Free PLAYED - A BRITISH BAD BOY ROMANCE by Nikki Wild Page A

?”

 
    “More or less,” I shrugged.

 
    “ Cor blimey, ” she muttered,
holding her head in her hand. “I’m gonna need a stiff pint after hearing that… ” She turned to Riley again,
looking at her as if for the first time.

 
    I had to remind myself that, besides a fleeting occasion, it was the first time.

 
    “You look like hell,” Jess finally told her. “You look like you haven’t
had a good night’s sleep in… a day? Two? What, have you been here the entire time?”

 
    Riley nodded. “Yeah.”

 
    “What? Why?”

 
    “Because I didn’t know how to reach you, I don’t know where he’s
staying, and I didn’t think he had anyone else nearby who could care for him.
Besides… he’d just saved my life.”

 
    Jess tried to hide it, but I could see how she beamed. She couldn’t
resist making quick, fleeting eye contact with me.

 
    “Listen, I know that it’s been a rough couple of days for you… Riley,”
she started. “But I thought my only friend in this country was laying dead in a
ditch somewhere. If it’s not too much, can I have a couple of minutes alone
with him?”

 
    Riley turned to me. I halfway expected her to be indignant, but she
looked somewhat relieved. “I could use a bathroom and some coffee. Do you need
anything from out there?”

 
    “I think I’m good.”

 
    “Alright. I’ll be back in ten.”

 
    She nodded cordially to Jess as she left us in the room alone. As soon
as the door clicked, I tossed the bedding off and made my way towards the
connected bathroom.

 
    “This is perfect,” Jess commented over the sound of my filled bladder of
piss hitting water. “She adores you now. Not hard to see why.”

 
    “Why do you sound so pleased with yourself?” I asked warily, washing my
hands in the sink.

 
    “You saved her life, Lex. This is exactly the kind of publicity we need you to have. I’m already writing the bylines
now… maybe I can whip up something to send over to the boys tonight…”

 
    I popped the door open and began walking uneasily back across the room
to my clothes. “Absolutely not.”

 
    Jess reacted as if she were a behaving child, and I’d just ripped her
favourite toy from her and slipped it well out of reach. “But why not? Surely
there’s a police report or something, I don’t even really need to ask her
anything else. She just told me everything I needed to know to finish your
write-up…”

 
    “You’re not exploiting what happened to her in order to make me look
better,” I explained sternly.

 
    “But nothing happened, thanks
to your timely and heroic intervention,” Jess protested. “And besides, where
the fuck is this Lex coming from?
Used to be that you’d take anything that
made you look better.”

 
    “I don’t follow,” I replied, slipping some of my possessions into my
blazer and slacks pockets.

 
    “The Patrovo Corporation contract, you ruddy idiot,” Jess hissed. She nodded towards the door. “You need shit like this to make you look
better in their eyes. Has Alistair Pritch ever saved anyone from rape? Who
knows! But now Lightning Lex Lambert has!
All of a sudden, you’re right at the top of the pile, where we both know you
deserve to be.”

 
    “Not like this,” I reprimanded her. “Absolutely not like this. I forbid it.”

 
    “You forbid it?”

 
    “I do,” I snarled, stepping closer to her. “You are not to exploit this
woman to further your agenda of representing me.”

 
    “For God’s sake, exploiting her is why I told you to go find her again!
You pay me to do this , ” Jess retorted. “The agenda feeds me. That agenda. The agenda that keeps the British public pleased with you. Did
you forget that you’re a loose cannon? You need me to pick up after you, Lex! Without me doing my job , you’d never get that sponsorship in your wildest
dreams!”

 
    “I am not telling you to not do your job,” I hissed,