“The fuck? What do you meanhopefully?”
“She said she will. I’ve just got this bad feeling.” I don’t want to focus on it, considering I can’t even fathom losing. “She drives me crazy.”
Rafe opens the window, and cool air kicks up through the SUV as he reclines further. “Crazy can be fun.”
“Not this time.” Not that I don’t wish it was, but my little ice queen shut that shit down quick.
“Listen, Logan. Not knocking on it because I am too, but you’re used to easy women. Women who throw themselves at you because you’re Logan Adler, captain of the New Jersey Nobles. They see you on the ice, and they want you. They don’t expect anything, and they sure as shit don’t make you work for it. Liv’s not like that.”
My patience is wearing really fucking thin. “When did you become a Liv expert?”
“Not an expert. I just pay attention. And your girl is easy to read if you’d bother to pick up the book.”
“I swear to God, Rafe, if you don’t get to the point, I’m gonna make you walk the rest of the way.”
“Fine. Answer me one question.” He grabs his water bottle and waits for me to look his way. “Are you into your wife? She’s smart and hot and good with Maggie, so no judgment if you are, but are you? Or are you just fucking around?”
“First, don’t talk about Liv being hot, asshole,” I warn him, and he grins.
“And there’s your answer. You like her.” Smug bastard. “So stop acting like Maggie when we take her stuffed cow away from her.”
“She’s not my toy, you ass. She’s my wife, and we have a deal.” I debate telling him more, but it’s Rafe. Ass or not, he’s who I talk to. Always has been. God fucking help me. “I suggested we change the terms, and she wasn’t having any of it.”
“Do you hear yourself?” he laughs as I turn onto the Triple Crown’s private road. “No woman wants to talk contracts. That’s not a turn-on. Not even foryourwife. They want more.”
“More what?” I ask, regretting it the minute I say the words. Rafe hasn’t been in a serious relationship in years. “And how the hell would you know?”
But Olivia doesn’t want more.
She refuses to admit there’s even a possibility of more.
He looks out the window at Pops on his favorite Arabian horse, Midnight, and sighs. “Just trust me. It’s less about contracts and talking and more about showing and showing up.” We stop in front of the garage, and Rafe opens the door and looks at me. “And stop worrying she’s going to no-show Friday. This one is different, man. She’ll be there. Have a little faith.”
A little faith . . . What a fucking joke.
Olivia
“Listen, baby—” If the words weren’t bad enough, the hand Austin Stromreou just placed on my knee would have been what sealed the deal.
As professionally as possible, I remove his hand instead of his balls like I wish I could do, and inch as far away from him in the back seat of the SUV as I can. “Olivia.”
He licks his lips as if I’ve just issued a challenge. And this is why this guy was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend in the elevator of a hotel. Stupid, entitled prick. “Why you all the way over there, Ol-iv-ia?”
He overly annunciates every single syllable of my name, and I cringe. “Austin, please tell me you realize how serious this is. The league isn’t going to just sweep this aside.”
“Isn’t that why you’re here?” He closes the distance between us, and my stomach roils. “To make this vanish?”
“They have you on tape assaulting her, Austin. I can’t make that disappear. I can only mitigate the fallout.” And I’m not sure I even want to do that.
“Do the job I pay you for,” he basically yells in my face before all six-foot-seven inches and two-hundred-and-eighty pounds of this asshole gets out of the car, leaving me to wipe the spit he managed to spray from my skin.
Some days, I really am tempted to open my own firm.
One where I get to pick who I work with and what I’m willing to do.
Today would be one of those somedays.
My phone vibrates, and I pull it from my bag before getting out of the car and smile when I see Serena’s name appear. “Hey. What’s going on, bougie Barbie?”
