The Hating Season (Seasons #2) - K.A.Linde Page 0,64

I told him, biting my lip. “I thought that I was just mad because you brought Poppy. But it was more than that. I went to see you this week. I wanted to talk this through.”

“What? When?” he asked with a furrowed brow.

“Monday.”

He snapped his jaw shut. He knew what he’d been doing Monday.

“I knew that you worked until three and then met Camden at that gentlemen’s club thing. So, I went there.”

“You did?” he asked softly.

“Yes. Camden told me you weren’t there.”

“He did?”

“So then, I got worried. No,” I corrected myself. “I got sick to my stomach. I thought you were lying to me. Hiding that you were seeing someone else.”

“I wasn’t seeing someone else,” he said on a sigh.

“I know,” I whispered. “I tracked down the car service while I was looking for you. He told me where to find you.”

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry that I know. As soon as I saw you out there, I realized you wanted to keep this to yourself. That you didn’t want to coach for the publicity.”

Court nodded. He looked as if he’d been caught red-handed, peeking in on Christmas presents early.

“It wasn’t a secret,” he finally said. “Not exactly. I just…I don’t want to be Court Kensington when I’m out there. I just want to be me.”

“And those two people can’t be reconciled?”

“No,” he said immediately.

“I don’t get it.”

“Look, for the longest time, I didn’t give two shits what anyone thought about me. It was easier to let them have their own assumptions about who I was. I gained my reputation honestly, but that wasn’t me. I don’t know if that makes any sense.”

“You aren’t always the guy who gets arrested and fucks anything that walks?” I asked as I drained my drink.

He glanced at me, his eyes wide and concerned. As if he’d never explained this to someone else before. “That’s the guy who always went along with everything else. I just let things happen. That was a part of me. And I started to get really careful about who I let see the whole me. Because every time that I did, it backfired. So, I stopped caring. But I cared what you thought of me. I thought you saw past that.”

“Which was why you were so mad at me?”

I stepped back into the kitchen and shook us out more martinis. I needed one for this conversation. I’d never heard Court be so earnest.

“Yes. The truth is… I might have been a playboy. I might have been a train wreck. Christ, I might still be those things. I don’t know. But something changed after the arrest… after Jane.” He reached for the drink I’d offered him and took a large fortifying gulp. “I got a taste of what it was like to be used. I’d been doing this to women for years. And it felt like absolute shit for Jane to do it to me.”

“Reality check.”

“It pulled me up short. I’d thought what I had with Jane was real. I’d thought we were in love. But… it was a lie.”

I winced at his words. They hit so close to home. Too close. Even if the situation with Josh was night and day compared to what had happened with Court and Jane. It felt so real. So familiar.

“I know what you mean,” I muttered.

“I suspect you do.”

“So, where does this leave us?”

“It means you like me,” he said with a cocky grin.

“Oh god. Don’t make me regret it, Court.”

He set the martini glass down and then moved into my personal space. He tilted my chin up until I was looking at him. And I did look. He was mesmerizing. All strong lines and hard edges. Endless depths of blue ocean with that pinprick of black at the center. Long lashes that weren’t even fair on a man. Full, lush lips that were perfectly kissable.

And something more. Recognition. He saw me. And for the first time… he was letting me see him, too. Not the Court Kensington he revealed to the public. The one that I’d read about. But the real person under that Upper East Side facade.

The youth lacrosse coach, the book nerd, the gentleman.

I didn’t know what to make of him. He wasn’t what I’d expected. Not by a long shot. And I’d had no intention of having feelings for him. Hell, for anyone. Josh had fucked me up beyond recognition. I’d already been dark and cynical and jaded, thanks to my bullshit parents. Josh had taken that to the