Page 42 of Wild Love
“Fuck, Kota. Cut that out. It got in my mouth that time.”
“Serves you right.” She holds it up like a weapon. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Why am I working for your family’s company?”
“Because I didn’t want you to miss out on an internship with the Wildcats.”
“So you talked to your dad and got him to sponsor my internship?”
Ah, fuck. This is going to be bad. Her eyes are tiny slits of ice.
“It wasn’t my dad. I sponsored your internship. I used the money they paid me for the endorsement.”
She goes on a spritzing rampage, growling and cursing me.
Standing, I grab her wrist. We wrestle with the bottle, but I get it and hold it up high where she can’t reach it. She looks like she might hit me, so I hold her against my chest with the other arm. “You deserved the internship. It’s a great opportunity for you, and it isn’t like I’m not getting anything out of this. My endorsement campaign is going to be baller. You’re the best, and I wanted the best.”
She wiggles in my hold. “Let me go, Maverick.”
I comply, and she steps back, still glaring at me, but it doesn’t look like I’m in immediate danger.
“I’m sorry, okay?”
“Sorry? My entire internship is a big, fat lie.”
“It isn’t. Blythe wanted to hire you.”
“I don’t want your money. Find someone else to do the endorsement.”
“Kota.” This is precisely why I didn’t want to tell her. “Wait.”
“No. I would have been perfectly happy working at the Hall of Fame this summer. Maybe they can still get me on the schedule.”
She starts toward the door, and I jog in front of her, blocking the doorway. “You can’t go back to Valley.”
“Why not?”
“Because this internship is a great opportunity. Blythe is the best. You said so yourself. A summer working for her will look great on your resume.”
“Let me tell you how much I care about my resume right now. I assume the apartment was also you?”
I don’t speak, but she nods once and sighs.
“I might need a couple of days to arrange everything, but I will be out by the weekend.”
“Come on. Don’t do this.”
“I have to get back upstairs.” She pushes past me.
Fuck!
“I like her,” Jack says as Dakota disappears down the hallway. “Ah, rook.” He claps me on the shoulder. “You really screwed this one up, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“I suggest groveling. A lot of it.”
“You grovel?”
“For a chick like that… I think I just might.”
