Page 75 of The Puck Stops Here

‘Too true.’

‘And you’re distracting me from my questions, from giving me more of you.’

‘Not intentionally.’

‘No?’

‘No. I find myself intrigued by you. I want to know about you. I want to know everything there is to know about Astrid Sinclair. The woman, the daughter, the foxy reporter…’

A breathless laugh. ‘And how’s that going?’

‘The more I know, the more I want to know…’

She’d never had a man look at her like he had then, like he could see inside her soul to all the fractured pieces she kept hidden and wanted more. More and more. Until he had it all and then what? Would he try to piece her back together, healed and whole?

‘I can assure you, Blake, you’re far more interesting than me.’

‘Spoken like someone who doesn’t value who they are enough and is too used to focusing on everyone else but themself. Am I right?’

‘Perhaps… It’s a career hazard.’

‘A hazard I’m more than willing to tease you out of…’

His voice caressed her through the phone, and she sank beneath the bubbles with a groan. Maybe listening to his voice, all low and sincere and vibrating through her speakers,while she lay naked in the tub, wasn’t the best of ideas.

She wanted him. More than any man she’d ever met. More than Chase…

Fuck, Chase!

The man who had driven her to this point… his wife’s face at the hotel room door. All that hate. She eased back up the bath and reached for her phone, quit the recording and fired off a text to Bella, needing to be grounded by her friend and their plan. Not her neglected libido – or her heart – that could be calling this all wrong.

Astrid

Wanna come to a hockey game in a couple of weeks?

Bella

You’re joking right?

Astrid

No, I’ve got a spare ticket. Promises to be ‘intense’… Aiden’s words.

Bella

I think I’d rather cut off my right arm, unless… do you need me to come with you?

She paused. What she really wanted to say was, ‘Yes, damn right I do. Because someone has to help me make sense of Aiden and keep my cakehole off Blake!’ but her friend was in the thick of it with Chase, all on her own and all for Astrid’s sake. The least she could do was cope the same.

Astrid

Of course not. I can go rogue for the night

Bella

Go rogue? Heaven, help him/them!

Astrid

---