Intercepted by Love: Part 2 (Playing the Field #2)

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opyright
© 2015 by Rachelle Ayala

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“
S
top it
, stop.” Andie Wales swatted at the wet sponge mopping her face. Her back was freezing, and a hubbub of voices murmured above her. Where the heck was she?

She cracked her eyes open right into a big pink tongue. Her dog, Gollie, panted puffs of steam in her face.

Strong hands lifted her from the snowy ground, and a whirlwind of jumbled thoughts floored her. She’d just had the best weekend of her life, thought she’d found her one true love, and now?

“You fainted, Andie. Let me help you up.” The voice belonged to Cade Preston, or rather, Cade
Prescott
. The man she’d carved her heart out for was an imposter.

Someone stuck a microphone in her face. “As Cade Prescott’s girlfriend, did you know he’d gotten another woman pregnant?”

“Stay away from her.” Cade yanked Andie to her feet, his protective arms shielding her. “We’ve no comment. This is a private matter.”

Pregnant? Andie squinted into the wintry sun and spotted the woman wearing furs—more like, dead animal skins. Tall, decked out like a model at a photo shoot, she snagged Cade’s jacket.

“This would have been a private matter had you not pulled your disappearing act. Maybe you should clue in little Miss Snow Bunny here.” The witch darted a sneer at Andie.

Immediately, half a dozen mics blossomed in front of Andie, and reporters shouted questions at her.

Whatever was going on, Andie wasn’t going to react. She’d already given the news crew plenty of fodder by fainting. Her stomach cringed. Hopefully her mother was too busy to watch the newscast, but with the way gossip traveled in the small college town of Itasca and the lack of big events on campus, her little fainting spell would be on everyone’s flat panel screen by dinnertime. Not to mention it was her dog having public sex on the Engineering Quad a few minutes ago.

“Hey, you okay?” Cade’s deep voice rumbled in her ear at close range. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Where are Gollie and Red?” Andie darted a panicked glance around the wall of people. The two dogs had been inseparable a few minutes before she fainted, and Gollie had licked her back to consciousness, but now, they were nowhere in sight.

Cade’s shoulders hunched, and he wiped a hand over his forehead. “They probably ran back to my place. Don’t worry. Red knows the way home.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. Even though every nerve in her body screamed to ask Cade who that woman was, and why she was accusing Cade of getting her pregnant, Andie had to maintain composure in front of the press.

Reporters swarmed around them, each trying to get his or her questions answered.

“Prescott, did you know you knocked her up?”

“What’s your agent going to do now that you got his sister pregnant?”

“Did you really think hiding in Itasca’s such a great idea?”

“Are you going free agent? Are your days with the Flash behind you?”

“I’m not answering any questions,” Cade said, keeping his head down and one arm around Andie.

“You’re not getting away from me.” The woman with the furs jutted herself in their path. “You got me pregnant, and I’m not going away.”

“Please, Roxanne, not here. I’ll talk to you after I speak with my lawyer. Good day.”

“It’s not a good day,” the woman screeched. “You ran, and now I’ve got you. You’ll pay through the nose for this. Everyone, listen to what I have to say about this no good loser.”

She gestured for the mics to be brought closer, and the swarm of reporters buzzed a circle around her.

Taking the opportunity to escape, Cade guided Andie across the bridge toward College Town. Their footsteps crunched over the well packed snow down the slope, and Andie’s head swam with the whirl of events.

She’d met Cade last week in the library and after spending a weekend together, she’d convinced herself she’d fallen in love with him. Which wasn’t logical, because after all, how could she really know him enough to have those feelings?

Obviously, she didn’t. The man stomping through the snow next to her had given her a fake last name and wooed her with sweet words and hot lovemaking. Gah! How could she have let things get so far?

She peeked at Cade’s rugged profile, and he gave her a pleading stare, his lips tight.

“I didn’t mean for you to find out this way,” he said. “I was going to tell you who I am this morning, but when I woke up, you were gone.”

“I had to go to work.” Her excuse sounded doubly lame since she was at this moment definitely not at work.

“The note you wrote on the mirror, it sounded like you regretted everything.”

“I didn’t last night, but seeing how things turned out …” She swept her hand toward the campus. “Why did you hide your identity?”

“I was ashamed.” He plunged his hands into his pockets and shrugged as they stepped around the trash bins lying in the gutters.

“I can see why.” Her voice took on a sarcastic lilt. “Do you always have women tracking you down?”

“Hey, I can’t help it if I attract the stalking kind.”

His attempt at humor dropped like a cow pie on Andie’s snow boot.

She should kick him to the curb, although truth to be told, she had been searching the internet for his fake name. These days, who didn’t research out a potential contact? It was the sensible thing to do.

Now that they were suitably far from the campus and alone on the sidewalk, Andie pulled Cade to a stop inside an alley. She wasn’t going to go all the way to his apartment and let him weasel his way out of this.

“Who is she? Why’s she here?” Her breath came out like puffs of steam in the wintry air.

“She’s my agent’s sister, Roxanne Cash. As far as why she’s here, she’s after money. I suspect she’s been cut off by her brother who’s in charge of her trust fund.”

A flicker of hope blossomed in Andie’s heart. Perhaps this was the price Cade had to pay for being famous. If he was truly a professional football player, he was a target for all sorts of unscrupulous people.

“But why does she think you’d give her money?” Andie narrowed her eyes. “I mean, it’s not true, right? You never slept with her, did you?”

Cade darted a stealthy glance up the street and scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t think it’s true. I mean, if I slept with her, I used protection.”

“If?” Andie’s face broiled hot, and her pulse jumped to her throat. “You mean, you slept with her?”

“I’m sorry, Andie. It was before I met you.”

Duh, obviously. Everything was way, way too much.

“What else don’t I know about you? It’s been a shock of a day. First, Margo tells me you’re a football player, and now this? How many other women have you slept with, and how many other babies have you sired?”

“You’re overreacting.” Cade grabbed her shoulders. “This stuff with women claiming things. Happens all the time when you’re famous and everyone knows how much you make.”

“This isn’t about money.” Andie clawed at Cade’s jacket. “It’s about you lying. You slept with her, didn’t you?”

“Maybe, but if she’s pregnant, it’s not mine. I always use protection.”

“Like you did with me?” Hot blood flooded her face, and her head felt like exploding. “You forgot, and you shot inside of me. You didn’t even have the decency to pull out.”

“You’re different.” Cade’s eyebrows inverted, and he squeezed her shoulders. “We got carried away. I’m sorry. The important thing is, I want a relationship with you, Andie. You’re the one I love.”

Somehow none of it rang true anymore. How many other women had he made to feel special? Different? How many other times had he gotten carried away? Bottom line, Cade hadn’t been honest with her when he rolled into town with a fake last name. He’d lied and misled her, and she, like the naïve idiot she was, had swallowed it all and given her heart.

“I can’t be with you anymore.” She pushed away from him. “I’m sorry, Cade, but you need to work it out with that woman if she’s pregnant. You need to think about your kid. You have to do the right thing.”

“You’re jumping way ahead. We don’t even know if it’s my kid or not.”

“That’s just it. We don’t know, but I’m not taking a number and waiting around. I have to go.” Every muscle in her body tightened to hold back the tears. She had to be strong. Her father was paralyzed from a stroke, and her mother needed her help. Her life was here, in Itasca, with her parents, far away from the glamour and bling of Hollywood, where the Los Angeles Flash had their stadium.

“Andie, please.” He swept his fingers over her temple. “I thought we loved each other.”

The last thing she wanted was to hurt him. He’d been a foster child, a baby no one wanted to adopt. But right now, she had to save her own sanity and protect her own heart.

“You will always be precious to me, Cade. Always, but I can’t be with a guy who sleeps around.” She wanted so much to kiss him one last time, but it would be a bad idea. A really bad one.

His face was stricken as he cupped her head between his large hands. “I’ll never sleep with anyone ever again. I’ll prove to you how much I love you. Stay by my side, Andie. I need you. I can face anything if you’re with me.”

“I can’t.” She swallowed hard, unable to stem the tears from trickling. “I almost married a guy who turned out to be a man whore. My heart can’t take it, and I have my family—my father’s paralyzed and my mother needs my help. I wish—”

His lips were upon hers before she’d finished her next sentence. He kissed her slowly, not invasive, but strong and firm. His hands caressed her as if memorizing every line and contour of her face, her neck, underneath her hair.

Andie breathed in his manly scent, like pine and soap, distinctively Cade. She tasted the mint of his toothpaste mingled with the bitter dregs of his morning coffee. And she wanted him, more than all the particles in the universe, more than her studies and research, she wanted him. But like her historical studies had shown her, a man’s biography was often not what it seemed. The King David persona was invented to teach lessons in morality, to glorify a kingdom, and to uphold a religious sect. Somewhere behind the legends and myths was the real man.

And the real man was not so pretty. The real man did despicable things. The real man was not a hero.

Her real man stopped the kiss, peering into her eyes and leaving her lips tingling, wanting more.

He swept a thumb over her cheek, catching a teardrop. His eyes were moist pools of blue. So blue she’d sink and never find herself again.

She had to leave. There was nothing more to say, so she ran away.