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Scarlett

His kiss was like a bolt of electricity moving through my body.

The second his lips touched mine, my body felt alive.

I closed my eyes, concentrated on my breathing, and ran my fingers through his thick hair.

In a moment, everything we’d been through had been erased and we were right back where we were supposed to be.

He broke the kiss, looked down at me, and pushed my hair from my face and cupped my cheek. I didn’t want this night to end, even though our conversation only moments ago had been serious and I’d wanted to shy away. Most of the night had been full of laughs, just the way it used to be.

“We should probably get going,” he said, smiling down at me, before leaning down and placing another kiss on my lips.

Disappointment flooded me, but he was probably right. I glanced at my watch, seeing it was close to ten.

“Yeah, I guess we should.” I smiled, pulling myself away from him and sitting up. “Work comes early, especially for you.”

“Not because of work. I promised the sitter I’d be back before ten.”

I nodded, standing, and began folding the one blanket we’d been using as a pillow.

Levi was quiet as he stood too, first adjusting himself and then taking the other blanket and quickly folding it, then grabbing the basket and glasses. Minutes later, we’d packed up the car and were on our way back to the condo.

When the elevator opened at my floor, he didn’t step out, instead he just wished me a good night with a kiss on the cheek and I made my way to my unit and headed inside.

Monday morning came faster than I’d expected. I walked into the office on Monday morning feeling like I was walking on air, until the receptionist approached me and told me Carol wanted to see me. Immediately, the air that was under me holding me up evaporated as I walked into Carol’s office.

She sat behind her desk, her glasses perched on the end of her nose. The second I entered she looked up at me from her seat.

“I heard you wanted to see me?”

“I did. Close the door, take a seat.”

I did as she asked and watched as she opened her top desk drawer and pulled out an envelope and placed it in the centre of the desk, then looked at me.

“What’s that?” I questioned.

“That is an envelope containing two tickets to the next two away games held by the Dominators. You have an outgoing flight leaving tomorrow night, returning on Friday morning.”

I nodded and went to reach for the envelope when she cleared her throat, which made me pause.

“Scarlett, I have been doing some digging.”

“Okay.”

“As stated, I want an interview with Levi, but what I want more is to find out some things about his past.”

I quickly averted my gaze back to the envelope on the desk, praying she would not mention what I thought she was going to mention.

“What about his past?” I questioned, clearing my throat.

“I want to know about his daughter.”

Alarm bells rang inside of me. I knew Levi was completely protective of Mia and that there would be no way he’d answer questions regarding her.

“He has a daughter?” I asked, trying hard to fake what I already knew.

“He does. Not only do I want an article on him, but I want the dirt on where this child came from. He isn’t married, in fact that man has never even been seen in the public eye with a significant other.

So, I want you to hunt down the mother of his child, get an interview with her, find out what the hell happened between them. ”

“What? Why would I do something like that? Isn’t this article supposed to be a highlight on him? On his career and how good of a player he is.”

“Are you saying you won’t do it?”

I sat there, not really knowing how to respond.

“Scarlett? Is that what you are telling me? Are you refusing to do this?”

“No, but when you are supposed to be highlighting a man’s career, this isn’t the way to go about it. I feel like it’s sabotaging.”

“All we are doing here is showing the fans what this man is about. The inability to commit. If you want to look at it from a different angle, he was with the Predators for how long, then moved to the Dominators, and now there is talk that he may move to the Enforcers. See, inability to commit.”

I frowned. I’d heard no such thing about him being in talks with him leaving Vancouver, and I kept my ear close to the ground when it came to switches and moves with all players. In fact, he seemed happy and settled here.

“So, can I count on you to have the article to me in a month? I want it published for his one year with them.”

I reached for the envelope in the centre of the desk and shoved it into my bag without saying another word.

“I won’t ask you again. Can I count on you? If not, I’ll take the tickets back and I’ll send John.”

“You will get what you ask for,” I said, my voice low.

“Good, your flight leaves at five. Don’t be late.”

I looked over my shoulder at Carol before I walked out of her office and made my way down to mine. I closed my door and leaned up against it. Instantly I began second-guessing my decision to come here. What the hell had I gotten myself into??

My flight got in late last night, and I’d crashed immediately. Now, I sat in the New York arena doing research while watching the team practice.

I was knee deep into finding out who this girl was that had brought Mia to Levi. The one good thing was that I had her name. It was a name I’d never forget, and without that I’d have been dead in the water.

Skylar Payne had been an intern in public relations for the New York team when Levi played for them.

They’d shared a one-night stand while at an away game, and one year and five months later, she appeared on his doorstep, jobless, with Mia.

She was no longer in that profession after being caught sleeping with another player on the same team by his wife.

Looked like times were hard for her now, being forced out of the career she’d loved.

I was so buried in reading information about her I didn’t hear anyone come up behind me until I heard Levi clearing his throat.

“Well, well, aren’t you up early?” He chuckled.

I slammed my computer shut and turned to look up at him. He stood there, two coffees in his hands, smiling down at me.

“Hey,” I answered back, turning around, praying he hadn’t seen what I’d been reading.

“You were pretty lost in whatever you were looking up,” he said, sitting down beside me. “Trying to get some sort of scoop on a player or something?”

“Yeah, something like that. I get like that when I’m doing research,” I said, shoving my laptop into my bag at my feet. “How was practice?”

“It was practice, same as usual, grueling and painful.” He chuckled.

“Where’s the rest of the team?”

“Gone for food.” He smiled. “I saw you up here, so I thought I’d come and say hello. So, what are you researching?”

“You must be hungry,” I said, completely ignoring his question.

“So must you. I don’t recall you being this much of an early bird, and I know you never ate before nine in the morning at the earliest.”

How the hell did he remember all this stuff? I barely remembered what I had for dinner last night, and here he remembered shit that happened years ago.

“Yeah, come to think of it, I’m starving.”

“Good. Care to join me?” he questioned.

I nodded my head, zipped up my bag, threw it over my shoulder, and followed him out of the arena.

I sat in my room eating potato chips, working on the start of an article to cover this weekend’s game. I grabbed my phone and opened up a new chat between Levi and myself and sent him a message.

Scarlett: Can I ask you something?

Levi: What’s up?

Scarlett: Would you allow me to interview you?

Levi: Why?

Scarlett: Well, you told me if I asked, you’d allow it. I’d like to write an article on you.

Some days, I really hated those three little bouncing dots and today was one of those days. Then his message came through.

Levi: We can talk about it. No promises. What are you doing?

I could tell from his short answer that there was no point in talking about it now. He meant what he said and that was his way of closing off the conversation before it even got started.

Scarlett: Work.

Levi: It’s late, you should be relaxing.

Scarlett: We never sleep.

Levi: We? Am I interrupting something?

Scarlett: No, we as in reporters. We never sleep, and just so you know, my room is empty.

Levi: You don’t need to explain yourself to me. If you have company, you have company.

Scarlett: I’m not explaining myself to you.

Levi: I beg to differ.

Scarlett: You are impossible.

Levi: Nope, just don’t want to interrupt something if it’s going down.

Scarlett: What makes you think I’d have messaged you and would continue chatting with you if, as you put it, something was going down?

Levi: I don’t know, maybe you’re reconnecting with Duncan, and he kisses like a lizard.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at his last comment.

Scarlett: *rolls eyes*

Levi: Just saying, maybe you needed an out. Am I your out, Scarlett?

Scarlett: You aren’t my out because I’m not in anything I need out of. There is no one here.

Levi: So, you’re not reconnecting with Duncan right now?

I stared at my phone. How was I supposed to answer that? Levi knew something had happened between us, he just didn’t know what it was, or how final it was. Was I just supposed to come out and say he’d passed away?

Levi: I knew it…if he’s going down on you, tell me to go away.

I buried my face in my hands at his comment, my cheeks heating.

Scarlett: Not possible

Levi: Not possible? Sure, it is. He has a tongue, doesn’t he? Oh wait, please tell me he knows how to pleasure you with his tongue?

Scarlett: This is a stupid conversation and I’m not continuing it on.

Levi: Really? Why is that? Because you’re embarrassed by the fact he doesn’t know how to pleasure you, or because you wish he was pleasuring you right now? Or perhaps you wish I were pleasuring you right now, because I will say I know how to use mine.