Page 76 of Offside Attraction

“You just spent ten grand?—”

"That was my choice.”

“I understand. But if I wouldn't have been here, you never would have made that choice.”

He raised an eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

She gave him a look, then tried to steady her breathing. "You're doing these things for me, and it makes me feel?—”

“Good?”

She watched him, her body tearing itself apart from the inside out. This was it. Fight or flight. “No. It makes me terrified."

Jordan frowned. "I don't understand."

"In my experience, whenever anybody does something nice, it's because they want to hang it over your head or they want something from you. Something you don’t always want to give.”

"So you don't let people do things for you?"

"No. I don't. I take care of myself."

"That's . . . sad."

Rhonda swallowed hard. “It's safe." She squeezed her eyes shut and turned to flatten her back against the wall, forcing her lungs to expand. The light in the hall seemed to tunnel around her as she blinked.

"Do you need to sit down?" Jordan's fingers grazed her elbow.

Rhonda squeezed her arms around herself, wishing she had her wrap. Jordan took off his suit jacket and pulled her from the wall just far enough that he could sweep it over her shoulders.

She looked up at him. The shivery feeling she'd had all week came back in full force. It made her teeth start to chatter and her knees begin to knock. Whatever she'd felt in her stomach sitting across from Claire at Moxie's had grown to ten times the size without her recognizing it.

And right then, looking into the deep blue of Jordan's eyes, she could no longer hold it in. "I think . . . I want to know your name." The words spilled out of her, and she gasped like she'd just been exorcised.

It was the truth. Her most intimate truth. And she’d just spoken it in front of Jordan Wheatfill.

She could think of a thousand reasons why Jordan would be so damn intriguing when compared to other men she’d been with. He was funny, which meant he was smart. He was confident, bordering on cocky, which always drove her insane for probably some very messed up psycho-evolutionary reason. He took care of himself, worked his body hard, and bordered on dangerous. Add in the fact that he was quite literally the forbidden fruit, and it all added up on paper.

But none of those reasons were at the forefront of her mind because they couldn’t squeeze in past the two that sat front and center.

First, Jordan was kind. She’d seen it in action, and that didn’t compute with his bad boy reputation.

Second, he didn’t need her just as much as she didn’t need him.

And yet she wanted him.

Badly.

Neither of those things made logical sense, and her brain couldn’t stop obsessing over the solution to that puzzle.

Jordan wet his lips, and his eyes narrowed. He stood there, staring at her.

"What are you doing?" Rhonda asked.

"I'm making sure your pupillary dilation is the same in both eyes."

"Jordan—"

"Okay. So you do know my name."

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