“You will find it in yourself to care for yourself, for your future, and your team,” she adds.
We lock eyes, unrelenting. Both experts in the art of war. For the first time ever, I’ve met a worthy adversary. But she has a weapon that I do not. Beauty. Grace.
Endurance won’t help me now. I’m going on hope alone that I can resist it.
Her breath whispers across the skin on my arms.
It’s as though we’re caught in a desert wind with sand buffeting between us, rubbing us raw in some places and polishing us elsewhere like glass. But there’s dry heat too, warming us to the point of incineration.
My pulse quickens.
She drags in a breath.
My head dips closer to hers.
Cateline’s lips part and finishing her thought, she adds, “And you will abide by the rules of the playbook.”
The spell breaks. The comment sends me reeling backward. “How do you know about that?”
“I know everything.”
She knows too much.
“Which one of the guys told you?”
Her head shifts left and right. “You told me.”
My inner wolf reminds me that I won’t win by playing her game. Once more, I’m at odds with myself.
She clasps her hands as though pleased by holding this knowledge over my head.
I gaze at the flickering flame of the candlelight on the table, considering my next move. Give up because she’s right. Or live by the Boston Bruiser’s motto,It ain’t over ‘til we’ve won.
I straighten and resume my position in front of Cateline. In a low voice, I say, “My father once told me an old story about a captain who sails ashore to wage war. Instead of anchoring the ships, he orders the crew to burn them.”
She inclines her head as though curious why anyone would do something so insane—that had been my question too. My father burned the boats, that’s for sure.
I explain, “Retreating is only a choice when you have the option. If you burn the boats, there is no going back. You have no choice but to fight. To win.”
Understanding ripples across her features. “That’s how you live your life. Burn through everything in your way, never mind the wreckage in your wake.”
“Never look back. There is only one way and it is onward.”
“That means you don’t look within.”
My muscles tense. Never have I met someone so perceptive, fearless, right, and so dangerous.
Cateline wags her hand between us, accidentally brushing her finger across my arm. It sends a surge through me, like a fuse lighting a keg of adrenaline.
“You burned the boats.”
“Aye.” I stop short of offering a salute.
“This is war, then?” she asks.
I give a sharp nod.
“Very well. Let the battle resume tomorrow. Seven a.m. sharp.”
