Page 26 of Press Your Luck

"How can you be sure?”

The only way I could be sure was to make certain I got Naomi out of my system and no one learned the truth of last night. “I promise it won’t.”

“We need your head in the game, Pierce. The team isn’t looking as good as we hoped.”

I nodded. “I won’t let us down.”

He watched me for a moment and then sat on a bench. “Peirce, what the fuck is going on?”

I shrugged. I felt like I had an anvil on my chest.

“Remember when I first fell for Analyn? Not only was I older, but I was her boss. You were the only person I felt I could trust to talk to about it.”

I glanced at him. “You just walked in here and accused me of letting my dick fail the team and you want me to trust you?”

He looked down. “I’m sorry.” He turned his attention back to me. “Right now, I’m not your business partner. I’m your friend. What’s going on?”

I hesitated for a moment, debating whether I should lay it all out. But Reed deserved the truth. "We... hooked up after we ditched you and Todd in the bar."

He tried to keep his expression impassive, but I saw the disappointment. "Hooked up?”

I nodded, running a hand through my hair in frustration. "It wasn't planned. We got caught up in the heat of the moment."

"Jesus, Pierce.” Reed rose and paced the locker room. "Do you realize the implications of what you've done? This could jeopardize everything we've worked for—our team, our reputations ...”

"Look, I know it was a mistake," I said defensively. "But it's not like we set out to make a spectacle of ourselves. It just... happened." I wanted to remind him again of Analyn and how his relationship with her had been forbidden. It was fucked up of him to now be happily married with a child and judge me after all that.

"Things don't just 'happen', Pierce." Reed’s voice was tight. "You made a choice, and now you have to face the consequences. I just hope that whatever was between you two doesn't come back to bite us in the ass."

"Neither of us wanted this, Reed. It happened. It’s done. Over with. Now we move on.”

“How do you know this won’t blow up in your face... in all our faces?”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. I seem to remember saying the same thing to you about Analyn—”

“Which is why this is all the more shocking. Your saying that makes me wonder if it’s really done and over with.”

“Fucking hell, Reed. It’s done.” The way Naomi had run out, regret leaving a wake, made me sure there was no future between us.

"Hey.” Reed softened his tone. "I'm not saying this to be an asshole. I just want you to understand the gravity of what you've done. We've worked too damn hard to have it all fall apart because of one night of recklessness."

“You’re overreacting here, but you have my word. It won’t happen again.”

“Overreacting. Why do you think she let you fuck her, eh?”

I flinched, not liking his insinuation. “You don’t think a woman would be attracted to me?”

He gave me his don’t-be-an-idiot expression. “I know full well you have no issue with the ladies. She’s a good-looking woman, no doubt, but she’s a lot younger, has shown disdain toward you, and is said to be seeing one of her players.”

Fuck. Put like that, I was being an idiot.

“How do you know she’s not using that to manipulate you?”

"Naomi wouldn't do that.” I said the words even though I wasn’t sure they were true. She was passionate, driven, and fierce, but was she also deceitful?

"Maybe not intentionally," Reed conceded, "but you know as well as I do how high the stakes are for her. She’s desperate to prove herself in this male-dominated world—”

“And fucking me to manipulate me would work against that.”

---