Wild Zone (Rough Riders Hockey 4)

“Yes.”

Lexi warned herself not to say anything she’d regret later. “I’ll do my best.”

After saying good-bye, Lexi jammed her finger down on the disconnect button. She slammed the phone on her desk and swiveled toward her cutting table where she’d been preparing yards of French-woven jacquard for a twenty-thousand-dollar wedding gown. Which made her realize once again how much this potential partnership was costing her.

All her fury, her doubt, her loneliness, her confusion from the past three weeks expanded beneath her veneer, creating hairline cracks. With an animalistic growl, she picked up the phone and chucked it across the studio. It floated over the balcony, punched an armoire with a clack, clattered against the travertine floor of the main salon, and clinked to a stop against a rack of gowns—right beside the front door and Rubi’s sparkling high heels.

Poised there, holding the door open, Rubi gazed at the phone for a long moment, then her eyes lifted toward Lexi. No other part of her body moved. “Bad time?”

All Lexi’s problems crashed like a wave. Failure and embarrassment tangled into a web and wound around her like a straitjacket. She braced her head in her hands. “What the fuck is wrong with me?”

By the time Rubi’s heels clicked on the stairs, Lexi’s tears poured, completely beyond her control.

“I knew this was coming.” Rubi wrapped Lexi in her arms and held her tight. “When are you going to realize it’s not you?”

Lexi pulled away from Rubi when all she wanted to do was sink into her. She wiped her face, covered her mouth, and choked back the awkward sobs for air as she tried to force herself to stop crying.

Rubi crouched in front of her, hands on her knees, her friend’s big eyes swimming with concern and sympathy. “Honey, let me just go drop my friend off and I’ll be right back—”

“No.” Lexi’s hands popped off her mouth. She wiped her face again and sniffled. “Don’t mess up your night, Rubi—”

“This is not messing up my night. You’re my best friend—”

“I kind of need to be alone, you know?” She pulled open the bottom drawer of her desk and yanked tissues out, blotting her eyes. “I need to think about things. Make some decisions.”

“About those

?” Rubi tilted her head toward the cutting table and the sketches still sitting out.

Lexi nodded and sniffled again, then lifted a you’re-not-going-to-believe-this look to her friend. “They’re too sexy.”

Rubi wore heavy eyeliner tonight and thick mascara that made her eyes pop. A slow grin spread over her face. “They are a bit…outside the box. But then…since New York…so are you.”

Lexi’s face flushed, burning so hot she put her hands to her cheeks again to cool them. “Stop. This is serious.”

“I agree. These designs are a serious reflection of the shift you’ve made since your semi-anonymous rendezvous with Biker Boy. And a serious leap in your design process. A potentially serious leap in your career.”

Lexi slid her hands up and over her eyes. She wished she’d never said anything about Jax to Rubi.

“I’ve noticed it in the way you dress, the way you walk, even the way you interact with your clients, Lexi. And now, here it is in your designs—”

The pressure of Rubi’s hands released from Lexi’s knees, and her heels clicked across the space. Lexi dropped her hands. The tears had stopped as suddenly as they’d started, leaving a hollow, dull ache at the deepest part of her. One she hadn’t felt in decades.

The soft shift of paper drew Lexi’s gaze up, but she was so tired, her vision blurred. “Rubi, I can’t go over the changes she wants now, and you have someone waiting—”

“What are these?”

The thick insinuation and approval in Rubi’s tone made Lexi fight to focus. Rubi had pulled a handful of loose sketches from her pad beneath the designs for Martina.

Lexi realized which sketches she’d found, and a burn of mortification erupted in her belly. She pushed from the chair and lunged for them. “Rubi—”

Rubi blocked her grab by turning her back. “Wowza, Lex.” She fanned herself with one of the drawings. “Is it getting hot in here?”

Yes. Very hot. Lexi’s face burned with embarrassment. Rubi had found the über-sexy, borderline erotic—okay, they were erotic—sketches of women in highly suggestive positions wearing sexy lingerie.

“Come on, Rubi. Those are private.”

“Good to know you keep them under wraps, except…” She shot a frown over her shoulder. “Since when do you hold out on me?”