Page 14

CHAPTER 14

FALLING INTO A BOTTOMLESS PIT

EMORY

"I can't believe you dragged Chloe along. If you think one extra witness will discourage me from using a scalpel to transect this fucker's carotid artery, you don't know me at all." I glare at Lily as she parks across from the private airport terminal where the team will be arriving in just a few minutes.

Chloe leans up between us. "I'm here for it, Em. Kayden deserves a good transecting, whatever that means."

"Chloe! You like Kayden!" Lily whips around to face the teenager, who just shrugs.

"It means I'm going to cut across his throat and watch my dear fiancé bleed out at my feet."

Chloe nods her head like it's what she suspected. "Sweet."

"Emory! Chloe! Both of you are going to behave or I'm taking you home. There will be no slicing of anyone's arteries or veins. Not a drop of blood spilled. Got it?"

"And this is why I never call you mom." Chloe hops out and walks to the front of the car.

"I've never asked you to call me mom. I'm not your mom!" Lily shakes her head as the back door closes .

I open my door to join Chloe, but before I get out, I give Lily one more glare for good measure. "Worst adoptive mom ever."

"Because I won't let you commit murder in front of a teenager?" Lily sighs as she joins us at the front of the old Subaru.

I slide over to make room for her between me and Chloe. "I can't believe Brant didn't buy you a new car yet."

"He did," Chloe says. "A Mercedes EQS. It was so cool. Like being in a spaceship. She made him take it back."

I feel Lily shrug next to me. "I like my old Sebastian."

"You and this old Subaru have been through a lot together…"

"Exactly!"

"And that's a good reason to retire it and get something that was built using modern tools and designed using these things called computers." I lean forward and high-five Chloe right in front of Lily's face.

"Why did I ever think it was a good idea for you to move to Salt Lake?"

I put an arm around her and pull her tight. "Because you love me. And secretly you crave a chaos agent in your life."

"I do love you, but I live with a teenager and an adult man. You're the least chaotic person in my life. Except when it comes to this. This whole fiancée fiasco is partially your fault, you know. I still can't believe you agreed to be his pretend girlfriend."

Just as I'm about to plead insanity, a plane taxis to the other side of the building in front of us, and my pulse spikes. This has to be them. The only thing between me and Kayden is a building and whatever security a private terminal has inside it. No wonder he's used to getting everything he wants. But if he thinks he's going to get a fiancée to just fall in his lap, he's very mistaken.

"Em, you're growling."

Good.

Kayden is the first of the team out the door, and he has the nerve to grin as he walks toward the parking lot. At least until he sees me .

As I march up to him, I'm pretty sure I hear a few congratulations from the other players, but I ignore them all. "You arrogant good-for-nothing-except-your-mediocre-C-level-cock asshole," I hiss.

His eyes dart around us. "Hey baby. That's nice of you to come greet me like this in front of my teammates and the front-office staff who are all supportively supportive of our completely real relationship. We really appreciate their support, right?"

Brant chuckles as he walks by. "Don't hurt him too bad, Emory. If we're going to win the Cup, we need him in one piece."

"Tough. I don't care about your cups." I step so close to Kayden that our chests touch. "What the hell were you thinking? Engaged? Really Kayden? I hope to god you have a great explanation for this because if not, I'm done. I signed up for fake dating. Not this."

"Do you trust me?" he asks.

"Of course not! Why would I trust—" I gasp as he grabs hold of my arms, pinning them against my sides and spinning us so my back is to the parking lot. He lifts his mouth toward mine. So close his warm breaths rush across my lips. I'm just about to scream and knee him in the balls when he stops and closes his eyes.

"What is this?"

"Shh. Pretend we're kissing."

"I am not going to?—"

"Please, Emory." His voice is different. Softer than I've ever heard. Shaky. "Please. I'll explain everything." He sounds hollow. Like he's been stripped of his confidence, and left with nothing to replace it.

I close my eyes and hold the pose for a few seconds before tilting my head away. "You know my rule about kissing," I whisper, unsure of who is still around us.

I only notice the electric charge running through my body when Kayden steps back and it disappears.

He looks around, but there's no one near us anymore. The only people watching are Lily, Brant, and Chloe. Chloe looks like she wishes she brought popcorn.

"I know," he says under his breath, even though no one can overhear him. "I hope I didn't get too close, but it needed to look like we were kissing. The general manager was walking by."

He seems small for the first time since I met him.

"Kayden, please explain this to me. Why did I suddenly go from your unnamed girlfriend to your fiancée?"

He looks at my feet and sighs. "I panicked."

My stomach twists, and I reach up for him, wanting to let him know that whatever this is, it's going to be okay. But I stop myself, falling back on sarcasm. "I didn't think the great Kayden Bouchard ever panicked." It's a joke that falls flat for both of us.

"I don't. Not on the ice. Not off it. Except with this. Let me drive you home."

"I live next to Lily and Brant. It doesn't make sense for you to take me there."

"So we can talk. I think we need that. I need that." His throat bobs, and seeing it starts unraveling something inside me. "I need to know you're not going to leave me because of this." He sounds almost like a little boy terrified of the nightmare that woke him.

"What is going on? Are you okay?"

He forces a smile. "I'm Kayden Bouchard. I'm always okay."

I step closer. The urge to comfort him is even stronger, but this isn't some moment shared between a fake boyfriend and girlfriend, or acquaintances, or whatever we're calling ourselves in private. Something tells me that reaching out now would cross a line. And I don't know if either of us wants what's on the other side of that.

"Kayden…" I don't know what to say. That he doesn't have to put on an act around me? That he doesn't have to be okay? We barely know each other. There's no way he trusts me enough to let that mask drop. But I can't leave him like this.

"Yes, I'd like you to take me home."

I glance at Lily, Brant, and Chloe. They're still waiting for me, but I wave them off and walk beside Kayden through the parking lot. To the last row and the last car .

"You are not serious." We stop in front of a neon green sports car with a roof that barely comes up to my hip. "I won't fit in that thing."

"'Emory, don't do that."

"Do what? I didn't know you expected to drive me home in the disco Batmobile."

He turns me so I'm facing him, and my eyes close as his hands squeeze my shoulders. "Don't talk about yourself like that."

"What happened to accurate self-assessments? I'm fat, Kayden. I promise you that car was not designed for people like me. Have you ever had any woman bigger than a size two in there?"

"I like you the way you are." He says it so quietly that I'm not sure I hear it correctly. "You'll be fine. But if you're not comfortable, I'll go buy a different car for you right now."

"You'll go buy a car just to drive me home? Sure."

"Yes." The flare of his eyes leaves no doubt that he's serious. "But you'll be fine." He opens the passenger door for me. Of course it's the kind of door that opens up instead of swinging out. Because this car needed to be even more intimidating to me.

"If I get stuck, you're helping me out."

"Emory." He shakes his head.

With the door open, I pause and stare at the seat, sizing it up like some kind of puzzle. All of my angles have to be just right, or this will turn into a disaster for either me or the car. Probably both. I pull in a deep breath as I lower myself in, wondering if it will be my last.

Getting in feels like sitting on a toilet with the seat up. The drop is lower than it has any right to be, and for a half second, I feel like I'm falling into a bottomless pit. But instead of cold porcelain, my rear hits a firm, padded seat.

"See? You should learn to trust me." Kayden presses a button and the door lowers into place as he walks around to the other side of the car.

"It's nothing personal, but that's never going to happen. You're an athlete and I know how people like you are. "

"People like me?" He examines me before starting the car. "But you trust Brant."

"He's different. He's not the type to—" I bite my lower lip before I say that Brant's not the type to shatter someone. That's too intimate, and I'm not sharing that with Kayden Bouchard. Especially not when he's just using me. I'm his means to an end. Nothing more. I need to remember that. "It doesn't matter. Talk. You've got about fifteen minutes to explain yourself."

Our heads whip back into the headrests as he accelerates onto the road. "Better plan on ten minutes in this thing."

"The speed limit is the same whether you're in a Toyota or a… whatever this is. You have fifteen minutes."

It's relieving to hear him chuckle again, but it doesn't last long before it becomes a sigh. "I really am sorry, Emory. I had it all planned out, but then that one reporter just kept pushing."

"And you're the type of person who lets a sports reporter get to you?"

"No. Not usually. But I have to get this contract."

"I still don't understand why you have to change who you are for the owners. If they don't appreciate who you really are, they don't deserve you. Maybe you need to go somewhere else."

He looks at me for so long that my heart pounds faster in my chest. Only because I'm worried that he's not watching the road. It can't be anything more than that.

"I'm not changing for them. This is who I am… or who I wish I could be." His knuckles turn white and pink as he squeezes and releases the steering wheel like it's a stress ball. "I never had a family, Emory."

"You said something about your mom before. You at least had her, didn't you?"

"My mom was there, but she was never…" He lets the sound of the road swallow anything else he might have said. "I truly don't think I could take it if I have to leave for another team. "

I know I shouldn't do it, but I lay my hand over his wrist, and for a second we just look at each other. "I know you could, but we'll make sure you don't have to. I'm in this with you, Kayden." Even as I say the words, I regret them. This is a road I can't let myself go down.

He stares straight ahead in silence for several seconds before his jaw tenses. "You'll need a ring."