Page 39 of Playing Dirty
I take a final breath to steady my nerves, smoothing the dress over my hips as I take one last look in the mirror.
The doorbell rings.
Sabrina and I both freeze and lock eyes in the mirror, my pulse hammering against my throat.
"Why do I want to hide under the bed right now?" I hiss frantically.
Sabrina, now looking exactly as panicked as I feel, throws her hands up. "I don't know, maybe because that is our default response to unexpected doorbells. But you have to answer it. You actually have to answer itright nowbefore he thinks no one is home or that we are freaks!"
I let out a shaky breath, grab my bag off the dresser, and head for the door on legs that suddenly do not feel like my own, with Sabrina scurrying after me in her pjs and socks like a tiny moral support animal.
"I think I amactuallybreaking out in hives," she whispers behind my left shoulder. "I hope you appreciate this level of devotion. I am having sympathy nerves on your behalf."
I choke out a nervous laugh and reach for the handle.
Cillian is there, and he is annoyingly, unfairly handsome in a sage green button-down, sleeves rolled to his forearms, the collar open at his throat. The green does something unfair against his tan skin, and a strand of dark hair has fallen loose across his forehead, right above those blue eyes that are currently fixed on me.
Fucking hell.
His eyes widen as they sweep over me, and for a fleeting moment, the cocky, self-assured athlete is nowhere to be found. I scramble to find my voice but my brain has seemingly short-circuited, and he appears just as lost for words.
“Hi, I’m Sabrina!” Sab says from behind me as she darts into the light and shoves her hand out with a bright grin. “I’m Margot’s significantly cooler little sister.”
Cillian blinks, giving his head a slight, disoriented shake. “Oh, right. I’m sorry. It’s nice to meet you, Sabrina.”
"You too, hockey star." Sabrina shakes his hand and steps back.
The spell is broken and I manage a smile.
"Well, I guess we'd better get going,” I say. “I know Carol wants lots of photos for social media, and she’ll probably want me to text her those throughout the night. Oh, thanks for picking me up, by the way."
He smiles. "Of course. I'd be a poor excuse for a gentleman if I let you drive yourself to our first official date."
I laugh, feeling my face goes traitorously warm. "Well, shall we?"
Sabrina crosses her arms, looking him up and down. "Now, you take good care of her, alright? I have very high standards for who I trust with my sister, and I'm keeping a close eye on you."
Cillian throws his head back and laughs. "I like you, Sabrina. You remind me of my little sister Ellie. Very direct, very fierce."
Sabrina raises a brow. "I'm not going to give you brownie points just yet, but I do appreciate a man who understands the importance of a little sister."
Cillian flashes a grin at her, then gestures toward the door. I call a quick goodbye over my shoulder to Sabrina and follow him out into the evening.
The restaurant is one of those high-end, farm-to-table gems in Solstice Ridge. It’s undeniably charming, and since I know the owners personally, I feel a strange sense of being on display—even though the whole town is likely aware this is a work obligation. It doesn’t exactlyfeellike a professional outing, however.
Sitting across from Cillian at a tiny, intimate table is making the world feel uncomfortably small. The drive over was a polite, getting-the-pleasantries-out-of-the-way affair, but now that we are settled, the air at this table has a tension to it.
It doesn't help that my group chat with Sabrina, Isabelle, and Celeste, who has recently been added, has been a non-stop stream of speculation about how the evening is going, what is happening at any given moment, and whether I have been ravished in a coat closet yet.
This whole thing feels so fuckingstrange.
He looks up, his eyes catching mine. "This is a bit strange, isn't it?"
Mind reader, apparently.
"Yeah, a little," I say. "But it's all for the sake of the project. And the social media photos we took so far are great."
"Aye, I'm sure they're marketing gold," he chuckles.
