Jodie burst into the rest room. "What the h.e.l.l"s keeping you? Junior"s here to pick you up."
Jane"s stomach pitched. "I-I"ve changed my mind."
"Like h.e.l.l. You"re not going to chicken out on me now. d.a.m.n, I knew this would happen. Stay right here."
Jodie rushed out the door before Jane could protest. She felt flushed and cold at the same time. How had she gotten herself into this mess? She was a respectable professional woman, an authority in her field. This was madness.
She darted toward the door only to have it nearly hit her in the face as Jodie rushed back in carrying a bottle of beer. She opened her palm. "Swallow these."
"What are they?"
"What do you mean? They"re pills. Can"t you see that?"
"I told you I was farsighted. I can"t see anything close without my gla.s.ses."
"Just swallow them. They"ll relax you."
"I don"t know ..."
"Trust me. They"ll take the edge off."
"I don"t think it"s a good idea to take strange medication."
"Yeah, yeah. Do you want a kid or not?"
Misery swelled inside her. "You know I do."
"Then swallow the f.u.c.king pills!"
Jane swallowed them, using the beer to wash them down, then shuddering because she hated beer. She protested again as Jodie dragged her out of the rest room and the cool fingers of air trickling under her skirt reminded her she wasn"t wearing panties. "I can"t do this."
"Look, it"s no big deal. The guys are getting Cal drunk. They"ll clear out as soon as you arrive, and all you have to do is keep your mouth shut and jump on him. It"ll be over before you know it."
"It"s not going to be quite that easy."
"Sure it is."
Jane noticed some of the men staring at her. For a moment she thought something was wrong-that she had a streamer of toilet paper dragging from her shoe or something-and then she realized they weren"t looking at her critically, but s.e.xually, and her panic mounted.
Jodie pulled her toward a dark-haired, no-neck monster standing at the bar wearing an olive green trench coat. He had heavy black eyebrows that had grown together until they looked like one giant caterpillar crawling over his brow.
"Here she is, Junior. Don"t let anybody say Jodie Pulanski can"t deliver."
The monster ran his eyes over Jane and grinned. "You done all right, Jodie. She"s real cla.s.sy. Hey, what"s your name, sweetheart?"
Jane was so rattled she couldn"t think. Why hadn"t she planned for this? Her eyes fell on one of the neon signs that she could read without her gla.s.ses. "Bud."
"Your name"s Bud?"
"Yes." She coughed, stalling. Her adult life had been dedicated to the search for truth, and lying didn"t come easily. "Rose. Rose Bud."
Jodie rolled her eyes.
"Sounds like a effin" stripper," Junior said.
Jane regarded him nervously. "It"s a family name. There were Buds who came over on the Mayflower Mayflower."
"Is that right."
She began to elaborate in an attempt to be more convincing, but she was so anxious she could hardly think. "Buds fought in all the major wars. They were at Lexington, Gettysburg, the Battle of the Bulge. One of my female Bud ancestors helped establish the Underground Railway."
"No kidding. My uncle used to work for the Santa Fe." He tilted his head and regarded her suspiciously. "How old are you, anyway?"
"Twenty-six," Jodie interjected.
Jane shot her a startled glance.
"She looks a little older than that," Junior said.
"She"s not."
"I got to hand it to you, Jodie. This one ain"t nothin" like Kelly. Maybe she"ll be just what the Bomber needs. I sure hope he doesn"t get turned off by the fact that she"s so old."
Old! What kind of twisted value system did this man have that he regarded a woman in her late twenties as old? If he knew she was thirty-four, he"d dismiss her as ancient.
Junior cinched the belt on his trench coat. "Come on, Rose; let"s get you out of here. Follow me in your car."
He started toward the door only to stop so suddenly she nearly b.u.mped into him. "d.a.m.n, I almost forgot. Willie said to put this on you."
He reached into his pocket. She stiffened as she saw what he withdrew. "Oh, no. I don"t think-"
"Got to, babe. It"s part of the job."
He encircled her neck with a fat pink bow. She lifted her hand to her throat, and her stomach pitched as she touched the loops of satin ribbon.
"I"d rather not wear this."
"Too bad." He finished tying it. "You"re a gift, Rose Bud. A birthday present from the guys."
Melvin Thompson, Willie Jarrell, and Chris Plummer-three members of the Stars offensive line-watched Cal Bonner line up his last putt. They"d set a course across the carpet of the Bomber"s s.p.a.cious, but spa.r.s.ely furnished, living room, where he and Willie were playing for a hundred bucks a hole. The Bomber was up four hundred.
"So who"d you rather bonk?" Willie asked Chris as Cal tapped his putt straight into the oversize Dunkin" Donuts commuter mug that marked the fifth hole. "Mrs. Brady or Mrs. Partridge?"
"That"s easy." Chris was also a big fan of Nick at Night Nick at Night. "I"d do Mrs. Brady."
"Yeah, me, too. Man, was she hot."
It was Willie"s turn to putt, and, as Cal moved out of the way, his right guard lined up for the same mug. "Somebody said her and Greg got it on in real life." Willie"s putt rolled past on the right.
"No s.h.i.t. Did you know that, Cal?"
Cal took a sip of scotch and watched Willie miss his second putt. "I don"t even know what the h.e.l.l you boys are talking about."
"Mrs. Brady on The Brady Bunch The Brady Bunch," Melvin explained, "and Mrs. Partridge on The Partridge Family The Partridge Family. If you had the chance to fu-" He stopped himself just in time. "If you got to bonk one of them, which one would it be?"
The linemen had a side bet going on who could last the longest before uttering their favorite obscenity. Cal wasn"t part of that bet because he"d refused to give up his freedom of expression, which was just fine with the rest of them since they knew he"d probably win. Although Cal could turn the field blue during a game, once he was out of uniform, he seemed to lose interest.
"I guess I"d have to give it some thought." Cal drained his gla.s.s and took the putter back after Willie finally tapped it in for a three. He eyed his next putt, a sharp dogleg left into a KFC bucket. He didn"t play any game, not even a living-room putting contest, without the intention of winning. The urge to compete had taken him from Salvation, North Carolina, to the University of Michigan, where he"d led the Wolverines to two consecutive Big Ten Championships before he"d gone on to the National Football League and become one of its best quarterbacks.
Chris finished off his beer. "Here"s one for you. Would you rather bonk that Beauty and the Beast Beauty and the Beast chick or Pocahontas?" chick or Pocahontas?"
"Pocahontas," Melvin replied.
"Yeah, Poc, for sure," Willie concurred.
"You know who I"d like to f-uh, bonk," Chris said. "Brenda Starr. d.a.m.n, she"s hot."
Cal couldn"t hold back a grin at that one. G.o.d, he loved these jerks. Week after week they put their a.s.ses on the line to protect him. He"d been riding them hard lately, and he knew they didn"t like it, but the Stars had a chance of going all the way to the Super Bowl this year, and he wanted it bad.
It had been the worst year of his life. His brother Gabriel had lost his wife Cherry and only child Jamie, two people Cal had deeply loved, in a car accident. Since then, he couldn"t muster the enthusiasm to do anything except play ball.
He banked his next putt off the TV cabinet, combining his touch on the golf greens with his skill at the pool table, and put the ball within inches of the KFC bucket.
"Hey, that"s not fair," Willie protested. "You didn"t say we could bank the shots."
"I didn"t say we couldn"t."
Melvin checked his watch and refilled Cal"s gla.s.s from a bottle of very old, very expensive scotch. Unlike his teammates, Cal seldom got drunk, but this was his birthday, he had the blues, and he was trying to make an exception. Unfortunately, he had a cast-iron stomach, and it wasn"t all that easy.
He smiled as he remembered his last birthday. Kelly, his former girlfriend, had planned a big surprise party for him, but she wasn"t good with details, and he"d shown up before any of the guests. He thought maybe he should miss Kelly more, but what he mostly felt when he thought about her was embarra.s.sment that she"d dumped him for a twenty-three-year-old guitarist who"d offered her a wedding ring. Still, he hoped she was happy. She"d been a sweet girl, even though she used to irritate the h.e.l.l out of him.
He was a yeller, by nature. He"d didn"t mean anything by it; it was just the way he communicated. But whenever he"d yelled at Kelly, she"d burst into tears instead of standing up to him. She made him feel like a bully, which meant he couldn"t ever completely relax and just be himself around her.
It was a problem he"d always had with the girls he dated. He was naturally attracted to the nice ones, the ones who cared about other people and weren"t just out for themselves. Unfortunately, girls like that tended to be wimps, and they"d let him run right over them.
A lot of the more aggressive women, the ones who might have been able to stand up to him, turned out to be money-grubbers. Not that he blamed a woman for looking out for herself, as long as she was up front about it.
Phoebe Calebow, the Stars" owner and his nominee for best woman in the world when she wasn"t being a pain in the a.s.s, said he wouldn"t have so much trouble with females if he"d stop dating such young ones, but she didn"t understand. Football was a young man"s game. He He was young, dammit! And since he could pick and choose when it came to women, why should he choose a desperate thirty-year-old who was starting to turn brown around the edges when he could have a beautiful young woman with some dew-sparkle still left on her? He refused to think of himself as anything but in his prime, especially now that he had Kevin Tucker breathing down his neck. Cal swore he"d burn in h.e.l.l before he"d let that c.o.c.ky sonovab.i.t.c.h take over his job. was young, dammit! And since he could pick and choose when it came to women, why should he choose a desperate thirty-year-old who was starting to turn brown around the edges when he could have a beautiful young woman with some dew-sparkle still left on her? He refused to think of himself as anything but in his prime, especially now that he had Kevin Tucker breathing down his neck. Cal swore he"d burn in h.e.l.l before he"d let that c.o.c.ky sonovab.i.t.c.h take over his job.
He finished the last of his scotch and felt the beginnings of the faint buzz that told him he was finally getting to the place he wanted to be, the place where he"d forget about the deaths of two people he loved, where he"d forget about Kevin Tucker and getting older and the fact that it seemed like forever since he"d felt the inclination to take one of those eager little dew-sparklers he"d been dating to bed. At the same time he noticed Chris checking his watch for the third time in fifteen minutes. "Going somewhere, Chris?"
"What? Uh, no." He exchanged glances with Melvin. "Naw, I just wondered what time it was."
"Three minutes later than when you last looked." Cal picked up the putter and headed into the dining room, which had some kind of limestone floor and a pricey crystal chandelier, but no furniture. What was the point? He liked to keep things loose and easy, and he sure wasn"t planning any fancy dinner parties. When he entertained his friends, he chartered a plane and flew everybody to Scottsdale.
Besides, he didn"t believe in acc.u.mulating a lot of unnecessary possessions since living in the same place too long made him antsy, and the less he had, the easier it was to move. He was a great player because there was no clutter in his life. No permanent houses, no permanent women, nothing that could make him feel old and used up. Nothing that could cause him to lose his edge.
The doorbell rang, and Willie"s head shot up. "That must be the pizzas I ordered."
All three of them charged toward the door.
Cal regarded them with amus.e.m.e.nt. All night, there had been something going on between them. Now it seemed he was about to find out what.
Jane stood in the s.p.a.cious entry of Cal Bonner"s luxury condominium. With the fat pink bow tied around her neck, she was gift-wrapped and special-delivered.
Her heart beat so rapidly she was surprised the men couldn"t see the skin moving beneath the plunging neckline of her suit. She was also feeling a little muzzy, not at all like herself, and she suspected those pills Jodie had given her had kicked in.
Junior of the caterpillar eyebrow took her coat and whispered brief introductions to three men who could only be football players. The one named Chris was white with a prematurely receding hairline and the most ma.s.sive neck she"d ever seen on a human being. Melvin was black, and his wire-rimmed gla.s.ses gave him a faintly scholarly look that was at odds with his enormous frame. Willie had warm coffee-colored skin that accented a pair of huge lady-killer eyes.
Junior finished his introductions and shoved his thumb in her direction. "Jodie done great, didn"t she? I told you she"d come through."
The men a.s.sessed her, and Willie nodded. "Real cla.s.sy. But how old is she?"
"Twenty-five," Junior replied, cutting another year off her mythical age.
"Nice legs," Chris said as he circled her. "Great a.s.s, too." He curved his hand over her right b.u.t.tock and squeezed.
She whirled around and kicked him hard in the shin.
"Hey!"
Too late, she realized she"d made a big mistake. A woman who traded in l.u.s.t would hardly react so violently to being fondled. She recovered quickly and regarded him with all the haughtiness of an upper-cla.s.s call girl. "I don"t give free samples. If you"re interested in buying the merchandise, make an appointment."
Far from being offended, they started to laugh, and Willie nodded his approval. "You"re just what the ol" Bomber needs."
"He"s gonna be smilin" tomorrow," Melvin chuckled.
"Come on, boys. It"s party time!"
Junior pushed her forward, and as she tottered across the limestone floor on her ridiculously high heels, they all started to sing. Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you ... Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you ...
Dry-mouthed and terrified, she reached the end of the foyer. On her next step, her heels sank into the white carpet. She turned, spotted Cal Bonner, and froze. Even through her narcotic-induced haze, one agonizing fact became completely clear. The television screen had lied.
He stood silhouetted against a wall of windows with nothing behind him but the cold November night. On television she"d seen a country hick with a good body and bad grammar, but the man staring at her from the other side of the room had nothing of the hick about him. She had chosen a warrior.
He c.o.c.ked his head to the side and studied her. His gaze was cold and grim, and it sent frightening impressions running through her head.
Gray eyes so pale they were almost silver. Eyes that knew no mercy.
Crisp brown hair whose tendency to curl hadn"t quite been tamed by a no-nonsense cut. A man who made his own rules and answered to no one.
Hard muscle and sinewy strength. A physical animal.
Brutal cheekbones and a ruthless jaw. No softness there. Not even a speck of the gentler emotions. This man was a conqueror, designed by nature to make war.
A chill traveled along her spine. She knew without question that he would be ruthless with anyone he decided was his enemy. Except she wasn"t his enemy, she reminded herself. He"d never know what she had planned for him. Besides, warriors didn"t care about things like illegitimate offspring. Babies were a natural consequence of rape and pillage and not to be given a second thought.
Rough hands, accompanied by raucous male laughter, pushed her toward the man she had chosen to be the father of her child.