Playing Dirty
C.L. Parker
CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Shaw
Chapter 2: Cassidy
Chapter 3: Shaw
Chapter 4: Shaw
Chapter 5: Cassidy
Chapter 6: Cassidy
Chapter 7: Shaw
Chapter 8: Cassidy
Chapter 9: Shaw
Chapter 10: Cassidy
Chapter 11: Cassidy
Chapter 12: Shaw
Chapter 13: Shaw
Chapter 14: Shaw
Chapter 15: Shaw
Chapter 16: Cassidy
Chapter 17: Shaw
Chapter 18: Cassidy
Chapter 19: Shaw
CHAPTER 1
Shaw
“So the goal here, people,” Wade Price, CEO of Striker Sports Entertainment, said as he wrapped up—I hoped—his very long-winded pep talk, “is to wine and dine Rockford. Give him any and everything he wants. Romance him until he signs with this agency. Matthews, I’m counting on you and Whalen. And, since you’re the best of the best, I’m sending both of you to meet with him. The decision I make regarding the partnership hinges on who is able to succeed. Simply put, whichever one of you gets me Rockford gets the position.”
It figured.
Every agent employed by Striker Sports Entertainment was present at the weekly staff meeting to give witness to what was, undoubtedly, the biggest showdown between the most competitive agents in the city. And they just happened to be employed by the same agency. I was one of those agents, Shaw Matthews. The bane of my existence, Cassidy Whalen, was the other.
After Wade’s partner, Monty Prather, retired, the vacant spot came up for grabs. Cassidy and I had been competing for the job since it had been announced, three months ago. I think Wade loved to watch us go at each other. I know the rest of the office did. We were both ruthless in our antics, unforgiving in our quest to secure the most coveted prizes, which were usually the same clients every other agent in the nation wanted. More often than not, we won. Combined, our haul was impressive, but it was small potatoes compared to what was in store. Cassidy and I had never gone head-to-head for the same client.
Until now.
It wasn’t often that one of the most sought after athletes ditched their agent and publicly advertised that they were on the lookout for someone who could make them even more money than they were already making, which was an insane amount. Wade Price wanted a taste of that insanity, so he was unleashing his favorite pets and pitting us against each other. I had to hand it to him; it was a smart move. Tapping into our insatiable need to one-up each other guaranteed that Striker would bring home the win.
Our target was Denver “Rocket Man” Rockford, San Diego’s star quarterback. Apparently, his former agent hadn’t had the same vision as Denver for his future, so he got sacked (no pun intended), and Denver was on the hunt for new representation. And it just so happened his contract was up for renewal, with him coming off a more than stellar performance for the season and little time left before he needed to get back to training for the next. Fast decisions needed to be made, which meant fast talking and fast walking. Naturally, Wade felt Striker was the agency that could best negotiate the deal. And even though the payday was a nice bit of incentive, it was the notoriety of being Denver’s agent that I craved most.
Cassidy stood in the way of that. I meant to plow her down, but she wasn’t going to make it easy.
She was a real man-eater, the sort whose career meant more to her than enjoying the fruits of all that labor. She never missed a day of work, and she knew things about her clients they didn’t even know about themselves. Cassidy Whalen was as worthy an opponent as I had ever come up against. In fact, her client list was every bit as impressive as mine. Not bad for a chick. She was good. She was also a bore. And a bitch.
She didn’t like me very much, which was unusual, because most women did. Maybe she just needed to get laid. I doubted very seriously that anything like that was happening. I didn’t really care, but I’d made it my business to know my enemy, so I’d paid attention to details. No ring on her finger meant she wasn’t married or engaged. And around here, no gossip at the water cooler meant she also wasn’t involved in any interoffice romances. Not that gossip equaled fact. There were plenty of stories circulating about me, but those were all wishful thinking without an ounce of truth.
My adversary’s aversion to me, seemingly without a man to whom she was simply loyal, forced me to formulate my own theories in an attempt to reason it all out. The one at the top of my list was pretty clever, in my opinion. I was betting she was secretly a black widow, sucking the life out of men who dared get near her. Even if I’d hit the mark with that one, I wasn’t the least bit intimidated. I could handle her. Admittedly, I was sort of curious to know if she was as much of a hellcat in the sack as she was in the boardroom. Lord knows she’d given me more than one hard-on while strutting her stuff like her shit didn’t stink, mostly while taking shots at me.
“Sir, do we have anything on him?” Cassidy’s glasses were perched on the end of her nose, and her long legs were crossed, with her hand poised to jot down any information he could provide on her next target. Somehow she even managed to make suck-up look sort of sexy. Not that she’d intended to.
She and I were alike in a lot of ways, but this wasn’t one of them. I preferred the casual approach, leaning back in my chair and propping an elbow on the table to take it all in. For one thing, I was bored. For another, this meeting had already gone on far longer than necessary, and I had shit to do. I didn’t bother with a pen or a pad of paper; I wasn’t interested in taking notes. I didn’t need to. I had the memory of an elephant and could recall details others missed even if they’d recorded the whole damn thing.
I chuckled under my breath, amused by Cassidy’s eagerness. She must have heard me, because the spike of her heel found its way onto the top of my foot. And it felt none too pleasant. I shot up straight but covered my growl with a cough when Wade’s eyes pinned me to my seat. Cassidy sat prim and proper beside me, like nothing had happened. Innocent, she was not.
I took the look of disapproval from Wade and kept my trap shut so he could answer her and this meeting could be over with already.
“I expect you to do your own digging for his personal details. Makes it more authentic. And you could use a challenge, Whalen.”
Cassidy nodded. “Yes, sir. I look forward to it.”
Suck. Up.
“I want a report from each of you first thing after your meeting. Now get your butts out of here. It’s a madhouse out there, and I want to head home.” Finally. He turned away, mumbling under his breath, “I hate rush-hour traffic.”
As eager as I was for the meeting to adjourn, I was even more eager to mess with my nemesis. Maybe shake her foundation a bit. Any chance I had to do it, I pounced. So I took my time hauling myself out of the leather seat, which had nearly become glued to my ass, while the room cleared and Cassidy studiously gathered her things. No one needed that much crap for a staff meeting.
Once the room was empty, I leaned in. “Ever worry your nose will get stuck in his ass and you’ll have to have it surgically removed?”
Without so much as a pause in her actions or a look in my direction, she came back with “Ever worry you’ll get lockjaw from sucking his cock?”
There she was. Cassidy Whalen had everyone else in the office fooled, but not me. I’d been on the receiving end of her mouth since the day I’d arrived, almost a year before. She was jealous, and she’d formulated her opinion of me before I’d even stepped foot back on American soil after my long tenure abroad.
“Nice, Whalen. Really nice. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”
“Who I kiss and w
ith what is none of your concern.”
“How about you pucker up and kiss my ass?”
Cassidy dropped her messenger bag and turned on me. “I am so sick of your crap, Matthews. Since the day you got here, you’ve acted like everything should be handed to you. And now you think you deserve the position I’ve been busting my butt for?”
“Oh, so you’re the only person who’s been busting their ass around here? I’m sure the rest of the staff would appreciate knowing that.”
“Don’t put words into my mouth. You knew what I meant.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m not fluent in bitch.”
Her laugh was sarcastic, but the ire behind those green eyes was completely authentic. She was so cute when she was perturbed.
“Listen up, golden boy.” She leaned in, encroaching upon my personal space. “You might have been Monty Prather’s pride and joy, but he’s not here to pamper you anymore. Which means you might actually have to do some real work, because if you think for one second that I’m going to roll over and play dead to appease your sense of entitlement, you’re even dumber than you look. You want that partnership? You better get your act together, since I will not hesitate for one second to do whatever I need to in order to rip it out of your precious, perfectly manicured clutches.”
Pfft … I did not get manicures. And she obviously didn’t know a thing about me, other than how to piss me off. My chair shot back when I stood—not that I’d meant for it to happen, but the effect was cool. “I was going to take it easy on you, but just for that, now I’m going to bury you!”
No, it wasn’t a zinger of a comeback, and I was disappointed in myself. It was like lying in bed with an exotic beauty and having nothing to offer but a limp cock. And no, that had never happened to me, either—the limp cock, not the exotic beauty. I knew Cassidy was quick on the draw, though, so I didn’t stick around for her witty retort. Instead, I bolted out of the boardroom and slammed the door behind myself.
The woman infuriated me no end. I had never let anyone else get under my skin, and I was perplexed as to why she was able to do it so easily. Normally, I was pretty laid-back, cool as a cucumber, comfortable in any element, without a care in the world. But when Cassidy Whalen walked into the room, something inside me went haywire. She was the Achilles’ heel to my composure, kryptonite to my self-confidence. I kept it together for the most part when she was around, not wanting to show my hand lest she use it to her advantage. I knew she would because I would do the same thing. But she wasn’t going to win. I’d never concede victory to a woman. I just wasn’t made up of the stuff that would allow me to utter those blasphemous words from my mouth.
My feet landed heavily on the trek back to my office to pull my shit together so I could get the hell out of there and find a tall cold one. I even blew past the gaggle of assistants and receptionists who liked to bat their lashes and show way too much cleavage; I wasn’t in the mood to flirt. Okay, I could’ve used the boost to my ego, so I probably should’ve made that stop, but I didn’t.
When I reached my suite, my assistant snapped his head up from his desk and stared after me. “I take it the meeting went well?”
“Can it, Ben!” I barked. “Shit! Shit! Shit!”
“What happened?”
“I’ll give you three guesses.”
“And I only need one,” he said in a tone that was much too jovial. That was Ben Durand. He believed the glass was always half full and that no matter how stormy the day or how late the hour, the sun would shine again. If he’d had curly red hair and freckles instead of blond hair and blue eyes, he would’ve made an excellent Little Orphan Annie. “How is the ice queen today?”
I couldn’t help myself from sniggering at the nickname someone had bestowed upon her long before my first day at Striker.
“Her Highness is just peachy—warm and fuzzy as usual,” I said from my office. “In fact, she and I have to share a meeting with Denver Rockford. No doubt, she’ll try to make me look like an imbecile in front of him. Let’s make sure we don’t give her any ammunition. Find me anything you can on him. I want to know every little detail, down to what time of day the man takes a piss.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Ben was used to my abruptness after a run-in with Cassidy, so he never took it personally. The man was quite possibly a saint.
Inside the relative sanctuary of my office, I paced more than I accomplished anything. Cassidy Whalen and her high-and-mighty attitude. Cassidy Whalen and her insinuations that she deserved the position more than I just because she’s been here longer. Cassidy Whalen and her smart-ass mouth and frigid disposition. Cassidy fucking Whalen!
I needed a plan. Some way to bring her down once and for all. Maybe if I turned on the old Matthews charm, it would make the ice queen melt. Maybe bringing her to her knees meant literally getting her down on her knees. Sure, I could do that. She’d be unable to resist me. She’d fall all over herself to get into my bed, and I’d fuck her so senseless she wouldn’t be able to think clearly by the time I was done. Thus, mistakes would be made, and I’d be there to swoop in and snatch her coveted title right out of her teeny, tiny hands.
One problem: I hated her. How was I going to stick my dick inside someone I despised? Besides, doing something like that went against my own rule of no hanky-panky in the workplace. But wooing those damn panties off her frigid ass was probably the best shot I had at sweeping her off her feet and then under the rug. Nothing else had worked up until now, and winning the Striker partnership would mean I could finally settle down in one place. I could do it for the greater good.
It wasn’t like Cassidy was ugly. As much as I hated to admit it, she wasn’t half bad to look at. I mean, she had a few things working for her. Like the legs of a runner and an ass any man would give his left nut to see bouncing up and down on his lap. There might have been more to her physically, but she kept it hidden with the whole librarian thing she had going on. The tailor-made suits, brown Wayfarer glasses, and rusty-colored hair, which she kept in a bun at the nape of her neck, were typical of someone who wanted to downplay her looks. I couldn’t decide if that was her true intention, if she really was that reserved, or if she secretly knew how many men had sexy-librarian fantasies swimming around in their heads and she was trying to use it to take over the world.
A sexy librarian with a soft New England accent and those damn peep-toe pumps. Okay, so maybe she was hot.
But that accent could be annoying when she put some snark behind it, which she did more often than not when speaking to me. And those peep-toes grated on my last nerve when she gave them an incessant tap each time I stole the spotlight away from her.
It wasn’t until I pictured those spiky heels that I noticed I’d been clenching my teeth as well as my fists. I could just see the smug look on her face when she presented Wade with a contract signed by Denver Rockford. The woman would make my life a living hell as my boss, and I simply couldn’t let that happen. In fact, I’d stoop to an all-time low to ensure that it didn’t. My mind was made up. I was going to seduce my mortal enemy.
“You’re going down, Whalen.”
Cassidy
Ally was hot on my heels the second I stomped into my office, catching the door I attempted to slam shut and closing it softly behind herself instead. Even when I didn’t have the presence of mind to keep my cool, she did. My assistant had become an expert at detecting my moods, though it wouldn’t take the dynamic duo of Holmes and Watson to solve the mystery today. It was always the same after I’d been anywhere within the vicinity of Shaw Matthews. I did my best not to let it show, since I had a reputation to uphold, but it took a lot of work. And grinding of teeth. I’d even bitten into my tongue a time or two.
I growled in frustration, feeling the familiar Irish temper surge through my veins to warm my skin. No doubt, my face was red. “That arrogant—”
“—son of a bitch,” Ally finished, which, I admit, coaxed another growl from me. I didn’t know if I was irked more by
her insubordination or by my predictability. “You hate him…. He’s just so … Arrrgh!”
Arrrgh? Am I a pirate now?
I spun around to face her, the messenger bag on my shoulder continuing with the momentum and nearly taking me with it. “No one likes a smart-ass, Coop.”
My assistant’s name was Ally Cooper, to be exact. Even though the surname hadn’t been her parents’, they’d been Alice Cooper roadies and fanatics, and thought giving the name to their daughter, legally, would be an appropriate homage. Ally suspected that her mother had been more than just a groupie—something her mother had never confirmed or denied. I was with Ally. She had the Father of Shock Rock’s lean physique and raven hair, and she was even rocking the nose, though Ally wore it better. If his tour dates matched up with the timing of her birth, no way would it have been a coincidence.
Ally exaggerated a pout. “Sorry.”
I didn’t think she was sincere. Mostly because I knew she wasn’t. Like I said, she was insubordinate. I’d fire her if she weren’t so good at keeping up with me. Apparently, there was something in the water. That or everyone was in on some scheme to drive me bat-shit crazy. Including Wade Price. Naturally, it made me growly.
At twenty-eight, I was the youngest woman to make a name for myself in the business, but Shaw was a minor league big shot who had only joined the U.S. office less than a year before. And already he was a contender for partnership. Talk about it being a man’s world. His wealth and unconscionable flirting had gotten him far. So had all the influential people he had in his pocket, the name-dropper. It was his charisma that romanced his clients, though. I hated to admit it, but he was a mastermind, a real smooth talker who made big promises and always delivered. Even if he had to take the money out of his own pocket to do it. Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater.
“Can you believe I have to share a car with him?”
“Seriously? They expect two people to ride in the back of a limousine? What were they thinking?” She wasn’t even trying to cover her sarcasm. No Christmas bonus for her.