Win has a nice ring to it. Then again, I’ve always liked that word. It’s been ingrained into my blood ever since I started playing hockey as a kid. Losing isn’t an option. I’m competitive and cold-hearted, and I have no regrets about what I do in order to secure a victory.
Something shifts in her, and her nerves are back. She shifts in her seat and twiddles with her wrapper again. “If we’re going to work together,” she says softly, “I’m going to need to get to know you a bit better. I can’t help you unless I understand you. If the world is going to believe that you’re trying, it needs to be genuine.”
Isn’t PR fake? “Do you get to know all your clients so…personally?”
She wets her lips, and dammit, I follow that movement a little too closely. “You’re my first client,” she admits, wincing as if it’s information she hadn’t planned to share.
I already knew it, but I understand. That information puts her at a disadvantage. Some people would probably want her off their case because of her lack of experience. But not me.
My lips curve. “So I’m popping your cherry.”
Her eyes snap up to me and widen.
I can’t help but laugh at the face she makes as she spits and sputters a response that never comes.
“Calm down, Bronte,” I muse, sipping my water and leaning back. “I don’t do virgins.”
*
I barely getany information out of the twenty-five-year-old over the hour and a half I keep her at the restaurant. I watch her split her food in half, knowing she’s taking the leftovers home to have another meal tomorrow. I slip the waiter a fifty to put an extra meal in the bag without her knowledge—chicken parmesan, because the only valuable thing I did learn from her is that poultry is her favorite, especially when it’s smothered in cheese and sauce.
I spend the short drive home white-knuckling the steering wheel, angry that I care about her past with her coworker. It was one date, so why the hell do I care? I’ve been on plenty of dates, if you call what I do “dating.” I suppose it’s more casual than that. Sex, mostly. It’s probably my lack of sex that’s aggravating me so much. My appetite for a good orgasm tends to steer my thoughts in directions it wouldn’t usually go if I’m without a decent lay for a while.
One thing is true. I’m attracted to Winter. More than I should be. Hell, more than Iwantto be. She’s ten years younger than me, with a lot less experience if her embarrassment over the word “virgin” is any indication.
Her innocence makes me hate my body for reacting to her—for liking when she mouths off or dishes out sass. She doesn’t look her age. She isn’t baby-faced or lacking curves where I like them most, but it still feels dirty.
The shit I’ve gone through has aged me in ways I don’t wish on anybody. My time in foster care shaped me, but not as much as the years I spent with my biological parents in that trailer park. I suppose asking about her past is hypocritical, since I have no intention of divulging anything about mine. It’s why I’m cautious about those I let around me. The fewer people who ask questions, the more secrets I can hold on to. And people like Winter, young and curious, would definitely ask questions.
Plus, choosing not to surround myself with younger people means there isn’t a constant reminder that I have one foot out the proverbial door in this career. I’m not sixty, but even Tom Brady was considered geriatric before he retired from football in his early forties. Hockey is a brutal sport that does serious damage to the body, and I know my time is coming to an end soon enough. I don’t feel like being reminded that I’m not twenty-five anymore and full of hope that the world has more to offer me.
Emaly bombards me with questions the second I walk into my house, breaking me from my train of thought. “How did the interrogation go? Do we like her? What do we know?”
We.She’s always considered us a team, even when she’s twice removed from a situation. “I didn’t interrogate her,” I state, eyeing her as I toss my keys into the bowl in the foyer and head to the kitchen with her hot on my heels. “Andwedidn’t learn anything.”
Besides her favorite food, which I add to the mental folder with her name on it. Alongside her love for poultry is her appreciation for caffeine and how clumsy she apparently is. Hardly anything to go on.
The long sigh that comes after that is full of defeat. What did I expect? I’d hoped to get information directly from the source before hiring someone to dig into her for me. Is it any of mybusiness? Absolutely not. Has she captured my interest enough to spend the money? Yes.
“Other than her having bad taste in men,” I mumble more as an afterthought before chugging half a bottle of water and wiping my mouth off with the back of my hand. I look around. “Did you reorganize my kitchen?”
“It was messy,” she says, shrugging. “But back to her bad taste in men. I’d like details. It sounds juicy.”
I deadpan, “You need a hobby, Em.”
She smiles. “Gossipingismy hobby outside of saving kids’ lives. And Ronnie is in surgery all day, so you’re stuck entertaining me for now.”
Lucky me. “I take it you haven’t spoken to your parents yet,Dr. Moskins-Yokav? Do they even know you’re in town?”
She rolls her eyes at my mocking tone, then frowns when my question sinks in. Emaly claims she’s here for me, but I can tell there’s something more to her story. She loves me and cares for me, but I recognize the brokenness hiding behind her smile. She’s hurting.
So, I indulge her in conversation. “Winter,” I tell her, when she makes no effort to give me an answer, “has a coworker who reminds me a little too much of Dr. Porter.”
Her wince at the asshat’s name who cornered her makes me nod. “Oh.”
My jaw clenches as I think about the asswipe’s comment mumbled under his breath. I hate the kind of people who assume the only way for women to build their careers is by sleeping with the higher-ups for sway. I hate even more that Winter looked mortified and glassy-eyed from it. He was going to make hercry, and I’m not okay with that.
“She went out with him for food,” I muse. If he realized that, it probably wasn’t a great stroke to his ego. It also didn’t stophim from trying to get more from the deal. “Doesn’t seem to realize that she’s not interested.”
