Page 13 of Puck You Very Much

To his surprise, he saw the corners of her mouth twitch.

“You know, that’s exactly what I said,” she remarked. “However, Leslie seems to think I am the perfect and only candidate for the job, so…”

He laughed dryly, his hands gripping his biceps. “It is absolutely unnecessary to have a personal PR consultant by my side.”

Lucy frowned and tilted her head. “Is that how Gray put it? I was told I was your babysitter.”

In his fury, Dax’s jaw cracked and his diaphragm constricted. God, she was enjoying this, wasn’t she? “You will tell Leslie that you can’t possibly accept this task,” he replied, his tone dangerously soft, stepping forward so that he loomed over her. He was so close to her that he could feel the warmth radiating from her body. “You’re going to make it clear to her that it’s not your job to follow me around—and if you do, I’ll go to the police and report you as a fucking stalker.”

He saw her swallow, but she didn’t back away. She didn’t even blink. Of course she didn’t. She had damn nerves of steel. She was never intimidated by him and that was incredibly unnerving.

“It’s cute how you’re trying to scare me,” she remarked in an overly friendly tone. “But whenever your head is as red as it is now, you remind me of a traffic light…and it’s hard to be intimidated by a traffic light. And, for the record, I’m just as unhappy about the situation as you are.”

He shook his head in irritation. “Then why did you agree?”

“I had no choice!” she exclaimed, aghast. “You know Leslie, right?”

Yes. There was a reason the Hawks called herThe Dragon. “Okay, to summarize, I don’t want you to follow me and you don’t want to run after me.”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “The solution is simple, stop messing up.”

She said that so easily, but most of the time shit found him on its own. “Sure,” he said and rocked back on his heels. “I’ll do that.”

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “And why don’t I believe you?”

“You’re a good judge of character?”

She sighed. “Leslie is relying on me. This job is important to me. So, I’ll do what I have to do, Dax.”

“Why does that sound like a threat?”

“Because you’re a good judge of character?”

He snorted, but he couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from twitching—the traitors. “Okay, listen,” he said, raising his hands defensively. It was time to change course. He knew Lucy better than he liked. If Leslie gave her a task, she would complete it diligently, no matter what she had to do to get it done. “I understand. Really. You live for your job. I live for my job. Both of us dislike someone meddling or having an annoying dwarf making our lives difficult, but…”

“Ah, Dax, you don’t have to call yourself a dwarf. Your emotional intelligence might be small, but at least physically, you’re the hockey standard,” she interjected.

“But…” he continued, undeterred, “if we want to make it through the next few weeks alive, maybe we should…lay down some ground rules.” He couldn’t prevent the catastrophe, but he could mitigate it.

“Rules?” she repeated skeptically, crossing her arms. “What rules?”

“Rules that make it easier for us to do our jobs and not go crazy,” he clarified. The latter was the most important thing. “Let’s start with three.” That’s the most he was going to remember, honestly. “And for every rule I make, you can make one too. Deal?”

Lucy’s eyes were still narrowed suspiciously, but she nodded slowly. “Give me an example.”

He ran his hands through his hair as he briefly thought about what would bother him the most. It didn’t take long to find the answer.

“Okay, for example, my first rule would be: What I do with whom in my hotel room, on the plane, or on the bus is my business,” he explained briefly. “I don’t want you breathing down my neck every second we’re on the road at away games. I need to be able to relax as I see fit. Otherwise, I’ll play like crap and no one wants that.”

She pursed her lips thoughtfully and tapped her chin with her index finger. “Well, technically Leslie instructed me to stop you from drinking, dating, and generally screwing around, but…I guess that’s fair.”

Hell, she was literally the only PR person he knew who would sayscrewing aroundso casually. They were usually particular about their choice of words.

“Okay,” she added after a while, “there are no photographers on the plane or bus, and if you are discreet about the hotel room and no journalist notices, we shouldn’t have a problem. But if someone notices…” She frowned and looked at him almost apologetically—almost. “Well, in that case, I’d have to spring into action and stop you, and that’d get ugly.”

It wasn’t a threat; it was a promise. And shit, he believed her. Although, admittedly, he would like to see her try.

“Okay, now you can make your first rule,” he said, nodding at her.

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