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If I didn’t hate him so much, I’d have the urge to let him toss me on top of the conference table and have his way with me.
I push those thoughts out even though my mind dwells on that first time for a beat.
I was only fifteen. He was only seventeen.
And despite our youth and inexperience, I can’t say it was bad. And I imagine that like a fine wine, he’s only gotten better over time.
Not that I’ll ever find out.
All I associate with him is the explosive ending to what was the best thing in my life. We can’t go back and change that.
No matter how hot for him I feel just from seeing him walk into the room.
If he’s surprised to see me here, he hides it well. In fact, he seems wholly unaffected by me while I’m trying my hardest to pull it together. Maybe he doesn’t remember me. Maybe he’s bedded so many women now that I’m just a face from his past, and that thought makes me even angrier.
Or maybe Jack forewarned him. Maybe he knew he’d be seeing me in here today and he had time to prepare. My only preparations came in hunches and speculations.
Heat climbs up my back, but I have to keep my temper in check. I’m just not sure how when all I want to do is scream at him for the way he treated me back then.
He may have been my first…but he wasn’t my last.
I shouldn’t hold so much anger over what happened. Maybe that’s his deal…he simply moved on while I’ve been stuck holding onto this giant suitcase filled with a grudge that sometimes feels so heavy it’s going to knock me clean off my feet.
I can’t help a tiny glare at Jack for the blindside, but he’s smirking, too, so I feel like he knew what he was doing. It all feels like a setup, as if I’m the butt of their joke. Ha-ha, she’s a girl trying to fit into this man’s world. Let’s show her that women are just emotional creatures and see how she runs with it.
I let these errant thoughts take over. I let them wander down to the heat climbing my spine, and the flames ignite.
I won’t prove them right.
“Mr. Nash, what a surprise. Congratulations,” I say, and this would be the time where I should walk over and shake his hand, but hell if I’m allowing any part of my body to touch any part of his.
“Thank you, Ms. Bailey,” he says, his voice the same voice I remember murmuring to me while he made love to me but somehow…raspier. His eyes don’t leave mine for a beat, and I try to read what’s there, but it’s like a book in a language I no longer know the words to.
Still. He knows my name. He didn’t forget who I am.
I don’t know why I thought he would. What we shared was once in a lifetime. What we shared was supposed to be forever.
Somehow that snuffs one of the thousands of flames now leaping toward my neck.
Dave clears his throat, and I glance over at him. He raises his brows as if to say let’s get this show on the road.
Oh, right. We’re here for an interview. Lincoln is the new head coach of the Vegas Aces. I have a whole list of questions to ask.
And I pray I don’t ask the one that’s just on the tip of my tongue.
The only one I really want to ask.
CHAPTER 13: LINCOLN
Jack gave me the warning, but it was a mere five minutes ahead of time.
Five minutes to prepare for a moment nearly twenty years in the making.
I figured our paths would cross at some point. I didn’t think it would be moments before I walked into my first interview as head coach.
And when I first spotted her in the conference room for this interview, it was like time stopped.
I was transported back in time to when things were good…better than good for us.
