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“You’re critiquing our pretend cooking?” he asked, wondering how this was supposed to work.

“No, our on-camera chemistry and personality. Our brand. ” Athena lifted her hands in exasperation, looking as though she was about to cast a dark spell on the man with the sparse facial hair.

“Hello, Tina. Good to see you.” Mullens gave her a warm smile that went unreturned unless an exasperated sigh counted. He grabbed the small black box from the counter and handed it to her.

“What’s this?” Her eyes narrowed as she stroked the box’s velvet exterior with her thumb.

“A hostess gift.”

“Sorry? A what?”

“Open it.”

She lifted the lid, revealing white-gold hockey stick earrings, each with a puck that held what he figured was her birthstone, an emerald. She looked up at him in confusion.

“It’s hockey themed.”

And, he was realizing, a bit much.

Athena stared at the half-inch-long gorgeous earrings. Gold. And were those real emeralds in the pucks? They were a casual design, dangly, with open hooks for sliding through her pierced earlobes, but they were obviously expensive.

Ridiculously so.

She closed the box. “Most people bring food.”

“What kind of food do you bring a celebrated cookbook author? Also, it’s Christmas tomorrow, so…” He shrugged.

“And so you’re out of food?”

He gave her a chiding look, clearly unimpressed.

But being Greek, she did understand not arriving emptied-handed. Her family showed up with food. Pastries in particular. Maybe Chad couldn’t spend time with a woman without having to bribe her with jewels. It probably helped them overlook his annoying personality.

“They’re cute and themed,” Nuvella stated. “Put them on.”

Athena hesitated. The earrings were way too much. She couldn’t accept them. This was a girlfriend gift. A bribe.

An apology?

She opened the box and took a second look.

Nope. Still gorgeous and ridiculous.

“Put them on,” the woman repeated.

Athena sucked in a breath, tucked her growing-out bangs behind her ears and removed the small birthstone studs she’d received from her parents on her sixteenth birthday. She replaced them with the hockey sticks.

“Looks nice,” Chad said.

“But no jersey,” Athena snapped, plucking at his shirt. “This is an NHL thing, not specific to the Dragons.”

“The Dragons are a part of the NHL,” he argued.

“Take it off,” she insisted.

“You want me to undress?” He grinned and began pulling at his jersey again, taking the tee he wore underneath along with it and revealing an expanse of tight abs.

Athena looked away, furious at the heat that crept into her cheeks.

“The jersey stays,” Nuvella said. Her bleached hair was slicked back in an especially severe way today, matching her tone. “The recipes were created for Dragons players and on Dragons’ time.”

Before Athena could protest the inaccuracy of that fact, Chad dropped his jersey back into place and said, “So you’re comping her costs for food and stuff? Sweet.”

“What?” The head of PR frowned at him.

“Because this is a Dragons promo thing? So they should foot the bill, right?” He pulled his phone from his back pocket. “Let me ask Daisy-Mae. She’s good about knowing the ins and outs of this stuff as she’s always working on promos.”

“No. No, it’s fine. Athena will be compensated for her expenses,” Nuvella said quickly, no doubt wanting to avoid being schooled by the team’s ticket holder experience manager.

Daisy-Mae might be new at her job, but she had a natural talent for bringing added fun to the home games, pulling the team into the limelight and creating loyal fans.

This video series and the expense details might be beyond her field of expertise, but she was like the anti-venom for all things Nuvella.

Daisy-Mae had been giving the PR pro a run for her money since the day she’d been hired—and even before then—and apparently Chad wasn’t afraid to use her.

“Athena,” Nuvella said tightly, “send in your receipts.”

“Good.” Chad put away his phone and Athena marveled at his smooth efficiency. She hated to admit it, but she could learn a few tricks from him.

“Also, aren’t we making Athena’s egg-white omelet?” He frowned at the ingredients as if there was something wrong with them. “That’s from her first cookbook, which came out before she started with the Dragons.”

Dang. This man should have been a lawyer or detective.

But wait… Athena surveyed the laid-out ingredients. How did he know what she was going to make, and the recipe’s publishing history? Obviously, his agent had thoroughly prepped him.

“Well, the jersey stays,” Nuvella stated with a sniff. “It identifies you as a celeb even to those who don’t know sports.”

“The Dragons aren’t exactly a selling feature, given their losing streak,” the man behind the camera muttered.

“We’re a new team,” Chad growled.

Howell cleared his throat and adjusted the camera’s angle. “Stand closer.”

“So my other NHL guests are going to wear their team jerseys as well?” Athena asked, frowning at Chad as he obeyed Howell’s orders and stepped closer to her.

“I suppose,” Nuvella stated reluctantly.

“Wait—I thought I was a regular on here?” Chad pulled out his phone again. “I need to talk to my agent.”

“And roll,” Howell said.

Chad sent a text message, then looked around as though expecting to be handed a script. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Look pretty while I work,” Athena grumbled.