“Sir,” Keaton said.He was standing in front of my desk with a coffee from the machine and a sheaf of printed papers.
I reached out for both.“Thank you,” I said.He’d only brought over what I had asked for from the printer.Still.I needed to thank him.I needed to improve the atmosphere.
Anything would be better than yesterday.The cold silence when he’d come back into the office with my to-go coffee from across town.The way he avoided my gaze and sat down at his desk as if he had something incredibly important to do.The way neither of us spoke until I reluctantly told him I was leaving in the late afternoon and he could go home.
The way he’d scurried past me and out of the building like it was on fire.
I took the mug from him and our fingers connected.An intense spark zapped between us.The warmth of his skin sent a shiver down deep into my stomach.I put the mug down on my desk and looked away from him.I couldn’t let him see that reaction.It was inappropriate.Especially after yesterday.
I looked up into his face without meaning to.He wasn’t wearing his glasses today.I liked seeing his face more openly…
But those glasses were cute.They suited him well.I kind of missed the tortoiseshell frames.
A ping sounded from Keaton’s computer.I watched over the top edge of my laptop as he moved back over to it.He saw something on his screen that made him frown.He clicked a button even as he was sitting back in his chair.
Then all the color drained from his face.
“Um,” he said.“Sir?”
I was already half on my feet.“What is it?”My mind was working overtime.A threat from that ex of his?Jordan coming here to attack him?To hurt him again like someone so obviously had in the past?I would crush him.He would regret the day he was born –
“It’s a video,” Keaton said.He scooted his chair over for me to stand next to him.There still wasn’t quite enough room behind his desk.I leaned over him.The heat of his shoulder seemed to burn a hole against my side even though we weren’t touching.“It’s Ridley Angus.”
I frowned as he pressed play again on the video to restart it.ItwasRidley, alright.He stumbled around between two of his teammates.Drunk as hell.They were halfway to his car before he fell down and they had to help him get back up.The video only stopped when they finally had to half-throw him to get him into the back of the car.
“What the hell?”I exclaimed.Keaton moved away from me almost imperceptibly.Almost.But I noticed it – because I was attuned to his every movement.He had been so close to my side and I immediately wanted him closer.
But I knew why he’d moved.
Because I’d shouted.
I needed to stop doing that.
“It looks like it’s gone viral,” Keaton said.“The clip already has tens of thousands of views.Someone from downstairs saw it and sent it over.”
“Fuck!”I exclaimed again in spite of myself.I stepped back and ran both hands back over my short-cropped hair.“Fucking Angus.Why the hell would he pull a fucking stunt like this?”
“It’s bad,” Keaton said.“But – it’s not that bad, is it?Lots of celebrities get photographed falling out of clubs all the time…”
“Most celebrities didn’t sign a contract with a non-alcoholic drink sponsor,” I pointed out.“Most celebrities didn’t run a full TV and online campaign about how he had gone tee-total.”
“Oh,” Keaton said.He looked back at the screen with an even paler face.“He lied?”
There was a second where I felt something other than panic and anger.Just one second.But it was enough.
A second of relief that Keaton was starting to see that Ridley Angus was not some beautiful god.That he was a man just like anyone else.That he could make mistakes.
That maybe being the most famous football player in the world did not exactly make him a dating prospect.
That was fucking selfish.I had a business to run.Many careers relied on it.Mine was only one of them.
“He lied to everyone,” I told him.“Including me.”I growled under my breath and stalked back to my desk.I needed to get a handle on the rage I was feeling.The last thing I wanted was to spook Keaton.It was justhard.Ridley had fucked up – massively.
It wasn’t even the fallout with the sponsor I was most mad about.
It was the fact he’d liedto me.Ridley told me he was all in on this.That he genuinely wanted to be sober.
Now this fucking disaster.
