Page 48 of Ice Cold, Red Hot
He ran a finger up my arm. “Hope so.” That obsequious smile. Ugh.
“Hey, is there someplace we can talk? Someplace a bit quieter?”
Ethan’s eyes lit up and he glanced toward the hallway. “Bedroom?”
“Definitely not. Kitchen?”
He let out a playful chuckle—as if whatever I had in mind was just confusing foreplay—and we headed through a door at the other side of the living room. There were two people at one end of the kitchen, so I stopped and faced him near the door.
I cleared my throat and met his eye. “I heard what you said. About Shepherd. About the money.”
Ethan’s mouth held the stupid smile, but his eyes flickered and he gave the tiniest shake of his head, as if to clear it.
“You’re going to tell Gunning that my placement isn’t a good fit and recommend me to another lab. Tell her it’s a mutual decision.”
Ethan’s eyes turned flinty. “Or what?”
“Or I go public.”
He laughed. Actually laughed.
And my rage ramped up like a tornado inside me.
“Who will they believe? An established PhD candidate whose been working here for years or some upstart first year whose been sleeping with her students?”
He had no idea what he didn’t know. “Try me. We’ll just see who they believe. Gotta say, though… one of your TAs sleeping with a student under your supervision? That looks bad, right? Then you’ve got blackmail and a messy ethics violation…”
Ethan’s smirk faltered for a second.
“You haven’t got a chance,” he hissed.
He had no idea what I had. I was sick and tired of being underestimated.
I looked around and let out bored sigh. “Great party. Thanks.” I headed for the door and didn’t look back once.
The apartment building was quiet that weekend—eerily so.
“Hockey team’s on travel,” Nat told me. “Griff says Shepherd’s sitting the bench at all the games, but I guess he still goes.” She answered my unasked question.
“Did you meet his brother?” I asked her, stirring the margarita she’d made me as we sat out on our patio, feet up on the railing.
“No, but I saw a Shepherd clone heading out the door the other day. Is he the NHL star?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Hot just runs in that family, I guess.”
I nodded. She wasn’t wrong.
“What’s uh… what’s going on there? After what you said to Ethan and everything?”
I let out a long breath. “Nothing.”
“He’s gotta be grateful, though, right? You ending the blackmail?”
“He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’s gonna be happy someone rescued him. Not me, anyway.”
“Maybe you underestimate him?”
