A deep crease appeared between her brows. “Can you stop phrasing requests like commands?”
Oh. Hmm. He should…wait, that was… “Please respond to my texts?”
She grinned, and his fingers twitched. God, he didn’t even want to touch her body, but her face! “If you ask me, you spent a little too much time thinking about how to construct a non-command sentence. And, God, I’m supposed to say goodbye, I’m supposed to reply to your messages... Your sex buddy standards are high.”
He frowned. “I’ve never had a sex buddy. I don’t know what the standard arrangement is.”
“You’veneverhad a sex buddy?” Incredulous, she let her gaze travel down his neck and chest.
“You sound like people with sex buddies are the majority.”
“Not people. Just the millionaires of this world.”
“You’re a millionaire too, Hazel. Have you had sex buddies?”
“Obviously. Why do you think I’m so shocked?”
He narrowed his eyes. Okay, he hadn’t wanted to know. The fist in his chest let him know that he couldn’t forget it now either.
Fuck.
It was okay! Hazel could sleep with whomever she wanted. He didn’t care if she…
Okay, yes. He did care – far too much. He hated the thought of her…with whom she…how many she… Wait, was she currently sleeping with other men?
Hazel didn’t seem to realize that she had triggered an internal debate within him, coupled with far too many emotions — God, thosefeelings! “What did you talk about with Blake?” she inquired. “Your conversation seemed rather intense.”
“I gave him some relationship advice,” he said absently, trying to remember if Hazel had included any clause about sexwith others in the contract. As far as he knew, she had left the subject completely open, and until a week ago, he would have claimed they didn’t need a clause about it, but…
Hazel laughed. “No, seriously. What did you talk about?”
Blinking, Gareth looked at her, trying to focus on the conversation instead of the strange fingernails that seemed to be scratching the inside of his chest. “I gave him relationship advice,” he repeated, confused. As if he was joking!
“What?” Hazel’s jaw dropped open. “But you…what?”
“Well, you wanted me to talk to him.”
“Well, yes, but…I thought you’d tell him he’d be sold if he didn’t prove he should stay on Saturday.”
“Yes. I mentioned that too.” He frowned. “Why are you so surprised? You said I should ask him if he wanted to talk to someone about his ex-girlfriend.”
“But I didn’t think you'd listen to me and then talk to him about it yourself!”
He shrugged. “It seemed like the most efficient way. It's what I would have told you, if you’d responded to my messages!”
Shocked, Hazel opened her mouth again, but she couldn’t reply before two shadows fell over her: Lucy James, a Hawks PR consultant and the girlfriend of their striker Dax Temple, stood in front of them with a tall, blond man whom Gareth also vaguely recalled as being from the marketing department.
“So the rumors are true,” Lucy announced theatrically. “The boss is hanging around with the hockey players. Now I almost regret calling Ford a liar, but nobody could have foreseen that, could they?”
Gareth sighed. He knew that if he started talking to the players, the consequences would be disastrous. He was only surprised that Hazel was also shifting restlessly in her seat. “Hey, Lucy,” she said, greeting the redhead before her gaze wandered to the blond man. “Hi, Simon. Nice to see you.”
“Yeah, hello,” Gareth felt compelled to add.
The man nodded stiffly but completely ignored him. His gaze was fixed on Hazel’s face.
“I tried calling you,” he mumbled.
Hazel’s fingers twitched on the table. “Yeah, I know, I’ve been incredibly busy.”
