LEXI
Double damn. She hoped that this would be smooth and simple, with none of her actual life coming into it. She was proud of her degrees; had worked her ass off for them, but they were private. Like the gym. And her dating life. Her new boss was certainly asking a lot of questions.
“There’s probably plenty we don’t know about each other, but I don’t see how it’s relevant.”
Although it had been a delicious distraction, she was too full to eat more pizza, which was a pity, she thought, because it would have come in handy right then. She didn’t know what to say. She let out a small breath and straightened up in her chair, meeting his gaze.
“Alessandra? Is that a family name?”
“No,” she said, and faltered. “My mother… was a romantic.”
Grayson sat forward.
“Was?”
Lexi nodded, shifting in her chair. Her left knee was twinging a little where he’d flipped her earlier.
“She passed away when I was little.”
This was always so hard. The few times she’d told anyone about her mother, she hated the pitying looks and awkward questions.
It always felt like sharing about her own life was somehow more upsetting for anyone listening, so she’d stopped. Sticking her leg out onto the coffee table, she readjusted and looked back at Grayson.
“Next question?”
He sat for a long minute, studying her. Grateful she didn’t see pity in his eyes, she didn’t feel the urge to over-explain.
“What about instead of questions, you tell me what you think I need to know, Miss?”
The chair made the occasional squeak as she pushed against the table, rocking. She wanted another few minutes to think about it.
“Do you have an ice pack or two?” she asked.
Grayson nodded and stood, stretching his arms back behind his head and rubbing his shoulder. The movement made the soft black t-shirt mold to his chest and caused his sleeves to ride up over the cut in his biceps.
As he reached towards the ceiling, the edge of his shirt rose just high enough to float up over the waistband of his jeans, revealing a tapered ‘V’ cut around his hips. After he walked away, she let out the breath she’d been holding. Damn, the man was cut.
Thinking of what he might want to know, she waited quietly until he came back. With one ice pack laid on her knee, she lifted the other one to her lip. The swollen edge had been irritating all day, and it didn’t help that she couldn’t stop playing with it.
“I live a neighborhood or so from the gym,” she began, speaking around the ice pack.
He nodded for her to keep going as he took his rocks glass back to the minibar.
“I’m in the gym six or seven days a week. I took self defense lessons for years, and then I joined a dojo back by where my father lives. Technically, I’m a second-degree black belt, but I’m not involved in tournaments anymore. I help referee the occasional tournament, but that’s it.”
Lexi sighed and shifted the ice pack on her knee up to a better spot.
“I went to school at night and used fighting to pay for most of it. I also worked as a waitress for a while. I hated it.”
“Not into customer service?” he asked with a grin.
Lexi snorted. “Not into guys pinching my ass and expecting not to get their meal in their laps.”
Grayson chuckled.
“Please tell me you were never one of those guys,” she asked.
“No. I like to keep my pinching life private.”
She toasted him with her water bottle and realized it was empty.
“Do you mind?”
He stood again, and she was teased with another brief glimpse of skin at his waist as he went to get her another water.
“Keep going,” he urged.
“Oh. Well, I don’t have a favorite color unless you count black.”
“When’s your birthday?” he asked, handing her a fresh bottle.
“June.”
His gaze stayed on her expectantly until she followed up with, “June fifth.”
“A June-bug,” he mused, as he sat back on the couch. Lexi felt the color drain from her face. Memories came rushing back as she sat. The cap of the bottle left ridges in her skin she couldn’t feel as she squeezed.
Her mother standing in their kitchen, asking her June-bug to roll out the cookie dough; helping weed in the garden, and her mother’s laughter at how dirty her little June-bug was. Her heart pounded, and she felt the blood rush from her face so fast it left her lightheaded.
“Please,” she whispered, unable to look at him. “Please don’t say that.”