“I know, Hazel. I’ve been there. Have I ever made you feel like you didn’t fit in?”
“Not then. But…”
“But what?”
“But then you made sure I didn’t get the job with the Hawks or the best law firm in LA!” she snapped, anger flashing in her eyes. “Back then, you told your father and your boss at the firm not to hire me! Then you ignored my calls when I wanted to talk about it. The Gareth I knew would never have done that.”
Gareth closed his eyes and let go of the car keys before he pierced his hand.
Hazel was wrong. It had been the old Gareth who had no choice but to make certain she didn’t get anywhere near the Hawks.
“You’ve gotten your revenge, Hazel,” he said quietly. “You think I don’t know that? You’ve ruined more than one of my negotiations by giving opposing lawyers tips on how to beat me. You’ve blocked more than one trade by deliberately signing the players we wanted and getting them a better deal from the competition! You know I hate losing as much as you do — so you made sure I couldn’t win.”
“But that’s only because you started it! Because you were no longer who I thought you were. The Gareth I was with would never have made me feel like I wasn’t good enough for the Hawks. The Gareth I was with wouldn’t have been bitter about me beating him for top honors. He would have laughed about it and congratulated me instead of ruining my job search out of revenge. That Gareth might have forgotten about it because it had been three years since we last saw each other!”
“Out of revenge?” His eyes shot open. “You think I told my dad to reject you because I wanted you to know you weren’t good enough?”
“Why else would you do it?” she retorted heatedly. He swore he saw flames flare in her eyes.
“Because we don’t work well together, for fuck’s sake! Haven’t you noticed?” he snapped.
“We worked great together at the university!”
He laughed mirthlessly. “I know! But that was before…everything.”
“You mean, before you became so damn tough? So ridiculously ruthless?”
“Oh please. I’ve always been tough and ruthless!”
“No. That’s not true,” she snapped, as if his statement was a deeply personal attack. “I know people like to say you have no feelings and no empathy, but that’s not true. At least, it wasn’t true before. You were gentle and understanding and laughed more than you frowned. You don’t want to hear this, I know, but…you’ve becometoorigorous. On yourself, your staff, and your damn schedule! You’re still not an asshole — you’ve just stopped trying to please people. To bemore. Probably because it was never enough for your father anyway and you got tired of it. But…you have to try. Not just with work, where you can see your successes, but also with things where those successes remain invisible.”
“God, you sound like my sister.”
“Yeah, maybe you should listen to Penny. Maybe it should bother you that people think you’re an asshole, and that you’re so damn intimidating that most people don’t dare be honest with you. God, you don’t have to take every tip and criticism people give you, but you can’t just stop listening.”
“If I listened to everyone who told me what I was doing wrong…”
“Not everyone, Gareth. But what about Penny, Cian, and Connor? Do you listen when they tell you you’re acting like a shit? That you should stop working when you're supposed to be spending time with them? Have you considered that Penny might be right to worry about you? And, yes, I know she is!.”
He opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she replied dryly. “I can’t believe you seriously force your players to call you Mr. Clark!”
“It’s a business relationship,” he growled.
“You don’t call me by my last name!”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t sleep with Fox, Alvarez, or Moreau either.”
“Oh, so that makes a difference to you?”
“Fuck, yeah!” The car interior seemed to grow smaller by the second as he looked at her intently. “If I knew what they sounded like when they came, maybe I’d feel weird calling them only by their last names. If I knew where to touch them to drive them crazy. And if for seven years, I couldn’t forget how they wrapped their legs around me and whispered…is that all?when I took them deeper and harder, I’d probably remember all their first names without any problem!”
Hazel flinched as if he’d slapped her across the face. She pressed her lips together, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
“We should have stipulated in the contract that you’re never to say anything like that again,” she whispered, and he saw her press her hands between her legs. “And that you…that you’re not to tell Cian and Connor any intimate details that I entrusted you with. Or that I’m trusting you with now. Nothing about my parents or the nights we…that we…”
“I haven’t and I won’t. I don't need a damn contract for that,” he said, dangerously calm. “Stop making me angry!”
