Game for Tonight by Karen Erickson Page A

explain yourself. Don’t make up some lame excuse. What happened happened. Let’s leave it at that.”
    They stared at each other, Flynn’s intense gaze sending goose bumps scattering all over her skin. She reacted to him so easily, and it scared her. When she got near Flynn, she simply…felt. Everything.
    Not smart. Reckless wasn’t her style, but that’s exactly how he made her feel.
    “You keep looking at me like that, and I’m going to believe you forgive me,” he murmured, his hot gaze locked directly on her.
    A shiver moved through her. “There’s nothing to forgive.” Really, there wasn’t. At least, when it came to Flynn. He was now the innocent party in all of this. She was mad at Harvey for putting her in this position. And okay, maybe her pride had been hurt, too. But they had other things to worry about now. Like the media believing they were a real couple. That she’d taken his virginity as though it had been some sort of prize for her to claim.
    God. What a mess.
    He reached out and circled his fingers around her wrist. “We should have a press conference, announce that we’re seeing each other.”
    She slowly shook her head. Maybe if she convinced Flynn to think like her, he’d convince Harvey to cancel the press conference. “It would distract from the team during a critical time. I don’t want to do that. Let’s keep it low key.”
    “I’ve tried the low-key route. It doesn’t work. They’re like vultures picking at my flesh until they hit bone. They want a story. We can give them one.”
    “I don’t know…”
    “Trust me.” He stood, never letting go of her wrist, and she liked it. Liked having him so close, his presence nearly overwhelming, his hand still on her. She could get used to this.
    And that was a scary feeling.
    “I know you’re the public relations expert, but I know what the media wants from me,” he continued, smiling down at her. “And right now, what they want more than anything is us.”
    Us. She could get used to the sound of that. Despite the very temporary feeling of it all, despite the proverbial gun held to her head, she was curious. What was it like to be a very popular “us”? She’d seen it in earnest with Jared and Sheridan Quinn and lately with Willow and Nick. Now they could be a Flynn and Aubrey.
    Despite it all, she wanted that, even just for a little while, which was dumb, but she couldn’t help it. Maybe they could mix their names like all the celebrities do. “Brangelina” was still hot, after all. Maybe they could be “Aubrynn”? “Flybrey”?
    Clearly she’d lost her mind.

Chapter Seven
    Flynn Foley’s New Girlfriend: “She’s the love of my life,” Foley says.
    Aubrey stared at the headline on TMZ ’s website, shock coursing through her at seeing the words in bold black-and-white on one of the most popular gossip sites in the country. She thought she could handle this, but clearly it was going to take some getting used to.
    She’d never been called the love of anyone’s life. Let alone a guy she’d barely spent time with, who she was now involved with in a publicity relationship.
    The article on the site had a picture of the them leaving the Hawks facility earlier today, right after they’d had their second meeting with Harvey on how to handle this mess they’d gotten themselves into. In the photo, they were hand in hand, with matching, giant smiles on their faces. Anyone who’d seen them would have thought they’d looked happy and madly in love.
    Crazy, how easy it was to fake something.
    For the past hour, from the moment she’d gotten home, she’d been scouring the web, looking for articles about the two of them, which were easy to find. It was all the media seemed able to write about. Talk about a slow-news day. Their names and faces were plastered everywhere, much to her growing fascination. She’d always been on the other side of the publicity spectrum. The one who drummed up interest, never the one who