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“No.” Nicoletta’s perfect smile suddenly flashed. “She’s very beautiful. So’s he. But neither of them were what I wanted.”
“So what then? You had want all over your face honey, you can’t deny it.”
A far away look entered her eyes as she hesitated. Then that softness hardened. “It was the passion. The way they couldn’t wait to get into each other.”
“Lust?” He frowned down at her. It couldn’t be that simple. “You’ve never been unable to wait to get to it?”
She shrugged. “Not like that.”
“They’re madly in love with each other—”
“It’s not that either,” she interrupted, goaded. “It’s almost in spite of that. It’s the inability to stop. That overwhelming urge. The recklessness and they don’t give a damn…”
“What, you’ve always had sex in a bed, at night, with the lights out or something?” He tried to joke, but his voice had rusted.
“Pretty much.”
His tension trebled. “Didn’t that actor boyfriend you had do it for you?”
She picked up the third tequila shot and drank it. “He was too busy pumping iron to pump me,” she muttered as she sucked in a breath and blinked rapidly. “Building bulk so he could be that cartoon hero in his latest movie.”
Seemed the tequila was having an effect on loosening her tongue.
“He had his priorities wrong.” Austin wished there was more tequila on hand for him to have.
“He did. And as he was on the other side of the world most of the time—”
“You didn’t text each other pictures? Video link to indulge your love-to-watch kink?”
He didn’t think she’d answer that.
But she surprised him, turning to answer back quite seriously. “I’m not stupid enough to put anything on film. Or stream anything live over the Internet.”
So she hadn’t been satisfied. All that time she’d been with that guy she hadn’t been getting what she wanted. Austin shouldn’t feel pleased about that. But he did.
“It was to raise our profiles,” she said in a low voice, staring at the empty shot glasses.
“What?”
She shrugged. “He wasn’t that into me. It was for the publicity.” She didn’t look happy about it.
“Whose idea?” he asked.
“All concerned.”
Had she really agreed to something so calculated? Was she that ambitious to be the ultimate celebrity? “When did it end?”
“Didn’t you read about it?” she asked bitterly. “I kicked him to the curb so I could concentrate on my pre-season training.”
“And the reality was?”
“That was the reality.” She shrugged again. “Only it happened months ago and the fact that he’d been sleeping with half his fans instead of me really wasn’t a factor in my decision.”
Anger knotted his gut. That hurt in her voice was genuine—it must have been something more than a commercial arrangement for her and the asshole had cheated on her.
She looked into his face, then away. “He didn’t break my heart. He never had it.”
Ten minutes ago he’d have scoffed at the idea that Nicoletta actually had a heart, but he knew that was his own self-defensive armor.
“I know what you think,” she added softly.
“What do I think?” He half-laughed, he’d really like to know because right now he was confused as hell.
“You think I do everything I’m told to for the sake of my career. That I sell out.”
“And you don’t?”
“I’ve made a lot of sacrifices for my career. But I’m not selling myself again.”
“Is that how it felt?”
Her eyes lanced into his. “I want to dress to please myself, not my marketing assistant mom. And I want to date a guy I actually desire.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
She stared into his eyes for another second, then glanced away. “Another three shots please,” she called to the bartender.
“And two large glasses of water.” Austin added before leaning closer to Nicoletta. “You’re not going to like the way your head will feel in the morning if you drink all that tequila.”
“I don’t care.”
“Not now maybe, but you will later. Won’t you be training first thing?”
“I don’t need your advice. You’re not my doctor.”
He pulled back. “No. Never was.” And that was the problem.
Don’t touch me. I don’t want you touching me.
She’d screamed at him. She’d had a fever and wouldn’t let him near her. It’d been the beginning of the end of his time working with the national ski squad. The frozen, flu-riddled diva had demanded her own doctor. And NV always got what she wanted. That’s why everyone else was so damn envious of her.
But right now she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Instead she looked across the bar to the few couples clinging to each other on the dance floor.
“You have many patients here?” she asked as the bartender lined up all the drinks.
“Sure.”
She picked up a shot and downed it. “Beautiful ski bunnies.”
What did that razor-edged comment mean? “I don’t fraternize with my patients, as I’m sure you remember.”
“I remember.” She turned towards him again to whisper. “You never sleep with any of your patients. Never any one you’ve treated.”
“That’s right.” Because he wasn’t stupid.
She just looked at him. Her brown eyes were wide and suddenly full of that naked want again.
Austin stared back at her. At the perfect pout of her parted lips. At the flush in her cheeks. At the secrets and shadows in her eyes. And the most unbelievable thought occurred to him.
Oh she had to be freaking kidding. Could she have been so damn stupid?
“Is that why you wouldn’t let me help you?” he asked softly, almost unable to breathe. Anger burned hot and quick. “Is that why?”
She actually paled. Her gaze skittered down and then back to his. She drew in a shaky breath. But she didn’t answer.
He moved closer, his voice lowering as his anger unleashed. “You know I left that position because of your refusal to let me treat you. Your insistence on having your own doctor made my position as squad physician untenable. You have such influence… your decision made others doubt me. So I left before I was pushed. I wasn’t going to let some spoilt ski princess’s whim ruin my career. And it was all because, what, you had the hots for me?” That was why she’d pulled away from him? That she could be so unprofessional astounded him. And yet—
“I—”
“You really are that spoilt? Like a petulant child wanting to have your cake and eat every last crumb? And the fucking cherry on top.” He was livid. And something else burned up his blood. Something so out of control it almost scared him.
He glared at her, watching as she licked her lips nervously and picked up one of the glasses of water, ignoring the two other tequila shots the bartender had poured. Austin didn’t ignore them. He downed another, inhaling sharply as the hit burned down his throat. Then he saw the way she was holding the glass of water.
“What are you planning on doing with that?” he snarled.
Was she about to tip it on him and cause a scene? Nicoletta was so not herself tonight. How could someone who held herself together so coolly in an intensely competitive environment, lose it so easily here? He slammed his hand on her wrist, pushing it back to the bar.
“You’re mad with me,” she choked, releasing the glass.
“No kidding.”
And she was mad with him for that? Her sense of entitlement beggared belief.
But there was this. Swirling between them. Chemistry. Rogue pheromones. Whatever. It was just physical want.
He decided to give her something to really hate him for. He grabbed a cube of ice from the glass, pulled on the waistband of her jeans before she could slap his hand away and slipped it down the front of her panties.
She squeaked and pulled back, but he slammed against her, pinning her back to the bar, pushing his pelvis against hers, knowing the ice was melting on her skin.
