Page 4 of Love is Fake (Love is Everything #1)
Chapter
Two
“Not only are you a hazard behind the damn wheel, but you’re a stalker too?
Christ, men must be breaking down the door to get to you.
” Lennox glowers down at me with dark eyes, which would be hypnotic if he weren’t clearly irate beyond belief.
He’s changed into workout gear, shorts showcasing strong legs and a right knee that’s more than a little swollen.
I mentally flip through the sports news I’ve read recently and try to remember if there was anything about him suffering a knee injury on the ice.
There’s nothing, although I’m getting a vague recollection of a particularly nasty scrum in the final game of the season, but Gray definitely wasn’t stretchered off.
That would have made headlines. Gray isn’t just the front-man of the New York Pelicans, he’s one of the most recognizable faces in sport, period.
“You know each other?” Dec looks between the two of us, each staring at the other in confusion.
“This is the chick who rear-ended me.” Lennox motions towards me, his expression suspicious as if he seriously thinks that I followed him here.
“It was an accident ,” I repeat the point I’d made at the roadside, working to keep the bite out of my voice and not being wholly successful.
“It wasn’t like I hit you on purpose.” I cross my arms over my chest going into the defensive posture that seems to be my default setting when it comes to this man.
“Uh-oh.” Kai lets the words out under his breath, but in the silent tension of the room you could have heard a pin drop.
“And what, you turning up here is just another ‘accident’?” Lennox uses air quotes mockingly as he continues to glower at me like a grumpy bear.
“Me turning up here as you so elegantly put it, is purely professional. I was sent here by my boss. I didn’t know you were the client.” And if I did, I would have responded to Kiara with two words. Hell. No.
“Oh yeah? And what kind of ‘profession’ brings you here?” Lennox looks me up and down lazily, pure male appreciation in his gaze and I resist the urge to take a step back.
There’s no way I’m letting this guy know he’s intimidating me.
“The strippers you hang out with are usually a helluva lot less prickly than this one, Kai.” He delivers the line to his surfer look-a-like friend who makes a face that speaks to the cringeworthiness of the situation.
I stare at Lennox in shock, my mind struggling to process what he’s just said. Did he really just call me a stripper? Not that I have any issues with the profession, whatever floats your boat, but I sure as hell didn’t go to school for four years to be dismissed like that.
“Nox, it’s nothing like that -,” the preppy one, Declan makes a calming motion towards the other man, his eyes flicking nervously between us like he’s calculating what the chances are of a lawsuit or, worse, a negative story in the press about the New York Pelicans’ darling MVP.
“I’m your physical therapist, Mr. Gray.” I’m impressed at how confident my voice sounds. Even someone who knows me wouldn’t be able to tell how angry I am, partly because I never really get angry, although Lennox Gray is testing that theory.
He blinks at me, frowning, and I don’t miss the way his expression darkens at my formal tone. “You’re not Michael.”
I roll my eyes internally, ignoring how his stare is even more intense without the shadow of the ball cap he’d been wearing on the road to distract from the hard lines of his face.
“As I explained to your manager,” I gesture towards Declan, taking a chance on the relationship between the two men, “I’m Michael’s replacement.”
Lennox gives me an unimpressed look and just shakes his head. “No.”
I bristle at the dismissiveness in his tone.
“‘No’, you don’t believe I am who I say I am, or ‘no’ you don’t want to work with me?”
“Find someone else.” Lennox directs the order to Declan, ignoring me as if I haven’t even spoken.
“Mr. Gray, you’ll find I’m more than capable.” I take a step towards him when it looks as if he’s going to walk off. That step only gets me so far, though. In the blink of an eye, I’ve stopped in my tracks, trying to ward off the daggers shooting out of his eyes.
“Cut the Mr. Gray shit. You’re the same girl who called me an ‘asshole’ a half an hour ago.” I cringe at the memory but try to channel Kiara’s cool aloofness to get me through the car crash that is this conversation.
I continue with my sentence as if he didn’t interrupt me.
“I’m excellent at my job, but if you would rather wait until Michael’s available again or call someone else, I’ll show myself out.
No hard feelings.” That last part might be me lying through my teeth.
I’m projecting a confidence I don’t feel and hoping like hell Kiara doesn’t kill me for losing this damn contract.
My eyes meet Lennox’s dark gaze and it takes everything I have not to look away. The man is the epitome of dominance and despite how annoyed I am at being in this situation, it’s hard to deny that there’s something mesmerizing about him. His posture. His scowl. The way his eyebrow kicks up just so.
Inch by inch, he moves toward me, leaning down so that his face is no more than an inch away from mine. “That performance would be a whole lot more convincing if you didn’t look like a deer caught in headlights. Don’t poke the bear, when you look good enough to eat, darlin’.”
His expression is pure male smugness, as if he knows the effect of him being so close will inevitably have on most women. But that’s just it, I’m not most women. Sure, he’s handsome as hell, but I have enough self-respect not to lose my senses over the most boorish man I’ve ever met.
“Un-freakin’-believable.” I mutter the word under my breath, shaking my head in disbelief at the man in front of me.
“You know what? You win.” I throw my hands up and turn on my heel, more than ready to leave.
Pretty as Lennox might be, it’s not enough to make me okay with being treated like an idiot.
“Wait a second, Anabella.” Declan holds his hand up and the only way I know who he’s talking to is because he’s looking right at me.
“It’s Is abella.” But whatever, at this point, correcting my name seems like a pointless exercise. It’s not like I’m going to be hanging around here long enough for him to remember it.
“Isabella, right.” Declan waves his hand impatiently as if to say I’m telling him something he already knows and then he turns his attention to his athlete, who’s still standing there glowering at me.
“Nox, you need a PT asap, you know it, I know it, your surgeon sure as shit knows it. Michael isn’t available and if we go through the whole process of trying to find someone else who actually happens to be available , we’re just going to be wasting time. Time we don’t have, I might add.”
He gives Lennox a pointed look as the other man clamps his mouth shut so tightly I’m surprised he doesn’t break a tooth.
“This isn’t up for fucking discussion, Dec.
Find me someone else. I’m not working with her.
” He points towards me as if there could be any kind of misunderstanding over who he was talking about, before stalking towards the bench at the far end of the room.
I don’t miss the way he favors one leg over the other or the grimace of pain when he sits on the workout bench and starts pressing what I can only assume is the weight of a small truck.
His focus doesn’t flick back to us, making it clear as day that he’s done with this conversation.
I work not to gape at his rudeness. He’d probably misinterpret my look anyway and figure I was ogling him. Sure, he’s an impressive male specimen, but he’s also the front-runner for the prize for the most arrogant man in existence.
“Give us a minute, will you?” Declan smiles at me charmingly before narrowing his eyes at Kai and jerking his head towards the door. I’m still rooted to the spot, surprised at the visceral reaction I’ve somehow provoked in Lennox.
I feel Kai’s presence next to me. His hand grazes my elbow and I let him gently lead me out of the gym, not that I had much of a choice.
Once we’re out of the door there’s an unmistakable sound of weights being thrown against a hard surface and then the raised voices reach us.
“Hell to the fucking no, Dec!” Lennox doesn’t just sound mad, he sounds furious.
Declan’s voice is calmer but almost as loud. “I know how you feel about this, Nox -,”
“No, you fucking don’t, Dec. If you did then you’d already be looking for someone else and we wouldn’t be having this damn argument!”
My eyes are probably taking up most of my head at this point and I don’t think they could get any wider as I listen to the chaos breaking out on the other side of the door.
“Are you thirsty?” Kai speaks louder as if he can cover up the yelling his boss is doing. “How about we head to the kitchen and get a drink?”
I nod hurriedly because the last thing I want to do is stand here any longer and listen to Lennox assassinate my character.
Kai and I head past what I’m guessing is the front door and my feet slow as I cast a longing look at my escape route.
“You know what, maybe I should just go. Clearly, I’ve stepped into the middle of something.” I wave vaguely in the direction of the gym, wondering again what I could have done to make a man I haven’t seen since we were teenagers, a man who doesn’t even remember me, hate me so much.
My shoulders slump a little in defeat but after what I’ve just overheard there’s no chance I’m going to get this job and – to be honest – I’m pretty sure I don’t even want it anymore. There’s high maintenance and then there’s that , whatever that is.
Kai looks at me with a sympathetic expression, cementing my opinion that he’s the only decent guy in this entire place.
“It’s not about you, Isabella. Lennox doesn’t have any chicks on staff,” Kai explains blandly as if it totally makes sense.