“For almost thirteen years, I honored your request to stay away from you, but Cree, I can’t any longer. I want you back in my life in any capacity I can get you.”
“Why?” she asked.
She couldn’t for the life of her understand why he’d come to her, knowing how she felt about him. Sure, she cared about his well-being. She wasn’t totally heartless, but she had her limits and already knew working with Tristan would push every single one of them.
Tristan slid along the edge of the desk and didn’t stop until their legs were touching.
“Because I owe you,” he said. “You should’ve always been my agent because, in my heart, I knew one day you’d be the best in the industry. I was young and…” He shrugged his broad shoulders that looked as if they were going to burst through his suit jacket. “Basically, I made the wrong decision. More importantly, I’ve missed you.”
Cree wasn’t sure how to respond. So she said nothing, but when he reached forward and cupped her cheek, bringing his handsome face within inches of hers, she wanted to push him away. She couldn’t. She might’ve wanted him out of her face, but more than that, she wanted to brush her lips over his. Just one little…
“I want you back in my life, Cree,” Tristan said, his voice thick with emotion as he stared into her eyes. “I want my wife back.”
Chapter Six
Tristan regretted those last five words the moment they left his mouth. He wanted to punch himself when Cree froze, then jerked away from his touch as if she’d been burned.
“Ex-wife, and you’ll never have me again!” she snapped and rolled her chair back from the desk before bolting out of her seat.
Tristan stood also and moved from around the desk, keeping a little distance between them as they stood in the middle of the office floor.
“If I were to take you on as a client, and that’s a huge if, there’d be nothing between us except a professional relationship.” Anger dripped from each word as Cree glared at him. “Right now, though, I’m still unsure of whether adding you to my client roster is worth it. Yes, financially it would be, but doing so would be a bad idea. Because this… us"—she waved a hand back and forth between them—“will never happen again. So if that’s why you’re here under the disguise of needing representation, you can forget it.”
“Okay.” Tristan lifted his hands out in front of him in hopes of getting her to settle down. He had to talk fast. Cree would probably only give him a few more minutes of her time, and he had to make them count.
He played his hand too quickly by mentioning he wanted his wife back. He also shouldn’t have said anything about missing her, even if it was true. The only excuse he could come up with for why he’d run off at the mouth was that being in her presence again was screwing with his mind… and his heart. Whether she wanted to or not, she would always hold a special spot in his heart, and in all the years they’d been apart, that hadn’t changed.
He’d been twenty-one when they’d secretly eloped. Not even their parents knew, thanks to Cree. Only his brother, Quincy and her sister, Essence, were aware of their nuptials. Cree had wanted to keep it quiet, especially from anyone in the business, until she had acquired a few more clients for her sports agency.
In hindsight, they’d been way too young to get married even though he’d been crazy in love with her. They had tied the knot three days before their relationship imploded with the news about him landing a new agent.
God, he would never forget that night. He’d known Cree would be upset, but he had underestimated just how furious she’d be. He soon found out when she kicked him out of her apartment and served him with divorce papers shortly after he had signed with Philadelphia. He’d been shocked she hadn’t tried to get half of what he stood to make from the NFL team. Instead, all she wanted was out of the marriage.
He had refused to sign the divorce papers. For months, he begged her for forgiveness and another chance—offering her anything she wanted. He loved her too much to let her go without a fight, but then she’d showed up at his condo in Philly. He thought she was coming back to him, but instead, she told him, if he really loved her, he’d let her go.
He did, and to this day, that had been the biggest mistake of his life.
“I’m here in a professional capacity because I need to make some decisions about those offers, and I need to make them soon,” he said, pointing at the documents spread out on her desk. “I need your help with that, and I want you to represent me. Please, Cree. Don’t let your anger toward me make you and your agency miss out on millions of dollars.”
Appealing to her business sense was the way to go now. She might want to maintain a hard no where he was concerned, but she knew how much money he could generate for their firm. He was counting on that side of her to make the right decision.
And then there was Warren. If this could help with whatever was going on with…
“If my firm represents you…”
Excitement raced through him as she laid out her demands, including taking a higher percentage than most agents took. He didn’t care. This was just the beginning of a plan to have her back in his life again, and when that happened, he was never letting her go.
“I’ll read through the offers this evening. In the meantime, set up an appointment with Shantel on your way out. There’ll be a contract here tomorrow afternoon for you to sign with us. I’ll represent you, but Tristan, don’t make me regret this.”
“I won’t, and for the record, I’m only interested in the offers that’ll keep me in Chicago. I’m here to stay, Cree.” He looked at her pointedly. Soon, she’d find out just how serious he was regarding them picking up where they left off years ago. “I’d also consider offers which might require some travel, but nothing that will keep me away for more than three days at a time.”
She maintained eye contact as she slowly nodded. “Understood.”
But did she really understand? Did she have any idea that he planned to fight for her, and he wasn’t above fighting dirty? If she didn’t, she’d find out soon enough.
A knock sounded on her office door.
“Come in,” Cree said.
