Stallion: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (16 page)

T
wo years later
…

The weather in Seattle is much more tolerable than Houston. It’s in the high sixties today, and there’s a nice breeze out on the back porch. The humidity is a little high for my taste, but I really have nothing to complain about these days as I gaze out across the back yard of our new house.

Josh is getting so big, and my heart melts as I watch him with Walker. He’s pretty good on his feet now, and he’s talking up a storm. He was walking at seven months, and will no doubt end up being an athlete like his father. He’s so sure of himself too. I just can’t get over how cute he is in his shorts that go down past his knees, and his little football jersey. I already know I won’t be able to part with any of that, and have set aside some room upstairs for his baby clothes.

It’s not like we don’t have the room. Walker’s salary for Seattle got us a ridiculous house in a beautiful neighborhood. It’s more than I need, but Walker has the money and we wanted somewhere safe to raise our family, which will be growing soon.

I reach down and place a hand on my belly, which seems to have grown a lot recently. In just two more months, Josh will have a baby brother. We haven’t settled on a name yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I keep churning out handsome boys.

Walker and I just can’t keep our hands off each other. And he loves my pregnant body.

“Have you seen your tits!?” He said to me just before Josh was born. “I’m going to have to knock you up every year!”

I’d laughed, but he was right. My already “awesome rack” had grown a full cup size. I’d had to buy all new bras and tops. I had to admit I liked it too. Seeing the desire in Walker’s eyes when he would come home from practice was something I will never get tired of.

I’ve seen couples who stay together a long time, and eventually the spark dies, and I never want to be like that. With Walker, I don’t think it would even be possible. When we’re together, our sex drives skyrocket, and when we’re apart, all I can think about is him.

Having Josh has forced us to slow down a bit, and I’ve thought seriously about hiring a fulltime babysitter, just so I have someone to watch him when Walker and I need a few minutes of alone time.

Walker got a house for his mom just a few blocks down. Her cancer is in full remission, and she’s in better shape than I am at this point. She’s doing yoga every morning, swimming three times a week and has been talking about doing one of those crazy runs up mountains that people do these days.

I took a lot of time off from work when Josh was born, but I’ve managed to maintain a very healthy journalism career, working freelance for different papers and online news sites. A piece I did on the homeless population in Seattle was very well-received and helped a local soup kitchen with donations to upgrade their kitchen.

I had to gloat a little, and sent Peter a copy of the article. A week later I got a cupcake in the mail with a letter attached: Congratulations. You are a
serious
journalist now (except for the fact that you married the lead of one of your assignments!)

Thinking back to my days at the Tribune, I wonder what my life would be like now if Peter hadn’t handed me that assignment. Would I still be with Ronald, completely unaware of his infidelity? Would I have ended up sleeping with him and having his child?

Ugh!

Even thinking about this possibility makes my stomach turn. I like to think I would have wised up, but the fact remains; if Peter hadn’t given me that story, Walker and I almost certainly never would have met.

And when I look at him now, tossing a tiny football to my son, I can’t imagine my life without him. I don’t want to.

Walker Johnson put me through the rockiest, most head spinning times of my life, but I came out the other side completely in love. It was worth it. I wouldn’t trade any of those days for the world, no matter how miserable I thought I was at time.

Who would have thought that a good girl like me and a bad boy like Walker would end up together? That cocky, arrogant, party boy with a million dollar smile had a heart of gold and he was hiding it the whole time. It took me to get him to show it.

You couldn’t have picked two more opposite people, and maybe that’s why I know this will work. We complete each other.

Walker and I both know what winning means. But no outcome of any game can trump the feelings we both have now. Our family is together, and we will be forever. I know it. After his last game, Walker and I lay in bed, and he told me, “Emmy, none of the money, the trophies, the fans, the fame – none of it can compare to what I feel when I wake up every morning next to you.”

I melted, and told him I loved him.

He told me he’d never leave me, and I knew he meant it.

We were going to be together forever. Walker-fucking-Johnson and Emmy Hutchinson, the girl with the “great rack.” I couldn’t write a better story if Peter told me to.

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W
e have
a rule for working at the club: don’t fall for customers. You just don’t do it. Ninety percent of the time they just want you for one thing, and they’ll do and say whatever it is they can to get it. The rest of them just want someone to talk to, because they’re unhappy at home or they just don’t have a woman in their life, and the guys that are actually interested in you are so few and far between that they get lost in the mix.

So then why am I looking at this guy like he might be more than just another man who wants me to work for his money?

“So what do you say I get a quick peak at those puppies for helping you out?” he says with a smile, nodding towards my chest.

My heart sinks.

Nope. Just another dickhead.

“Nice,” I say sourly, sliding out of his truck and shouldering my purse.

“Hey, I’m just kidding!” he says as I start to pace away.

“Uh, huh,” I reply, eager to be out of here. This is why we have rules at the club, because dumb girls like me think guys will always be different and then wind up getting our hearts broken.

I pick up the pace, but I can hear Ty’s footsteps behind me in pursuit. My heart’s starting to race again. Is this seriously happening right now? Isn’t there
one
guy in the world who can just be nice and not expect something in return?

As weird as it is, I hear Ty’s voice inside my head, and instantly reach into my purse and grab my wasp spray. Using my thumb, I flick the top off and put my index finger on the nozzle. I hear his footsteps getting closer.

“Hey, where you going!?” he shouts after me. He races up beside me, and I whirl around and point the spray right at his face.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he exclaims, jumping back with both hands in the air. “What the hell are you doing!?”

“Is it that much to ask for a guy who doesn’t want sex as a payment for everything!? What kind of a girl do you think I am!?”

“A stripper,” he says, flashing me the smile of a dickhead. I push the wasp spray towards him, two seconds from unloading the whole can in his face.

“Hey, hey, I’m just kidding! I’m kidding! Christ, can’t you chicks take a joke? I just saved your ass, you know?”

“Yeah? And so what? I have to fuck you!?”

“No! Where the hell did you get that idea?”

“You just want to see my tits,” I snap back.

“Oh, and you’re offended by that? You got a great rack. I can tell.”

It’s just such an absurd thing to say at a time like this, that I can’t help but laugh. All the stress of the night has been building and building, and I break into hysterical laughter that probably makes me look like a crazy woman. Much to Ty’s delight, I lower the wasp spray and place it back in my purse.

“All right, we cool now?” he asks. “I mean … just gimmie a little flash.”

I snap my eyes back to him.

“Kidding! Kidding!” he laughs. “Look, you need a ride home or something? I saw you heading towards the cab stand. Why don’t I give you a lift?”

Every part of my rational mind is telling me to say no to this. I’ve already been an idiot tonight, and I don’t need to continue the trend, but there’s something about this guy that is getting to me, even though thirty seconds ago I was ready to wasp spray the shit out of him.

“I’m not gonna kidnap you or something,” he assures me.

“Don’t you need to head back inside with your friends?” I ask. “There’s still at least four more girls set to dance tonight.”

“Nah,” he says, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, and I don’t need to go broke in there paying girls
not
to sleep with me. Not that I’d pay girls to sleep with me, but you know what I’m saying.”

“Oh, that’s good to know,” I joke, loosening up a bit. I give him another hard look. It’s almost criminal how good looking he is, and he’s definitely not lying when he says he doesn’t have to pay for it. But I can tell he
knows
he’s good looking, which is probably why he is such a cocky bastard.

But he doesn’t look like a bad guy. And he did just save my butt from those guys back there. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to go through all of that to then just offer me a ride and end up kidnapping me or something. Not to mention the last cabbie who picked me up from the club ended up not knowing how to get to my part of town, got on the highway and ended up charging me an extra twenty dollars for his mistake.

“All right,” I say, giving in and praying that my judgment is sound tonight. “I’ll take a ride.”

“Yeah?” he says, smiling and walking past me towards his truck. “Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get another kind of ride.”

I roll my eyes and groan, and I think I hear him laugh as I turn and follow him.

W
ant
to find out what happens with Ty and Jenny?

I
’m not even getting paid
for this
, I think as I pace through the back hallways of the photography studio where I have just started as an assistant.

But that’s the way this business works. You work your way up. It’s all about who you know
.

I have to keep reminding myself of this over and over in order to justify pushing through the near heart attack I’m having as my feet echo loudly against the concrete floor leading back to the dressing rooms.

This building used to be some kind of warehouse a few years ago, but the company went under and it went up for sale, and my boss, celebrity photographer Bob Ryan, bought it for pennies on the dollar and set up a studio. It was twice the size of his other place, at least, and cost about a quarter.

I graduated art school in the spring and was lucky enough to get a small showing of some of my photos at the Bombay Bistro, a local coffee shop chain here in Austin. Paul, the owner, is a really nice guy and let me have a week or so to show my senior project I’d done entitled “People of Austin,” a documentary style series on the homeless population of the city. I was hanging my photos when I ran into Bob.

He’d liked my work and given me an offer to intern for him at his new studio, moving lights, fetching gear—gopher work really, and it didn’t pay. But he’d shot for everyone. All the big studios, T.V. networks, magazines, you name it. And although I am an
artist
, I do need to make a living.

After my dad died, my mom worked hard to take care of me, even if that meant working double shifts at the diner so she could help put me through school. Art school at that. I owe it to her to make something of myself, and if that means working for nothing and working my way up then that’s what I’ll do. If I work hard enough, I can prove myself and start making some money to pay her back. I know she doesn’t care or want me to feel guilty, but I want to be able to take care of her, and that’s one of the reasons I’m working so hard.

So I took the “job,” and now, here, on my first day, we’re hosting a photo shoot for the one man on the planet I
never
wanted to see again.

T
he sign
above the dressing room screams in regal red lettering. That’s right. Tommy King, the world’s most famous, chart topping, girl slaying rock star.

And also my high school crush.

I doubt he’ll even remember me. We were in band class together. Two band geeks. I played the flute, badly, and he was percussion before he got into guitar and dropped out of school. We’d traded glances across the room during rehearsal, and played that little game you play in high school of pretending to run into each other so you can have a “conversation.” Dropping little bits of gossip to your friends, knowing they would spread it around and it would eventually get back to them.

I’d let it slip that I had a crush on Tommy King, or Tommy McPherson as he was known then, and after that information had successfully done its rounds through the rumor mill, it had come back that Tommy indeed had a crush on me too.

It was a rainy day after school, and I was waiting for my mom to come pick me up when Tommy approached me.

“
H
ey
, Alex,” he said. I turned around, pretending not to know he was there.

“Oh hey, Tommy.”

I played it cool, but my stomach was in knots. I had pretty bad anxiety back then, and I was praying that I wouldn’t throw up. That would really ruin the moment.

“Waiting for your mom?”

“Mmmhmmm, yeah,” I said, nodding my head. We both stood there in silence for a moment, every second killing me. I was just waiting for him to ask. I was ready to say yes to whatever came out of his mouth. The rain blew in under the overhang and I shivered.

“So you play guitar?” I asked him.

“Well sorta,” he replied, somewhat embarrassed. “I’m not very good.”

“You gonna start a band?” I joked.

“Yeah, right! I wish!”

We both laughed, then the silence took over again. I looked down at my feet. Finally, after what felt like a thousand years, he spoke.

“So, I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me on Friday.”

“Yes,” I said quickly. “I’d love to.”

His whole face lit up. Tommy was so sweet back then. He tried hard not to look too excited, as boys do, but I could tell he was just as nervous as I was.

“Great!” He said. And then … silence again. Neither one of us knew what to say. Thankfully my mom pulled up and rescued me from the awkwardness.

“That’s my mom. I should go. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, for sure,” he said, tossing up a sort of wave-high five thing as I took the steps down to the parking lot, leaving him hanging.

I thought I heard him mutter something to himself about being an idiot, as I got into my mom’s car, and when I turned back to wave at him he was already gone.

“What was that?” my mom asked me.

“Oh, nothing,” I said back. I figured I’d tell her after the dance —after I knew whether there was going to be anything to tell. And it turned out that was a good idea, because we never got our dance.

The next day Tommy didn’t show up to school. Or the day after, or the day after. He didn’t really have any friends, so no one knew where he was. After a few weeks the rumor was he’d dropped out of school and moved to California. Then that was replaced by the one about him being in jail for theft, and then having been quietly expelled. But no one knew.

I didn’t cry. I wasn’t that upset, but part of me just felt cheated. I’d had a pretty serious crush on him, and we never even got a chance to see if it went anywhere. I never even got my
first dance
with him.

T
hen a few years later
, there Tommy was on T.V. Now he was Tommy King, lead singer and guitarist of the band Hot Planet, and when I saw his first interview I knew that he was no longer the guy I once knew.

There were rumors about his rock star status. He was covered in tattoos now, with a rock star haircut and every time he was on T.V. he had a girl under his arm that looked like she’d just stepped out of either a modeling campaign or a porno film. It seemed to shift from week to week.

I’d watched him interviewed once by some female host who couldn’t stop dropping sexual innuendos and clearly wanted to sleep with him. There were rumors that they had all over the internet, but neither one of them ever confirmed or denied it. It’s all part of that rock star image you have to maintain. I’m sure underneath he’s still the good guy I remember. But I wonder, if with all his time on the road, he still remembers me. And maybe that’s why I’m so goddamn nervous today.

As I make my way down the hallway, I have to step over a bra lying on the concrete floor. Yes, a bra. An expensive one too, on the floor just a few feet away is a pair of panties. Well panties is being generous—more like a piece of butt floss. I never understood how girls could wear those and still be comfortable.

As I step up to the dressing room door, I’m greeted by the pumping sound of bass. It sounds like there’s a real party going on in there. With a deep sigh, I pound my fist on the door. I wait, but there’s no answer. I pound again, harder this time. Then I hear an annoyed male voice answer.

“Yah? Who is it?”

“Uhm, it’s Alex? We’re ready for you now!”

The voice calls out again, louder and more annoyed. “
Who
is it?!”

“Alex, we’re—!”

“Who the hell is Alex?”

The door opens quickly and I find myself face to face with Brian, the bands bassist. He’s shirtless, showing off his pale, tattooed body. He has shoulder length black hair and reminds me of the lead singer from the Chili Peppers. That’s probably the look he’s going for.

“Hey, baby,” he says seductively. “What’s happening?”

Before I know it, he’s sliding an arm around my waist and pulling our crotches together. I don’t even know what to do, so I just put my arms up in front of me and push.

“I’m looking for Tommy!” I sputter, feeling more uncomfortable than I’ve ever felt in my life. He obviously thinks I’m some sort of groupie. I feel my anxiety twisting into anger as his grip tightens around my waist.

“Yeah? You wanna see Tommy? I know where we can find him. But how’s about you and me head to one of these spare rooms for a few minutes first?” he says with a smirk, grinding his hips against me. I feel his bulge press against my thigh, and I lose it.

“No, thank you!” I say, pushing him back off me. “I’m not some silly groupie! I’m the photographer’s assistant!”

I’m trying to be as assertive as I can, but I’m flustered, and I blow hair out of my face and smooth the wrinkles in my shirt out.

“And? Don’t you know who I am, baby?”

“Don’t know. Don’t care,” I say. The truth is, I do know who he is, but nothing pisses off a guy like Brian than someone oblivious of his rock star status. I push past him into the first room of the dressing room, a somewhat living room that’s been taken over by the band and their groupies.

Girls prance around in next to nothing, waving red plastic cups, bottles of beer and I don’t even want to know what else. One girl, who I realize must be the owner of the bra and panties out in the hall, brushes by me, completely naked, dragging her mess of blonde hair all over my face.

I feel like a black swan standing here in my ripped jeans, oversized black t-shirt and thick black glasses. I try to smooth down the absolute mess that is my hair. I didn’t have time to do anything with it this morning, and I really didn’t think it would matter. That was before I knew the hottest rock band on the planet would be in our studio.

“You want a drink?” I hear another male voice behind me and turn to see Clark, the bands second guitarist, lounging on a chair with an acoustic in his hand, cigarette in his lips, and a topless girl on his lap. He raises his eyebrows to me. “It’s a party, baby.”

I am so grossed out right now I don’t even know if I can function. But I have to find Tommy and get him out to Bob. I spot a door across the sea of tits and ass in front of me and thread my way through it. I reach for the handle, but before I can grab it, Brian, the drummer, steps in front of me.

“Sorry. Private, uh … property.”

“Are you kidding?” I say.

“Uh, no trespassing?”

“Get out of my way, Brian,” I say, trying to skirt by him. But he won’t budge. He’s wearing his signature look tank top with holes all over it and runs his hand over his shaved head like he’s trying to re-learn the English language. I wait just a second, looking at him expectedly, but he just raises a finger like he’s thought of something. But I don’t care. I don’t have time for this. I shoulder right past him and grab the handle.

“Tommy’s a little, uh … indisposed,” he stammers as I open the door.

And there he is. Tommy King.

Completely naked. Surrounded by three naked women.

“Holy shit,” I say under my breath. It’s him. The guy I haven’t seen since high school. And he’s wearing nothing but his birthday suit. Well, that’s not true. His pants are down at his knees, right below his ….

I feel myself go red as I realize where my eyes are. I look up and our eyes meet. One of the girls hanging off his arm coos and giggles.

“Oooh, one more? I guess we could make this a … one, two, three,” she counts everyone in the room. “Fivesome!”

The other girls laugh and cheer, and I panic, turning around and rushing out the door, slamming it behind me. I’m overwhelmed by the hot naked bodies as I shove my way out of the dressing room and spill out into the hall, hearing the sounds of the rock star party slowly fade behind me as I come back out into the studio.

I stop and lean against a light stand, trying to get myself together.

That was him. The guy I never thought I’d see again.

And look at him now. The typical man whore, rock star douche. My knuckles go white as my hand clenches the stand.

“Did you get him?” I hear Bob ask. I turn to him with a look of complete panic on my face.

“I don’t think so.”

I hear Bob curse under his breath and storm off in the direction of the dressing rooms. I know I’m screwing up, but images of naked big breasted groupies dance through my mind. The most famous rock star on the planet, naked, in our dressing room, surrounded by bimbos, just makes my heart sink.

Tommy King, once Tommy McPherson, was not the man I thought I knew.