Set In Stone Read online

  It’s a character flaw. He’s an attention whore, and that I cannot abide in a man.

  I’d met many men just like Killian Brenton in my time with Stone Worldwide. They believed they were God’s gift to everyone on the planet but especially to women. I’d enjoyed proving them wrong whenever I could. They preferred women with few thoughts in their heads who wanted to do nothing more than worship them.

  No thanks. I had bigger plans for myself than simply adoring a man for the rest of my life. No matter how gorgeous he may be.

  Lost in thought, I didn’t see him come over toward us until he stood directly in front of me on the ballroom floor. Craning my neck to look up at him, I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by those pale green eyes. God, he was beautiful! He smelled incredible too, and I took a deep breath of air into my lungs, fighting the urge to close my eyes he smelled so good. Was that cologne? I had no idea, but the man was nothing short of delectable.

  But why was he smiling like that, like a cat that just ate a canary?

  Before I could ask Summer what was going on, he lifted a microphone to his mouth and said in a deep voice that rolled over me like silk, “Congratulations. You’re the lucky lady who gets to spend a night with me.”

  He stood staring at me as I looked up at him speechless and utterly unaware of what was happening. All I knew was I couldn’t turn away, or maybe I didn’t want to. Whatever it was, this man had an intoxicating effect on me I couldn’t explain.

  Then he ran the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip and smiled before turning to step back onto the runway. I watched as he took a bow while the crowd went wild and his words finally sank in. Horrified, I lowered my head because of what everyone would think. How could I have let this happen?

  Summer nudged me in the side and asked, “Oh, my God! What just happened there?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered, still shaken by what he made me feel.

  “You outbid everyone at ten grand for a date with Killian Brenton!”

  Summer’s words filtered through the haze in my brain, and I shook my head. “Five thousand, and I have no intention of going anywhere with someone like him.”

  Summer pointed up toward a big screen behind the stage and the image of Killian with the number $10,000 under him. “You raised your hand when they called for the next bid. I figured you were in the spirit of the evening and decided to be extra generous.”

  Ten grand. Thank God it was for charity. I didn’t care about the money, though. It was only money, after all.

  “Five or ten, it’s a good cause, right?” I said as casually as I could manage.

  “You’re going to go on the date with him, aren’t you?” Summer asked eagerly. “I mean, I guess you could just say no, but since you paid that much money for a night with him, you might as well.”

  “I did not pay for a night with that man!” I protested, needing at least Summer to know that. “It was a charity auction. I would have contributed to anyone asking for a donation to cure childhood cancer, for God’s sake.”

  Ten thousand dollars. How could I have been so lost in thought fantasizing about the delicious and decadent things I’d do with him that I bid ten thousand dollars for a date with a man?

  As reality sunk in, I gradually realized everyone near us was staring at me. Jesus. How must all this look? I made a point of living as low-key a life as possible, acting professionally when I stepped out in public, and now I’d succeeded in blowing up all I’d worked for, and for what?

  A date with a man. An attention whore. How embarrassing.

  I watched as the people around us turned to look toward the stage. I followed their gazes to a huge screen showing a picture of Killian and me looking at each other right before he announced I’d won the bid. Anyone with eyes and a smattering of brain cells could see as clear as day what I was thinking about as I stared at him. I practically had a bubble over my head with the caption, “This man is beautiful. God, the things I would do with him.”

  My stomach began to churn from the disgust coursing through my body. Mortified, I turned to leave and said to Summer, “This has been fun, but I’m going. Feel free to stay if you want.”

  I couldn’t get out of that room fast enough. With each step, I felt people’s eyes staring at me like I was some kind of fallen woman. My head reeled from humiliation.

  Summer ran up behind me and said, “You’re not staying for the party? You love these kinds of things. What’s going on? Are you sick?”

  Flustered, I kept walking, my eyes firmly focused on the doors. “No. I’m fine. I just don’t feel like doing this tonight.”

  Summer jumped in front of me in the lobby and stopped me. Smiling, she said, “You’re blushing. Oh, my God, you’re actually blushing! I’ve never seen you blush before. What’s going on?”

  “Stop being melodramatic. I think you’ve been spending too much time with my brother. I’m not blushing. It’s just stuffy in here.”

  Shaking her head, she grinned like any of this was at all amusing. “No, it’s not. It’s actually chilly in here. I think they went a little overboard on the air conditioning, to be honest. You’re blushing.”

  “So what if I am? It’s not every day I’m publicly humiliated by a perfect stranger in a room full of people I’d hoped to chat up.”

  “How did he publicly humiliate you?”

  I stepped around her and hurried toward the front doors. “I don’t want to talk about it. God, who does he think he is?”

  Summer rushed to keep up with me. “I think the question is who do you think he is because from where I’m standing, you like him. So are you going to go out with him?”

  Again with that damn question. I rolled my eyes in disgust. “For the last time, no. Now let’s go. I need some fresh air.”

  Behind us, the crowd began to cheer again as the announcement that the second bachelor to be auctioned off would be coming up next. For me, I’d had enough of the event already.

  We reached the doors, and even though all I wanted to do was get out of there, I looked back and saw Killian standing at the edge of the catwalk staring at me. An attention whore man who craved the adulation of a crowd like that? No way was I going anywhere with him.

  Chapter Two

  Killian

  My body hummed from a lack of sleep and something else I hadn’t felt in a long time. It had been years since a woman made me want her more than for just a quick fuck, and one look from Tressa Stone had me worried that crowd at the Pediatric Cancer Foundation charity event might see the effect she had on me. She practically undressed me with her eyes right there in front of all those bluebloods and society types. I did like a woman who threw caution to the wind, though.

  Not that I didn’t want to fuck her. You bet I did. How had I lived in this town for two months and not heard about her before? I couldn’t decide if she was new money or old, but there was money there, no doubt. She practically oozed wealth. She had that icy thing women with fortunes had going on, but the question was whose money was it?

  These ideas swirled around in my brain, among others, like was she as icy as she seemed? I bet she wasn’t. She looked like an ice princess, but I knew for a fact she had heat beneath the surface. I felt it right there in that room as we stared at one another. She virtually melted in front of me.

  My mind constructed exactly how she looked as she stood looking completely fuckable surrounded by all those people. Dark brown eyes and long dark hair I had a feeling fell exactly the way a woman’s hair should when she was on top of me, caressing my skin as she undulated back and forth on my cock, the bottom of her hair teasing my chest with every roll of her hips.

  Oh yeah, this date was going to be fun. She’d paid ten grand for me, so I intended on giving her every dime of her money’s worth.

  I needed to know more about her before our date, which I planned on happening this week. Grabbing my phone, I called my publicist Sherilyn and sent it to the screen on the wall across from my bed.

 
; Her cheery face popped up on the display like always when I called her. I had a feeling I may have interrupted something since her dark blond hair looked disheveled.

  “Good morning, Killian. Not that I’m not happy to hear from you, but do you know what time it is?”

  Shaking my head, I thought about her question for a moment and came up with nothing. “I have no clue, actually. Were you busy with someone?”

  She rolled her eyes and held up a hair dryer. “I was busy getting ready for my day. What are you doing up at five in the morning?”

  Then her blue eyes opened wide in terror, and she tossed her hair dryer back onto the bed behind her. “Oh, my God! What happened? What do we need to clean up? Give me the details quick so I can get on it!”

  She began to frantically pace back and forth across her bedroom floor, waving her arms in front of her. “Just tell me it’s nothing illegal. It’s next to impossible to get illegal stuff taken care of on a Sunday. If it’s something like that, I’m going to have to roll out some of that big news we keep for times just like this. Let me see. What would work best?”

  As she spun out of control right there before my eyes, I sat up in bed and waved my hands to stop her before she ran off to announce to the world that I’d secretly been visiting hospitals or something equally as saintly. “It’s nothing like that, Sherilyn. Why are you jumping to the conclusion that I got arrested?”

  Stopping to answer my question, she twisted her face into a look of confusion. “Who calls their publicist at five in the morning on a Sunday if it isn’t that you were arrested? I know Mike would have gotten you out, but then you’d call me to smooth things over. If it’s not that, then what’s up?”

  Leaning back against the pillows, I folded my arms behind my head. “I want you to tell me everything you know about Tressa Stone.”

  Sherilyn sat down on the edge of her bed, and her shoulders sagged as she realized she didn’t have to start her day in PR high gear since I just wanted some information. Still confused, she asked, “What? Who do you want to know about?”

  “Tressa Stone. She paid ten grand at that charity auction for a date with me last night. I want to know all about her. Everything you can tell me.”

  Looking up, my publicist seemed to search for the information on her bedroom ceiling. When she finally returned her focus to the screen, she shrugged. “I don’t know a lot. She comes from a very wealthy family. That I do know. I have no idea of anything about her personal life because she keeps her life very secret. She must because I’ve never read a single word about her in the gossip pages or on any sites, and as you know, I read them religiously so I can be up on everything. I remember her brother being mentioned in them a lot a while back. He was some kind of photographer. Good looking man, but that’s not surprising.”

  “Well, I want to know more. I need you to find out everything you can about her. I want to be prepared for this date.”

  Sherilyn shook her head, sending her half-wet, half-dry blond hair swinging around her shoulders. “You know, Killian, those things don’t always happen. Everyone involved understands that the important part is giving to the charity. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has no interest in going out with you at all.”

  That sounded ridiculous, especially considering how Tressa looked at me last night. “Trust me. She’s interested. No woman pays that much for a date she has no intention of going on. Just find out everything there is to find out about her and get back to me, okay?”

  “Okay, Killian. Just don’t be surprised when she says no. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  The screen went black, leaving me sitting alone in bed thinking about Tressa Stone. She wouldn’t say no. Christ, if all those people hadn’t been around, I had a feeling she would have dragged me to a corner of the ballroom and climbed on top of me right there. I knew how to read women, and that woman wanted me. That I was sure of.

  Just daydreaming about fucking her made me hard as a rock. Instead of calling my agent like I planned, I slid out of bed and headed into the bathroom to grab a shower. I wouldn’t be getting any more sleep this morning, so why not rub one out and get going on my day?

  A little while later at a time I knew my agent would be awake, I made my second call of the morning designed to help me make my date with Tressa Stone perfect. Mike never let me down, no matter if it was negotiating a contract or helping me navigate my new city. A born and bred New Yorker, he seemed to love giving me suggestions about where to go and what to eat, so who better to ask where to take a beautiful woman on a date?

  Dressed in his usual golf shirt and pants, Mike looked like he perpetually was heading out to the links. If he didn’t do such an incredible job on getting me the biggest contract for a quarterback in the league, I’d think the guy just spent his entire days goofing around and golfing.

  He smiled as his face came into view on my screen and pointed at me in that way he always did whenever he saw me. “Killian, how are you doing?”

  “Good. I need suggestions on where to go to get a good meal. Nothing too loud or popular. I don’t want to have to deal with the press. Well, not much anyway.”

  Mike thought about how to answer for a moment. “Let me mull it over and I’ll get back to you. I’m more interested in talking about that charity auction event last night. I saw some pictures already this morning. It looks like you’re fitting into this city perfectly.”

  I ran my hand through my hair and headed over to the window that looked out over the city. Scanning the horizon, I had to admit New York was my kind of place and the weather wasn’t anywhere as hot as Miami, thankfully. “I told you I’d be fine. With enough money, I can be fine anywhere. Hell, you could have gotten me the deal with Minnesota and I’d have been fine. Bored to fucking hell and colder than a witch’s tit, but fine.”

  “I hear some woman paid ten grand for a date with you. That’s a lot of money for one night.”

  “She gets to go out with a man who’s one of a very elite group of men in the world. Seems about right to me,” I said.

  “So is that why you want restaurant recommendations? When are you planning on doing this?”

  Turning away from the gorgeous view out my bedroom window, I nodded. “I like to strike while the iron’s hot, so something this week. I got her number from the organizer last night, so I’m planning on calling her today. So say Tuesday? That’s why I need to know where I can take her today.”

  My agent let out a big laugh. “You do work fast. It’s already Sunday morning.”

  “You didn’t see this woman. I would have gone last night if I could have.”

  “Actually, I did. It’s all over the news. You’re a hot topic around here, and that charity event is a popular news story every year. Check out the local news. You’ll see.”

  I turned on one of the New York channels and saw Mike hadn’t exaggerated. The press had been out in full force, but I hadn’t expected this much coverage. I figured New York had more interesting things to concern itself with than some football player hauling in ten grand at a charity auction.

  Then I saw the picture of that moment when I walked up to Tressa and our eyes met. Definitely something there. Beneath that perfectly icy exterior, that woman sizzled. I’d bet a good million on it.

  “You keep behaving yourself and this town is going to love you. Well, behaving yourself and taking New York to the big dance,” Mike said.

  I had more confidence in my getting my new team to the championship than I did in my behaving. I’d been a good boy in the time since I moved to New York, but I had no intention of living like a monk for the rest of my life. All behaving and no play made for a very boring Killian.

  But I planned to change that with Tressa Stone.

  “Well, I can’t make any promises about behaving, but you have to admit that charity event helps.”

  Mike nodded but his toothy grin faded just a bit. “Be careful with this woman. You don’t need any problems like that here.”

 
; “Like what? I’m single, and if she’s single, what’s the problem?”

  “I don’t know her, but I do know the Stone name is important in this city. You don’t want to make any powerful enemies here, Killian. This isn’t like Miami. New York will chew up a man and spit him out before he knows what’s happened. Yes, charity events like the one last night are good, but don’t negate all the benefit you get from it by becoming a permanent fixture in the gossip pages.”

  “Well, you know what Sherilyn says. There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” I said with a laugh.

  But my agent didn’t find anything about what I said funny.

  “You know my opinion on that. I can get you the world with the talent you have, but if you become a distraction or a problem for your team, I won’t be able to get you a deal selling fucking athlete’s foot cream, much less anything good.”

  I could tell any time Mike got hot about a subject when he started dropping F bombs. Since I had no intention of becoming a distraction for anyone other than Tressa Stone, I needed to calm him before he began to get worried I’d fuck up all his hard work.

  “Don’t worry. I know what my job is here. This whole thing with one woman isn’t going to make me lose focus. It’s just a date.”

  Mike arched one eyebrow to show me how skeptical he was about my claim. “I’ve seen that look before in you. Just remember once workouts start, you need to be all football all the time.”

  “Have I ever not been?” I asked, knowing the answer to that wasn’t exactly no.

  But that was when I was a rookie in the league. Now at twenty-nine, I knew I had just a few more years left before it all could slip away in one season. I had no intention of leaving my football career before I wanted to.

  “Just remember what you told me when you came to me all those years ago, Killian. You said you wanted one single thing in this world, and that was to play football. As my grandmother used to say, you chase two rabbits and you’ll catch neither.”