Game On (Game On 1)

It had taken almighty restraint to hold in my anger while I was with Taylor, but by the time I left her, I was ready to unleash.

How could he do that?

Why the hell couldn't he take a hint? It just wasn't normal to believe that 'Leave me alone' translated to, 'I want to shag your brains out.’

I sent Freya a quick text to tell her I’d be late meeting her, then went up to the gym, where I knew McCoy would go as soon as training ended. He always went to the gym after training.

I reminded myself to approach him with some degree of tact and calmness. Thanks to his completely unfounded complaint against me, I was already on dodgy ground. Knowing my explosive temper, particularly where McCoy was concerned, it would be difficult to keep the conversation professional.

'Well that would be because your interest isn't strictly professional,' a rogue voice said from inside my head. It had cropped up so fast, I hadn't had chance to block it out. 'Not true,' I argued with myself, ‘Admitting he’s good looking is not the same as being interested in him. This is about Taylor.’

As I pushed through the doors to the gym, prepared to wait, I found him already there, running on one of the treadmills. One step ahead of me again. I forced my gaze away from his powerful legs, took a deep breath and said, “I need to talk to you.”

He hadn’t heard me come in, and my entrance almost caused him to slide off the treadmill and smash his face on the floor. He caught himself just in time and deftly jumped off before he was thrown.

“What the hell, Leah?”

“You need to listen to me, and listen carefully because if I have to bring this up again, it’ll be in front of Richard.”

He picked up his towel from the floor and wiped the sweat from his face. “What’s got your panties in a bunch?”

“I’m not playing around, McCoy. I talked to Taylor.”

I watched as his face clouded over. There was something very satisfying about seeing his confidence turn to uncertainty. “What's she been saying?”

“Guilty conscience?”

“What's she been saying?” he repeated, a little more forcefully.

“She says you've been hassling her.”

He rolled his eyes, making me want to jam my fingers into his ice blue orbs and scratch them right out of his head.

“That’s crap.”

“Is that it? That’s your whole defence?

“What do you want me to say? I don’t have time to defend myself against little girls who make up stories about me. And I'd expect after being warned about treating me unfairly, you would do your job properly for once and treat me with a little respect.”

His words stung. I’d done nothing but work damn hard since I'd taken the job in spite of him belittling me at every turn. Somehow he always succeeded in turning every conversation into a threat or a come-on, and it was getting old.

“Respect is a two way street, and you’ve shown me none. Now, I'm asking you nicely to leave Taylor alone. She's thinking of going to Richard.”

I meant to make a sweeping exit after I'd delivered that information to him, but I couldn't resist waiting to witness his reaction. It was worth sticking around to watch the colour slowly draining from his cheeks.

“What exactly am I being accused of?”

“Wow. Do you force yourself on so many women that you can’t keep track?”

Confusion, then clarity crossed his face. “Force myself on … Leah, she’s only saying this because I turned her down.”

“Oh please, when have you ever turned a woman down? I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

“I'm serious. She threw herself at me, I told her it was never gonna happen, and now I guess she's out for revenge. I’m telling you, I’ve done nothing wrong here.”

“I don't believe you,” I said, watching him closely. “I saw the state she was in. You don't think that kissing someone after they've told you they're not interested is wrong?”

“I've never kissed anyone who wasn't into me.”