“More than you think,” he answered.
“Okay, but games you make up don’t count.”
This time Elisa did laugh, which earned her a satisfied smile from Tyler and a thunderous look from Brody. Thunderous yet… sexy. Interesting. And fun.
“Something tells me Elisa would like my games,” he muttered.
She shifted in the booth, trying to extinguish the burning in between her thighs. “Only if you let me win. I’m a sore loser.”
His mouth curled up in a devious smile. “These aren’t those type of games. You see, these are more about endurance and stamina. There’s no stopping until everyone’s finished.”
Lord. Have. Mercy.
The man was sneaky and underhanded.
Don’t forget sexy. And mouthwatering.
“I’ve never heard of games like that, Dad,” Tyler said, completely unaware of the weird innuendos and code-talk going on.
“Oh, they’re real,” Brody answered just as his attention dropped down to Elisa’s mouth.
How wrong and sick was it for her to be turned on in front of an eleven-year-old?
Brody’s arm stretched along the back of the booth and then he ruffled Tyler’s hair. “Is everything okay?” he asked Elisa when she’d been silent a moment.
No, everything wasn’t okay. She was falling in love with the man sitting across from her. She was so incredibly turned on that she was about to dump her glass of water over her head. She missed her brother like crazy, and now she had a potential legal mess on her hands.
“I just found out today that an online magazine I sold some pictures to several years ago has been illegally selling my photos to other websites and even magazines.” There, she got it all out. The whole strange scenario still didn’t feel real to her. She’d trusted those people, and they’d essentially been defrauding her for the past couple of years. Since letting her contract with them lapse, she’d been eating through the money she’d made during her modeling years. As it stood, she only had enough to live off for the next few months. Had they been honest with her, she could have been making extra income this entire time.
Brody’s dark brows tugged together. “What do you mean ‘illegally’? Like they’ve been doing it without your knowledge, or something?”
“Well, it’s a little more complicated than that. But, basically yes.”
“How’d they manage to do that?”
Elisa glanced at Tyler, who’d pulled his cell phone out and was texting. “About three years ago, I sold about a dozen pictures to them. The agreement I entered into with them gave them one-time use of the photos, for which they paid me a fee. The agreement said that if they wanted to use the photos more than once, they would need to pay me an extra fee. But since I hold the rights to all my own photos, they legally can’t distribute them for monetary gain.”
Brody’s eyebrows pinched in confusion. “So, if they wanted to use your photos again, they’d pay you another fee and be able to use them themselves? What if they sold them and gave you a cut of the money?”
Elisa shook her head. “They don’t have the rights to the photos, so they can’t sell them. They would have to get in contact with me first and purchase the rights to the pictures, which they never did.”
“Are you sure your contract doesn’t have a clause saying they retain the rights to the pictures?”
“I had a lawyer look over the contract before I signed it. The rights are mine.”
Brody scratched his chin. “So how do you know they’ve been doing this?”
Elisa couldn’t help but smile. “This is where I got lucky. One of the magazine’s editors knows me because they purchased some photos from me in the past. She told me when she was contacted, the deal sounded fishy and the man was really hesitant to say where he got the pictures from. Since she’s been in the business a long time, she had a feeling they were trying to sell the pictures without my permission. The guy practically clammed up when she asked him to send the pictures over so she could look at them first. He tried to get her to purchase the pictures on the spot.”
Thank goodness the scumbag had the balls to contact someone as prestigious as that particular magazine. If not, Elisa might not have known.
“So what can you do?” Brody asked her.
Elisa shrugged and picked up her water glass. “Find a good lawyer, and hope he or she can get the money this website owes me.”
Brody glanced at Tyler, then back at her. “My dad has a really good lawyer who handles all the legal business for the restaurants. He might be able to help you or at least give you some advice. Sometimes all it takes is a threatening letter.”
Elisa smiled, despite her uncertainty with her new dilemma. “Anything he could do would be great. I’m not even sure where to turn at this point.”
“Dad, can I stay the night at Tommy’s tonight?” Tyler butted in before his dad could respond to her.
Brody stared hard at his son for a moment before answering. “Can you go another night? I had something planned for us.”
Tyler set his phone on the table and pinned his father with puppy-dog eyes. “But, Dad, his mom just got Rock Band and Tommy and I really want to play. And his mom said she would come pick me up at Elisa’s house. Please?”
Something dark passed through Brody’s eyes as he regarded the boy. Elisa’s heart cracked open at the tug-of-war Brody must be going through. Here he was, trying to make an effort to spend time with the boy, and Tyler wanted to hang out with friends. How lonely that must be for Brody. Elisa wanted to comfort him. She wanted to place her hand over Brody’s much bigger one and tell him it was okay, that Tyler was bound to reach this phase sooner or later.
Brody ran his hand over Tyler’s sun-kissed hair. “All right, you can go. But tell Tommy’s mom that I’ll drop you off.”
“Yes!” Tyler pumped his fist in the air. “Thanks, Dad.” His fingers flew with lightning speed over the keypad of his cell phone.
Brody directed his smile at Elisa, but the look didn’t reach his eyes. Her hand itched to touch him, but she held back. She was unsure about making a gesture like that in front of Tyler.
The darkness that clouded his eyes moment ago melted away as he gazed at her. “I’ll stop by on my way home to look at those photos.”
Brody strolled up the concrete walk to Elisa’s front door and tried to ignore his racing heart. Twenty minutes ago, Tyler had been all grins and giddiness when he burst into his friend’s house. Rock Band had dominated their conversation ever since Brody had picked Tyler up from Elisa’s house earlier. Apparently it was the coolest thing ever. Maybe he was behind the times, but Brody didn’t see how pushing buttons on a fake guitar could be fun.
Tyler was only eleven, and Brody was already being ousted for video games. When Tyler had been little, Brody had never imagined a day when he wouldn’t have been able to relate to his son anymore. It’s like he didn’t know the boy. Or Tyler didn’t know him. Or maybe a bit of both. Somewhere along the way they’d become strangers to each other. Worst of all, Brody had stopped trying, even though it hadn’t been intentional. Work had snuck its way to the top of his priorities, and Tyler had been shoved to the bottom.
The knowledge made him sick to his stomach. As though he were the worst father ever who’d lost all touch with his own child. Maybe he ought to buy a gaming system so they could play Rock Band together.
He took his frustration out on Elisa’s door and knocked harder than he needed to. When the door swung open seconds later, the black cloud hanging over his head dissipated slightly. The tension eased from his body when the exotic woman on the other side smiled at him. Her dark eyes practically glowed when they assessed him.