“Everything okay here?” I asked.

Eilish jumped a little at the sound of my voice. Connors cast me an irritable side glance. When I made eye contact with Eilish, I instantly saw how stressed she was. It might not have been evident to the average person, but it was to me. I could see it in the tight line of her mouth and the crease in her brow. I didn’t want her stressed, not when we were supposed to be going on our first proper date today. I could murder Connors for whatever he’d done to upset her.

“This is a matter for the physio department. None of your concern,” Connors said with a dismissive wave of his hand. Had he seriously not learned by now I didn’t take that kind of shit from him?

“If it involves Eilish, it involves me. Now what’s going on?”

Eilish cast me a pleading expression. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Go shower. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

I studied her a moment, then turned my attention back to Connors. “Whatever this is, give it up. We both know she’s done nothing wrong, and you’re just being a cantankerous arsewipe.”

Connors’s face turned red with anger. “She was in my space, meddling with my things. She had no right.”

“I was attempting to clean the place up a little,” said Eilish, her tone decidedly calm. I was proud that she wasn’t showing Connors any weakness, even if it was clear to me she was upset.

Our backgrounds weren’t as dissimilar as I’d originally thought. Her family was old money, but my father’s position as a high court judge gave me some perspective on her upbringing. Both our fathers had left when we were young, leaving us to the devices of our mothers.

Still, even looking at her now, I didn’t feel like I deserved her. I felt unworthy somehow, stained. She just seemed so wholesome, too noble for the likes of me. Maybe that’s why I wanted her so badly. The devil always looks for virtue to corrupt.

Except, that friend of hers . . .

“There’s absolutely no need to talk to me in such an unprofessional manner,” Eilish lifted her chin, peering down her nose at Connors, her tone high and mighty.

“I’ll speak to you any way I like. And you’re one to talk about unprofessionalism. You only got this job through nepotism and spreading your legs for the players,” Connors bit out, eyeing me pointedly.

Oh, hell no.

I stepped in front of Eilish and got in his face. “The fuck did you just say?”

At the same time I could hear Eilish sing-song, “Sacha Baron Cohen in pleather hot pants” under her breath.

I almost laughed at her reference, but I was still supremely pissed, especially when Connors spat back a cutting, “The truth.”

“You know, one day you’re going to steal the wrong lunch.” I put a hand on his shoulder, ready to do something unwise, when familiar hands pulled me back.

“He’s not worth it,” Eilish urged. “Like you said, he’s just a bully. That’s all he’ll ever be.”

But he called my girl a whore and should be destroyed!

No one should get away with such vile speech, especially not pointed at Eilish. She was ridiculously intelligent, dedicated, and bloody good at her job.

“Bryan, please.”

It was her voice that centered me, her touch that brought me back to my senses. Roughing Connors up wasn’t going to achieve anything. More than that, I was still proving myself to Eilish and violence would only undo all my hard work. It would show I was unpredictable, a livewire, when the person I wanted to portray was a steady hand.

But it sure would feel good.

I inhaled a deep breath and dropped my arm.

“That could be considered assault, you know,” Connors sniffed.

“If you think that’s assault then you need to get a fucking reality check,” I shot back.

“Okay.” Eilish threaded her arm through mine and pulled me away, holding me to her side. “Mr. Connors, I understand you do not wish to have me go through your things, but that wasn’t what I was doing. I was simply tidying up my workspace, as I have every right to do. It’s in the best interests of both the players and us that we treat them in a sanitary environment, so I’ll be reporting the conditions of the physio rooms to HR first thing on Monday morning.”

He narrowed his gaze. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Eilish stared at him dead on. “Oh, but I would.”

With that we walked away, and I glanced down at her proudly. There was a steely reserve in the way she held herself, and I had a feeling, quite surprisingly, that Connors had met his unlikely match in Eilish Cassidy.

“That was kinda sexy,” I bent to murmur in her ear. Her skin pebbled where my breath touched. “Seeing you put Connors in his place like that.”

She turned to face me, a smile at the edge of her lips. “It wasn’t about putting him in his place. I’m thinking only of the team’s well-being.”

“The team, eh?” I held the door for her.

“That’s right.” She nodded as we passed into the hall, turning her back against the wall to face me as the door swung shut.

We were alone, our voices echoing in the lonely corridor. That potency that always seemed to linger when it was just the two of us materialized again. Eilish’s gaze traveled down my body. Her pupils dilated and her breathing deepened. My cock stirred. Of course it did.

Oddly, I thought back on the brief encounter in the café with her friend. Something about it had bothered me more than it should. Josey had looked at me with stars in her eyes and an invitation lingering behind a flirty smile. It had made me uncomfortable, and not just because she was Eilish’s friend, although that was definitely a big part of it.