Smoldering Desire by Desiree Day

being videotaped, after all the weed and alcohol he had consumed that night, they could’ve taken him to Piedmont Park, a popular gay hangout in Atlanta, and had him run around naked and he wouldn’t have protested. 
    If it came out that J.T., the quarterback for the Atlanta Jaguars, was gay, it would ruin him. 
    “What am I going to do?” he groaned.  “It’s a sad thing that America won’t accept a gay quarterback.  I’m a man who happens to love men, that doesn’t make me any less of a human being does it?”  Every day he got the urge to run outside or go on TV and tell everybody that he was gay but he squashed the urge, knowing that the backlash would be horrible. 
    Instead of answering his question, Marcella strolled over to her wine cabinet and pulled out a bottle.  She handed it over to J.T. for him to uncork it.  Marcella pulled out two wine glasses from her mini china cabinet and set them on her desk.  As soon as J.T. filled them, she lifted hers.  She brought the glass up to her nose and inhaled deeply, the aroma instantly calmed her.  She sipped while J.T. nervously tapped his glass.  “I’ve given this a lot of thought.”
    There was hope in Marcella’s voice and J.T. desperately reached for it.  “Yeah?”
    “Find a wife,” she said.
    “What?” So shocked by her response, he nearly fell off the chair.
    “If you want to continue your lifestyle, you’ll get a wife, some young lady, not a celebrity, and she must not have any aspirations of being a celebrity.  But a good hometown girl, who would be willing to sign a pre-nup and have a whirlwind romance.  You two get married, you get her pregnant and you all live happily ever happy.  Let her know what’s going on so that way she won’t be taken by surprise.  You can continue dating men, but keep it quiet…very quiet.”
    J.T.’s head was swimming.  “So we orchestrate this whole relationship?  My marriage?  A baby?  Who would go along with this charade?”
    Marcella snapped her fingers.  “I can instantly come up with twenty women who would gladly step into this situation and exploit it for the goldmine that it is.  But you don’t want a gold digger, you don’t want a manipulator, you want someone sweet, someone pliable, and someone who needs you just as much as you need her.”
    He looked helplessly at her.  “But I don’t know anybody like that.”
    “Sure you do.  You just don’t know it.  I’m sure once you start paying attention to the women around you, one will stand out.”
    “But what happens if I don’t find anybody?”
    She pointed a finger at him.  “Then, I’ll find one for you,” she threatened.
     
    MY HUSBAND & MY WIFEY - $.99
     
    Barrett McKenzie laughed loudly; it started in her heart and erupted into a blast of playfulness.  Sierra, her best friend of fifteen years, grinned at her.  “You’re too crazy girl, keep pulling stunts like that and those people are going to fire you.  That’s for real.”  Barrett sat back in her chair and crossed her legs.  She and Sierra were sharing their weekly lunch at their favorite restaurant. 
    Sierra grinned.  “I know.  I’ll try to behave myself.  So what are you getting Tavis for his birthday?” she asked.
    Barrett shrugged while taking a bite from her orange glazed salmon.  “I don’t know.  I’ve been going crazy trying to think of something.”  And she had been, for the last three months, as soon as the reminder popped up on her BlackBerry.  Her husband had every gadget created and was a bigger clothes whore than she.  So those gifts were out.  She had a gift in mind, but it was so unusual, so different, and so unlike anything she had given him, that she had skirted away from it…until now.
    “What about a spa day?”
    “Nope, did that for the last two years in a row.”
    “Okay.  What about a trip?”
    “I’ve already sent him to Vegas, Miami and the Dominican Republic.”  As a successful lawyer, she was able