Striker. Michelle Betham

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СКАЧАТЬ over towards Ryan, who was talking to his new boss. Her heart raced as she tried to adopt her professional stance and forget all about Thursday evening, after all, he probably had. There was no doubt that he’d be moving onto the next conquest at some point tonight when he did the usual footballer’s thing of celebrating a home win with a stupidly expensive night out. And the women, of course, would be queuing up. Shit! Why did that actually bother her?

      As she approached Ryan, she accidentally caught the eye of Red Star’s new manager, Jim Allen. He’d come over to the UK from Washington DC over twenty years ago, a young and extremely talented soccer player who’d been lucky enough to play for some of the biggest clubs in the world in his time – including Newcastle Red Star, where he’d spent the final few years of his professional playing career. But he hadn’t just played in England; he’d also spent time in Spain and Germany, not to mention numerous international appearances for his country. He loved the game, and he’d been a great player in his day, but now he was making a name for himself as a pretty successful manager. And to say the Red Star fans had been over the moon when he’d been appointed as the new man in charge of their club was an understatement. Not only had they acquired Ryan Fisher, one of the greatest players around right now, they’d also managed to steal Jim Allen away from one of the biggest, most successful London clubs.

      Jim Allen had come into management fairly young – at the age of thirty-five – but he’d already confirmed he was a force to be reckoned with over his thirteen or so years as a manager. Football was in his blood. He’d been a great player, and now he was proving to be an accomplished and well-respected manager; a natural people person, a savvy businessman. And it also didn’t hurt that Red Star had recently been bought out by a large, New York-based consortium who were more than happy to have a fellow American at the helm.

      Amber had known Jim a long time, due to the close relationship he had with her father, but he almost always made her feel slightly uncomfortable every time she was around him. And she didn’t really want to be around him right now.

      She looked away quickly as he smiled at her, staring down at her feet, her hands in her pockets. ‘Could I have a quick word with Ryan, please? For News North East?’

      ‘He’s all yours, honey,’ Jim Allen winked, giving her his best smile, and Amber looked away again, this time pretending to root around in her bag for some imaginary object. ‘How’s your old man, by the way? I hear he’s doing okay over there at Bracken Town.’

      ‘He’s fine,’ Amber replied, still rooting around in her bag, aware that Ryan’s eyes were on her. She could almost feel them boring into the back of her neck.

      ‘Well, tell him to give me a call, okay? It’s been a while since we’ve had a proper catch-up.’ His eyes met hers again. ‘Yeah… It’s been a long time.’ He turned his attention back to Ryan, leaving him with a friendly slap on the shoulder. ‘Proud of you today, kiddo. Be nice to Amber, okay? She’s a good friend of mine.’ He looked at her again. ‘A very good friend.’

      Amber watched Jim leave, almost breathing an inner sigh of relief, before slowly turning round to face Ryan.

      ‘Not one word since Thursday?’ he asked, his comment, not to mention his tone of voice, taking her completely by surprise. She had no idea it would even have bothered him. She’d given him what he’d wanted, hadn’t she?

      ‘You’ve been holed up in a hotel since Friday afternoon, Ryan. There was no way to get in touch with you.’

      Jim Allen was a great believer in making sure his players had as few distractions as possible before a match. The day before any game – be it home or away – he’d take his team to a hotel, away from everything, away from all outside distractions, and make sure they were focused on nothing but football. No contact of any kind with wives, girlfriends or any family members was allowed – unless it was an emergency, of course. He wanted everyone to think only about the forthcoming match, and nothing else.

      ‘That’s crap, Amber. We didn’t leave for the fucking hotel until after 3 o’clock…’

      Amber quickly switched to professional mode, looking him straight in the eye. ‘Any more thoughts on this evening’s match?’

      ‘For fuck’s sake, Amber, we’ve already done this… I loved every second of it, the crowd were amazing, the boss is a legend, and I was proud to get a hat-trick on my debut for the club. There. Anything else you need to know? Not one frigging word, Amber.’

      ‘Hang on, can we rewind a bit here because I’m a touch confused. You are Ryan Fisher, aren’t you? The one who, quite frankly, will sleep with anything that shows him the slightest bit of interest and then prays they never want to see him again once the sex is over? That is you, isn’t it?’

      ‘You were different, Amber,’ Ryan hissed, trying to keep his voice down, but he was more than agitated that she didn’t seem to care about what had happened between them. Because he did. Oh, he didn’t want to. Jesus, of course he didn’t want to feel that way, but he did. ‘I didn’t want to leave; you do know that, don’t you?’

      Amber said nothing at first, just looked at him, searching his handsome face because there was something different about him today that she hadn’t really noticed before. Sincerity? Was that it?

      ‘I needed you to go, Ryan,’ she whispered. Her stomach felt as though it was tied up in knots, the confusion she’d been feeling since Thursday threatening to overwhelm her again. For so many reasons.

      ‘Why, Amber? Why did you need me to go? Because you actually enjoyed yourself and were afraid to let anyone know that?’

      ‘Come on, Ryan. I’d just slept with you – with you, so how do you expect me to react?’

      ‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean?’

      She looked away for a second, looking over at Ronnie who was deep in conversation with a couple of reporters she recognised. ‘I didn’t want to be another conquest, Ryan.’

      ‘You weren’t. You aren’t.’

      She looked at him. ‘Why should I believe you? I mean, you have such a reputation, a reputation that…’

      ‘That means I couldn’t possibly find someone that makes me feel different?’

      Amber stared at him. She just stared at him, because she couldn’t actually think of anything to say.

      ‘Okay, I have a reputation, I’ll hold my hands up to that,’ Ryan began, staring down at his trainers for a second. ‘And, as you’ve just pointed out, I’ve obviously got a lot of work ahead of me if I ever want to leave that reputation behind.’

      ‘Why would you want to leave it behind?’ Amber asked, narrowing her eyes as she continued to stare at him. ‘I mean, this is what you do, isn’t it? This is you. This is the way you live your life.’

      ‘Have you ever thought that I might actually want to give a proper relationship a go?’

      Amber couldn’t help laughing. ‘Ha! Come on, Ryan. You’ve tried that before and it just doesn’t work. You don’t really want that…’

      ‘Hey, do you want to quit telling me what it is I want?’ He ran a hand through his hair, those incredible dark blue eyes of his full of confusion, which only served to make him look twice as handsome, СКАЧАТЬ