Page 71 of Offsides

Cowboy sat back up on the couch, twisting to face her. Gone was the smirk that had been there a second ago, replaced with that same stony look as earlier.

“Yes, my interview with Dash. About all this.”

“Theodosia, you can’t include this.”

“I have to. It’s part of the team’s trip to Vegas. Not to mention it’s all over the Internet!”

“You don’t have to do anything,” he snapped. “You agreed to not ask Beau about Petra and to leave all that out of the feature. This isn’t any different.”

“This is totally different!”

“No, it’s not.”

Frustration rose in Theo. Was he out of his mind? How dare he fight her on this. They had an agreement. She had exclusive access—good, bad, otherwise, she was covering this team and their quest for the Fremont Cup. He was not going to censor her now.

“Theodosia, please. Do not include this.”

“No. I want my interview.”

* * *

Interview.

All Theo cared about was an interview.

Cowboy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Had she not heard a word he’d just said? She couldn’t have. There was no way if she had really been listening to him talk about how Dash didn’t remember anything from last night, apparently after rolling around on drug-covered surfaces, that her first reaction would be about an interview. She wasn’t like that.

Sure, she was a reporter, but she was different. She’d shown that to him these last few weeks. She didn’t care about this crap, about the tabloid fodder.

“I’m asking you, as both the technical director of this team and as your boyfriend, to please leave this out.”

“Are you serious?” she asked, her voice higher pitched than normal. She scooted back on the couch, putting a lot more distance between them than he liked. “You’re asking me to bury this. No. No way, no how.”

“You did it once. Do it again.”

“I did not.”

“You did. You agreed to leave Beau out!” he exclaimed, gesturing wildly with his hands.

Theo dodged out of the way, popping up off the couch a second later. Spinning back around to look at him, there was anger in her eyes, and her arms were crossed, pushing up her breasts. He had to force himself to look at her face, knowing that now was not the time to get lost in dirty thoughts about her. But the exasperated expression she was currently wearing was starting to make his blood pressure rise.

“That is different, and you know it. Beau’s arrival was already part of the narrative. Petra would have just been extra. But it doesn’t affect his playing. And if you remember correctly, I told you that if it did, then I would bring it up. I’m not interested in salacious gossip.”

“Isn’t this just salacious gossip?” he countered.

“Not when it’s already all over the Internet and directly connected to the Rising winning the tournament.”

The tension in his muscles that had been dissolving a moment ago when Theo was next to him was starting to return, his lower back already starting to twitch. This day had been a fucking nightmare—and they had actually gotten off easy. For as much of a hassle as bailing Dash out was, and how pissed off he was at the young South American, it could have been much worse. They could have been dealing with a massive legal mess, including having to deal with immigration, but instead they got a simple slap on the wrist.

The entire plane ride back all he had wanted was to get home, crash onto his couch, and pull Theo in close to him. He knew that just having her next to him would be enough to calm and center him. The fantasy of them ordering pizza, putting on a movie, and spending the evening wrapped up in each other had been the fuel he needed to get through these last few hours. Instead, he was in the corporate airport lounge, discussing her need—no, desire—to drag out this whole mess even more and make it public knowledge.

“There might actually be people on this planet who haven’t already seen Dash’s junk, and I would prefer to keep it that way,” he said, trying to make a joke.

“So you want to censor me?”

Censor her? I’m not trying to censor anything…

“Censor you? I’m not trying to do any such thing! All I am asking is you leave out the part about Dash’s naked one-man parade.”