Page 60 of Hot Receiver

Jesus. If she only knew the truth about what happened between us.

Maybe she has an idea.

Mother’s freaking intuition.

It’s never wrong.

The sound of a knock at my door jolts me. I sit straight up.

Who the fuck could that be? Nobody gets up here without security letting me know first.

If someone from the fucking press was able to get around the front desk surveillance, I will have someone’s head on a goddamn platter within the next few minutes.

I stalk over to the front door. Rage simmers under the surface, the hairs on the back of my neck springing to life.

With a white-hot glare ready to scorch the hell out of whoever is in my hallway, I look through the peephole. My heart leaps into my throat when I open the door.

“What are you doing here?” I manage to choke out.

Matt stands there, his face pinched with worry, panic blazing in his gaze. “I know I shouldn’t be here, but I didn’t know where else to go. I couldn’t tell anyone else.”

He steps closer. My breath hitches at his nearness.

Matt reaches for me, grasping my wrist, his fingers burning my skin. “You’re the only one.”

Chapter 25

Matt

“What the hell happened to you?” Zak twists his hand to capture mine and laces our fingers before pulling me into his condo.

I step through the doorway, a stress knot the size of a golf ball wedged at the base of my skull.

“I didn’t mean to barge in like this. The security guy recognized me, so when I asked him not to call up first, he did. Don’t take off after him. It was all me,” I say.

I clutch the sides of my head and rub my temples.

“I figured after last time you wouldn’t want me to randomly show up here again. And, I saw you with that guy before at the stadium. I guess you’re dating him now, so I know I’m probably over stepping by showing up like this. But I really needed to see you. And the security guy was still riding high on the game win, so I took advantage of it. I couldn’t handle hearing that you wanted me to leave.”

The words spew from my lips as fast as my mind can form the jumbled thoughts.

Zak gapes at me like he doesn’t know what to say. I don’t blame him. I’m a fucking mess right now. Barely know how I was able to drive here at all.

“Okay, first you need to breathe. Come inside and drink something.” He guides me into the large white kitchen.

I drop into a chair and lean my head in my hands, a deep sigh shuddering my shoulders.

He grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and pours it into a glass. “Second, I’m not dating anyone. The guy you saw is my hedge fund manager. I invited him to the game…” He trails off and looks away for a second. “I, ah, brought him because I wanted to take the focus off my fucking missteps. I figured if the press had some gossip to chew on, they’d leave me the hell alone. It was stupid, I know, but I was desperate.”

“So, he’s not your boyfriend?”

Zak shakes his head. “He’s not even gay.”

My heart jumps the tiniest bit, even after hours of being weighed down by what happened with Rusty. Then, my stomach roils again because I need to come clean with Zak… about everything, and regardless of how he feels about me now, it may be a very different story when he hears the truth.

“There’s stuff about me you don’t know.” I tap my fingers on the side of the glass he just put in front of me. “Stuff I never told you back when we were in college.”

Zak’s dark eyebrows knit together. “Okay…”

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