Page 68 of Bound

“What?” I ask, genuinely confused.

“I hate that I don’t have a chance to punch that smug fucker in the nose.”

“Liar,” I tease. “You’re upset we found our way to each other without you interfering and playing matchmaker.”

He waggles his brows. “Who says I didn’t?”

“What?”

“A pointed question in the locker room?” he asks archly. “Questioning whether he’s capable enough? Coaching you through the scary bits so that you were open to a new opportunity?” He sobers. “The asshole from the first date nearly fucked it all up, but luckily, I knew that Jackson had a white knight hidden beneath all that black armor.”

“You couldn’t have known all of that.”

He blows on his knuckles, buffs them on his shoulder. “Couldn’t I?”

“Now I know why Jackson tried to strangle you,” I grumble, pushing off the wall, intending to head back to my office.

“You heard about that?”

It’s my turn to waggle my brows. “I hear everything. I know all.”

A glare. “And you didn’t give your man an ass-chewing about hurting me?”

“You’re big.” I shrug, but I’m biting back a smile. “Plus, I know he didn’t really hurt you. For one,” I say, “he wouldn’t, and you know that as much as I do.”

He opens his mouth, but I keep talking.

“For another, both Kailey and Samantha”—his wife and my friend and the team’s head trainer, also my friend—“told me that you didn’t even have the tiniest bruise.”

“I didtoo.”

“Did not,” I say because I’m a child.

“Did too.”

I’m grinning, happier than ever, soul light, heart singing with joy.

Because I’m living, even if it’s to get into a silly, joking argument with my friend.

I rise up on tiptoe, press a kiss to his bearded cheek. “Did not.”

“Did—”

I drop back onto my heels. “Tell you what.”

“What?”

“Next time that Jackson tries to strangle you, I’ll make sure you don’t get a boo-boo.”

His lips twitch. “Rude.” A beat. “What about if I decide to stranglehim?”

“You won’t,” I say. “Because you don’t like hurting people either.”

He opens his mouth.

“But you know,” I add in a hurry, knowing ithasto be a hurry, otherwise I won’t get my words in over him, “all of this is because you helped me realize how much I’m missing by hiding in the shadows.”

“Clairey girl,” he rumbles, eyes gentle, voice soft. He reaches out to hug me.

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