Off the Record (8 page)

Mr. Selly’s shoulders deflate and I know I’ve lost. He stands from his desk. “I think that your proposal is more than fair, Mr. Caldwell. I’ll print something up tomorrow retracting Miss Montgomery’s story with my apology, and promising the public that she’ll do a follow up piece in six weeks. And I appreciate your leniency in this matter.”

Linc stands up and so do I. I’m at a loss. I feel like I’m spinning out of control. I vaguely note that Linc shakes Mr. Selly’s hand and heads toward the door. As he walks out, he calls over his shoulder, “Get your stuff, Montgomery. You’re coming with me right now.”

Shell-shocked would not do justice to the way I feel right now. I simply mutter a good-bye to Mr. Selly and follow Linc out the door.

The meeting with Selly went way better than I expected. Not only do I feel some measure of vindication by putting the judgmental, Miss Montgomery in her place, but it was a true pleasure watching those huge eyes widen even further when she heard she’d be assigned to me for the next six weeks. I hope she’s good and fucking miserable over the situation. That would be a good step toward easing my anger.

The only thing that bugs me is that I found Ever Montgomery to be even lovelier than I remember. There was a moment back in Selly’s office where I thought Ever was going to start crying, and I had a pang of regret shoot through me. But then she blinked those crystal eyes and the sheen was gone. I hardened my resolve and pushed forward.

Now we are riding to my condo. I had driven her first to her apartment and told her to pack everything she would need to stay at my place for six weeks. She tried to argue with me but I pointed out that if she refused, I would just call Mr. Selly and tell him I was pushing forward with the lawsuit. She snapped her mouth shut after shooting daggers at me and packed two suitcases.

She hasn’t said a word since then.

But I’m going to make her open up.

“For someone that had so much to say about me just a few days ago, you’re awful quiet right now?”

I glance at her and she shoots the same daggers at me. I know I should be affronted, but instead I just stare into the cool depths of her ocean eyes.

“If you’re expecting an apology from me, you can forget it,” she says with confidence.

“Oh, I’ll get an apology from you. It may not be right now, but I’ll enjoy making you eat your words.”

She crosses her arms over her chest and stares out the side window. She’s spitting mad, I can tell.

“Why you are so mad at me, Ever? I’m the one that should be offended.”

“I’m mad because I lost the L.A. assignment. Your stupid demands got me bumped from the opportunity of a lifetime.”

I ignore the tiny stab of guilt that shoots through me. “You brought this on yourself. If you would have just been truthful to start with, none of this would have happened.”

“I don’t know what you hope to prove by doing this. You could have gotten a full retraction and an apology from the newspaper. You said that’s not good enough and I want to know why.”

I consider her question for a moment. Why am I doing this? I had every intention of asking for her head on a platter but before I knew what was happening, I was insisting she move in with me for six weeks. My gut is usually never wrong, and I followed my instinct this time. Except at this moment...that’s all I got...an instinct to make her see the real me.

“The paper’s apology is meaningless. I want
you
to know just how wrong you are about me.”

“I know what I saw...” she says in a small voice.

“I don’t doubt a thing that you saw or heard. But trust me...you misinterpreted it, and then embellished that misinterpretation in your article. It was a sleazy thing to do, Ever.”

“We’ll agree to disagree on that. Until you show me otherwise, I only have my facts to go on.”

“Fair enough. But like I said, I’m going to enjoy making you eat those words.”

She doesn’t respond and we ride in silence the rest of the way to my condo.

I carry Ever’s luggage up and show her the guest bedroom. It’s been empty since Nix moved out just a few weeks ago and I’ll admit...it’s been a little quiet around here. Ever will provide me company, at least.

“After you unpack, come find me in the dining room and we’ll go over the ground rules.”

“Ground rules? You have rules for me to follow?”

I lean back against the door frame and appraise her. Her eyes are crackling with heat and her chin is stuck out. I get this crazy image of me biting it but just as quickly banish it.

I get the feeling that she’s going to buck against me every step of the way and I can’t resist a taunt. “Well...I want it clear that I’m in charge of you for the next six weeks.”

She starts stammering with indignation. “You...I’m not...you can’t...you are not in charge of me!”

I can’t help the grin that breaks out on my face over her fury. It’s so cute the way her pale skin goes red with anger, the brightest part settling over her cheekbones. I hold my hand up to stop her rant. “Relax. I was just teasing. Since we are going to be roomies for the next several weeks, I figured we ought to talk about boundaries while living together.”

She deflates in front of me, relief washing over her face. “Okay. Fine. I’ll be out as soon as I unpack.”

Leaving Ever in her room, I head into the dining room where I have my laptop set up. After booting it up, I pull up my workout spreadsheet to study it. I’d taken a few weeks off from training following the end of our season. We made it through the second round of the playoffs this year and I’ve not done much but run for the past few weeks. It is time for me to get back into serious workout mode again.  Training camp is just three months away.

I shoot an email off to my personal trainer, Brian, asking him to tweak a few things and then I make out a grocery list for the week. It’s time to start clean eating again, which sucks. The only good thing is that with all of the training I’ll be doing, I’ll need to pack in a butt load of calories each day. Too bad it can’t be in the form of pizza and beer though. I also need to take into consideration that I have a house guest. I’ll have to ask Ever what she likes to eat.

As if on cue, the little witch walks into the dining room. She’s changed into a pair of worn jeans and a Hello Kitty t-shirt. She’s pulled her hair up into a pony tail but those thick bangs across her forehead still amazingly cause her eyes to almost glow in their brilliance. I’m beginning to think I could be hypnotized by her eyes if I’m not careful.

Taking a chair across from me at the table, she folds her arms across her chest and says, “So...what rules do you want to discuss?”

I save my documents and close my laptop, pushing it aside. I lean back in my chair and stretch my legs out. Clasping my hands across my stomach, I just stare at her. Why did I ask this girl out before? It was so spur of the moment with me that I didn’t even question my actions. I hardly ever ask women out to dinner. And once she declined, I never gave it another thought.

Okay, that’s not exactly true. I did think about her several times that night. I caught glimpses of her before the fireworks started, and she clearly was having a lot of fun. She laughed a lot and her smile made me want to smile. There was a small part of me that wanted her to be having fun with me...to bestow that gorgeous smile on only me. But I never approached her to talk again, and eventually, I put her out of my mind.

Okay, that’s not exactly true either. Brenda and I had a damn good time that night, but several times I imagined it was Ever underneath me, or Ever’s mouth on me. Just the thought causes a slight stirring in my pants.

“Hello? Earth to Linc?”

I shake my head, bringing my thoughts back to reality. “Right. Have you ever lived with someone before? Usually it helps to set some basic boundaries.”

She nods her head. “I lived with my ex-fiancé for two years. I think I know how to nicely share space with someone.”

I let out a sharp laugh. “Ex? What did you do, run him off with that sharp tongue of yours?”

She stands abruptly from the table. The flash of fury in her eyes sets me back a bit and the venom in her voice chills my blood. “How’s this for a rule? Stay the fuck away from me, asshole.”

I’m stunned as she bolts from the room but I’m on my feet in two seconds running after her. She almost makes it to her bedroom when I grab her arm to stop her in her tracks. She spins on me quickly and snarls, “Get your hand off me.”

I immediately release her and hold my hands up. “I’m sorry,” I say quickly before she can bolt again. “That was uncalled for...what I said.”

She stares at me, her chest heaving a bit from anger. Her impossibly blue eyes are just staring at me. She’s calculating whether to accept my apology, I can tell, and that doesn’t look to be forthcoming.

“Ever...I’m really sorry. That was rude and if my dad was here and heard me say that, he would have smacked me upside the head. I know better. I’m still angry about the article and I took it out on you unfairly.”

My words penetrate. I can tell she accepts them by the way the glow in her eyes dies down. I’m glad because they were the truth. That was a complete asshole move and my father would have read me the riot act. I was raised better than that.

She takes in a deep breath and I’d have to be dead and buried not to notice the way her breasts heave under Hello Kitty.

“Fine,” she says. “Apology accepted.”

“Really? We’re okay?”

She sighs again and her voice is weary. “No, we aren’t okay, Linc. I’ve pissed you off, you’ve pissed me off, and we’re both stuck in a shitty situation. It’s not okay. But I guess I’ll try to make the best of it.”

A short breath comes out of my mouth in relief, and I hadn’t realized I had been holding it to see what she would say. Technically, I can’t hold her here. If she really insists on not fulfilling this obligation, I’d release her from it. I thought I did, but I really don’t want her to be miserable. I just want her to see that she was wrong about me, and I’m apparently not off to a great start.

Just this morning, as I was meeting with Selly, I had nothing but vengeance on my mind. I wanted to make her feel wretched. I wanted to take away her prime assignment to L.A. and make her watch me for six weeks so she would know I was a decent guy.

Now? I’m feeling terrible for what I just said and slightly guilty for causing her to miss out on something that could have furthered her career. However, I’m feeling no less desirous of her seeing the real Linc Caldwell. That’s something I’m not going to compromise on and that wins out over my guilt right now.

I just need to figure out how to be myself without pissing her off any further.