Page 14 of How to Play the Player

“Anything for you, girl.” She smiles briefly before her expression turns serious. “Can we circle back to thatI don’t regret choosing my family over youcomment? Like, what kind of bullshit is that?”

I groan at the flashback of Nathan’s confrontation. How his jaw clenched in the way I once found so attractive. Those golden-brown eyes held mine without wavering. “God, he’s so sure of himself. It makes me want to... Ugh!!”

“I’ll hold, and you punch?” Lyla teases.

I shake my head. I’m too pretty, and too busy, for jail. “But I can’t deny how it must look from his perspective.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it—I was the only person outside his core team who knew about that acquisition. And I was the only person not around him when everything went down. To him, of course I look guilty as hell.”

“But you weren’t even there!”

“That’s what I keep telling him, but these days, he’s like talking to a brick wall.” I sigh. “I wish he’d just wake up and realize maybe someone else had to have done it. Someone who had access to that information.”

After we pass by a handful of aisles, we settle where the snacks are. Lyla tosses double-stuffed Oreos into the cart, her expression clouding. “Those damn photos he posted while you were still in New Mexico… I wanted to kill him for that. All those women, the partying, making sure you’d see it all over social media. That was low.”

I swallow hard, the memory still gut-wrenching. “Tell me about it.”

“I get that he chose to publicly humiliate you rather than be an adult and break up with you or at least hear you out.” She pauses, considering something. “But don’t you think that’s strange? If he really believed you betrayed him professionally, why make it personal?”

I blink, never having considered it from that angle. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, I don’t think it’s hate he feels for you.” Lyla’s expression shifts, becoming more thoughtful. “If he hated you, he would have pressed charges or blackballed you from any good work a long time ago. He also wouldn’t have pinned you against the chair like that. This may be the hopeless romantic in me talking, but I think he’s more afraid about what you might do to him than his brother’s wedding.” Lyla lowers her voice to where only I can hear. “Anger wasn’t the only thing in the room.”

I know where she’s going with this.

“Don’t even go there,” I warn. “He despises me. In fact, half an hour ago, he threatened me.”

My bestie puts her hands up in surrender. “Say what you will. But don’t think I didn’t see you nearly melting underneath him.”

I feel heat flush up to my neck and cheeks. “I didn’t—that wasn’t—I was intimidated. And from him? You’re mistaking hatred for lust.”

“Pitching to a CEO is intimidating. That? What you and Nathan were doing? That was foreplay.” Her knowing smirk is insufferable. “Safe to say that spark you two had a year ago is still there. It’s just covered in a lot of unnecessary anger, hurt feelings, and a bit of pride.”

I could come up with all the excuses I want, but I can’t entirely deny the way my body reacted to his proximity. Despite the eight-year age gap between us, or perhaps because ofit, there has always been something magnetic about Nathan’s confidence—the way he carries himself with that assured maturity that men my age rarely possess, if at all.

His scent surrounded me, and for a disorienting moment, I was back in his bed, his hands tangled in my hair, his lips on my skin. I shake the memory away. Those days are gone. Whatever attraction might linger physically means nothing compared to the trust that’s been shattered.

“I need a plan,” I say, abruptly changing the subject. “A professional strategy for dealing with him during this contract.”

“Such as?”

“I need to create a buffer of professionalism so thick, he can’t penetrate it.” I wince at my word choice as Lyla raises an eyebrow. “You know what I mean.”

“I do, but do you think that will work? You two have so much unresolved…everything.”

I absently reorganize the items in our cart, creating order from the chaos of snacks and alcohol. “It has to work. I have to make him eat his words, show him I’m not the person he thinks I am. I asked him why I would sacrifice our relationship for money. You know what he said?” I lower my voice to mock Nathan’s “I stand by what I know.”

“Well, he’s standing by stupidity.” Lyla rolls her eyes.

Her response makes me laugh. “The last I saw him before I left…” My voice trails off. “He looked at me like I held his entire world in the balance.” I picture the memory vividly. His fingers absently playing with my hair as we lay in bed. How he’d pulled me into his body and said,One day, I want to build something that lasts forever—both at Knight Industries and with you.I hold back a tear. “He was so excited about NorthStar, how landing that deal would benefit Knight Industries so much. He was planning for us to celebrate once I got back.” The memory still cuts deep.

At this point, I’ll need more than food to survive this job. I’ve never been a big drinker, but something about working with Nathan makes me seriously consider it.

Lyla guides the cart to the checkout line. “Don’t shoot me, but a tiny part of me wonders if working closely with Nathan might get him to rethink what happened.”

I glance at our cart, now overflowing with enough of my favorite foods to feed two of me. “Lyla, I think we went a bit overboard.”

---