Page 13 of The Replay

I sputter. "He's asking for alimony?!"

That gets her bashful. She glances behind my back. It might be a way to avoid having to give me her eyes. She doesn't want me to read into them.

"He's not getting any," she says. "Prenup. Lawyers. It's fine."

"Wow. What a guy."

She purses her lips. "I see you haven't looked up details about my divorce. Thanks, I think."

"I didn't look you up after that email arrived in my inbox."

The way she smiled in that picture seemed genuine enough. I thought it meant she was happy, and I let her go one last time.

Then I started dating in earnest, hoping I'd forget. I've dated a hundred women since. It didn't work very well, but it won't help to stop altogether. I really should start again. I will, as soon as a new championship is guaranteed.

She stares at the floor. "I did not send you that."

"I believe you. It was probably your mom."

"Probably. She thought she was protecting me, I think. I… I didn't handle your call very well."

"Protecting you, or your marriage to a royal? And he's fighting you for alimony now?"

"Look. You're right. Okay? You're right." She fists her hands at her hips. "I didn't know my dad talked to you, but I bet he thought he was protecting me too. Just like my mom. They had big hopes for me and they were helping in their own way."

"Oh, please," I start, but she talks over me.

"And I don't like it! They were wrong. I was wrong. I've made a hundred mistakes since. I'm trying to fix them. Why do you think I came here? With Cora and away from them for a year? Because I have big plans to focus on me and my career and if anyone has any problems with that or the fact I want to date fifty men post-divorce—"

"What?!" I lift my hands in a confused gesture.

It's a mix ofplease stop, with a dose ofwhat are you saying, and plenty ofI don't need to hear this.

"I'd rather not hear about any of it," I say before I can think twice about it. "Especially not your kinky dreams about fifty men."

But that's not really what Mariana was talking about. Her crestfallen face tells me exactly how far I took my comment, and how bad of an idea it was.

Chapter 6

Mariana

My blood pressure drops so fast I become lightheaded. His comment is an unnecessary jab… but it succeeds anyway.

"Wow, Dom. When did you become such a dick?"

His lips pinch. "I can backtrack that. Foot in my mouth syndrome. Can't seem to hold my tongue around you and I apologize. But it doesn't change the fact that I didn't need to know your plans."

I square my shoulders, and stare at Dom from under the ridge of my eyebrows. "I spent too long hiding my true thoughts and acting as if I belonged among the nobility to regret what I said, so you'll have to deal with that, I'm afraid. If I'm here in this room with you right now, it's because I hoped you'd agree not to talk to your friends about me. That you wouldn't interfere with the life I'm trying to make for myself."

His face hardens. That mouth I used to love kissing, once upon a time, pulls down at the corners. He takes a minimal step forward, but it brings him much closer. With his hands on his hips, his chest ends up a couple inches from my chin. It forces me to bend my head higher.

"If you want my friends to be honest with you, tell them." His voice is low and growly. "If you want to know what they're thinking, ask them. I'm not going to be a mediator."

"I'm not asking you to be a mediator." I dig my fingertips into my hips. "This job matters to me. If I'm going to fit with the Strike and reach my goals, I need to fit in with them, and I have to find a way to be cool with you, too."

I need the room. The hint of peace. So I can find who I am beneath the performance. So I can learn to distinguish what I want from what I believe I must do, and make choices I can be proud of. So I can focus on the next point in my to-do list. And the next, and the next.

"I never planned for us to be cool," he says. "We need to be nothing."