Page 20 of Mad Rivals
All three?
“When you can’t…” I prompt.
She sighs and shakes her head. “Look, full disclosure, I just started full-time with VBC. I’ve been around the company my whole life, and I know what I’m doing there, but I don’t need you and your complications while I get my feet under me.”
I force the sly smile off my lips, but my cock thickens at her assessment. I’m a complication to her, which only means one thing to me.
She’s interested.
Well, so am I.
But she wants to play games? She wants to make me the enemy?
Fine. I’ll play. There’s nothing I love more in life than a good game. The competitive spirit is alive and well inside me, and it thrives on a good challenge.
I’ll get her to admit how she really feels before next season starts. That’s a guarantee.
And then I’ll get her naked.
Game fucking on.
“I won’t complicate matters for you,” I say. “So allow me to be honest with you, too. My father expects me to take on Bradley when I retire. I’ve always loved to build, but whether I liked it or not never mattered. I’m the oldest of seven children, so the company will be mine someday.”
Her brows rise a little, and she tilts her head with sympathy. “I’m in a similar boat, but can we back up a second?Sevenchildren? Is your mom some sort of saint?”
I chuckle at the question. “Hardly. The nanny who raised us might be, though.”
“If you don’t want it, why can’t it go to one of the others?”
I take a sip of my iced coffee before I field that one. “The Bradley legacy is very important to my father. So important that, frankly, I’m sick of hearing about it,” I mutter. “But I also think that he trusts me with it. Birth order comes with some inherent responsibilities that I’ve stepped up to, and I’m most likely to retire from the game first since I’m the oldest, so I’m the natural pick. I can choose whether to give my siblings responsibilities if I so choose once they retire, too, I suppose.”
“The game?” she asks. “Your brothers play football, too?”
“Three of them do,” I say. “One plays baseball, and the other two are female.”
“Five boys and two girls?” She shakes her head. “What was that like growing up?”
“How many siblings do you have?” I ask instead of answering that question.
“None.”
“You’re an only child?”
She nods.
“What was that like?”
She chuckles. “Lonely.”
“At times, it felt that way with six siblings, too.”
“How?”
I lift a shoulder. “Just that feeling of being alone in a crowd.”
She nods. “Are you close with them?”
“Some more than others.”
