Page 31 of Sweet Addiction
Guess I’m glad she’s on my side.
“Is that good enough for you?” she pushes, and I nod. “Now, I’m going to ask again. Is there any chance you’ve made a sex tape you may or may not be aware of in the last five months?”
“That’s an awfully specific time frame, Liv,” Hudson chimes in, and Livvy pulls the image back up on her phone and shows it to Hud, who holds up his glasses again. Then he sits back in hischair and looks at me with something between disappointment and pity already taking root.
My blood fucking boils.
They think I did this.
That I was this careless with my career.
Hudson and Liv both think I made a sex tape, knowing my sponsors have been on my shit this year to clean my image up and keep it that way. The league’s been up everyone’s ass since one of the guys went off the fucking rails last year and got caught snorting coke off a hooker’s ass in the bathroom of a club in Vegas, then led the cops on a high-speed chase an hour later, all after he’d just won a title fight.
It didn’t just look bad for him. It looked bad for the league and the sport as a whole.
I’m a lot of things, but careless with the career I’ve worked my whole fucking life for isn’t one of them.
“I. Didn’t. Do. This.” I hold my hand out for the phone again and look closer, this time taking note of the time stamp and date and breathing a sigh of relief. I really didn’t do this. Not even unknowingly because I wasn’t sleeping with anyone then.
“Even if I believe you,” Liv sighs and takes the phone back. “I’m not sure anyone else will. Not without proof, and it’s not like you have a wife or a girlfriend to back it up.”
My mouth opens before I even give my brain a chance to think it through. “Guess it’s a good thing I’ve been seeing someone for a few months, and we rarely don’t sleep at one of our places. She’ll back me up.”
She might also kill me for this, but I’m banking on her wanting to keep her secret enough to help me out with the right amount of convincing.
“You’ve been seeing someone?” Liv asks, stunned.
“Quietly?” Hud echoes. “For months? And it hasn’t gotten out?”
“It was easier to keep it quiet than to deal with our families.” Fuck, she really is going to kill me.
“And why would your families care?” Hud asks slowly.
“Because it’s Dillan Ryan.”
DILLAN
Establish your dominance by putting glitter in every birthday card you give,
then see if anyone ever messes with you again.
You’re welcome.
—Dillan’s Secret Thoughts
My eyes burn from re-reading the same sentence for what feels like the tenth time in as many minutes, and I glance at the sandwich sitting next to me, still untouched. What was originally slightly soggy bread now looks stale and sad. Oh well. Guess eating lunch won’t be today’s version of procrastinating. Doom scrolling it is.
The wind whips the icy rain outside against the shop window, keeping the foot traffic away because really, who wants to come out in this messy weather? I mean, love the rain... but ice, not so much.
Rain is romantic.
Ice is just too damn cold.
The only thing a day like this is good for is a cup of Earl Grey tea with honey and lemon, a fuzzy blanket, equally fuzzy socks, and a really good book. Maybe about fated mates. That sounds good.
And just like that, I know how I’ll be spending tonight.
“Hey, Kaleigh...” I call, a smile tugging at my lips when I check the time and my plan takes shape. She pokes her head out of the back room where’s she’s been wrapping Blind Dates with a Book. Pretty pink ribbon in one hand and a ridiculously large pair of scissors in the other. “You want to go ahead and get out of here? We’re pretty slow, so I think I’m going to close up early.”
