Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

brADEN

How was it possible that a simple chaste kiss was making my whole body spark like a livewire? And why were my lips actually tingling as I pulled back? This had never happened to me before.

I could see a whole storm of emotions brewing behind Dani's eyes as I gazed into them: nerves, shock, and something else I couldn't put a name to. Like she was also struggling to make sense of the sudden electricity that was buzzing between us.

But what I wasn't prepared for was the hope that started to spring up inside me. Because if she had feelings that strong…well, maybe whatever the hell I was feeling wasn't completely one-sided.

Why was I hoping for that? The whole reason we even had this arrangement was because I didn't want an actual relationship. I was just playing a part for the press to get them off my back.

Wasn't I?

"You okay, sweetheart?" I asked quietly.

She nodded timidly, casting her eyes downward. "I'm fine."

"Come on, let's get you home."

I opened her car door, then waited for her to climb inside before closing it and walking around to the driver's side. When I turned the car on and started to pull out of the parking lot, my favorite variety radio station blared to life just as Jessie J's "Domino" started to play. Dani's whole face lit up as she started to quietly sing along.

My heart felt like it was physically expanding in my chest as I watched her get lost in the music, and in this moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to see her this happy and carefree all the time. I couldn't explain why. Maybe because I knew how much she was struggling right now and that these moments of joy were few and far between for her. And I knew I needed to make sure the next time we went out, it would be somewhere she could let loose and just be herself.

"So, when can we do this again?" I asked with a chuckle as I pulled up in front of her apartment building.

My breath hitched in anticipation, and some part of me was actually afraid that she'd tell me she had a great time, but this was the end of the line for us. Even though we had a signed contract saying she had to see me again.

Fuck, if the lines were already blurring this much in my head, what was going to happen once we really got to know each other? If I wasn't careful, I'd end up catching real feelings for my fake girlfriend. And that would spell disaster.

"Um…don't hate me, but the next few weeks are going to be kind of hectic for me," she mumbled. "I've got finals coming up starting next Monday, and I'm graduating on Thursday the following week."

My heart sank a little as I realized that meant I wouldn't see her for a little while. I couldn't force her to make time for me in the middle of her finals. And I couldn't even go to her graduation because that was the same day I was flying out to Kansas to help Ian pop the question.

"I totally get that," I assured her. "Will you let me take you out to celebrate after your last exam? Just somewhere fun, nothing like tonight."

She nodded with half a smile. "Yeah. That'd actually be really nice. Oh, I was going to tell you. Lina offered to work next weekend and stay a little later than normal during finals week so I can focus on studying. Is that okay?"

"Absolutely. Just tell her to make sure she keeps track of the extra hours. And when you talk to her about Ky's premiere, let her know I'll pay her for every second she's with us, even while she's not watching Isaac."

"I will." She let out a long breath. "Thanks for dinner."

I wanted so badly to kiss her again. To see if the wild intensity from that simple brush of our lips outside the restaurant was just a fluke or if the chemistry I felt with her was real. But she'd drawn a firm line in the sand: nothing could happen once we were out of the public eye. I knew I had to respect that. So instead, I made myself settle for leaning over and pecking her on the cheek.

And yet again, my lips tingled just from the brief contact with her smooth skin.

I had no idea what to make of this. I wasn't the guy who fell head over heels for a girl on the first date. I was Don Juan, not Romeo. I was in it for a good time, not for a long time.

Until now. Until her.

Now, I couldn't imagine ever putting my lips on another woman because I knew no other woman could compare to Dani. And, as misfortune would have it, the one woman I wanted to spend more than a night with was the one woman who wanted nothing to do with me outside of the monetary arrangement we had.

"You're more than welcome," I said quietly, trying like hell to keep these emotions I couldn't make sense of out of my voice. "Have a good night, Dani."

"You too," she murmured as she opened her car door. "I'll text and let you know about the premiere."

I watched Dani walk up the stairs and waited until I saw her open her apartment door before driving out of the parking lot, still trying to make sense of the emotions swirling around inside me.

My ringing phone made me pop my eyes open with a groan. A glance at my clock told me it was just after eight in the morning, and when I grabbed my phone and saw Vicki's name on the caller ID, I groaned again. It was way too damn early to deal with her.

"Vicki," I answered groggily.

"I'm sorry, honey. Did I wake you up?" she cooed like she was talking to a toddler.

"You should know by now I'm not a morning person," I muttered. "What do you want?"

"I was just calling to tell you the press is buzzing about your mystery girl already. Dani, right?"

"Yep," I bit out. "And wasn't that sort of the whole point of this exercise?"

"It was. I just wanted to let you know it's working. So, when are you taking her out again? And where?"

"In a couple of weeks. She's in college and has finals coming up. I'll let you know where so you can tell the vultures. I'm also planning on taking her to Kyler Strong's documentary premiere in Miami in late June if it works out with her schedule."

"Braden," she groaned. "You know you need to keep the buzz going. Otherwise, they'll just move on to the next story."

"I know that. But I also don't want to stress her out by taking away from her studying. We'll go out plenty after her semester's over."

"Just think about it this way, sweetheart. The sooner you can convince the tabloids that you're trying to make a change, the sooner you can kick this girl to the curb and things can go back to normal."

And what if I don't want things to go back to normal? I wanted to say.

I still didn't know what to make of the way I felt when I was around Dani, but I did know that the idea of just cutting off contact at the beginning of the season after we manufactured the press spin about our "breakup" cut me like a knife. Something about her just drew me in, and as much as I wanted to tell myself that it was because of the situation we'd found ourselves in, I knew it ran deeper than that.

But I wasn't about to tell Vicki any of that. My personal life was none of her business. She had one job: to help me maintain a good image with the media. And the only information I would ever share with her about my life was what she needed to know to do said job.

"If you want to keep the buzz going, maybe we can put together a press conference or something," I pushed back. "I'm not going to force Dani to take time out of studying for her finals, which she needs to pass in order to secure her spot in the med school she's been accepted to, just so the vultures can take a few pictures."

Vicki tsked and huffed out a sigh. "I'll see what I can do. But I don't like this."

"Noted," I deadpanned. "But I'm not paying you to like it. I'm paying you to wrangle the media. So if you don't want to do the press conference, just leak some information to them that she's a friend of a friend and we're getting to know each other and seeing where it leads. I've gotta go."

I hung up before she could say anything else, then went to check my email, figuring she'd probably sent me links to some of the articles from the tabloid sites. And sure enough, there was a message with links to half a dozen articles, all speculating about who the mystery girl I'd been kissing outside La Terrasse was.

Braden Hicks wines and dines his latest conquest.

Is the Casanova of football finally settling down? Braden Hicks caught in a liplock outside La Terrasse in Orlando on Friday night.

Real or a sham? What to know about Braden Hicks's date last night.

As I scanned the articles, I just laughed at how hard these so-called journalists had worked to meet their minimum word count requirement. Mostly, they just talked about my football stats, my arrest, and my reputation for never being seen with the same woman twice. Then they'd thrown in a couple of pictures of me and Dani and said how we'd declined to answer any questions. Some of them had speculated that maybe it was all for show, while others had said "sources close to Hicks" claimed it was the real deal. Who these so-called sources were, I would have loved to know.

Shaking my head and rolling my eyes, I started to back out of my inbox…just as another email landed in it. From yet another throwaway email address. This time the subject line made me sit straight up in bed as the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and my heart started beating just a little faster.

To: Braden Hicks [[email protected]]

From: Unknown [[email protected]]

Subject: HOW COULD YOU???

You're MINE, Braden! ONLY mine. If you don't get rid of that little whore, I won't be responsible for what happens. I don't share what's mine, baby.

*tabloid picture of kiss outside the restaurant with a huge red X over Dani's face*

Xoxo,

Me

Damn it. What the hell was I supposed to do about this?

On one hand, this was a serious escalation. It wasn't just a harmless fangirl with too much time on her hands anymore. This was an actual threat. But on the other hand, the communication was still limited to email. I had no reason to believe this woman had any of my personal information, like my address or phone number.

Going into my deleted emails, I grabbed as many of the messages as I could and saved them to a different folder so I'd have them as evidence if I ended up needing them. I wasn't ready to hire a PI quite yet, but if this got any worse, I wanted to have as much information as possible to help figure out who was behind this and stop them for good.