start, moving against hers with subtle variances of pressure that heated her blood and sent a thrill coursing through her veins. He kept the kiss in check, though, and that helped to rein in her own desires. They were in a public place, after all, and she needed to maintain her respectable image.

But damn, if they were behind closed doors, she definitely would’ve indulged in what he had to offer.

She caught the flash of a camera when she opened her eyes. The jolt chased away the warm, fuzzy feelings elicited by the kiss and left a chill of fear in its wake.

Frank laced his fingers through the hand he’d been holding and cupped her cheek with his other one. “Relax,” he said in a soft, soothing voice.

“But someone just took a picture of us kissing.”

“Um-hmm.” He placed another of those feather-light kisses on her forehead. “Let them. Remember your plan.”

Part of her wanted to pull away, but she feared what the repercussions might be if she did. “Did you just stage that kiss?”

“Nope.” But the mischievous twinkle in his eyes told her he might have had something to do with the photographer.

“Frank Kelly, you are something else.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” He placed one final kiss on the tip of her nose and pulled back. “Ready to go?”

She nodded, and he flagged the waitress for the check. Her stomach churned, and she only wished she could’ve blamed it on the deep-fried goodness she’d had for lunch. Just when she’d thought she’d figured him out, some new and unexpected facet appeared. Frank Kelly was proving to be as complex and dazzling as a brilliant cut diamond. But his charm had been so blinding that she’d almost fallen for what seemed to be nothing more than an act.

He paid the check and escorted her out of the restaurant, holding the door open for her. “I think that was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a long time.”

“Was that before or after dessert?” she asked with a healthy helping of attitude. She’d show him that she wasn’t as gullible as some of the other ditzes who’d fallen for his Romeo act.

“Dessert was on a whole other level.” He wrapped his arms around her, oblivious to the scene they were making on the sidewalk. “Don’t you agree?”

She started to push him away, but the second her hand touched the center of his chest, she felt the rapid thudding of his heart. Despite his teasing demeanor, he was either excited or scared. “Depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether we’re still in the photographer’s lens.”

His laugh sounded a bit too tight to be casual. “Do you really care?”

She couldn’t answer him right away. Part of her
did
care. She wanted to be the face of a respectable charity foundation, not some D-list celebrity trying to raise her status by sleeping with A-listers. But when he closed the space between them until their foreheads met, the urge to kiss him again almost became unbearable. The man knew how to turn the sexy on like a light switch.

“Remember that I run a charity for children,” she said at last.

“Fine,” he said with a playful pout before pulling back and tapping his cheek with his finger. “But can you spare just one PG-rated kiss here?”

“Gladly.” She placed a peck on his cheek and waited for the next flash of a camera.

But it never came.

“Thank you.” Frank took her hand and started them back toward her office building.

“So that last kiss wasn’t for the camera?”

“Nope.” He gave her a cheeky grin. “That was purely for me. Any time I can get a lovely lady to kiss me, I’ll take it.”

A player, just like her father. At least he was being honest about it. She gave him a half-hearted punch in the arm, followed by a laugh. “Something tells me I’m going to have my hands full with you.”

“Oh, I’m more than a handful.” A playful wag of his eyebrows added an extra layer of innuendo to his statement. “But since I’m offering my support to your foundation, I’ll try to be respectable, too.”

When they got back to her office, he waved to Sherita and followed Kiana into her office, closing the door behind them. For a moment, she wondered if Frank was trying to steal more than a kiss now that they were behind closed doors, but instead of taking her into his arms, he pulled out a thumb drive. “Can I give you a few files to use for your campaign?”

“What kind of files?”

“Official pics, possible quotes.” He shrugged. “Stuff like that.”

“But I thought you wanted to do this fake dating thing for a while before jumping on board with the foundation.”

“I’ve seen enough already.” He offered her the thumb drive again.

She took it, offering a silent prayer it didn’t contain any viruses, and inserted it into the USB drive. After a quick scan for malware, she checked out the files. It contained various photos of Frank in his football uniform, just like he’d said. She clicked on one and stared at the stern countenance so at odds with the light-hearted man she’d just had lunch with. The intense glare and hard jaw belonged to a man determined to get what he wanted.

“Yeah, I know, it looks scary, but I have a rep to maintain.” He took over her mouse and clicked on another photo. “I’m actually smiling in this one.”

She studied it for a moment before nodding. “I’ll use this one for the ads, then.”

She took the mouse back, saved the file on her computer, and then dragged the image to the ad she’d been working on before he arrived.

“Jesus, what is that?” he asked.

“An ad for the gala that I need to get to the newspaper by the end of the day.”

“Move over.” He didn’t wait for her to respond before rolling her chair out of the way and commandeering her computer. “Your spacing is all off.”

He made a few changes to the layout, and her curiosity was piqued enough to let him continue.

“Will this be a color ad or black and white?” he asked, continuing to make changes to the text.

“Color.”

“Then you need to add more colors that pop, like this.” He made the important text red with a golden outline, making it stand out more from the black text. “And, then, of course, you need the most important part.”

He grabbed the photo of himself and placed it in the ad. A few more tweaks later, he leaned back with a satisfied smile. “Now that’s more like it.”

She peered over his shoulder, her lips parting in a silent gasp. The ad looked far better than she could’ve hoped for. “Where did you learn how to do that?”

“I was a marketing major in college.” He smoothed his hands on his Notre Dame T-shirt and rose to his full height. “I may have left early to enter the draft, but I still learned a few useful things.”

She glanced at the ad one more time, marveling at how he’d turned it from something blah into something she could be proud of in only a few minutes. “Thank you.”

“No problem. Besides, if I’m going to put my pretty face on something, it had better look as good as me.”

And just like that, the cocky player had returned.

She bit back a laugh and gave him a dramatic sigh. “Yes, you have a rep to maintain.”

For a split second, his expression wavered, revealing a moment of hesitation and uncertainty. The cheeky grin took over again, but not before she’d gotten another glimpse of the man who lurked under the surface. Frank Kelly wasn’t all he appeared to be, and those brief revelations eased her fear of getting mixed up with him.

“Absolutely.” He took a step back and wiped his hands on his shirt again, his gaze never wavering from her lips. He removed the thumb drive. “I think we have enough to get the ball rolling.”

“More than enough.” Especially considering the fact a picture of them kissing over dessert might already be making the rounds on the Internet.

“Then I’ll check back with you next week and see if we can come up with some more ideas to promote the foundation.” He straightened his shoulders, erasing the traces of vulnerability he’d displayed moments before. “Until then, lovely lady.”