Page 20 of Out of Bounds

I lean back in my chair. "Sorry."

"Yeah…" Kassie drew in a slow breath. "You arenotgood at this."

Cleo hovered over the phone, still staring at me in surprise until she talked to everybody else. "Memo that to me, I’ve got to go. Everyone will receive a newsletter." She clicked three buttons with her thumb and forefinger. "We need to talk."

Kassie pushed up from her chair. "Talk, like you two talk, and I leave?"

"Not quite, Kassie." Cleo stopped her. "We need a serious discussion on public relationships. Fake dating." With a click, a new PowerPoint flashed on the screen. "It’s easy to fall in love with someone in one of these things."

Kassie sighed.

"Psychologically, mentally, physically, it just makes sense," Cleo insisted. "Think about it, for months on end, you’re with this person. Photoshoots, charity events, football games, everything you can think of. Pushed together at every corner.Of courseit’s easy to fall in love with them."

"That won’t be a problem for us," I replied.

As far as I was concerned, our War Room conversation was a done deal.

"We need to discuss this," Cleo pressed. "Marrs University has enough light shining on it. We’re not adding a fire, we’re not adding torches, not a single flashlight. You two will becoworkers. Coworkers that do everything together, butcoworkers. Have I made myself clear?"

Kassie rolled her eyes. "That’s if I—"

"You’re required to be near each other, act nice, play house for the cameras. Imagine one of your coworkers, a month into the job, admitting they’ve developed feelings for you. Nine out of ten times it’sunrequited." Cleo pushed back from the table. "Oedipus Rexwas performed at the university last season and we arranged the two lead actors to—"

"What?" Kassie’s mouth fell open.

"—generate some social media publicity—"

"That can’t be…Zariah made a whole social page about them…" Kassie looked at me in disbelief. "Did you know?"

I frowned. "Know what?"

"They were the leads forOedipus Rex,it won all those awards!"

"I have no idea what you’re talking about," I said, trying to get her back on track.

Kassie swiveled back to Cleo. "Do you just keep him locked in a basement? What’s the deal with him?"

"The deal is, the two of those actors had a falling out because Oedipus couldn’trelaxuntil the end of the play’s season. You think he would’ve learned a little more about thethemesfrom the text. The second to last showing featured their alternates and the very last showing was a canceled mess. We arenotthe theater department," Cleo said, her voice curt. "Nothing like that will happen under my watch. Ryan here is worthquitea bit of money to the school. Even if he’s abandoning us early—I won’t have anything jeopardized while we still have him." She clicked through the presentation. "Whatever that takes, I want itclean, and I want it doneright."

Slowly, Kassie looked over at me again. She didn’t look ready to crack a joke or like she’d just heard thinly veiled threats. Maybe the art girl was finally starting to understand. Good. Whatever Kassie wanted, the school would jump to meet it.

She hesitated. "You people take this…seriously."

"It’s football," Cleo reminded her. "We’re not the hockey team."

Low blow, but she had a point.

Football meant everything to Marrs University and it meant everything to me.

Kassie Ragar was a distraction. A beautiful distraction. Gorgeous, even, with a nice ass and a curved mouth. But just a distraction. Nothing more.

Because if there was anything I understood, it was keeping to the rules.

I tapped the green file on the desk, the detailed information gathered on Kassie. "It’s a trade."

"Ryan is correct." Cleo turned back to Kassie. "Sculpting major, right?"

"Animation," I corrected before Kassie could. "TheBird Pantskind."

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