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17
He didn’t even have the decency to look guilty as he chatted about watching his ex-girlfriend’s dogs. She’d spent the last few weeks letting Corey Matthews get to know her. Flirting with him. Why? Why would he find her online and pretend to be some random person? She was pissed. She needed a minute to regroup and refocus on Tim, the reason she was in the room.
“Tim, I need to make a call really quick. You go ahead and get dressed, meet me in the tunnel and I can follow you home.” She always did a first interview with her subjects at their place. She made them dinner and let them talk. It was surprising how much a person would say in a few hours over a couple of glasses of wine and good food.
“You’re going home with him? Really?” Corey snapped.
Taran turned to look at him. She hadn’t wanted to. She’d spent the last forty-five minutes trying not to look at him sitting there in just a towel.
She’d been in many locker rooms—probably a hundred over the last two years—and never had a half-naked or even fully undressed male bother her in the least. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to look at Corey today. His bare chest and arms—all muscle from years of working out for hours a day—daring her not to stare. Not to follow the blond happy trail that led to the knot of the towel, making her wonder what was below.
If she wasn’t a female reporter in a male dominated world, she might not have had the strength to make sure her stare was blank when she responded to the half-naked Captain America look-alike ten feet from her. But she was, and it was not her first locker room, so her eyes stayed up as she answered.
“I don’t have time to deal with you today. I’ll get there, trust me.” She let her eyes tell him she was mad about the game he’d played with her. “But today, I’m going to have a nice dinner with Tim and get to know him.” Basically, do her job.
“Just no meat—or are you making an exception for his?” he asked, but in a locker room where double entendres hung in the air, you didn’t make that comment to a female reporter.
Taran’s mouth fell open for a split second before she snapped it shut so hard her teeth rattled.
“Matthews, what the hell is wrong with you today?” Daily asked, coming to her aid.
She’d known Daily since she’d interviewed him two years earlier.
“Murphy, don’t hold that against us. He’s not usually such a douche bag.”
She glanced back to Daily. “Actually, I’d have to disagree with that.” Although he was known for being the boy’s boy with the media, and never doing anything out of line—polite, humble, sweet—Taran hadn’t met that man at all. “I’ll meet you outside,” she added to Tim.
As she walked out of the locker room, she heard Daily say, “She’s a reporter asshole. You should thank her if that doesn’t end up in her blog.”
Taran wouldn’t post anything about Corey. Whatever his problem was it seemed way too personal for her to speculate about.
She was a reporter who, in a few months, would be writing a story about Corey Matthews. Although it annoyed her that he’d sought her out on Diablo, he also gave her quite a bit of information. Some of it she’d known. His parents were always in the news, so that wasn’t new. But he basically confirmed his relationship with actress Mel Holly, something there had been a lot of speculation about. He’d also implied he had a lot of unresolved feelings for both Beth Demoda and Mel. Taran wouldn’t ever put that in her story, because it truly was no one’s business, but it might give her insight into who he was.
Then again maybe it wasn’t even true. He definitely knew who she was when they’d talked online. Corey Matthews didn’t seem like the type to open up to a reporter, but he did seem like the type to punish her for her attempted blackmail with the Clayton story. That hurt, which was a weird feeling. A pain in her chest and an uncomfortable turn of her stomach. It had been a long time since she’d felt that. And instinctively, she pushed the feeling aside. Drawing away from the pain.
At Nick’s wedding, Corey had been the one bright spot in an otherwise awful day. She had spent the last few weeks wishing he’d reach out, only to find out he’d been playing her. It pissed her off. And she felt that knot come back, but she had no intention of letting it continue to grow.
She took a deep breath and tried to get her professional mask back in the place. The one she needed to do her job. The one that normally took up every moment of her day. Taran breathed in another deep breath and blew out everything that had to do with Corey Matthews. She’d learned how to let things go a long time ago.
Feeling the knot disappear and the cool relaxation wash over her, she leaned against the wall and pulled out her phone. She had a text from her sister, one from her sister-in-law, and one from Erin. She answered all of them, smiling about the family updates from home and assuring Erin she would not be at this weekend’s barbeque because she’d be on the road with Tim.
She then flipped to Erin’s husband and made the quick call to get him to take care of her actual plans to travel with the team.
The air filled with Obsession, and she knew who was headed her way before she even raised her eyes from her phone.
“Don’t find me again, sportsnut. And I expect a bit more professionalism from a team captain,” she said, still not looking at him.
“Do you have a sixth sense?” he asked, and she finally raised her eyes from her phone.
“Huh?”
“How’d you know it was me, little bit? You didn’t even look.” He frowned at her.
“I have four other senses. I didn’t need to see you.” She rolled her eyes.
Her phone buzzed, and she looked down to see a text from Sean telling her everything was set to go. Corey rested his arm next to her shoulder, invading her space with all his Captain America Mojo. She licked her lips, steeling her resistance, before she met his eyes.
“Professionally speaking—”
