It’s fascinating, seeing Jordan Hathaway enjoy something like this.
“You were right and I was wrong,” I say, because I want more.
Her eyes roll back and she groans. Blood rushes to my cock, sudden and violent, and oh, fuck. She can’t be making noises like that in front of me.
“ButCoach, you were so sure.”
Coming here was a bad idea. When she calls meCoachlike that, I feel—weird. Tense. Turned on.
Attracted to her.
Fuck. That’s not okay.
“That’s what you said, isn’t it?” she presses, wearing that curve on her mouth and the gleam in her eyes. “That you disagreed with me? That he’s young and talented and you saw a lot of potential in him?”
I run the tip of my tongue over my canine, not meeting her eyes.
“Maybe my memory’s wrong,” she adds.
“Jordan.”
“Yes, Coach.”
“Let’s be mature about this.” I raise an eyebrow, trying to get at her, and her eyes narrow like my shot landed. “And stop calling me Coach.”
“Sorry,Tate.”
Why is that hot? It’s her lips. No, it’s her eyes, the way theynarrow when she says my name. It’s the way I think about her whispering it in my ear. A shiver makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
She holds my eyes, a spark of challenge and entertainment running through hers, and I feel it in my chest—the desire to win, but also, the fun of a game. I’m competitive, of course I am. It’s in my blood, it’s what made me a great hockey player.
She’s smiling more, narrowing her eyes at me, and I like it. I like her looking at me like this, like we’re teasing each other. A sense of calm settles through me, sitting here in her quiet bar.
“How did you know about Hutton?” I ask her, because that’s the real reason I’m here tonight.
“I know the team.” She glances around the bar. “I overhear them talking at the bar. I know how they work together and how they play on the ice.”
Under my gaze, she shifts, the fun, playful light in her eyes fading away. “Do you want a drink?”
“Soda water with lime, please.” I watch her get to work, and the second she has something to do with her hands, she relaxes. “I talked to Jay Choudhury today.”
Jordan goes still, her expression blank.
“He told me that you helped them win championships.”
Something I had been trying to do with the team for my four years as head coach.
“I didn’t.” She keeps her eyes on the glass as she opens a bottle of sparkling water. “They did that on their own.”
It’s what she said in Ross’s office.
“He said your recommendations were the reason they won, even after you left. That you emphasized building trust and confidence within the team, and studied how the lineups played differently with different personalities.”
Why isn’t she taking the credit she deserves? Does shewantme to think she’s unqualified?
Jay told me something else that I keep thinking about. He said she didn’t graduate.She took off about a month before the school year ended,he added.Sent me an email saying she wouldn’t be working with the team anymore, and the next day her office was cleared out.
She puts a piece of lime on the rim of the glass and slides it toward me. “Shouldn’t you be home with your daughter?”
