Gold had won, and they were packing up.
“Nice work,” she told Jess, as her assistant shrugged into her coat.
Jess nodded. “It’ll still be nice to get an actual intern to help us with the busy work, but we’ve got a good system down.”
“Agree completely,” she said, running the clips through a backup program. “But I’m back to the drawing board on that after our last debacle.”
“We’ll be good until it’s sorted.”
And with that, they hashed out a few details for the next game—an away one—before Jess slipped out into the hall.
Dani, meanwhile, waited for the backup program to run, even though she didn’t strictly need to, since it was all automated. But she wasn’t quite ready to head out into the hall, on potential collision courses with men who winked at her.
At her.
Because it had been for her, right?
“I mean,” she whispered, swiveling in her chair, running her fingers over the keyboard, and really wishing she hadn’t already eaten her one box per day limit of Hot Tamales during the game. “We spent all day together yesterday. He said he wanted to date me. Who else could it have been for, if not me?”
“It was for you.”
Her breath caught, and she swiveled in her chair. Ethan stood in the open doorway, freshly showered and looking all too tempting.
“What are you doing?” she asked, when he stepped inside and closed the wooden panel behind him.
“If it’s my dorky ass wink that you’re referring to, that is.” He smiled, and her brain melted. Just like that.
“Ethan,” she murmured.
He sat in Jess’s chair, wheeled it close. “Do you have any video for me?”
“I—um—” She sucked in a breath, released it slowly. “I don’t have any video for you. Jess took care of that tonight.”
“Good.” He rolled closer until his knees were on either side of hers. “You okay?”
She swallowed. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“You were upset yesterday,” he murmured.
No, she had been overwhelmed yesterday, frustrated at herself, scared that she liked this man so much.
That was the painful and unhappy truth.
She was the problem, not him.
“I wasn’t upset at you.”
He slid a little closer. “I know.”
And . . . silence.
Good times. Happy times. Fucking awkward times.
“I’m not going to ask you out again,” he began, causing her eyes to fly up from the pale pink she’d painted on her fingernails, matching the color he’d mentioned liking on her so-called cute toes. He wasn’t going to ask her out? But what if she wanted him to?
Wanted him to?
Fucking hell.
She needed to get her head in shape before she even began considering whether or not she wanted the man to ask her, and how she might answer him, how fucking awkward she would be on a date if she did happen to agree to go with him.
God, because if she agreed to go out with him, then she would have to consider what she wore, what she said, what she—
“Would you kiss me?”
His gray eyes widened, the pink tip of his tongue darted out and tasted his bottom lip. “Dani?”
She shoved her chair back, stood, and moved to the door, intending to yank it open, to create an escape route—although her fuzzy brain wasn’t telling her if it was an escape route for him or for herself—but then Ethan was there. Right there, pressing her front into the wood, his chest and torso hot and hard where it brushed her spine.
“Do you want me to kiss you, sweetheart?” he breathed into her ear, the bristles of his beard running over her jaw, making her shiver.
“I—I didn’t mean now.”
“No?” He rested his hand near her head, his hips resting heavier against hers.
“N-no,” she murmured. “I meant on a date.”
He inhaled sharply, body going still. “Yes, baby, I’d most definitely try to get a kiss, if you agreed to go out with me.” The words were hot and damp, reminding her of other parts of her body that were hot and damp, reminding her of parts of his body that could play nice with those hot and damp parts of hers.
His lips brushed lightly over her skin, and then she didn’t have to imagine what the prickles of his beard would feel like.
Glorious, was the answer.
The stubble had gooseflesh rising on her nape, had her hips arching back and pressing against the hard jut of his erection.
“Fuck, Dani,” he murmured, that beard sliding lower, his lips trailing along her throat. “You are so fucking sexy.”
“I—” She didn’t know what she was planning on saying, probably something mood-killing about