Jessa James - Fake Fiancé

A knowing half grin spread across his face and he shook his head as he leaned back in his chair. “You think you have a plan?”

“One that will show them that you’re a bad boy who’s decided there are some limits.”

“I hope it’s better than the plan you’re working at right now.” Blake stared intensely into my eyes and I could feel the heat of his gaze. “And who exactly are you again?”

“A specialist in handling asshole macho celebs who’ve fucked up their public image and need to fix it quickly.”

“Right.” He moved to stand. “Well, thanks for the thought, but I already have a coach on the team. Why should I let you write the playbook for my off-time?”

“Do you want to play hockey for the Blizzards next season, Blake?” Ralph asked. “I want you to. But your contract is up and management is deadly serious about this.”

He puffed his chest and pointed at Ralph. “This is my team, I hold this franchise together. Did you lose count of how many times I’ve been MVP?

Ralph tried the father act again. “How well you play the damn game is only part of it now. This team is a business with sponsors and investors. The city and state political types need to be made happy, too. You, behaving like a juvenile delinquent, needing favors from the cops so often…those things make it harder to get what the team wants. They wonder if you’ll be in jail when they need you and the sponsors start to balk. That’s when they look at your contract renewal and think of all the other players who might work better for them―even if they aren’t as good at left wing, maybe they’re damn close. And maybe they’re better for the team off the ice.”

Blake sagged down into the chair and glared at me as if this was my doing. “So, I’m fucked?”

I sighed. “Not if you do what I say. There are three months until your contract expires so we have time to clean you up. As long as we make good progress in the first thirty days, we can do this.”

“And that means what?” He turned to gaze out the office window.

“There’s only one thing, one believable thing, that could happen to make a bad boy straighten up in the public eye…something that might give you a reason to change.” I let him wait a beat before dropping the bombshell. “True love.”

“What?” He looked at Ralph, shocked, as though I’d just told him he needed to become a monk in a traveling circus.

“Blake, you’re going to get engaged.”

The look on his face changed to horrified as he turned toward me. “Why would I do that?”

“Because fairy tales always sell.”

“Sell?”

“We want the public to buy your story. While partying and living his blessed life, Blake Collins met a girl and finally fell in love. You met her and now you’re so crazy for her you decided to quit chasing tail and settle down. You’ve reformed. Been redeemed. Will do anything to make her happy.”

He put his hand to his chest. “Me?”

I smiled and pointed. “You, Blake.”

“Congratulations, son,” Ralph said, chuckling.

He was stunned. “Engaged? To who?”

“We make it news. You’ll make appearances with your fiancée, be seen out on the town. You can go to parties, saner ones than your normal, but she stays by your side and you pretend you love your new life and wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.”

“So, I have to get married to play hockey happily ever after?”

“This is just a story for the press, Blake.” It surprised me that he didn’t get it. “It’s a three-month fairytale episode in the life of Blake Collins. We announce the engagement and you play the loving fiancé for three months. Once the contracts are signed, you can stage a break-up. You can dump her, she can dump you…it doesn’t matter and won’t be my problem.”

“And this will work? Love conquers the bad boy?” His tone was incredulous.

“Right. She loves that he’s a brute on the ice and a cuddly teddy bear in the bedroom—just for her.” I batted my eyes at him to make sure he knew I was making my point.

He nodded, although most likely not out of agreement. “And who am I supposed to be in love with?”

“We need someone to play a public role. My company will hire an actress who will do it because it will make her famous.”

“An actress?”

“For this to be believable the woman needs to be hot—hotter than or at least as hot the girls you’re normally seen with―but she has to follow my script. I’ll work with her and create her story of how you two met and all that.”

“But we don’t get married?”

“No. It’s a game, Blake. Just keep up the pretense that you’re totally in love and have settled down until after the playoffs and you’ll have done your part. After that you can do what you like. Marry her, break up…we can spin it however you like. The message will have taken and will carry over into the off-season.”

Ralph grinned. “See, Blake? This lady’s the expert. Play along for three months and by then we’ll have both a multiyear contract with the team and the product endorsements. And one endorsement leads to others, etcetera and so on.”

“And I can be myself again?”

I sighed. “I don’t care what you do after that, Blake. You won’t be my concern.”

Blake sat back and folded his arms. The look he gave me shifted. When I first walked into this conference room he’d been checking me out, letting me know that he wasn’t going to pretend not to stare at my ass, legs and breasts. Something had changed but I couldn’t decipher what churned behind those eyes. I did have the upper hand, I knew I did, but this change left me unsettled.

“We convince the world that love changed me. The wild-assed hockey star meets the love of his life and now he’s playing by the rules like any pussy-whipped sucker who’s afraid the hot chick will dump him if he fools around. That’s your fucking plan?” He looked into my eyes, unflinching. It was a challenge.

I nodded once. “A crude way to put it, but yes. That is exactly my plan.”

“And people will fall for this shit?”

“It’s my job to make sure they do, and if you do what I say, follow my directions, it will work.”

He started at my ankles as he ran his eyes over me again and smiled when he reached my eyes. “I get final approval on the woman?”

“Within reason.” I returned his stare and maintained my resting bitch face, not about to fail this test and look away first. “I’m going to be arranging the play you’ll be acting in and casting the parts. Your fake fiancée will play the role in public only.”

Blake broke our staring match and got up from his chair to walk to the window. My office sat on the twenty-first floor of the building and had an impressive view. It gave me a good look at his broad back and I found the way his shoulders seemed wider when he moved rather delicious.

“So, Ralphie, you’re telling me that without this crazy stunt, I’m done?”

“Not done for sure, but not on the way up either,” Ralph replied. “Without something happening, even if the team renews your contract, it will not be for the money you should get, and forget the endorsements. The market is for athletes who are good role models.”

“So, she’s worth what I’m going to pay her?” He glanced at me, then back to Ralph.

“I’d say so.”

“Do I buy the girl an engagement ring?” He turned and faced me.

“Of course. We could even stage the proposal so that the media are there,” I said. “You’ll tell her you’re giving up other women for her. It will be dramatic.”

“Dramatic bullshit,” he said. I nodded. “I got where I am by being who I am. I won’t change.”

He didn’t need to tell me that.