Got A Hold On You (Ringside Romance) (16 page)

He shot Jack an ear-to-ear smile. “Nothing,
everything’s fine. It will be a great signing.”

“Ya’ know, Sully, I’ve got so much on you, I could
burn this organization with one phone call.”

Sully chewed on a thumbnail.

“What’s the deal with Tatianna?” Jack backed him
against the lateral press machine. “See, I’ve got this soft spot for the girl.
She stopped by my place last night. We…talked.”

“Last night? But Frankie said—”

“Frankie? What the hell does she have to do with
this?”

“Nothing.
 
Nothing at all.” His eyes darted frantically around the gym.

“Forget it. I’ll find out for myself.”

Jack stormed to the exit, suddenly needing to go
one-on-one with the pushy, drill sergeant niece. She was probably up in Sully’s
office right now, perched in his leather chair like royalty. The thought set
off an explosion in his gut. The woman hated the business, loathed it with a
kind of arrogance that made his blood boil. She wasn’t out there getting the
crap kicked out of her or jumping from catwalks.

What the hell did she say to Tiger Lady, anyway? It
must have been quite a number to make the kid back away from her job
responsibilities. Then again, maybe it was the number Jack did on Tatianna that
was keeping her away. But he’d said he was sorry, words he rarely uttered.

He took the stairs two at a time, having no patience
for the elevator. That tingling sensation pricked the back of his neck: he was
being manipulated. Like one of those puppets with strings attached. First pull
this one and watch Jack raise his right hand. Then pull those strings and watch
him do the jig. Swing the middle ones and watch him spin around like an idiot.

His chest burning with frustration, he marched down
the hallway toward Sully’s office where he spied a partially open door. The sound
of a woman’s voice stopped him cold. He hesitated in the hallway.

“I’m a little surprised, Nipper. I still can’t believe
you’re coming to Chicago. … Where? I’ve never heard of it, but that doesn’t
mean anything. It’s not like I’ve been getting out much. … No, I didn’t have a
chance to check the Markham stock today. It’s been kind of crazy.”

Jack peered through the door. Frankie sat on the edge
of Sully’s desk cradling the phone against her shoulder. She fingered a strand
of copper-streaked hair and swung her feet, tapping the desk with a soft,
rhythmic thud. She looked like a little girl, sweet and innocent.

“Longer than I expected, unfortunately,” she said.
“That relative I told you about is sicker than I thought.”

Sick? Sully? The only thing he suffered from was a
total lack of morality.

He flung open the door, banging it against the wall.
She glanced up and hopped off the desk.

“Gotta go, Nipper. Miss you. Bye.” She hung up and
straightened her shoulders.

She wore a gray suit with a pale green blouse, plain,
simple, unappealing on any other woman. A complete turn-on for Jack.

Damn, he wanted her out of his life.

“A sick relative? My, aren’t you a good liar,” he
said.

“Excuse me, but that was a personal phone call. You
had no business eavesdropping.” Stepping behind the desk, she shuffled a pile
of papers.

“Where’s my wife?” he demanded.

“Honestly, Mr. Hudson, you sound like a caveman.
Besides, she’s not really your wife.”

He studied her as she scribbled something on an
official-looking document. Cold and remote, she exemplified a hard ass
businesswoman. Completely disinterested in his presence.

Only…he’d caught a different glimpse of her yesterday
in the limo. He’d seen the vulnerable, tender side of a girl who worried about
her uncle’s welfare.

“I have work to do, Mr. Hudson,” she said,
dismissively.

So much for her tender side.

“So do I.” In three steps he was towering over the
desk, close enough to see the rainbow colors of her eyes sparkle through her
glasses. “I hate being jerked around.”

“Don’t we all.” She glanced back at her paperwork.

He slammed a closed fist on the desk and her shoulders
jerked.

“Knock it off, Brutus.” She glared. “I won’t tolerate
physical intimidation.”

“I was trying to get your attention.”

“There are better ways.”

“They don’t seem to work on you.”

“Well, you’ve got it now. What do you want?”

“Where’s Tatianna?”

“It’s not working out with her. I’ve decided to
replace her with a trained actress.”

“I like the original Tatianna.”

“That’s not what I heard.”

Jack stilled. “What?”

“I don’t know what you did to her last night, but
she’s done with WHAK.”

“What I did? More like what she did.”

“Whatever,” she muttered.

“You don’t believe me.”

“I don’t care.” The tips of her ears reddened and she
scribbled something on a legal pad.

“I think you do. That’s the problem.”

“Please leave,” she said, studying the paperwork in
front of her as if it held the secrets to the universe.

She wasn’t going to get rid of him that easily. He
came up behind her and whispered against her ear. “You care very much, don’t
you?”

He felt her stiffen.

“You’re imagining things,” she said, a little
breathless.

“You mean you don’t want to hear all the juicy
details? How she teased me, kissed me... wanted me.” His lips touched her ear.
He felt her shudder against him.

“I am not the least bit interested,” she said, her
voice cracking.

“I don’t believe you.” He gently turned her around and
stared into her iridescent eyes. “You care very much because…you’re jealous.
Jealous of the things Tiger Lady and I did together.”

“And you have an overgrown sense of ego. I happen to
have a finance—I mean a fiancé.”

Something drove him forward, riding the wave of
insanity right into the center of chaos.

“Yeah? Well, does your fiancé kiss like this?”

He gently gripped her shoulders and pressed his mouth
to hers wanting to make a statement, mark some territory of his own. She was
repressed as hell and probably hadn’t been kissed real good since the last time
her investments yielded twelve percent. He also wanted to prove to himself that
she wasn’t the reason he’d turned down a crazed night of phenomenal sex with
Tiger Lady.

What he didn’t expect was the wonderful way she fit
against him, the softness of her lips, the slight but familiar taste of…

Peppermint.

He broke the kiss and stumbled backward. “Who the hell
are you?”

The look of betrayal in Jack’s eyes shamed Frankie to
the core.

“Wait a minute I can explain.” She started toward him.

“Don’t touch me.” He backed away. “I can’t believe
this. I have to be the biggest chump walking the face of the earth.” Running an
open palm across his jaw, he strode to the opposite end of the office.

“You don’t understand,” she said.

He whipped around and pinned her with a furious glare.
“You and Sully must have had a lot of laughs over this one. The big, stupid
wrestler gets suckered in by the Jeckyll and Hyde twins. One’s gentle and naive
with a wild streak, while the other’s a frigid drill sergeant.”

“Frigid?” Her heart sank.

“But your eyes, your height, your scent. They’re
different, even your voice seemed…”

“We weren’t trying to trick you. It just happened.”

“Like you just happened to nail me with the wrench and
keep me out of the ring for a few weeks? That was planned, wasn’t it? The whole
thing? It’s been about the angle from the start, a soap opera angle. Sully
thought I was losing my heat to the younger, more acrobatic wrestlers so he
dreamed up a better way to make money off of me.”

“No, wait, listen for a minute.”

“To what? No one’s into truth around here. You people
lie as easily as you breathe.”

He started for the door. She raced in front of him and
blocked his way, her hands pressed firmly against his chest. Her breath caught
in her throat at the contact, her fingers burning from the feel of slick, wet
skin. Damn, she had to shelve the lust long enough to explain herself.

“Out of my way, woman.”

“I know enough about you to know you’re a fair man.”

“It didn’t take you long to zero in on my biggest
weakness.”

“Jack—”

“Move.”

“Not until you listen.”

Gripping her by the waist, he lifted her, and placed
her aside, then reached for the door. She couldn’t let him go. Couldn’t let him
think she was a lying, manipulative jerk.

With a desperate cry she charged from behind.
Hit low and come up swinging
. She
remembered Max bragging about the move that won her the WHAK Women’s
championship in ’74.

So Frankie did just that. She rammed her shoulder into
his lower back and knocked him into the door, slamming it shut.

“What the hell?” He twisted at the waist to grab her,
but she ducked to elude his probing hands. The door swung open, hitting Jack in
the face, knocking them both off balance. They tumbled to the floor and she
miraculously landed face down on top of him.

“What’s going on in here?” Uncle Joe said from the
doorway.

“Get out of here!” she cried.

“Okay, okay, sure honey.” He closed the door.

“Lady, you’d better be off me in three seconds, or
I’ll—”

She slapped her hand against his mouth. “I love him,
okay? That’s my crime. I love my uncle. He’s in trouble and he called me for
help. He was always there for us so how could I say no? I wasn’t supposed to
dress up and go into the ring. The actress he hired quit the night of the show.
He needed me to fill in. Don’t you understand?” She removed her hand. “Don’t
you have family you love so much that you’d do anything for them?”

“I have no family,” he said.

“Well, that’s your loss, isn’t it?”

“Think so? It doesn’t look like loving your uncle has
done a whole lot for you.”

“Oh, forget it.” She pushed off him, leaned against
the wall, and brought her knees to her chest. “You’d never understand.”

She buried her face in her arms, folded across her
knees. What a mess. The whole damned thing. A man like Jack Hudson would never
understand loyalty or supporting the people you loved even if you didn’t approve
of their behavior. There were plenty of times she cringed at Uncle Joe’s crazy
schemes, but he was always there for her. That counted for a lot in her book.

Jack Hudson, on the other hand, wasn’t there for
anyone but himself. A familiar story.

“You manipulated me,” he said.

She glanced up. He towered over her, opening and
closing his hands by his sides as if he struggled to keep his temper in check.

“He was there for me when my father was gallivanting
across the country doing who knows what,” she said. “Uncle Joe gave me things
and took me places. He loved me. How could I say no when he needed help?”

Rocking back on his heels, Jack unclenched his fists
and planted his hands on his hips. “That doesn’t change the fact that you lied
to me.”

“It got out of hand. I’ll admit it. But you hated me
for being Uncle Joe’s niece, and you started to be nice to me when I was
Tatianna. You were sweet to me on the catwalk and I found myself liking you,
but I couldn’t tell you who I was on the catwalk because you might have let me
go and—”

“Let you go?”

“It was a hundred-foot drop. I know how you feel about
my uncle. I couldn’t chance it.”

His face went stone cold. “You think I would have
dropped you? On purpose? You’re kidding, right? Tell me you’re kidding.”

She glanced away and hugged her knees tighter to her
chest.

“You really have no clue what I’m about,” he said, his
voice a mere hush. “Nor do you care. Your goal is to control me, lock me into a
contract, threaten to take away my incentive bonus and mess with my insides for
a little fun.”

“I didn’t mess with anything.”

“No? What do you call last night at my place?”

“Don’t remind me,” she groaned. “I got the message.”

“What message was that, cupcake?”

“Don’t worry. I’m done, out of your life. I keep
screwing everything up. I’ll hire a replacement and get back to the books where
I belong. Now that you know the truth I’m sure that’s what you want anyway.”

She stood and paced to Uncle Joe’s desk. “But I can’t
let you out of your contract, not yet. We have to chase the Tatianna angle for
a while. It’s our only hope of saving WHAK, not to mention my uncle’s life.”
She flipped through Uncle Joe’s contacts on his computer, searching for the
talent agency’s phone number. “I probably won’t be able to find a replacement
for a few days. You’ll have to go solo until then.”

“That’s not good enough.”

She glanced at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The car leaves at noon for Sterling Falls. Be ready.”

“Me? No, I can’t go with you. I have a date.”

“Break it.”

“But it’s my fiancé. He’s flying in from Boston.”

“This is more important.”

“Now hang on,” she protested. “My life is pretty
important.”

“I thought your life was about saving Sully’s ass.”

“It is, but you don’t need me for an autograph
session.”

“The fans expect you. You’re my wife. I need you with
me . . . everywhere.”

That deep, sultry tone melted her insides. She
swallowed hard. Not real. None of this was real.

“I’ll be back at noon.” He paced to the door and
hesitated, but didn’t turn around. “By the way, not a bad move before.”

“It’s Maxine’s. She calls it the Ground Hog Grunt.”

“I’ll have to remember that.” He disappeared into the
hallway.

Collapsing into Uncle Joe’s chair, she blew out a
breath. Now what? She couldn’t go with him, yet he was so incensed she didn’t
want to rile him further.