It Had to Be You (36 page)

“There you are.”

She whirled toward the door as Reed walked in. His black wool topcoat was unbuttoned and a white cashmere scarf showed inside his collar. How much had he seen?

As the Stars had begun to pile up victories, Reed’s friendliness had developed cracks. He had never expected it to take so long for him to gain control of the team. Although he was still careful how he spoke to her when others were around, when they were alone, she caught glimpses of the young bully who had torn up her mother’s picture.

He pulled off a pair of black leather gloves. “I’m glad I caught you, Dan. I want to get together soon to talk about the draft. I have a few ideas we need to discuss.”

“It’d be real nice to chat with you, Reed,” Dan said pleasantly. “But until we lose, I’m afraid I can only listen to Phoebe’s ideas.”

She could see that Reed didn’t like being brushed off, but he was too smart to let Dan know it. Instead, he gave her that patronizing smile that made her want to claw his eyes out. “Phoebe doesn’t know anything about the draft.”

“Now you might be surprised what Phoebe knows. As a matter of fact, she was just now giving me her opinion about Rich Ferguson at Michigan State. Weren’t you, Phoebe?”

“The kid’s really something,” she replied with remarkable confidence, considering the fact that she’d never heard of Rich Ferguson.

“It’s amazing how much a smart woman can learn in just a few months. That doesn’t mean I agree with you about that Jenkins kid, though.”

“You may be right. I’ll think it over.”
Lord, don’t strike me down for lying.
She appreciated Dan’s defense of her, but it couldn’t compensate for the undeniable fact that she had practically thrown herself at him, and he had rejected her.

Reed sensed an alliance and didn’t like it. “You’ll have to deal with me sooner or later,” he said tightly. “And I’m afraid my management style is going to be more direct than Phoebe’s.”

“I’d expect you to do things your own way,” Dan replied, refusing to take the bait.

Gary Hewitt, who was working nearly as many hours each week as Dan, poked his head through the door. “Sorry to interrupt, Dan, but we’ve got some new film I want you to look at. I think we may have an answer to the problem with Collier.”

“Sure, Gary.” He turned to Phoebe, and by the slight lift of his eyebrow asked if she wanted him to stay to lend moral support.

She smiled. “We can finish our discussion tomorrow.”

He wrapped his towel around his neck and, with a nod to both of them, left.

Reed slapped his black leather gloves in his palm. “Let me take you out to dinner. It’ll give us a chance to catch up.”

“I’m sorry. I try to eat with Molly during the week.”

His eyes narrowed slightly. “I haven’t told you how much I admire the way you’ve taken over with her. You’re hardly the maternal type, so I know it’s been a sacrifice.”

“I enjoy Molly. It hasn’t been a sacrifice at all.”

“I’m glad. Now that Bert is gone, I can’t help but feel at least a little bit responsible for you. I guess that’s only natural since I’m your only surviving male relative.”

“Thank you for your concern, but I’m doing fine.”

“I’m just grateful that you’re a woman of the world. It’s obvious from what I saw when I walked in here tonight that the sharks are circling.”

“Sharks?”

He chuckled. “It’s all right, Phoebe. You don’t have to pretend with me. I’m sure you find Dan’s courtship as amusing as I do. Nobody expected the Stars to get this far—not even their coach. I suppose it’s natural that he’d hedge his bets, although I would have expected him to be more subtle about it.”

“Reed, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said stiffly.

His forehead knit with concern. “Oh, God, Phoebe. I’m sorry. I thought— You’re really serious about him, aren’t you? God, I feel like an ass. I didn’t mean to be so clumsy about this.”

“Why don’t you just say what’s on your mind.” Phoebe affected a calmness she didn’t feel.

He gazed at her as if he were a kindly uncle. “Football is the most important thing in Dan’s life. Both of us know that. Having even an outside chance of getting his hands on the Stars has to be driving him crazy. Now he’s using you without any risk to himself. If the Stars lose, he can ease out of the relationship with no harm done. But if they don’t lose—” His jaw tightened. “I think you can expect our head coach to hit you with a marriage proposal so fast your head will spin.”

Dan wasn’t without his faults, but he wouldn’t use her to get the Stars, and she had never liked Reed less than she did at that moment. He was slick and oily, totally unprincipled and utterly selfish. Even so, she knew he probably believed what he was saying since that was what he would have done had he been in Dan’s shoes.

“Thank you for your concern, but I think you’re taking my relationship with Dan more seriously than I am.”
Liar!

“I’m glad to hear that. I probably shouldn’t have even mentioned it. This discussion will be pointless by Sunday evening anyway. The Stars are overmatched this weekend. I hope you’re prepared for the team to lose.”

“We’ll see.”

After Reed had left, she stood in the empty weight room and thought how ironic his suspicions about Dan were. If Dan was trying to get his hands on the Stars by romancing her, he was certainly botching the job.

Ron had to make a last-minute telephone call from his car phone, and Phoebe was alone as she entered the impressive silver and blue lobby of one of DuPage County’s newest and most prestigious country clubs. It was three days after Christmas, and the lobby was still decorated with evergreen boughs and poofy silver bows. Since Jason Keane was the prime backer of the club, she wasn’t surprised that he’d chosen its private dining room as the site of this meeting she had requested.

She was still trying to absorb the fact that the Stars’ hopes were alive for at least one more week. Contrary to Reed’s prediction, the Stars had beaten the Chargers by a field goal in an unbearably suspenseful game on Sunday, managing to win the AFC Central Division title over the Steelers, who had lost to the Bengals in overtime. Now they would have another chance to keep her dream alive.

She was undoubtedly setting herself up for a fall. Bert had tried unsuccessfully for years to renegotiate the stadium contract with Jason Keane, and she had no reason to believe she could resolve a situation that had defeated her father. Her weeks of study had given her a fairly comprehensive understanding of the team’s finances, but she had no experience with complex negotiations.

Logic dictated that she simply sign the new contract the lawyers had delivered last week. There would be no more last-minute reprieves for the Stars; their next defeat would put them permanently out of the running. If she somehow managed to improve the terms of the stadium contract, she would only be helping Reed. On the other hand, until the Stars lost their next game, she was still the owner, and she was going to do what was best for the organization.

Thinking about what lay ahead of her tonight had taken its toll, and her stomach was churning. The sensation escalated as the heavily etched glass door marked Members Only swung open on the far side of the country club lobby. She sucked in her breath as she identified the tall, well-built man in the tuxedo as Dan.

Planning for this evening had kept her mind too busy to dwell on his rejection of her kiss in the weight room last week. Now the hurt came back, and she stiffened as he walked toward her.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m a member. Did you think I might be crashing your meeting with Keane?”

“How did you know about our meeting?”

“From Ron.”

“It’s supposed to be confidential.”

“I haven’t told anybody.”

“You’re deliberately missing the point.
You
weren’t supposed to know about it.”

“Now that doesn’t half make sense, Phoebe. How could Ron invite me along if he didn’t tell me you had a meeting?”

Tonight would be difficult enough without having Dan witness something that had every chance of turning into a disaster. “I’m afraid I have to withdraw Ron’s invitation. We agreed this was to be a private meeting between the two of us, Jason Keane, and a few of his advisers.”

“Sorry, Phoebe, but Ron gets vicious when I don’t do what he tells me. I’ve been afraid to tangle with him ever since he gave me that shiner.”

“He did not give you a shiner! You’re being— That’s the most ridiculous—”

As she sputtered, Dan had to force himself not to bend over and lick the scowl right off her mouth. A surge of hundred-percent pure lust had shot through him the moment he’d seen her. Instead of getting used to keeping his hands off her, not touching her had grown more difficult each day. Everything about her turned him on. Right now, for example. Most women’s hair when they got dressed up looked all stiff and sprayed. Phoebe’s looked bedroomy instead. It fell in soft blond waves nearly to her shoulders, curling a little bit at the ends as if he’d just run his fingers through it. And she had the prettiest neck he’d ever seen on a woman, long and graceful.

He told himself he should be thankful the rest of her was still covered up by that black evening coat. Even those loose-fitting clothes she wore to work sometimes lately didn’t do much to conceal what was underneath. He knew he should be happy that she was dressing more like a conservative businesswoman, but the truth was, he found himself anticipating those days when she showed up looking like her old self. Not that he was going to admit that to her.

The hardest thing he’d done in his life was to stop kissing her that last time. Even though he’d been trying to do the honorable thing by backing away, the forlorn expression on her face had made him feel like a worm. Except for those few seconds when he’d lost control, he hadn’t done anything in almost two months to lead her on. He should feel good about that, but instead he was miserable. He kept telling himself Phoebe would be going back to Manhattan soon and everything would be better, but instead of cheering him up, that made him even more depressed.

Phoebe was still going at him. Those tilty-up eyes of hers had darkened to the color of old brandy as she did a slow simmer over his unanticipated presence tonight. He wished Sharon could stand up to him the way that Phoebe did, but Sharon was a sweet little thing without one ounce of Phoebe’s sass, and he couldn’t imagine it.

Even though he saw Sharon at least once a week, this was the first time he’d ever been involved with a timid woman, and he hadn’t quite made the adjustment yet. A few times Sharon’s mild nature had begun to irritate him, but then he’d reminded himself of the benefit. He’d never in his life have to worry about Sharon Anderson smacking his kids when she got upset. He’d never have to worry about her treating his kids the way his old lady had treated him.

Phoebe was tapping the toe of one of her high heels while her sparkly earrings swung back and forth through her hair. “Why did Ron want you here? He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

“You’ll have to ask him that.”

“Take a guess.”

“Well, he did say something about maybe needing a backup quarterback. In case you went off the deep end or something.”

“Is that so.”

“You have a habit of doing that occasionally, you know.”

“I do not!”

She yanked open her coat button, and as he saw what she was wearing beneath it, his amusement faded.

“Something wrong?” With a maddening smile, she allowed the coat to slip off her bare shoulders.

He felt as if he’d been poleaxed. How could she do something like this? He’d been strung tight for too long, and now he exploded.

“Dammit! Just when I start to think you might be learning a little common sense, you prove me wrong! Here I was actually believing you might be getting a faint glimmer of what this business is all about, but now I realize that you aren’t even close!”

“My, my. Somebody certainly is grouchy this evening. Maybe you should mind your own business and go home.” She finished removing her coat and carried it over to be checked, her hips swaying from side to side. As she turned back to him, he felt a pulse hammering in his temple. Just moments ago, he’d been thinking about how much he enjoyed Phoebe’s exhibitionist clothes, but that was before he’d seen her current getup.

She was dressed like the head hooker in a bondage house. He took in the long, clingy black dress that looked more like an S&M harness than an article of clothing. The top half was made up of fishnet and black straps. One of the straps wrapped her neck like a collar, with a fan-shaped arrangement spreading down to a slightly wider strap that encircled the midpoint of her breasts and didn’t do much more than cover her nipples. Through some black fishnet with holes the size of nickles he could see both the upper and lower swells straining against that narrow black strap.

At her waist the fishnet gave way to a slinky fabric that stuck like body paint to every curve of her hips. Near her thighs, the dress was ornamented with gold hardware that looked almost like garters, except garters should have been tucked away instead of hanging out where everybody could see. Adding insult to injury, the garment had a side slit that traveled all the way from here to kingdom come.

He yearned to bundle her up in his jacket and hide her from the world because he didn’t want other people seeing so much of her body, which was a damned ridiculous notion considering her fondness for taking off her clothes. He grabbed her arm and led her toward an alcove off to the side of the lobby where he could hide her from public view and go at her in earnest.

“Is this your idea of how to dress for a business meeting? Is this your idea of what to wear when you want to negotiate a contract? Don’t you understand that the only thing you’re going to negotiate dressed like that is how much you can charge to crack a whip on some man’s bare butt.”

“What did you pay the last time?”

Before he could recover from that piece of impudence, she slipped right past him. Whirling around, he saw Ron walk in, and it was obvious from the stunned expression on his face that he was equally taken aback by Phoebe’s getup. The men’s eyes met, and Dan wondered if he looked as helpless as Ron did. Didn’t she realize this was DuPage County? Women didn’t dress like this in DuPage County, for chrissake. They went to church and voted Republican, just as their husbands told them.