“Sorry I’m late; the press was all over me,” I tell her and shrug off my jacket and also my suit jacket. I roll up the cuffs of my shirt to my elbows and take the beanie off, brushing my hands through my hair.

“Your hair is still wet,” she says, and I nod. “You should have taken your time so you don’t catch a cold.”

I smirk at her. “If you start that, I’m going to think you like me.” I wink at her, and right before she says something, the waiter comes over.

I watch Vivienne watching the waiter as he tells us the specials of the night, and I think of the chef who is staying late for us. “It all sounds so good,” Vivienne says when the waiter walks off to give us time. “Are you hungry?” she asks me.

“Famished,” I tell her, and I don’t smile. I just look at her. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in months.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Vivienne

“Famished,” he says, and I just look at him while he stares at me. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in months.” My body shivers internally, and my body goes tense. “What about you? Are you hungry?”

Oh, if only he knew how fucking hungry I was. “No,” I say, shaking my head. “I ate during the game,” I tell him, and he just nods. My whole body is on edge. I’ve been jumpy since I saw him in the garage, and he took me upstairs. I swear to God I thought he was going to push me against the wall and finally kiss me. At least that is what I was hoping; this dancing around is almost like a mating dance, and I, for one, am ready to get in the ring and oil wrestle with him. Naked. After the game, I quickly kissed everyone and said I was heading home to bed with a headache, but Karrie knew exactly where I was going. How could I not tell her after the garage part? When I walked into the lodge after that, I downed two glasses of wine, one after another, not even giving myself time to think about it.

The waiter comes out with three plates. “The chef sent this out for you to snack on.” He puts down a plate of calamari, meatballs, and rice balls. He then takes our order, and I grab a meatball and put it on the plate in front of me.

“That was a great game tonight,” I tell him, and he smiles at me while he picks up a piece of calamari and dips it in the sauce and puts it in his mouth. His tongue darts out, licking the sauce from the corner of his mouth. I want to lean over the table and pounce on him like a cat in heat.