Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 520(@200wpm)___ 416(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
I blinked, that panic that had been simmering under the surface boiling over now.
“No,” I said, but the admission was so weak not even I believed it.
“Oh, babe.” Livia leaned forward, wrapping her hand around my wrist on the table with a gentle squeeze. “Vince is not James.”
“He’s not that much different.”
That made Livia quiet, like she wanted to argue but wasn’t sure she had a leg to stand on. Because just like Vince, James had been an athlete. Just like Vince, James had been charming, and magnetic, and easy to fall for. And just like Vince, James was rich, from an affluent family, with certain expectations of who he should be with.
“He called me.”
“Who?”
I flattened my lips when I looked at her, but it was actual surprise on her face when she damn near choked on her cocktail.
“James? How? Didn’t you block his number?”
“He got a new one,” I said flatly. “Don’t worry — I blocked it, too. But not before he rattled me and gave me his unwarranted advice.”
“He what now?”
I sat up straighter, using my straw wrapper to make a mustache like the one James sported now. Then, in my best impression, I said, “Look, I understand how guys like him tick. I also know you’ve worked your ass off to get where you are.”
“No he did not—”
“I just don’t want you to jeopardize your career because he’s spinning all the right webs and saying all the right things.”
Just like mine had, Livia’s jaw hit the table, and she slow blinked twice before letting out a menacing laugh. She dabbed the corners of her mouth with her napkin before tossing it on the table. “Alright. That’s it. I hope that prick is enjoying breathing today, because he won’t be soon.”
She acted like she was about to stand and go find James, like she was my knight in shining armor. I tried to laugh, but it fell flat, and Livia frowned before reaching across the table to squeeze my arm again.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I didn’t let myself overthink it before I was blowing a breath through my lips, shaking the whole thing off. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. But in a way, it was a good reminder of what I already knew to be true.”
Livia’s lips pulled to the side, but she didn’t argue.
“And I’m going to show Vince that, despite him ignoring me every time I’ve told him, this is a professional relationship.”
“Oh, yeah?”
I nodded, smiling wickedly as I sat back and sipped my martini. “I have a date. Tonight.”
“A date?” Livia almost laughed. “With who?”
I waved her off. “I don’t know. Some guy from the apps. I swiped right a few times and got a match.”
“Let me get this straight. Your plan is to go on a date with another man, presumably let him pick you up at the condo where you’re currently staying, and for that to somehow make Vince Tanev realize you’re off limits?”
“Yes.”
“You think,” she said, slower now, like I wasn’t understanding. “He’ll see you leave with this guy and take the hint, that he’ll leave you alone and think to himself, ‘Well, I guess that’s that. Maven is clearly taken and not at all interested in me?’”
“Exactly.”
This time, she did laugh, shaking her head as she plucked the olive out of her martini and popped it into her mouth. “Oh, honey,” she said. “This is going to backfire right in that pretty face of yours.”
This Fucking Dress
Vince
“Man, I’m starving,” Carter said, rubbing his stomach like an old man waiting for Thanksgiving dinner. “I feel like I could eat a whole cow.”
“Maybe if you did, you’d be able to hit the puck better,” Jaxson said, pinching Carter’s biceps with his fingertips. “That wimpy shot you made in our scrimmage today is going to reverberate in my nightmares.”
“Fuck off. It was bar down.”
“It would have actually had to go in the net to be bar down,” Will grumped. “Not doinked off like a missed field goal.”
“It went in and you know it, Daddy P. You just don’t want to admit this rookie scored on you.”
“That’s because you didn’t, Fabio. And you never will.”
Carter and Will were still horsing around when we pushed through the front door of the restaurant. We were immediately greeted by five employees at the hostess stand, all of them eager to welcome us and see us to our table. There were more eyes on Will than the rest of us, mostly because Daddy P didn’t make public appearances often. He was usually home with his kid, where he loved to be. I was glad we’d managed to pull him out for an evening, even if just for dinner.
But that wasn’t my sole focus of the evening.
“You good?” Jaxson asked me, pulling behind a bit to walk at my side.
“Peachy.”
“That’s convincing,” he said on a laugh, and then he narrowed his eyes when he saw me searching the place as we were walked through the restaurant to a back room. “Who are you looking for?”