Page 9

"The team put me in charge of your image. Nobody alive could be in charge of you." I drop my binder on the table between us like a gauntlet.

He’s so focused on me. It shouldn’t do a single thing to me, instead it does everything, and I start to feel a warm pull low in my belly.

Margot, focus. You have a plan. You’ve had this plan for years. Remember the spreadsheet. Do not let one super hot winger derail you.

I stay on my feet. Height is the only advantage I have at the moment and I’m keeping it.

"This is where we are." I flip the binder to the tab labeled Brand Deals. "Meridian is about to walk. Nine figures, Jax. The team loses its flagship sponsor. We’re all on the same sinking boat, which is the only reason I'm being this nice."

"They signed you personally, their watch line, your face in every airport lounge. But they're also the team's flagship partner. You torch this, it isn't just your money."

"I love a group project." He tips the chair onto its back legs. "What's the play, coach?"

The play. Right. The play is the reason my pulse has been trying to relocate to my throat since Denise said I can use ‘unconventional means’. If I can spin this right, I can get something out of this arrangement.

"The play is we clean you up. No clubs. No fights I can't spin. No more dating models and bringing them home to be fodder on gossip apps."

Something flickers behind his eyes when I say models.

I stare at him as I think… that’s right buddy I know your reputation. One girl is the same as another.

His chair drops onto all four legs. "That's not what that was."

"It never is." I close the binder.

Because here is the truth. The image restructuring can wait for a few minutes. I’ve been working towards this exact opportunity since I was nineteen years old. And I’m taking my shot.

My hands are shaking, so I press them flat to the table. Trying to hide my nerves.

"I need to ask you something. And if you laugh, I will end your career with one email and sleep like a baby."

He goes still. Watchful. "Okay."

Say it before the sensible part of you wakes up and tackles you to the ground.

"We’re going to be spending a lot of time together and I want you to teach me." It comes out steadier than I have any right to sound. And I sound crazy.

"There's someone. Someone I want. A man. And I like him… And when I finally go after him, I don't want to be a fumbling disaster who learned everything from books and bad guesses. I want to know what I'm doing in the bedroom."

He has gone predator-still. But I keep going, because stopping now would actually kill me.

"You have experience. A frankly upsetting amount of it, it's practically your entire personality. So teach me. I think of this as the last item on my list before I become a functional adult with a functional love life."

The quiet stretches until I can hear him breathing.

"Margot." His voice drops into a low register, the one I feel vibrate through my body. "Are you telling me..."

"What you can’t say it? I'm a virgin. Yes. Try to keep up." The heat climbs my neck and I let it, because I’m already all the way in. "I skipped the fumbling-in-a-dorm phase with boys. I was focused on building a career instead. Now I'd like to catch up with a professional, and you are, tragically, the most professionally experienced ‘bedroom’ man I’ve ever met."

He doesn't move. He doesn't grin. It's like he’s a statue. Just sitting there.

His jaw works, like he's biting down on something with edges, trying to get the words out.

His eyes drag down my body and back up slow enough that I feel it like a caress on my skin. And still he says nothing, and his silence curdles from terrifying straight into humiliating.

He never wanted me. My plan is failing.

Oh. Oh no. I read this wrong. I read all of it wrong.