“Where are you going?”she questioned quietly this time and with no anger in her voice.
I needed to get out of this room.I needed a moment to breathe, to focus.
“I forgot, but I have to meet the team at the arena,” I answered, looking back at her to see her grabbing her purse.“Whoa, where do you think you are going?”
“With you.”
“No way, you are going to stay here and get this shit with him under control.The team isn’t paying you to be bullied by your ex-boyfriend.They are paying you to fix my issues, and that, baby girl, is exactly what you are going to do.Sit down, figure your shit out, and get to work.Your coffee should be here within the hour.”
I opened the door to the room and pulled it shut behind me, leaving her standing in the middle of the room, and made my way down to the lobby.
It wasafter eleven when the team returned to the hotel.I was going to join Dylan and Knox for some drinks but then remembered my stupid drinking ban, so I said good night and made my way up to the room.
I had hoped Emma would be asleep by now, but when I opened the door, the lights were on, as was the TV, and Emma sat at the small table, papers scattered all over the place.
“Don’t you ever sleep?”I questioned, really not in the mood to talk to her right now.
“I told you, I work late.”
“Well, since you’re working late, did you tell that jackoff to back off?”I questioned.
“I’m not answering that, and as for working late, I do most of my best stuff at night.”
“I bet you do,” I muttered, grabbing my boxers from the drawer and heading to the bathroom.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Not a thing,” I muttered.
“Wait, don’t you want to see the article I wrote?”she said, just as I got to the bathroom door.
I stopped, stood still, and glanced at her over my shoulder.
“Baby girl, it’s almost midnight.What I wanted was to have a couple of drinks with the boys and come up here to silence, crawl into bed, maybe watch a little porn, jerk off, and go to sleep.”
I wanted to laugh at the disgusted look as it washed over her face.
“Ugh, seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.Don’t you dare tell me you don’t rub one out occasionally.To be honest, you should probably do it a little more often than you do.You’re so uptight.It would probably help with that and ease a lot of the stress you are carrying,” I said, looking her right in the eyes.
“You know, being a difficult ass isn’t a personality trait,” she said, getting up and shoving a piece of paper into my chest.
Her eyes met mine, and I couldn’t help but smile as I took in the look of disgust on her face once again.I honestly loved getting under her skin because I knew that the woman she portrayed wasn’t the one she was.The only glimpse I’d seen of the girl I’d once known was that night in my living room, the night we’d kissed.
“Read it.”
She shoved me out of the way and shut the bathroom door.I glanced down at the paper she’d given me, reading the first few lines, but I immediately stopped when I noticed the mention of the cancer foundation.
How the hell did she know about this?Only a handful of the guys, Pamela and Kent knew about the foundation named after my mother.I stared at the words, all of them blurring together.I could barely tear my eyes from the sheet of paper as she walked back into the room.
“Well, what are your thoughts?I think the interview and photoshoot at the house when we return and the things in the article will really help things.I mean, think about what the Puck-Lit-Love girlies will say when they find out the hockey hero has a soft spot for cancer patients.”
“This isn’t going out.In fact, it’s never going to see the light of day, so I don’t care what the Puck-Lit-Love girlies are going to think,” I barked, ripping the paper into pieces, sprinkling them onto the floor.
She crossed her arms in front of her, and I watched her chest rise and fall as she looked at me.
“That’s mature, rip it up.Do you honestly think I don’t have another copy?”
