Jamie Sobrato - Once Upon A Seduction

He stopped the recording before he had to hear it again.

And for the first time, he realized what was bothering him so much. He’d become one of those guys. A guy women didn’t want anything serious with—a guy they didn’t even want to talk to or go out to dinner with. A guy they just wanted to screw.

How the hell had that happened?

Sure, he’d expected retirement from racing to bring with it a fading of the limelight, but he hadn’t expected women to stop regarding him as an interesting human being outside of the bedroom.

He sank onto the couch, propped his feet on the coffee table, and grabbed the remote. With the press of a button, a sixty-inch plasma TV screen emerged from a console cabinet on the other side of the room, and with another press of a button, the sports channel was on, displaying scores from yesterday’s games.

He needed to order a pizza, do something for dinner, but the thought of eating alone… Best not to think about it again. Instead, he watched the sports news and tried really hard to give a damn about any of it. Tried to ignore his annoyance that he wasn’t making news anymore.

Thoughts of Skye invaded—a welcome distraction from the news. He closed his eyes and summoned an image of her at her desk at work. He’d never been big on office fantasies, but he could have thought of a few ways to liven up that cubicle of hers. He could have shown up after hours…found her working alone… propped her up on that desk…pressed himself between her legs. He imagined the silky feel of her, the way her thighs would clench around his hips, the way the flesh of her breasts would mold to his hands, the way her breath would feel tickling his neck as he pounded against her—

Then the doorbell rang and jarred him back to reality. He got up from the couch, adjusted his pants, and went to the door slowly, as if he didn’t care about having a visitor, not sure whether to be happy or disgusted that it was probably some unannounced booty call dropping by.

And when he saw Skye outside the foyer window standing on his front steps, it was the most welcome sight he’d beheld in a long time. An unexpected burst of joy surged in his chest. Again, Skye evoked in him emotions that he’d been afraid might be gone for good.

She was glaring at the door, not exactly looking happy to be there. Which was too bad. If she’d been on his doorstep looking for sex and nothing more, she was the one woman he’d be more than happy to oblige.

But more likely, his lure had worked. She wanted to know if he really knew where Martin was. He didn’t know, but he had a damn good idea.

He opened the door and smiled.

“You bastard, your showing up at my office set off the chain of events that got me fired, and you expect me to help you?”

“You got yourself fired. And hello to you, too.”

“I didn’t come here to chitchat. Are you going to let me in, or should I just stand out here until I blow away?”

Nico stepped aside, images of the first time he’d seen her struggling with her skirt filling his head, her tempting proximity causing his groin to stir again. “Downside of living on the ocean. The wind can be a bitch.”

She turned on him and shot him a screw-you glare. “How about you say something more like, ‘I’m sorry you’ve lost your only source of income. I’ll be thinking of you when you’re living on the street.’”

“By the looks of that place, I’d say I did you a favor. Sit in a cubicle like that long enough and you’ll go insane.”

Her expression transformed for a few seconds, as if she was shocked by his observation. But then she recovered.

“I don’t need your career advice.”

“You didn’t come here to scold me about your lost job, did you? Because I have a feeling that Dottie chick is the one you need to scold.”

“No, I came to beg your forgiveness for breathing.” She leveled a smart-ass gaze at him that made him want to kiss her senseless.

He had to start thinking with the right head. Fast. She was too damn sexy when she was pissed.

“Could it be you want to see if I really know where Martin is?”

She shrugged. “If you know where he is, then why haven’t the police beaten down his door?”

She was smarter than he’d hoped.

“I’ve told them everything I know, but I’d say Martin has left the state and is no longer high on their priority list.”

“What you mean is, you don’t have a clue where to find him.”

“The way I see it, you’re in a win-win situation. Either you help me out because you want to find Martin as much as I do, or you help me out because you need to keep me away from your scumbag boyfriend.”

“So what if I agree to help you? Then what?”

Nico had asked himself that question many times already. He might have been able to take whatever information he could get from Skye and find Martin on his own, but he wouldn’t have much chance of getting close to him once he found him. Skye, on the other hand, was quite possibly Martin’s Achilles’ heel.

And even if she wasn’t, she was the best bait he could hope to find to lure Martin out of hiding.

“Then we go on a little trip.”

“Go where?”

“I can’t reveal all my secrets up front.”

“You expect me to just take off with you? Some guy I don’t even know?”

“Don’t I look trustworthy?”

“No.”

“Can you even trust your own judgment after dating a con artist?”

One corner of her mouth curved up, and Nico knew he almost had her.

“I might be willing to help except I’m broke, and I need to be looking for a job right now since I’m newly unemployed.”

Okay, so he wasn’t a heartless ogre. Another stab of guilt struck him that she’d lost her job, and in spite of his suspicions about her, he felt as though he ought to help somehow. “So you’re a writer. Can’t you get a job doing that?”

“Yeah, me and the five zillion other people who want to be writers. I can just go down to the book factory and fill out an application. They’re always hiring.”

“You live in L.A. Why aren’t you writing for Hollywood like everyone else?”

She pinned him with a look. “For one, not everybody wants to write for Hollywood, and second, it’s not that simple.”

“Okay, okay. I know writing jobs don’t grow on palm trees, but still, if you’ve got any talent, you should be able to get work.”

“Screw you.”

Nico held up his hands in surrender. “Guess I had that coming. Listen, if it turns out you aren’t involved with Martin, I’ll get you some face time with my next-door neighbor. He’s the CEO of a couple of TV networks. He’s always complaining about how there’s no talent in Hollywood.”

He could see the spark of interest in her eyes that she was probably trying really hard not to show.

“Okay, whatever. That’s not going to pay my bills right now.”

“I’ll cover your expenses until you can pay me back.”

Her expression transformed to suspicious, but she made no further protest.

“So it’s a deal,” he said before she could change her mind. “You might want to pack for hot weather. We’ll have to take a little drive.”

“How little?”

“We could get there in six hours or less.”

She seemed to be doing the math in her head. Six hours or less could mean driving to any number of places—San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Mexico, Arizona or anyplace in between.

“You have to at least tell me where we’re going.”

“Does it matter?”

“I might have a clue about where Martin is.”

Nico stared at her, daring her to look away. She didn’t seem much like a criminal, but then neither had Martin. He’d seemed like a regular guy, a friend even. And Nico was the dumb-ass who’d fallen for Martin’s story of needing a loan to get his business venture up and running and having an ex who’d ruined his bank credit.