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I tighten my grip on the wheel. “I was doing my duty to protect my country, and I’ll never apologize for it.”
She glances out the window. After a few moments, she says softly, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. What you did for your country was honorable, and I made it sound sordid."
I grunt in response, and neither of us speaks for several minutes.
"He’s going to get his revenge on the ice," she remarks.
I scoff, "We’ll see."
"I’m not saying you’re not a good player. It’s just… he has a track record."
"So do I."
"Rick, you haven’t played professionally in years."
"Are you saying I can’t hold my own against him?"
"I’m saying he’s younger than you, he has more stamina than you—"
"You weren’t complaining about my stamina when you were falling apart around my tongue."
23
Gio
I draw in a sharp breath. Fire embraces my cheeks. "I can’t believe you’d throw that at me," I say in a low voice.
His fingers tighten around the steering wheel, then his shoulders bunch. "I’m not sorry I made you come, but I am sorry I threw it at you like it didn't mean anything." He glances in my direction before looking back at the road. "You have to understand, I couldn't have stood by and allowed that man to talk to you like that."
"I still think you shouldn’t have been so impolite.” I tip up my chin. “He’s the captain of the rival team. He can make things very difficult for you and the team.”
He makes a growling noise at the back of his throat, and my nerve endings spark. He doesn’t even have to speak. All he has to do is make his grumpy, growly, beast-like noises and, apparently, I turn to putty.
When he doesn’t say anything, I search his features. "I’m serious. You shouldn’t have pushed him like that. You shouldn’t have told him to—"
"Fuck off? I should have punched his throat, then followed it up with a few to his face, then kicked his legs out from under him, before jumping on his chest and—" He shakes his head. "Fucking hell, you should have seen your face when he was speaking to you. You should have seen how hurt you were, how you were drawing into yourself, and Goldie…any man who makes you feel like that deserves a lot worse."
"There you go, threatening to kill him again.”
"If necessary."
I narrow my gaze. "Don’t do anything stupid, you hear me?"
"Who, me?” He points at himself. “I’m the epitome of playing by the rules."
I make a rude noise, and one side of his mouth twitches.
"For someone who’s so straitlaced, you always surprise me when you do something so irreverent.”
I toss my head. "I only seem to do that with you."
He draws in a breath. “If anyone hurts you, in any form—emotionally, mentally or physically—I won’t hesitate to take them out."
My heart stutters. My belly flip-flops. I should be upset. I should be alarmed by how this man can deliver that ultimatum in such a matter-of-fact tone. I should not be aroused by that hint of menace in his words, how his jaw is set, how his cheekbones cut through the air. How the nerve pops at his temple, hinting at the violence that rolls under his skin. I thought Rick was grumpy—and he is. But, underneath that facade of hating the world, he’s so much more intense. He might pretend not to care about anything much, but he sees everything, takes in everything, doesn’t miss a nuance.
He has to be that way, given his past. It’s probably ingrained into him to spot everything that happens around him. It’s what would have saved his life in the past. This…intensity about him is also the most arousing thing for me. He won’t do anything by half measures. He won’t say one thing and do another. He wouldn’t cheat on me with another; that’s the kind of person he is.
It took me a while to realize that. Maybe subconsciously I did, which is why I agreed to move into his room and then went along with his plan of pretending to be engaged. I wouldn’t have done that if I had any concerns about his character or about the kind of man he is at heart.
