So you should have started out explaining, not asking for a hookup like a dumb-ass teenage boy. He clenched his jaw at his own idiocy. Being around her made him stupid. All reason and common sense went out the window. The man who could negotiate billion-dollar business deals couldn’t even make one tiny woman see reason.

Still, now that he gave it thought, he understood how bad his proposal looked from her point of view. She had just told him about her family situation. He should have phrased things much differently, because from his perspective, a secret affair made pure business sense. Ian Dare wasn’t going to stand by and let him date – in her own words – the baby of the family.

Not that dating was on his agenda, and that was the point. He was dark; she was light. Sienna didn’t need to be dragged into his murky life, not when he couldn’t see past the pain of his marriage and the betrayal he hadn’t seen coming.

She might not be interested in his proposition, but he sure as hell couldn’t stay away from her or she from him. Which should make working together extremely interesting.

* * *

Sienna woke up the morning after Ethan left feeling nauseous again and a little dizzy. She was definitely going to have to make a doctor’s appointment and find out why she couldn’t seem to come to herself. In the meantime, she had a meeting scheduled with Olivia and the app developers at the stadium that she couldn’t miss.

Skipping breakfast because she wasn’t sure she could keep it down, she stood in front of her closet and chose a sundress in deference to the sticky, hot weather that persisted, along with a pair of low heels, and headed to work.

As her luck was running, she pulled into a parking spot at the same time as Ethan, who’d obviously rented a car for his time here. She climbed out of her Jeep and met up with him as they walked toward the entrance.

“Good morning,” he said, his gaze raking over her, his expression filled with male appreciation. “You’re looking good.”

She narrowed her gaze through her sunglasses. She couldn’t believe he was going to act like nothing had happened last night.

Yes, yes she could.

“Not speaking to me?” he asked, picking up his pace to keep up with her.

And deliberately, she’d bet, brushing his arm against hers as they walked. “Of course not. That would be childish.” She wished she could hold a grudge.

She wanted to maintain both her anger and her distance. What he’d offered her last night had been insulting and hurtful, more so because he’d just been deep inside her body and, she admitted, because she’d let herself believe that him showing up at her apartment meant more than it had.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

He opened the door and let her step inside, and she welcomed the cool rush of air that greeted her. They walked past the huge blown-up photographs of the stars of the Miami Thunder and toward the office area.