The Dom vs. The Virgin Read online

  I pocketed the phone just as Nana approached. “You haven’t forgotten my dance, have you? I asked the band for something special.”

  I turned toward the music coming from the seven-member band in the front of the room. They were currently jamming out to “Zoot Suit Riot.” I lifted a brow. “You want to Zoot Suit?”

  Nana rolled her eyes. “Of course I do, but I have something else in mind.” She stuck out an elbow. “Come on, you handsome fox.”

  I could feel my face grow hot and was grateful for the mustache and full goatee that covered most of it. The guys catcalled from behind me as I led the sweet old lady to the floor. She raised her hands until they were on my shoulders and lifted up onto her tiptoes. Looking over at the band, she cried out, “Hit it!”

  Oh shit.

  If I’d been on the game show, I could have named that song in two notes.

  Seriously? “I Wanna Sex You Up” was her choice for our dance?

  “Nana!” That came from Kane, who was dragging a laughing Eliana behind him, her veil flowing out behind her like angel wings.

  Nana raised her arms over her head and swirled her hips to the rhythm of the music. “Don’t you Nana me, Kane Bartholomew. Rhett and I are going to show you young people how this is done.”

  Well, I guessed I was going to have to try.

  Extending my hand to Nana, I twirled her gently. She might’ve had the spirit to dance, but the eighty-something body was frailer than even she would probably confess to. But she gave as good as she got, and I couldn’t help wishing she was sixty years younger. This was absolutely the kind of woman I could live with. All lady on the outside, dirty on the inside. I had a feeling Nana had been a wild one in her days.

  “Did you enjoy meeting my granddaughters?” she asked as we swayed to the music. “Take a shine to either one?”

  Holy fuck.

  “You were right,” I said carefully, “they are both lovely. Any man would be lucky to catch their eye.”

  “But not yours?” The look she gave me allowed for no subterfuge.

  I continued to dance around the conversation. “I think they’re both too good for me.”

  She made a hmph sound. “I think you’re too stubborn to see what a good man you are. I did some digging into your past. Google seems to know everything.”

  I faltered for a beat but took us back into a steady flow. “You googled me? Why?”

  “Curiosity. Not many people make me curious about them, Rhett.”

  “So, that’s a compliment?” I asked, wishing the damn song would end.

  “Very much so. I like you, Rhett. And not in a sex-you-up kind of way, although that might have been different a few years ago.” Her smile grew brighter the redder I became. “You’re broody. I like broody men. Not just because it’s sexy, but because there’s always something deep and interesting lying just behind that closed-off façade.”

  I snorted. “Nothing deep and interesting here, I’m afraid.”

  She smirked. “I don’t believe that for an instant. So, I was curious.”

  Please song… end dammit.

  “And what exactly did you learn?”

  “Surprisingly, not much. There was quite a lot about you in the past few years, but that was mostly tied to you building the stadium and creating the Beasts. And of course… women. You scoundrel.” She batted her lashes. “Before that, I found your name alongside a number of businesses and patents, trademarks, things like that. I know you’re thirty-six and the youngest professional club owner in the MLB, which means you’re very rich, seemingly self-made. It’s hard to tell because it seems your entire life before the age of eighteen is missing from the archives.”

  I swallowed. This wasn’t the first time my childhood had been the topic of discussion. During interviews, I’d cut reporters off at the knees when they tried to delve too hard, too far. But this was Nana…

  “I didn’t have a happy childhood,” I admitted, and her eyes softened, her hand stroking my arm.

  Pity.

  I hated that look. Despised it even. I felt myself shut down.

  “Now stop that,” Nana admonished. “I’m not pitying you. I’m sympathizing…”

  Good God, could this woman read minds too?

  “…and I know I seem to be a bit pushy.” I snorted, and she laughed. “Okay, a lot pushy, but I like you, Rhett. More than that, I respect you. The way you stood up for Eliana and my grandson is something I’ll forever be grateful for. So it isn’t pity. It’s even more than sympathy. I admire you and find you fascinating. So, I was curious as to how such a successful young man seemed to be born when he was eighteen.”

  Finally, the song ended, the tail of the music evolving into a new song, a Stevie Ray Vaughan song I hadn’t heard in forever. Instead of escorting Nana from the dance floor, I found myself continuing to dance. Continuing the talk. Continuing a line of discussion I never allowed, but finding the conversation with Nana Steele comforting in some strangely awkward way.

  “It was actually easy,” I admitted. “Changing your name and identity legally doesn’t take much, especially eighteen years ago. In this day and age, there are probably more hoops to jump through, but…” I lifted a shoulder.

  “Why did you feel the need to change, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  I gazed down into her shining blue eyes, the skin thin and wrinkled around them. “Because I never had anyone like you in my life growing up.”

  The shining blue glistened now, and she blinked back the wet threatening to spill. “Well, you have me in your life now. At least you do until the grim reaper comes calling.”

  My heart squeezed at the idea of the world losing this sweet woman. “How is that experimental treatment working?”

  She seemed to find my tie fascinating. “The doctors think the tumor might be stable. It hasn’t grown, nor has it shrunk.”

  “That’s good news.”

  She lifted her shoulder, her small hand squeezing mine. “I suppose so. I’m just glad I was able to live long enough to see my grandson married, and so happily married too. I think Kane and Eliana were simply meant for each other.”

  I looked over Nana’s head to find the couple smiling at each other as Kane dirty danced on his seriously blushing bride. “Yeah. I’d been worried that they were getting married too fast, but it seems to suit them both.”

  “That was my goal. Living long enough to see this day.”

  I smiled down at her. “Congratulations. Now you’ll need to live long enough to see your granddaughters hitched.”

  Nana lifted a brow. “You proposing?”

  “No!” I practically shouted.

  She laughed. “Once a scoundrel…” she clicked her tongue. “But you make a good point. I’ll just need to find another project that keeps me busy, and my mind redirected from the knowledge that my brain is slowly being taken over by a hungry bitch.”

  I squeezed her hand, and gently lowered her backward into a dip as the song ended. “You keep fighting that bitch in your head. Hear me?”

  She gazed up at me, still bowed over my arm. “I will. Now get me up from here before my petticoat shows.”

  I laughed and got her firmly to her feet, tucking her hand in my left arm once she was steady.

  “Rhett!”

  Locating the direction of the voice, I saw Ace signaling, a hand waving over his head.

  “Want to go see what that crew is up to?” I would be happy to escort her around all night.

  “And stay on the arm of the most handsome man in the room? Sure.”

  She was a mess.

  We snail’s-paced it over to the group of Beasts, and I noticed that my catcher, Todd Morris, and Katrina, my public relations guru, had joined them. Beside Katrina was a man who looked familiar, although I couldn’t place him right off.

  “Rhett,” Katrina started and indicated the man, “this is Richard Collins, CEO of Infinity Productions. We’ve worked with his company on the revenge porn public service announcements we did recently, among many other projects.”

  I stuck my hand out, shook his. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Collins.”

  “Richard, please. It’s been wonderful working with the Beasts. Congratulations on the big win.”

  “Thanks, Richard. I’m pretty proud of my team.”

  “As you should be. And congratulations on being named New York’s most eligible bachelor.”

  Catcalls resounded all around me.

  I rolled my eyes. “That, I could have done without.”

  Richard chuckled. “But an honor nonetheless. Well…” he looked at Katrina, who gave him a go-ahead nod. I stiffened, wondering what was about to happen. “I’ve had this idea that I think will garner the Beasts even more attention. You’ve probably watched reality shows like The Bachelor—”

  “No!” I would have backed away if I hadn’t been surrounded or had an eighty-year-old on my arm. “I think I know where you’re going with this.”

  My hand was smacked. “Hear him out,” Nana ordered, “don’t be rude, Rhett Spencer Hamilton.”

  Oh. Dear. God.

  “Of course, you’re right.” I nodded at Richard. “Please, go on.”

  Richard winked at Nana. “I want to offer you the role as the very first bachelor in what I’m sure will be a hit series called ‘The Biggest Catch.’”

  Hell no.

  “We’ll find nine contestants who will attempt to win your affections, and you’ll eliminate them one by one.”

  “Why nine?” Eliana asked. I turned to see that she and Kane had joined the group. Great.

  “Because there are nine innings in a baseball game. Each contestant will strike out and be ejected until one is left.”

  “And then he’ll ask the remaining one to marry him?” W
hitney asked, a huge smile on her face.

  “No!”

  That was me, but it was followed by a more measured production of the word. “No,” Richard said. “This game is different. What the winner will receive is the opportunity to go on a two-week fabulous vacation with Rhett to see if the connection they created on the show will transfer into something permanent. We don’t want anyone forced into a marriage.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Kane and Eliana look at each other and burst out laughing. What the hell was that all about?

  “Then he’ll ask her to marry him?” Holly asked this time.

  “No!”

  Again, that was me. A bit more cordial, Richard shook his head. “Neither marriage nor an engagement is an expected result. The purpose of the show is for the women to try to catch — get it — catch Rhett’s attention enough that he would want to hang out with one of them more. If it doesn’t work out…” Richard shrugged. “No skin off anyone’s nose. The winner keeps her hundred grand and—”

  “Hundred thousand dollars?” Holly jumped in. “I didn’t think the girl got any money.”

  “Well, they don’t on other shows, but we’re doing our show differently. In addition, the bachelor, Rhett in this case…” He looked over at me, grimacing slightly at my continually shaking head, “will receive a million dollars to go to the charity of his choice.”

  Ace hooted. “I could open another hotel for the vets with that, Rhett!”

  Eliana pulled at my arm. “The Vets and Pets program could really use that boost.” Damn, her blue eyes were fucking mesmerizing, so I forced myself to look away. She yanked my attention back. “Or we could use the money for revenge porn awareness, so other women won’t have to go through what I did.”

  Her eyes grew wet. Shit.

  Katrina stepped in. “This would gain wonderful attention for the team, Rhett.”

  I sputtered. “B-but… but we just won the f-fucking World Series. How—”

  Nana smacked my hand again.

  I glanced down at her with a contrite, “Sorry, Nana.” Then my eyes were piercing Katrina’s again. “But seriously, we just won the World Series. How much more attention do we need?”

  Katrina frowned. “That was two weeks ago. The parade is done, as well as all of the interviews and publicity. It’s effectively over, Rhett. This would give not just New York, but the entire world another angle to get to know the Beasts and you.”

  My lips still wouldn’t work right. “H-how is me… dammit… dating and publicly t-tossing women out on their ears like they were livestock that didn’t pass inspection going to make America know and love me?”

  I thought that was a very valid point even though my voice had grown squeaky at the end.

  “You do it every week, if the tabloids are correct,” Nana inserted that tidbit into the conversation.

  Shit.

  I needed a different excuse.

  “I don’t have the time for something like this. I can’t just stop my work and jet off to some… place that…” Hell, I didn’t even know where something like this would be shot.

  Richard held up a hand. “You have that enormous estate out on Georgica Pond. The main house has, what, eleven bedrooms?”

  “Twelve,” I corrected and then pushed a hand through my hair, grabbing it by the roots and pulling enough to get the blood flow back to my head.

  “So, we could have you and the girls in the main house. You also have a five-bedroom guesthouse and three-bedroom pool house. They would house our crew quite adequately. Those who don’t fit can commute in and out.”

  “Oh… this is so exciting!” Nana squealed. “Can I stay with you, Rhett? Serve as a mentor of sorts to the girls?”

  Richard clapped his hands together. “That’s a truly excellent idea. Some of these girls will be rough, so you can help polish the edges.”

  “Rough?” I barked. “What do you mean by rough?”

  “I mean that we want to choose women who are normal people. They have jobs. Maybe had a struggling childhood. All of them could use the money. And all of them would love to hook a catch like you but because of the normality of their circumstances, would never get a chance to toss out a line to someone like you.”

  “I’m not a fucking fish!” My hand burned again. “Ouch!”

  Nana pulled on my arm until I looked down at her. “Rhett, sweetheart. Do this. It will be fun. I’ve always had good instincts about people, and I see good things happening for you with this show.”

  My mouth opened and closed a few times. Time! I needed to bring the conversation back to my lack of it. “Well, that doesn’t clear my calendar. If… and I’m stressing if here… I wouldn’t let this interfere with preseason.”

  Richard’s eyes narrowed. “When does spring training begin exactly?”

  I inwardly grinned, knowing this was my out. There was no way they could produce nine weeks of a reality show in that amount of time. “February twenty-fourth. But that’s not the deadline. My entire January is filled. I’d need to be finished before Christmas.”

  Katrina nodded, stabbing her finger at her phone. “Rhett’s right. He’s in meetings nearly every day from the third of January on.” She looked disappointed but I was mentally tap dancing at the confirmation.

  Calvin handed me a glass of whiskey. I took it greedily and held it to my lips. One, I needed the drink, and two, to cover my pleased expression as I watched Richard calculate the timing in his head.

  “That’s only five weeks,” he muttered. “Thirty-five days. I’d normally need three weeks just to hire cast and crew, get the staging ready. Do all the preproduction get-to-know-me stuff.”

  Katrina cocked her head, tapping a finger against her lips. “How many days do you need to actually shoot the show?”

  Richard scratched his chin. “Normally, reality shows take about three days per episode. With nine episodes, that’s twenty-seven days of just shooting.”

  I was feeling pretty happy now. No way in hell could they pull this off.

  “Well, what if this was more of a speed dating thing rather than so much get-to-know you stuff?” That question came from Nana Steele. “You’ve already said you aren’t expecting a proposal at the end, so why draw things out?”

  Katrina brightened. “Yes, that could be part of the promotion for the show. Ten people tossed together for nine days. Who will come out alive?”

  Cutting someone’s tongue out really shouldn’t be against the law. I tossed back the rest of my drink and Calvin handed me another. I tossed that one back too.

  Richard was staring at his phone, mumbling to himself. “This could work.”

  My stomach turned in on itself.

  “Well…” Nana prompted as Richard continued to add things in his head.

  He looked at me, a smile spreading across his lips. “We could do it. It would be tight, but we could work within that schedule.”

  The entire crowd around me whooped.

  “Just think…” Whitney cried, “you could find your one true love on this show.”

  I scoffed. “Love is bullshit.” Glancing over at Kane and Eliana in their wedding attire, I muttered, “Sorry,” even as Nana smacked what was quickly becoming a sore spot on my hand.

  “See...” Richard exclaimed, “that’s what’s so perfect about you being on the show. Most of these types of reality shows have a guy who is ready to fall in love and is simply searching for the one...” he drawled out the word, adding air quotes for emphasis. “But not you. This is the perfect twist because you don’t believe in love and there will be nine women up to the challenge to prove you wrong in a very short amount of time.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “Then the last woman standing still wins the prize money. She’ll take her money and live happily ever after with a hundred grand.”

  “And Rhett still gets the money for the charity?” Eliana asked. Her huge blue eyes were like a sucker punch to the gut. She looked at me so hopefully, I didn’t know how I could say no.

  Nana pulled on my arm. “And just think, we were just talking about me finding something worth living for. If you do the show, I’ll do my very best to live until it’s broadcasted. It will give me something to look forward to.” Eliana and Kane burst out laughing again, and Nana wagged a finger at them. “Hush it.”

  I narrowed my eyes, feeling distinctly like I was being played.

  “Well…” Richard said, his eyebrows raised and hopeful.