20. Theo
CHAPTER 20
Theo
“How do I look?” I asked, walking into the living room of Mallie’s LA house. It was a massive mansion that made my house look like an apartment. Some things I would definitely need to get used to. The interview would be done here, so there were people milling around and professional lighting being set up.
Mallie turned at the sound of my voice, and my mouth dropped open. I wore a custom suit given to me by a top designer who wanted their name on our article, and I knew one of the designers Mallie often worked with had created something for her for this that matched her aesthetic for the awards show on Sunday, but knowing about it and seeing it were two totally different things.
Her long hair was put in some elaborate updo with curls framing her face and neck, and her makeup was flawless, as always. Her eyes were done heavier than she wore for daily use, and her classic red lip was on display. She wore a pair of skintight black leather pants that left literally nothing to the imagination. Her shapely legs taunted me. My eyes lifted to the red-sequined tank top she wore that showed just enough cleavage and her hard-earned abs to make me salivate. She held a black cropped jacket with one finger, ready to put it on. Her sculpted shoulders and sleek, bare neck made me want to put my face there and devour her.
“Fucking hell, Mal,” I said. “How the hell am I supposed to sit through an interview with you like that?”
She grinned and stepped closer, and that was when I saw it, the #23 on the diamond necklace that hung between her breasts. It took everything I had in me to not drag her from the room right this minute. I reached my hand out and touched it, and she shivered.
“The same way I’m going to look at you in this custom suit and make it through the interview.” She looked me up and down and I felt the heat in her gaze like a touch. I was already hard, and her look wasn’t helping. “You are hot as fuck, Teddy. I’m going to need to study how closely this was made for you later.”
She licked her lips and I swore to God I wasn’t going to survive this.
I blew out a breath and whistled. “Goddamn, you look fucking amazing.” I took her hand and twirled her around so I could see the back of her outfit. The top crisscrossed and tied behind her, showing her back muscles and also that she wore no bra. The pants were a fucking miracle of God. I couldn’t stop myself from touching her round, taut ass. She smirked over her shoulder.
“You aren’t wearing a fucking bra,” I said, my erection becoming a problem in these custom pants.
“I’m also not wearing underwear,” she whispered.
I closed my eyes and adjusted myself. “What the hell am I going to do with this massive problem?”
Her eyes dropped to my problem and she giggled. “I can verify that it is indeed massive,” she teased. When I groaned, she giggled again. “Baby, I promise I will take care of that later after you’re a good boy and survive this interview with me.”
“I’m not going to survive shit. You need to go change. Into something that doesn’t remind me how fucking perfect your body is.”
She put her hand on the side of my face and winked at me. “Just think, after they leave, I can suck you right here in my living room to thank you for being a good boy.”
My dick jumped. “Mallie,” I said. “You’re not helping.”
She cupped me through my pants, and a wicked look came over her face. “I’m not trying to help. I love keeping you on your toes and seeing you unhinged for me.” She leaned up for me to kiss her cheek so I didn’t get lipstick on me, and I grabbed her and hauled her body to mine.
“This fucking body is mine,” I growled in her ear.
“All yours,” she promised.
“Scott is here,” Zoey said, entering the living room.
I turned from her to try to get my situation under control. She didn’t need to see that. Bad enough she had been around for many of our make-out sessions.
“All okay?” asked Zoey.
Mallie giggled. “Teddy likes my outfit.”
Zoey looked at her, then at me, before she realized. She shook her head and turned away. “Get yourself together and behave. Remember what we discussed.”
Oh yes. The many-hour discussion flying from New York to Los Angeles yesterday, during which Zoey and Jamie gave us all the things to say and not say during this interview. They’d be sitting off to the side and would help if needed. We even had to have a discussion about body language, as if Mallie and I had any issues with that. If anything, we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. But I knew not to fuck this up and to defer to her if I wasn’t sure how to answer. While I had a good amount of media training, she was the pro here.
Scott Lively, the reporter, walked in and shook both of our hands. He was a handsome man in his late twenties and had an aura about him that put both of us at ease immediately. I wasn’t nervous at all about this, especially since the press was part of my weekly routine with the team, but Mallie hated it. She had been cornered too many times in interviews.
“Thank you so much for this opportunity,” he said. “I promise that everything I told Zoey and Jamie I will hold up. I do not want to do anything to jeopardize our working relationship. I am honored that I get this chance to sit down with the two of you.”
Mallie smiled. “We greatly appreciate that. Is it true that you are really assigned to cover just me?”
Scott blushed and nodded. “It’s true. After the success you’ve had on this album, then the tour and your overwhelming worldwide popularity right now, they wanted a dedicated Allie Witt reporter. I get to travel the world to all of your shows, interview your fans, and keep up on all of the happenings. Like you and Theo,” he said. “People have been dying ever since you showed up at that game, me included. They will be foaming at the mouth for this story. Well, whatever part of it you want to share, of course.”
Mallie laughed. “That’s crazy. How did you get that job?”
Scott smiled. “I have been a huge fan of yours since your first album. About five years ago, I got pretty popular online posting content about what was going on with you. I got the attention of some higher-ups in the media world, and here I am. I’m proud to say I’m one of the OG Allie-Cats. Have the necklace to prove it,” he said, lifting said necklace from under his collar. Mallie’s eyes widened and she laughed. She really had no idea how much people loved her.
“Wow. That’s great,” she said. “It makes me feel better that you were a fan first. And not just a fan, but an Allie-Cat, too. With official club merch.”
“Damn right. Allie-Cats forever,” he joked and tucked the necklace back under his shirt. Scott gestured to the camera setup. “Do you mind if we do pictures first? I will just take a few shots ‘behind the scenes’ with my phone and then we will start the interview. Remember, anything and everything I do can be approved or denied by you, no questions asked.”
I took Mallie’s hand, and we walked over to the neutral backdrop. A white fabric bench sat in front of the backdrop, and the photographer indicated for me to sit. He positioned her behind me with her hands on my shoulders. She rubbed my shoulders with her thumbs, and I tilted my head back to look at her. She smiled at me, and my heart turned to goo. God, I loved this woman. I couldn’t believe I almost fucked up the best thing that ever happened to me. I’d do a million interviews if I had to, to make this go away.
I could hear the camera clicking, but they hadn’t even told us what to do yet. Mallie looked over at them as she heard the same.
“Just getting some candids,” the photographer said. I glanced at Zoey and Jamie. They stood together off to the side, small smiles on both of their faces. “Those were so good,” he said to them, and they stepped up to look at the small screen.
“Adorable,” Jamie said. I knew how stressed she was the last few days because of me, so I was glad to make her happy. The photographer continued, alternating between posing us and just taking pictures as we enjoyed the shoot. After about thirty minutes, they called it a wrap, and Scott motioned to the interview area. I could’ve done that all day. Taking pictures with the woman I loved, looking into her gorgeous eyes, and touching her body was not a hardship, to say the least. I even controlled the beast in my lower region—the one with a mind of its own—during the shoot.
The interview area was also set up with lights and cameras, but had a white couch that was brought in from somewhere for us to sit on instead. Mallie sat close, no real space to speak of between us. I put one arm around the back of the couch and rested it on her shoulder, then rested my other one on her thigh—in a respectable place. She placed her hand on top of mine. I leaned over and kissed the side of her head, and Scott sighed happily from the chair next to us.
“Off the record, you two are just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. He looked at Mallie. “It’s so great to see you happy.”
She blushed and bit that lip that drove me wild. “Thanks. We kinda like us, too.” Everyone laughed and Scott cleared his throat.
“You ready?” he asked.
Mallie looked up at me and I nodded, forcing myself not to kiss her. We had to focus. This was the key to getting people to stop talking about our debacle last weekend. “We got this, angel. Just be yourself.” Scott smiled at my whispers and indicated to start recording.
“I’m here with Allie Witt, the woman who needs no introduction. Allie is a global phenomenon and has been since she first came on the scene as a teenager. Currently on the most successful tour of her career and breaking records left and right, Allie seems unstoppable. But like the rest of us, she’s still human, with the same desires we all have. To love and to be loved. Be seen as the person she is. And to do what she dreamed of her entire life. She was gracious enough to let us in her beautiful home for this interview today.”
Scott paused, and Allie’s hand tightened slightly on mine. I ran my thumb along her shoulder, calming her, and I felt her take a deep breath. She hated every minute of this, and she was doing this for me. To fix the mess I made of things last weekend.
“Also with her is Theo Nolan, star running back for the Florida Blaze and, just recently, Allie Witt’s boyfriend. This is the first time anyone has had the privilege of talking to either of them about how they got where they are today and what is going on in their lives. We’ve seen Allie at several of Theo’s games and Theo at a few of her concerts. Now, we get a little insight into what it’s like to be them.”
The camera panned to the two of us, and it was showtime.
“Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules to sit down with me,” Scott said. “Theo, can you tell me about you sending Allie a jersey the night she played in your stadium? You were the one that reached out first, right?”
Allie looked at me, our answer to the question we knew would come first already practiced. She was ready. “Actually,” Allie said, diverting Scott’s attention to her, “I met Teddy earlier that day.”
“Teddy,” Scott said.
Allie blushed but nodded. “Teddy. That’s what I call him.”
I squeezed her shoulder. “She’s Mallie to me.”
Scott pretended to swoon. “Stop. You two are so cute. Okay, go on,” he said, gesturing to Mallie.
“I was practicing on the stage and Josiah called and broke up with me over the phone after five years together and said he met someone else.” She looked pointedly at the camera, ready to set him straight. “I ran off the stage and directly into Teddy. He helped me that day but never said anything to anyone about it. When he sent me the jersey and a note, I was thankful, but my whole world had just imploded. It wasn’t until a few months later that we started talking.”
Scott turned to me. “You shot your shot with Allie Witt, and it worked.”
“To be fair, I wanted to just make sure she was okay. I sent her flowers not long after the breakup with Josiah became public, but I didn’t expect anything from her. I just wanted her to know that someone cared.”
“He was very sweet,” Mallie interjected. “He didn’t ask for my number or try to hit on me.”
“So how did we get here?” Scott asked, indicating the two of us on the couch.
“I reached out to him,” Mallie said. “We just started talking. I wasn’t in a place where I wanted to jump into something else, but there was something about him immediately. He gets me like no one I’ve ever known in my life. So it wasn’t long before we both had feelings.” She smiled up at me and I looked down at her, the love I had for her pouring out of me.
“We decided to meet for a date,” I said. “I flew to New York and met her. We were able to see each other without anyone knowing, and that really kept the pressure off us for quite a while.”
“People speculated that the game you went to was your first date.” Scott laughed, and we laughed with him.
“I saw that,” Mallie said, a laugh still in her voice. “That is ridiculous. We knew exactly what would happen once I showed up there, and there was no way that would’ve been us ‘seeing where things went’ in the public eye. No, we were solidly a couple before that game.”
“You and Bailey Lee really caused a ruckus that day,” Scott said.
“We did. It was nice for her to be there to keep all the attention off me for a few minutes.”
“What kind of pressure was that for you?” Scott asked me.
“I loved that she came. She warned me what kind of attention it was going to garner, but honestly, none of that bothers me.”
Scott nodded. “You sure seem to be able to handle the chaos that comes with her fame without being ruffled at all.”
I looked down at Mallie. “It doesn’t bother me. She’s worth it.”
Scott cleared his throat, and I knew he was about to go there. “Let’s talk about what happened last weekend,” he said. “Of course everyone saw her ex yelling some terrible things at you before the game, and like any man in love with a woman, you reacted in her defense. Did things get blown out of proportion?”
I took a deep breath. This was me. I could see Jamie nodding at me from off camera, encouraging me. “It was uncalled for, and I will never be okay with anyone talking about a woman that way, especially mine. However, I should’ve just walked away. He got me in a moment of weakness, and I let him affect me, my team, and Mallie.”
“The media has been ruthless,” Scott said, and I stopped myself from laughing. That was the understatement of the evening. “They’re saying you have anger issues and Allie should run far away from you. What do you have to say about that?”
I was ready for this question, so I chose my words carefully. “They have. The media will run with any story they can, especially if it involves Allie. Funny that none of them are saying anything about a guy who decided to be horrible to a person he used to love just for media attention, though. I didn’t handle myself the way I should’ve. I have apologized to her”—I squeezed her close to me as I spoke—“and, honestly, she’s the only one that matters. Just because the cameras were pointed at me in a moment where someone said something so awful about the woman I love that I reacted doesn’t mean the same wouldn’t happen if any other person was in my position. It made it much worse that he said those things knowing all of the cameras would be on us and it would be viral. I was, and am, upset for her, not for me. This woman is a bright light in this world and does nothing but try to lift others up and make them better. For her to be disrespected like that was unacceptable. I will defend her with my life if I have to, so if that’s a red flag, then, well, I will accept that.”
I looked down at her to gauge how I did, and that was when I saw the tears shimmering in her eyes. She also hated to cry in front of people, so it alarmed me, but the little shake of her head told me it was okay.
“Allie, what do you have to say about what happened? And the video afterward in the suite?”
“This man right here is the love of my life,” she said, squeezing my hand.
Scott’s eyes widened, and my heart pounded so hard I heard it in my ears. She just told everyone that. I saw Zoey and Jamie whispering to each other.
“Everything he says and does is to make sure I am okay,” she continued. “The media took a private moment after the game where he was upset and misconstrued what was said to fit their narrative of him and tried to paint him as the bad guy. He is not the bad guy here. We all know who that is. I do not want to speak his name again or hear anything else about him.”
I wanted to pick up this amazing woman of mine and haul her out of here and propose marriage right there and then. She was such a fucking badass. But since I couldn’t, I leaned over and kissed her temple and whispered, “I love you” in her ear. I couldn’t let that comment pass without acknowledging what it meant to me.