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Yeah, this wasn’t a good idea.
Holly stood up so fast she lost her balance, and he grabbed her arm to steady her.
“Whoa, easy there,” he murmured, frowning.
“We can’t do this,” she blurted. “We can’t.Ican’t.”
The frown line between his eyes deepened. “But—”
“I forgive you for what happened. One hundred percent. But you and me? We can’t go down this road, Eli.”
“We can go down whatever road we want to,” he said gently, tugging her toward him with the bottom edge of her shirt. “We’re the ones who make the rules.”
“Then I guess this is me, making those rules.” She put her hands on her hips. “Like I said, I do forgive you, Eli. I think getting the past out of the way is necessary if we ever want to become friends again. And I want that, too, okay? I really want that. But this just isn’t smart.”
“So... we’re not friends?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Yes. No.” She covered her face with her hands. “Ugh, I don’t know what the hell we are right now. But it doesn’t matter because that wasn’t the point. The point was that this is a bad idea.”
“I want us to be friends again, too, but I disagree that this is a bad idea.”
Holly snorted and blew her bangs away from her face. “Yeah, well, you would.”
“Be honest, Holly: do you want me?”
“It’s not a simple answer,” Holly argued.
“Sure it is. You either want my hands on you, my mouth on yours, my—”
“Eli.”
He let out a low chuckle. “Just answer the question, Wilkes.”
“This evening certainly took a sharp turn,” she muttered.
“Did it?” He brushed the tips of his fingers along her cheek, then tipped her chin up to meet his hot gaze. “Because I’m pretty sure our road was always leading here.”
It might have been a blunt statement, but it also wasn’t exactly wrong. It was just that her heart—her stupid, sentimental heart—wanted more than just sex. And even if they managed to become just as good of friends as they’d been in the past, she was always going to want more.
She’d forgiven him, and she knew she could trust him to help her, or even trust him to protect her if she needed it.
But trusting him with her heart?
That was an entirely different matter.
Holly stepped away from him, and he dropped his hands, resting them on his thighs.
“Look, I really was going to walk away from the article last night. I’d wholeheartedly planned on it, but frankly, I need the money. And I know you went out of your way to get me a nice paycheck for it.”
He studied her, then gave a short nod. “I’m glad you’re going to do it.”
“But, Eli, we’re going to be spending a lot of time together. I know you had other reasons for arranging the article, but this byline could really help me. I knowLucky Bounceis just a gossip blog, but doing a legitimate story about the best defensemen in the League can only help me when it comes to landing freelance writing assignments.”
“Best in the League, huh? Is that what you think?”
She rolled her eyes. “Again,notthe point.”
“Sorry. Go on.”
