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She bends to collect her clipboard, the movement jerky. I step back, breathing through clenched teeth, trying not to go back in for more.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

But it did.

And I’ll be damned if I can pretend I regret it.

She won’t look at me.

“Tomorrow,” I say, voice rough. “I'll see you tomorrow.”

She nods, still catching her breath. “Yeah. Tomorrow.”

She walks out like she’s got her shit together. I know better. Her pulse was screaming under my mouth. Her hands were shaking against my skin. And mine weren’t much better.

I lean back against the locker, run a hand over my face.

What the hell am I doing?

And why does she feel so goddamn good?

Chapter sixteen

Katarina

Ishould’veletGriffin’scallgo to voicemail.

Instead, I answer. Like an idiot.

His voice hits the speaker like a hammer—sharp, heated, full of that older brother judgment I know too well.

“You’ve been personally working with him forweeks? Without telling me?”

I press the bridge of my nose, already regretting this.

“I didn’tplanit,” I say, keeping my tone clipped. “You knew the trade happened. He just showed up in my office like everyone else. I did my job. Like I always do.”

“You didn’t think tomentionit?”

God, I can see the vein in his forehead pulsing from here.

“Griffin, you don’t run my schedule or my department.”

“No but Idorun shit when it’shim,” he snaps. “Steele’s poison. You know it. I’ve told you a dozen times.”

I clench my jaw, pacing behind my desk. “Yeah well, I’m not asking him out for drinks. I’m managing his nutrition. That’s it.”

“Yeah? You think that guy keeps things professional?” his voice dipping low. “He’s got a rap sheet longer than your fucking medical charts.”

“He doesn’t just play dirty—he’s a cancer in the locker room,” Griffin spits. “Teams hemorrhage talent once he gets his claws in.”

And maybe that’s true.

But the part I don’t say, is some may say the same about you.

“Really…well good thing I’m not in the locker room,” I shoot back.

He doesn’t laugh.