Heat Of The Moment (Brooklyn Heat) by Locklyn Marx

asked.
    “She’s no one,” Chad said. “I told you, I wasn’t asking because of that.” On the other side of the airport, near the wall, a woman wearing a tight sweater and a pair of jeans that showed every curve of her body smiled at him. Chad smiled back. See? he thought to himself. He didn’t care about Kenley. Here he was, back in New York, flirting with the first hot woman he saw for God’s sake. He was back to his old ways, back to his old tricks, getting all worked up over anything in a form-fitting outfit. The problem was, he didn’t feel all that worked up.
    “You weren’t asking because of what?” Jay asked.
    “What?”
    “You just called me up and asked me how I knew Alyssa was the one, and now you’re saying you didn’t call and ask me about that for any good reason.”
    “Oh.” Chad shook his head and stepped through the sliding glass doors to the traffic circle outside. One of the team cars was waiting for him there, and he held up his hand to stop the driver from getting out to take care of his luggage, preferring to do it himself. Then he slid into the car and gave the driver the address of his apartment in Brooklyn.
    “Hello?” Jay said.
    “Yes, I’m here.” Chad pulled his sunglasses off and looked out the window. The city was cold and gray, much colder than it had been in Florida. This was one thing that wasn’t fair about the off-season -- whenever he had time off, the weather was complete shit. Of course, he could have spent the winter somewhere warm, but the Brooklyn Heat organization frowned upon that kind of thing. They wanted the players to stay in Brooklyn, to become part of the community. It was a bunch of bullshit.
    “What’s going on with you?” Jay asked. And he sounded worried.
    “Nothing,” Chad said, trying to force himself to believe the words as they came out of his mouth. “Absolutely nothing. I’m just starting to get worried about myself, you know, because I can’t find a woman to settle down with.” It was a lie, of course. Chad had never worried about this in his life. But he couldn’t have Jay knowing what was really going on.
    “You want to find a woman to settle down with?”
    “No,” Chad said, trying to sound cocky. “That’s the problem. I can’t imagine myself with just one woman. I’m starting to think there might be something wrong with me.” As he said this, visions of Kenley at all his games, sitting in the stands and wearing his jersey, danced through his head. He’d take her home afterwards, make her dinner, and then they’d have a glass of wine in front of the TV while watching shows on HGTV.
    Jesus Christ. What was wrong with him?
    “Why?” Jay asked. “What have you gotten yourself into now?”
    Chad hadn’t planned on telling him. But he didn’t want Jay to think he was turning into some kind of romantic sap, and before he knew it, the whole story was pouring out. Meeting Kenley. The pictures. The meeting with Expera. Him paying her to be his fake girlfriend. Of course, he left out the part about how much he’d been thinking about her, and spun the whole thing like it was going to be some huge colossal headache, just another classic Chad Parnell scrape that he’d gotten himself into.
    “How much?” Jay asked.
    “How much what?” Chad shifted uncomfortably on his seat.
    “How much are you paying her?”
    “Don’t worry about it,” he said.
    “Chad, how --- oh, hold on.” He heard Jay conversing with someone in the background. “Alyssa wants to know what this girl looks like.”
    “Kenley?”
    “Yeah.”
    Chad thought about it. Her long blonde hair. Her blue eyes. The way her nose crinkled up when she didn’t agree with something he was saying. Her soft skin, how nice she felt against him, how he loved pulling her close, how small she felt even though she was curvy and pretty and sexy all at once. “She’s pretty,” Chad said.
    “And?” Jay asked suspiciously.
    “And what? She’s pretty, she has long