I’m thinking yes.
“Welp,” Wylde says, exaggerating the word as he rises from his chair. It must be clear he’s now the third wheel. “I think I’m going to hit The Sneaky Saguaro. Check out the action.”
I finally give him my attention, reaching out to shake his hand. “Great game, Wylde. And I’m glad you could drop by tonight.”
He nods before shooting Willow a smile. “Nice talking to you, Willow.”
“Likewise,” she murmurs.
Silently, we watch him cross the patio and head into the house.
When the door closes behind him, I sink into the chair Wylde vacated. “Your family left a little while ago. They said you were planning to hang out.”
“Yup,” she replies, then takes a delicate sip of wine.
“Would that by any chance include plans to stay the night with me?” I ask, giving her a charming grin. This morning, she’d said she wasn’t going to, but given the fact she’s still here and her ride isn’t, I’m hopeful.
Willow appraises me before answering. “I wasn’t going to, but then a job came up in Ottawa. I decided to take it, so I’ll be leaving soon.”
“What’s the job?” I ask, aware she’s a photojournalist but not knowing much past that.
“Oh, there’s some major student protests going on over a tuition hike. Apparently, thousands will be marching the day after tomorrow.”
Sounds dull to me.
“They’re worried about riots so in case it turns into more than just a march, the AP contracted me to take photos.”
Riots? “Is that dangerous?”
Willow shrugs. “Probably not. I mean… it’s a bunch of college students, right?”
“I guess,” I murmur, disappointed Willow will soon be leaving. “So… you’ll stay tonight?”
“Sure,” she replies. “I mean… why not?”
“Try not to sound so enthusiastic,” I reply dryly, and Willow laughs.
At least there’s that.
“Admit you had fun tonight.” It catches her by surprise, if her eyebrows shooting up are any indication. “Sitting together during the game and celebrating great plays with high fives—all while wanting to just kiss the fuck out of each other.”
“I most certainly didn’t want to kiss you during the game,” she says primly. It immediately makes me resolve to prove her wrong at the next game she comes to.
“What about now?” I ask. “Want me to kiss you?”
Her smile is sly. “Maybe.”
I’ve got a million different places I want to kiss her, and I expect I’ll be spending a good bit of time with my mouth between her legs.
“When are you coming back from Canada?” I ask, tapping my fingers on the arm of the chair.
“Unless things get hairy with the disgruntled students, I expect I’ll be at game three in Seattle. I’ll probably fly directly there.”
She’ll be gone for four days. It sucks, but I’ll survive.
“I invited your parents to sit in the box with me during any of the games,” I tell her, needing to extend the same invitation to her. “I’d love for you to join me for game three, but, more than that, I’d love for you to stay with me that night. I got a luxury hotel suite in Seattle with its own patio jacuzzi. Imagine the things we could do in it.”
“I imagine after four days without each other, we’d break it,” she says, and I love that answer more than any other she’s given me. That means she’s going to be missing me as much as I’ll be missing her.
And I dare not even ruminate about what that means.CHAPTER 9DominikThe rules of mediation require us to meet in a neutral location. The place we’d agreed upon is a conference room in a downtown Phoenix hotel. Representing the Vengeance organization on one side of the long table sits myself, our attorney Fred Gruber, Christian Rutherford in his capacity as the general manager and the three individually named defendants, Dax Monahan, Erik Dahlbeck, and Sebastian Parr, who is our director of merchandising. All three are the victims of false accusations, which were made by the woman directly opposite me.
Nanette Pearson is nothing like I’d envisioned. She had been described by our attorney as a manipulative sex siren who masterfully set up three of my employees for a sexual harassment lawsuit in order to get a big payout.
The woman is very pretty, no doubt. But her own attorney has clearly had a hand in her “transformation”. Hair swept into a low-key bun, minimal makeup, and a drab black suit with a blouse underneath buttoned all the way up completes her ensemble. The piece de resistance is the strand of pearls at her throat.
She looks every bit the meek, humble victim she’s been portraying herself as since she filed this lawsuit. According to her, Erik, Dax, and Sebastian lured her into sexual relationships with the promise she’d receive something valuable in return from the Vengeance team. What she expects those “returns” to be is unclear, and I’m interested to hear their thought process today. However, it’s only for my own amusement. I’m not going to believe a fucking thing she says because I fully trust my guys.