Something else flared in them then, passing too quickly for her to identify before Ward dropped his gaze and looked down at his watch.

‘I’ve got physio,’ he muttered, but she knew he wasn’t telling the truth. ‘As I’m sure you can appreciate, my recovery is my priority at the moment. So do your worst, Emma. Just don’t expect me to be something I’m not.’

She bit back yet another retort at the intentional misuse of her name but figured there was no point.

‘Fine,’ she said with a pasted-on smile, picking up her purse, only too happy to escape if not McKenzie, then the deeply discombobulating way he was making her feel. ‘I’ll be in touch again once I’ve come up with some ideas.’

Assuming that was even remotely possible.

Chapter 6

WARD

Driving out of the city, Ward did his best to keep his attention on the road. The last thing he needed was to get into a car accident or something. The next thing he knew, the internet would be claiming that he’d been high or drunk off his ass when it happened.

Damn, but he hated the modern world sometimes. Sure, technology gave people all over the world the chance to reach out and connect. That was a good thing. It also gave people from all over the world the chance to insult and tear each other down and he hated that.

Especially how the online world came after him and tried to tear him down over the years. Deciding that he was a bozo womaniser, shallow and basically a complete moron. The truth didn’t matter. Nobody cared about the truth.

He thought again about Cannoli Girl. So yeah, that was a surprise. And not an entirely unpleasant one, to be fair. While he was still pissed at her for knocking him over that time, Ward had to admit that he liked the way she’d come right at him from the start just now. In the past, other so-called media people typically tried to immediately ‘bond’ with him and act like they were his friend to get him to jump through whatever hoops they decided he needed to.

She, Hannah, hadn’t tried to play him though. She also hadn’t backed down when he’d pushed, which he had to respect too. Though he cringed afresh that her first impression of him had been such a weak-ass one, falling over in Frank’s like that.

She was definitely easy on the eye too, which of course he’d noticed that first time also. Cute as a button, but despite her tiny stature and baby blues, he got the sense that she didn’t take any shit.