scratching his elbow before he continued. “I only signed a six-month lease last season. Since I’m not sure what’s going to happen this season and you’re leveling fines at me, I asked a…friend if I could crash at his place until things get settled.”
“A…friend?” Gia asked, stepping closer, her curiosity leveling up. She didn’t realize any of her players lived in the building. That might have been a deal breaker for her buying her apartment if she’d known. “Who’s your friend…”
“A friend who wants to keep himself…to himself.” Kai laughed when Gia rolled her eyes. “Gia…” He held up his hand when she glared at him. “I’m sorry…Miss Jilani…”
“You really aren’t concerned, are you?” She walked closer and Kai dropped his hands, resting them at his sides. Gia tried not to watch how his chest flexed or how the skin on his shoulder appeared raised where the loop of swirling waves connected to his chest and back.
“Concerned about what, nani?” His voice was low just then, bringing her attention back to his face.
Gia could tell by the soft, hinting smile he wore over his lips that he knew her attention had been diverted by his naked chest. “Why…don’t you put on a shirt?”
He stood, bringing his chest nearly to her face. She stepped back, looking away when Kai reached behind her, grabbing a white button up on the table to her right. “Am I distracting you?”
Gia hated how easily he could affect her. She hated lying to herself, telling herself she’d felt nothing when he’d kissed her. But there had been a spark, it burned her skin. She felt it now moving between them, in the lick of his gaze over his skin as he watched her.
She inhaled, reminding herself that this was inappropriate and unprofessional. He was her player. He was not going to play her. She opened her eyes, grinding her teeth when she caught the smirking grin on his face.
“Mr. Pukui,” she said, moving her chin up. “I don’t know how often you need the reminder, but I am your general manager.” That bastard nodded, slipping on his shirt one shoulder at a time, his movements like a dance—his long, defined arm through one sleeve, his shoulder shifting, the muscles in his chest and traps bunching and twisting under that glorious dark skin as he fixed that thin fabric over himself. “I…think it’s inappropriate…” She moved her gaze to his fingers, watching each button as he fastened them, able to make out the round curves of his chest once he’d finished.
“Eyes up here, Miss Jilani,” Kai said, a laugh coloring his tone.
Gia grunted, taking another step back. “This is what I’m referring to.”
Kai shook his head, still grinning. “Fuck me, ‘referring to.’ Go on then, to what are you referring, madam manager?”
“You are skating on very thin ice.”
He shrugged. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” Kai said, and his laughter seemed to rise then.
Kai moved back to the sofa, stretching out his legs as she rounded on him. “Try ten thousand,” Gia said.
All traces of Kai’s amusement deflated, and he didn’t recover for several seconds.
“It all seems highly amusing to you, doesn’t it? Your unsigned contract? Your unreliable management?”
That got his attention. Kai widened his eyes and flexed his jaw as she watched him. She decided to strike while she could.
“But…Ricks said you were…full of shit about him and McAddams…”
Gia stepped in front of him, her stomach coiling when the man dropped the flirtatious smirk and something serious, something that reminded her of real fear took over his face.
“Coach Ricks has a job to do, and he does it well, but at the end of the day we’re all beholden to Mr. McAddams. If he’s unhappy, then we suffer.”
Kai seemed to search Gia’s face, looking for something behind her expression that told him she was bluffing again. But this time, there was no bluff. “Right now, with nothing guaranteed, you don’t have a lot of leverage. No matter what Ricks says.”
The bravado that had always puffed him up seemed to fracture just then, and Gia almost hated to see Kai deflate so quickly. His shoulders and arms went slack and he sat staring at his hands, watching them like he couldn’t bring himself to look at her directly.
“The money is…” he started but seemed to realize he’d begun to admit something he’d wanted to keep to himself. Gia found his self-correction telling, but she wouldn’t pry. It wasn’t her business how the man spent his