Chapter 13

Wade

I lift Kali on top of the vanity because she's tried to do this herself three times and failed.

"I'm not going to feel very good in the morning, am I?" Kali grumbles as she shuffles herself side to side haphazardly over the marbled top, slurring her words.

"Nope." I shouldn't laugh, but I do. Her head will hurt like hell in the morning, and that's the reason I've placed a plastic bowl from the kitchen on the floor next to my bed, just in case.

Following another run-in with her ex, which I wasn't within earshot of, she proceeded to do shots and then down a concoction of cocktails.

Neither of which is a good combination and now her stomach feels like she's been on a roller coaster. Her words, not mine.

Whatever Michael said sent her reeling downhill without brakes. He's lucky he left when he did, or I may have punched him for making her cry.

Her friends disappeared with mine not long after, and that's when I realized I was clueless about where Kali lived.

With no address to drop her off at, her phone password protected, and with neither Ezra nor Myles picking up my calls to ask Ellis or Joy, I was at a loss when I struggled to get a sensible answer out of Kali to tell me where she lives. So, I brought her back here.

Practically having to stuff her into the cab, she closed her eyes and laid her head on my shoulder before we'd even left the curbside, mumbling random words I couldn't make out on the ride here. I couldn't help noticing how good it felt to be taking care of her while she's as drunk as a pirate… my chest swelling with an undeniable need to protect her and my cock semi-swelling at the feel of her pressed against me.

"What are you doing?" She swats my hand away.

"Taking your makeup off."

She giggles in a girly way. "That's funny." Glazed eyes stare back at me. "You're sort of nice."

"Yeah?"

"Yup." She pops the P over enthusiastically, spraying spit in my face.

"Gee, thanks." I wipe my face with the fluffy hand towel that had been resting on the basin.

I explain to her what I'm going to do while she continues to sway. "Can you sit still for a minute? I don't want to poke you in the eye while I put this cream on your face."

Making a silly face, she attempts to sit up straighter and hold still but fails. Alcohol has practically turned her bones to Jell-O.

"Great." I tuck her hair behind one ear and then the other. I would never be able to apply makeup, taking it off though? That I can do, with the help of the products I had delivered from the hotel spa by the concierge. I gave him a hefty tip for including a step-by-step guide of what order to use the skincare products in, which I read three times, making sure I understood.

"Close your eyes, Kali," I say softly, and she does so without question.

Squirting eye makeup remover onto the cotton pad, I clean one eye, then pick up another pad and repeat.

I look down at the black makeup-stained white cotton, pleased with myself that I eventually got it all off.

I squirt a small amount of cleansing cream onto my fingertips and rub it together to warm it up. As gentle as I can, because I know the skin on my fingers is rough and calloused from holding a hockey stick for most of my life, I apply it to her butter-like soft skin.

Her face is flawless. She doesn't need makeup, but I appreciate her Cleopatra look too. It suits her.

"That's nice," Kali mumbles.

Wiping the last of her makeup away, I throw the now reddened pads from her lipstick beside the others in the garbage bin.

"Just two more steps." I grab the skin toner and oversoak the cotton pads by mistake. "Shit," I hiss under my breath, squeezing some of it out into the sink. The instructions say to pat it into the skin, not drag, which I carry out carefully, avoiding her eyes like it says.

Almost finished, I dip my fingers into the moisturizer I assume is unlike anything Kali is accustomed to. I bet she wears face creams that cost hundreds of dollars a bottle. But this stuff… I pick up the glass bottle to check the label and don't recognize it. It's whatever the hotel sells in the spa. Might be expensive though. Not sure as I asked them to stick it all on my tab. The concierge brought a toothbrush too, which I made sure Kali used before I did her skin care. Don't think she cleaned them very well. There was more toothpaste around her mouth than in it.

I should have taken a photograph to show her in the morning. I could get her back for making up that rotten folder of bad press stories from the first day we met.

Over her forehead and down her face, I rub in the lotion to the best of my ability, which isn't very good.

"You're supposed to go up," she tells me, pushing the palms of her hands against her cheeks and sliding them up. "Stops the wrinkles. Always up."

"I'll remember that for next time," I say, humored by her silly ways.

"Thank you." Her eyes bug out as if she suddenly realized something. "Ellis?"

"She's fine."

"Joy?"

"She's fine too," I reassure her.

She places her hand over her heart, but it lands on her left boob. Looking down at herself, brows dipped so low it looks like a miniature set of handlebars, she asks, "Why am I wearing a hockey jersey?"

"You wanted to wear it." I don't tell her that she stripped down to her bra and panties as soon as she stepped inside the room. I tried hard not to look, but she made it impossible for me not to when she started dancing in front of me.

One of the most beautiful women in the world was practically naked in my hotel room, dancing, and I couldn't do a single fucking thing about it.

Wouldn't.

Not ever.

She's half-cooked and needs to sleep it off.

Plus… she's my publicist.

So, there's that.

Having been so close to her on the dance floor earlier, I want more. Pressed up against her felt right and knowing she wants to kiss me as much as I want to kiss her almost made me lose my goddamn mind and claim her lips as mine.

But I didn't.

Can't.

"Okay." Mouth downturned she seems satisfied with my reply about her nightwear.

"What did Michael say to you earlier to upset you?"

Kali makes a disgusted noise from the back of her throat that sounds a lot like she's choking. "He's a pig." Her mouth thins in disapproval.

"What did he say?" I need to know for my own sanity.

Bowing her head, she looks at her busy hands that are picking at her nails and lets out a mighty sigh. "Said I was an old hag, and a has been. Which isn't true. I still get offers to model all the time, but he hurt me." She sounds sad.

What a bastard. Wish I'd knocked him out. A night in jail would have been worth it to change that look on her face.

"Hurt people, hurt people, Kali. And he's jealous of your success."

"Hurt people, hurt people?" she questions. "What does that mean?" Confusion lines her brows.

"People who are, or have been hurt, go on to hurt other people," I explain.

"That's what you've been doing." Her sharp fingernail stabs me in the chest, her honesty spearing me directly through my heart.

She's not wrong.

Filling her cheeks with air, she blows it out again ungracefully. "Michael said he was looking at opening his own talent agency here in Edmonton. He must have seen our announcement that I was setting one up." She pouts like a child. "That was my idea. Not his. He's not even from around these parts, he only moved here because this is my hometown. Well, Darcy's too. He takes everything from me. Including my New York apartment, our other house we had here in Canada, and my bed." Screwing her face up, she fake gags. "He slept with her in our bed. God, what a fool I was." Her face changes. "Oh God, what if he does open his own talent agency?"

"He'll never be as successful as you. You're the talent."

"And a has been." She drops her chin, which I tilt back up and rest my knuckles under to keep it high.

"Don't ever let me hear you say that. Not ever."

Softening her glazed eyes around the edges, she goofily smiles. "Okay, Mr. Bossy. But I do have some wrinkles under my eyes, so maybe he's right." She pulls the skin of her face downward, making her look like the prettiest Scream mask on planet Earth.

"Stop it." I stare her down and tuck a loose tendril of ebony hair behind her ear again.

Placing my hands on either side of her, I really look at her.

As if I'm seeing her for the first time, pure, fresh faced, and woozy with booze, it blows me away at how gorgeous she is. All natural, she's stop you in your tracks stunning and labeled a supermodel for a reason.

And those eyes; okay they're glazed more than maraschino cherry, and darker than black ink, but I want to dip my quill into them and tattoo her name across my skin.

"Hi," she says, all silly and playful, a complete contrast to her when we are working together. She's gonna be mad at herself in the morning for allowing Michael to make her lose control of her emotions tonight, and for letting me see this other side of her. The one that doesn't look like she's got a stick stuck up her ass. She's usually all business, all the fucking time.

"You're not a has been or an old hag. If you weren't so drunk, I'd kiss you to show you how much I'm attracted to you." She won't remember what I've said in the morning. "Felt something between us earlier."

"That was your penis." She blurts out her words on a giggle.

I shake my head from side to side. "Not what I meant."

"You have nice eyes." Surprising me, I know it's the drinks talking. "Dreamed about them a few times and couldn't stop looking at you in our meeting with Leon this week," she confesses, stuttering in places as she tries to get each syllable out of her mouth.

"Dreamed about them?" I take a shot at pulling more information from her. I'm a sick bastard, I know, but my ego needs a little stroking.

Kali points at them. "They look like magic. I think I could get lost in them and never find my way out."

I would let her climb in and never let her escape. It's what I want more than anything.

"Would you want to leave?"

"No." She leans in as if she's trying to get a better look. "Magic." She sighs, as if in awe. "Might like your face too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you can be a bit of a dick though." Scrunching her nose up, she looks cross. "Wade pain in the ass Collins. That's what Ash calls you. That's my new nickname for you too."

I laugh at her honesty. "Not the first time I've heard that." But I hate being called names. My mother did it to me for most of my life until I cut her out of it.

Tucking her lips into her mouth, she surprises me with another admission. "If you weren't such a dick, I think I'd like to kiss you too." I like knowing this. While alcohol makes me act out, it would appear it's Kali's truth juice.

She yawns wider than a hippo, and I know our moment is done.

My mind is spinning, processing all the things she's just said. Tension works its way into my body, knowing she can never be mine. Not while we are working together.

Plus, she said the age difference was a concern for her.

I don't care in the slightest. But I can't change her mind.

My lips pucker with annoyance at the whole situation, and I run my hand down my face.

"Time for bed." I lift her off the vanity.

My arms around her waist, I guide her as she walks on unsteady feet to my bed.

I watch as she moves onto her side and curls herself into a ball. Tucking the blankets under her chin, she's out cold in minutes and I can't help thinking about how good she looks in my jersey and between the sheets of my bed.

A guy can only dream.

You're too young for me.

Yeah, she's probably right.

Wade ‘pain in my ass' Collins. She's right about that too.

And she's too good for me.

Stay away, Wade. Every woman you've loved has either left you or let you down.

Best to close whatever might be happening between us down now.

Better for everyone in the long run.

Everything always ends in heartbreak for me, anyway.

I need to focus my attention on my career. That's what's important.

And getting my temper under control, learning how to feel good again, playing hockey better than I ever have.

Those are the things that matter.

With a heavy sigh, I turn away, leave the room, and fall asleep on the sofa.