Devastated (Anger Management, #1)(25)

“I’ll wait until you lose again,” she said innocently, which had him mumbling something under his breath as he walked back to the table, picked up the deck of cards and dealt the next hand with a glare that said it all.

When he lost that hand, he narrowed his eyes on her, took another sip and bit out, “I’m good at what I do.”

“I see,” she said, nodding before pointing out with a smile, “But, that wasn’t my question,” because she simply couldn’t help herself.

When he released what sounded suspiciously like a growl, she decided that perhaps it was time to move on and asked, “So, how did you end up on house arrest?”

“I fucked up,” Hunter said, dealing out the next hand.

“What happened?” she asked, checking her card.

“An asshole took a swing at me and I swung back,” he said with a shrug as though it was no big deal, but something told her there was more to the story.

“I see,” Kylie said, gesturing for another card and-

“Damn it!” her boss, who she’d like to point out was a sore loser, snapped when he lost the next hand.

“Oh, did I win again?” Kylie asked, blinking innocently and taking a great deal of pleasure in his glare as Hunter picked up his glass and took a sip.

“Just ask your damn question,” Hunter bit out.

“I’m running out of questions,” Kylie said with a shrug that had his eyes narrowing on her and his fingers drumming against the table.

“I’m sure you can think of something,” he drawled, and although she really could think of a few questions that she’d like to ask, mostly relating to those sexually explicit emails that she read every morning, they weren’t exactly workplace appropriate.

She should also probably let him win, but since that would only end badly for her, she decided that it was probably for the best if she continued to take advantage of the fact that he kept giving his hand away. Instead, she picked up her water and took a sip, hoping to buy herself a little more time as she tried to think of a harmless question to help kill time until he grew bored of losing and-

“Why don’t we play a different game?” he suggested, and before she could answer, he’d shuffled the deck and placed it in the middle of the table. “High card wins.”

He cut the deck in half and held up a card, “King of hearts,” and just like that, she knew that things were about to take a turn for the worse.

---

“Was I ever married?” Kylie asked because that’s what she did whenever he asked her a question that she didn’t want to answer.

She also cleared her throat, shifted uncomfortably in her seat, took another small sip of her drink, cleared her throat again before finally worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried to figure out how to answer him without giving away too much. Then, she would purse up her lips adorably, let her shoulders slump, and…

“Yes,” she finally admitted.

“That’s all you’re going to give me?” Hunter drawled, watching as she continued worrying her bottom lip, drawing his attention to the plump pink lip that she was abusing and making him wonder just how soft it was.

“Yes, yes, it is,” Kylie said, making his lips twitch.

“I see,” Hunter said, cutting the deck and held up the queen of diamonds.

Sighing, she reached over and-

“Damn,” she mumbled, as she turned over a three of spades.

“How did it end?”

“In divorce,” she said, reminding him that beneath that perfect assistant fa?ade was a little smart ass that was dying to get out.

“What happened?” he asked, watching as she went through the motions again before she said, “It just didn’t work out,” taking a sip of her drink and mumbling, “This is yummy,” making his lips twitch.

“Come on, Miss Mathews, there has to be more to it than that,” he said, having absolutely no idea why it bothered him that she wouldn’t tell him, but it did.

“He wasn’t who I thought he was,” Kylie said with a shrug as she picked up the deck of cards and shuffled them.

“Who did you think he was?” Hunter asked, watching as she placed the deck of cards back on the table.

“Someone else,” she said, as he reached over and cut the deck to reveal a ten of spades.

“And who did he turn out to be?” Hunter asked, as he watched her cut the deck only to sigh heavily as she placed the cards back on the deck, picked up her drink, and took a sip.

“Someone who didn’t want me,” Kylie said with a small shrug like it didn’t matter, but the look in her eye told him just how much it hurt her and for some reason that pissed him off.

He didn’t like the idea of her with the kind of asshole who bragged about fucking hookers and trashed her every chance he got. He also didn’t like the idea of her being in love with any guy that could treat her like shit and he sure as hell didn’t like the fact that just the idea of her still being in love with that piece of shit bothered him.

She was just his assistant and a temporary one at that. In less than a year, she would be gone and this whole thing would be nothing more than another bad memory, but even knowing that didn’t stop him from asking, “Are you still in love with him?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head slowly with a heavy sigh as she reached for the cards and began shuffling them.