Page 22 of Off Pitch

“Not from my vantage point. You could practically see the sparks flying.”

I just sigh. “Can we just... not tell Ella, please? You two and Cole know. I really don’t want this to get to everyone, or it won’t be believable.”

“We can manage that,” Rory replies. “Ella’s busy planning a wedding anyway, so she probably won’t notice anything weird.” Rory’s look turns more mischievous now. “Shouldn’t you be going to find your boyfriend, Lo? WAGs always leave with their man.”

“Those are the real wives and girlfriends, Ror. This is fake.”

“Not according to the media.”

I groan, realizing that I need it to look real to sell this. “I’m going to go find Knox. I told him I’d find him after the game anyway.”

“Ready to get out of here?” Knox asks me when I find him outside of the clubhouse.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here. Lucia and Rory interrogated me, so I’m exhausted now.”

He lets out a breath. “Yeah, I got into the clubhouse after the press conference, and Josh was there waiting for us to get back so he could interrogate me with Lane and your brother. Fucking nightmare, honestly.”

I laugh. “Well, at least we’re in this nightmare together then, right?”

Knox peers down at me, a small smile pulling at the corners of his lips. “Yeah, you’re not too bad.”

“Ooh, I went from tolerable to not too bad. I’m already moving on up.”

That earns an honest chuckle from him. “You’re something, Harlow.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he says, pushing open the exit door and gesturing me through it. “Come on, I can walk you to your car. It’s pretty late now.”

“Oh, I don’t drive. I don’t even have a car. I took the subway. I’m just going to walk to the subway station and catch the line that goes to Kips Bay. The station’s only a couple blocks from my apartment.”

Knox stops walking and just stares at me. “You usually catch the subway at night and walk alone to your apartment?”

“Yeah,” I shrug. “I’ve been doing it for years.”

“Not anymore,” he says, shaking his head. “My car’s in the lot over here. I’ll drive you home.”

“I don’t need you to drive me home, Knox. The subway is fine.”

“Harlow, as far as the city is concerned, you’re my girlfriend. I don’t trust what kind of creeps will be out for you once they realize it’s you. You’re far safer with me.”

“Am I?” I ask, cocking my eyebrow. “I barely know you. You’re practically a stranger to me, Spencer.”

He sighs. “Are you really going to fight me on this?”

“And what if I am?” I look at him in defiance.

Knox brings a finger up to my chin to keep it in place as he speaks. “Then I will throw you over my goddamn shoulder and put you in the car myself, Pierce. You’re not taking the subway.”

That shouldn’t turn me on, right? Because it totally just turned me on. A controlling attitude should be a red flag. I don’t think Knox meant it to be controlling, though. I think he’s genuinely worried something could happen to me because of my new association with him.

I’m thrown off of my game now, unsteady. That might be because I have somebody concerned about my well-being for the first time since I left Derek. And Derek was hardly ever concerned. Knox is showing more concern for a woman he hardly knows than a man I dated for more than a year.

“Okay,” I relent. “Where’s your car?”

“Follow me,” he says, turning and walking off in the other direction.

“Thanks for the ride, Knox,” I say as he pulls up in front of my building. In a black fuckingMaserati. “I appreciate it.”

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