Jezebel (44 page)

While the two exchanged
pleasantries, Yvonne stewed. She shouldn’t be angry or even
the slightest bit pissed. Paolo Saito was just being himself —the
international playboy.

No, her anger was
self-directed. One smile from a beautiful man and she melted faster
than a Hershey chocolate bar left outside on a hot summer day.
Yvonne was only too happy when he finally excused himself to make his
way to the locker room, the press in tow.

“
So was I right or
what?”

Yvonne tore her eyes away
from the Brazilian god retreating in the distance. “Right about
what?”

“
To stay clear of Il
Duca, of course.”

“
Dead on the money,”
Yvonne whispered.

Paolo Saito was handsome,
rich and full of charm. It would be hard to resist that player’s
game if he were to pursue her. And a broken heart wouldn’t be
the only consequence. Robbie’s future would be placed in
jeopardy as well.

* * * * *

Yvonne waited until she and
Robbie were in the stadium parking lot before she bombarded him with
questions.

“
What’s going on
between you and Paolo Saito?”

Robbie’s head whipped
around. “What do you mean? Who have you been talking to?”

“
While
I was waiting for you,
Il
Duca
held court in the stadium tunnel. One of the reporters asked his
opinion of you and he offered up some polite crap that needed a doggy
bag.”

Robbie chuckled as he
rummaged through his jean pocket for his keys. Finding them, he
pressed the key fob, unlocking the doors to his silver Range Rover.
“Paolo Saito is a great player,” he said, opening the
passenger door for her.

Yvonne didn’t get in.
“You’re giving me the same bag of poop? I thought we went
way back, Robbie.”

“
Way back. You
dragged me along when you picked out your first training bra.”

Yvonne crossed her arms. “If
you don’t fess up, we’ll be standing here until next
Saturday’s game.”

Robbie pretended to bash his
forehead against the door panel. “How much am I paying you to
pose as my beard…I mean fiancée,” he corrected
when she reached out to pinch him.

“
For six months of my
time, one year’s salary and the down payment on a condo,”
Yvonne replied without any qualms. “Totally beside the point!
This is a conversation between best friends not business associates.”

Robbie’s brown eyes
met hers. “If I promise to come clean, will you get in?”

Yvonne placed her foot on
the truck’s running board.

“
Get in. I’ll
tell you all about it on the way home. I don’t want to take
the chance of someone overhearing this.”

Knowing Robbie would honor
his promise, Yvonne climbed into the cab. Robbie shut the door,
walked around the car and then got in next to her. He put the key in
the ignition, but before starting the car, he turned to her.

She watched him deliberate
for several seconds then exhale. “Paolo’s giving me a
hard time. Unlike most of the players he hasn’t been very
welcoming. He does his best to exclude me from key plays or he
contradicts me in team meetings and he barely speaks to me off the
pitch.”

Yvonne felt her anger
boiling. Paolo Saito might be beautiful and sexy, but that didn’t
stop him from being a complete and utter asshole.

Robbie patted her knee,
pulling her out of her whoop-ass mood. “Now don’t get
your granny panties in a bunch, mama bear. The guy isn’t all
bad.”

Yvonne’s anger waned.
Robbie had given her the nickname when they were both kids. Usually
even tempered, she also had a tendency to fly off the handle when it
came to her family and friends. To say she was loyal and would fight
like a mother bear to protect those she loved was an understatement.

And Robbie had always needed
defending ever since his Dominican family moved into their all-black
neighborhood when he was eight and she eleven. Not only was he the
only non-black kid on the block, he’d taken to soccer and shied
away from playing with the other boys.

“
I just hate players
who hate.”

Robbie shook his head. “I
doubt Paolo’s jealous of me. I believe his anger stems more
from how I came to play on the team than the why.”

“
You’re a
phenomenal soccer player that’s why you landed a position on
the team.”

“
It’s great to
have someone over here who has my back.” When Robbie squeezed
her knee, Yvonne placed her hand over his and threaded their fingers
together. “I think Paolo’s grievance lies in the fact
that I replaced his best friend João Schmitt.”

Yvonne remembered the name
from the press conference. “He’s holding a grudge against
you because the club decided to start you and not him?”

“
There’s more to
the story,” Robbie said looking out the windshield. “João
was cut from the team. He went into some sort of decline, to the
point no other team would pick him up. He returned home and committed
suicide.”

Yvonne’s mouth dropped
open. “He killed himself over not being able to play soccer?

Chuckling, Robbie shook his
head. “How many times do I have to tell you? Outside the United
States, soccer is like a religion. People live, breathe and die over
the sport.”

And João Schmitt was
sure-fire proof, Yvonne mused. Robbie wasn’t much different.
Over the years, he’d given up friendships, missed family
get-togethers and even lost a few boyfriends all because of soccer.

And to ink a lucrative
multi-year professional soccer contract, he’d come up with this
elaborate scheme to fool the press, flown her half way around the
world and ensconced her in his home.

As if sensing her train of
thought, Robbie said, “Have I told you I appreciate what you’re
doing for me, mama bear?”

“
Every day.”
Yvonne nibbled on her bottom lip. “I’ve heard the
paparazzi can be pretty persistent, but it couldn’t have been
that bad?”

“
They’re beyond
persistent,” Robbie sighed. “They hound me day and
night, they camp out in front of my house, follow me to the grocery
store, to the gym, out to eat, everywhere. They’re like the
plague. There are times when I don’t even know they’ve
followed me until I run across my picture in the local gossip rags.”

“
They started
crossing the line and delving into certain details of my private
life. They were printing pictures of me with Chris. Fed up, I
snapped. I attacked a couple of paparazzi, no bodily harm just
damaged a few cameras,” he added at Yvonne’s shocked
look. “I’ve been warned by the Club. One more incident
like that or an unfavorable report in the press and my contract will
not be picked up for next season.”

“
But you’ve
never been ashamed of your relationships.”

“
You know I know
that, but Rome is still stuck in the nineteenth century. They might
have women exercising in the nude on television, but if you’re
openly gay you’re committing blasphemy.

And it doesn’t help I
live and work right on the Pope’s front door step,”
Robbie snorted, finally finding the humor in his predicament.

“
This is the
twenty-first century. People are more accepting than they were just
twenty years ago.”

“
Yeah, but this is the
home of the Italian stallion. And according to the general populace,
the stallion shouldn’t be mounting another stallion.”

“
I still say you
should have let me open a can of whoop ass rather than pretend to be
your fiancée until you ink what we hope will be a seven figure
contract.”

Robbie’s lips curled.
“Are you sure you aren’t gay? You’ve always had
masculine tendencies.”

Not
judging by the way her body reacted to Paolo Saito. “No way,
hombre
.
This beard is strictly dickly.”

Robbie’s shoulders
bounced with laughter. “So are you still in?”

“
Isn’t what
we’re doing a little extreme?” Yvonne asked, enunciating
her words carefully, as if she spoke to a child.

“
Desperate times call
for desperate measures. I’m about to lose my dream. I only have
a few more months to prove myself by helping the team win the
European Cup. I can’t do that with the media speculating on
who I’m sleeping with.”

Although deeply touched by
his single-minded pursuit, Yvonne still needed to point out a more
rational alternative. “Couldn’t you have taken your
relationship underground or stopped seeing Chris for a while? At
least until things died down.”

“
I did that. Chris
returned to the states, soon after the first pictures came out. The
media just started wondering why I kept to myself and why I haven’t
picked up one of the hundreds of beautiful women who flock around the
team.”

“
Why didn’t you
fake the funk and grab some groupie to play house?”

“
There’s no one
in the world I trust as much as I trust you. Plus, I’m not a
douche. No way am I stringing along some woman to only drop her for
my boyfriend again.”

At least he wasn’t
heartless. Maybe certifiably insane for coming up with such a
ludicrous plan which landed her four thousand miles from home.

“
Come on, Yvonne.
You’re in Rome, the city of love. Enjoy the opportunity to
live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And think
about the money you’ll earn to pay off your student loans.”

“
Ouch, you really know
how to go for the jugular.”

Smiling broadly, Robbie
reached up and slid his finger across his throat.

“
You were that sure I
would drop everything and fly across the ocean to lay up with you?”

“
I wouldn’t say
that, but I was really lucky to catch you at the right time. You
only have one semester left to earn your MBA and your love life is on
hold right now. So I figured it would be a win-win situation for the
both of us.”

Reminded of her lack of a
love life, Yvonne groaned, she’d been celibate for over two
years.

“
Are you going to
stick to the script or are you going home?”

Not one to leave a friend in
a lurch, Yvonne resigned herself to her fate. “Like glue,”
she said, sitting back in the SUV’s hand-tailored leather.
Yvonne took several deep breaths, releasing her past and accepting
her future. “We’ve made our bed so it’s time to
lie in it.”

“
Stop sounding like
Ms. Doom and Gloom.” Robbie started the car and placed it in
reverse. “This will be like old times—two fierce bitches
hitting the town.”

Yvonne chuckled. “I
don’t mind hitting the town. I’m just worried about the
repercussions.”

Without taking his eyes off
the road, Robbie reached out and chucked the bottom of her chin. “If
there are any, I’m prepared to carry the full weight.”

“
That’s what I’m
afraid of. You have way more to lose than I do.”

Yvonne expected Robbie to
counter her claims with more of his optimism, he didn’t.
Instead, he kept his eyes on the road.

To purchase Player’s
Ultimatum visit kokobrown.net

NERDS ARE
FREAKS TOO

By
Koko Brown

CHAPTER
one

“
What qualities are
you looking for in your Mr. Right?”

Roxanne glanced up at the
bakery’s carnation-pink ceiling and pretended to mull over the
question. “I think he should be young, hung and full of cum.”

Apparently not amused, her
best friend Leonidas slammed his laptop shut. “I’m out of
here.” He began to stand but Roxanne grabbed his hand.

“
I’m only
teasing, Leo. Please don’t leave.” Roxanne glanced at the
booth next to theirs. A group of Catholic schoolgirls sat across from
them. They munched on chocolate cupcakes and giggled over the current
issue of some bubble gum magazine, but Roxanne leaned forward just in
case.

“
I’m nervous
about this whole online dating thing. If you don’t help me,
I’ll end up with some bald, sixty-year-old guy with a postage
stamp fetish.”

A smirk lifted one corner of
Leo’s mouth as he pushed his black Buddy Holly-esque glasses up
the bridge of his nose. The thick glass magnified the size of his
beautiful blue eyes.

For the thousandth time,
Roxanne wished he’d ditch them. His baby blues rivaled Jake
Gyllenhaal’s.

“
If you’re so
skittish about online dating, why sign up? You’ve never had an
issue meeting men.”

True. With her Coke-bottle
size-twelve curves, gregarious personality and confidence equivalent
to a she-lion’s, Roxanne never had trouble meeting men. Just
not the right man. Silently cursing how well he knew her, Roxanne
pulled on her earlobe.

“
Roxie…”
Leo coaxed.