Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84401 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 422(@200wpm)___ 338(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“So tonight?” the girl said in a flirty tone.
“Sure. You’ll pick me up at my place at eight?”
I couldn’t stop myself from looking up. A third date? When he’d moved from one girl to the other it had been bearable, but seeing him with someone for real, the way I wanted to be with him, broke my heart into tiny pieces.
“I can’t wait,” she crooned.
My chest constricted painfully. Xavier led the girl to the door, let her out, then turned and our eyes met. He frowned. “So what’s on today?”
He sounded all businesslike. Like my boss. He had never sounded like that before. So that was how it was going to be?
Good. That would make things easier for me as well.
“Not much. Training. In the afternoon, I was going to answer your fan mail and update your social media, but I’m doing it from home.”
“Sure,” Xavier said casually.
Connor came over in the afternoon to pick me up for a beach run. He was still giving me that badly disguised disappointed look, and it was making me furious.
We’d been jogging for less than five minutes when I lost my shit on him. “Can you stop the annoying self-righteous bullshit? You weren’t a saint before Fiona either.”
Connor stopped. “That’s right, but I wasn’t too big of a dickhead to realize when I found someone good.”
“I slept with Evie once, that’s it.”
Connor scowled. “So you’re just going to let her walk away? For what? For that Dakota girl whose guts you’re probably hating already? What’s that all about anyway?”
It took me a second to remember who the fuck Dakota was. “Fuck if I know. And Evie decided to quit. There’s nothing I can do to stop her.”
“You know what you’d have to do to make her stay.”
“I don’t date, Connor, and you fucking well know it, and especially not someone like Evie.”
Connor got in my face. “What’s that supposed to mean? You had no trouble fucking her despite her looks, but she’s not dating material because of it or what?”
“That’s not it, you stupid asshole,” I growled.
“Then what is?”
“Evie’s not interested in media attention, and she’s a good girl. She’s not the girl for me. She needs someone straight-laced, some decent bloke who makes her happy.”
“You are such an idiot.”
“I know,” I said regretfully. “But if it makes you happy I’ll dump Dakota tonight. We’re meeting in that new trendy club everyone’s raving about. She probably hopes someone from the press is there as usual.”
I scanned my emails on my tablet. The recruitment firm I’d contacted to help me find a new assistant for Xavier had asked me for a meeting next week. “Blake asked again if Evie was available,” Connor said from inside the kitchen where I was heading.
My eyes widened. I didn’t know Blake had asked about me in the first place, but he had always been nice when I saw him. Had he been flirting with me? I’d always been so focused on Xavier that I hadn’t paid much attention to any of his teammates.
“What did you say?” I asked, barging in before Fiona could say anything. I didn’t like them discussing my love life, or the lack thereof, without me.
Connor and Fiona turned around as if I’d caught them in the act. Connor rubbed the back of his head, then glanced at my sister like he needed her to stage-whisper the answer.
“I told him I wasn’t sure.”
Fiona scowled. “I told you to tell him she was available.”
“Yeah, well. I wasn’t sure because of…Xavier.”
“There’s nothing between Xavier and Evie.”
“Excuse me, I’m here,” I said. “When did Blake ask before?”
“A couple of weeks ago, around the time when you drove out to Xavier’s family farm with him. I thought…”
“Thought what?” I asked.
“I thought it meant Xavier might be interested in you as more than his assistant.”
“He was interested in more of her and he got it,” Fiona muttered.
She was right, but so was Connor. I’d also believed it meant something that Xavier had taken me to his family. I hadn’t exactly thought he wanted me as a girlfriend, but I was sure we were friends. But friends didn’t sleep with each other, and they definitely didn’t move on to the next conquest right after.
“Do you have Blake’s number?” Fiona asked Connor.
I narrowed my eyes at her. She was meddling again.
“Sure,” Connor said slowly.
“Then send him a message that you asked Evie and she’s available.”
“I never said I was available.”
“You had your heart broken by a womanizer who’s already out chasing the next skirt. You are available,” Fiona said firmly.
I bit my lip. Blake was kind of cute. He was nice, pleasant to talk to and he was a sexy rugby player. There was just the little problem that he wasn’t Xavier. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Why?” Fiona asked almost angrily. “He’s flaunting his latest conquest in your face, and you sit back and cry your eyes out because he snatched your V-card and tossed it into the dirt like an expired coupon.”