The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 70

After bundling herself into a too-large promotional Foxes jacket and struggling with the laces on her skates for longer than she'd like to admit, Kat and Jove were standing in the stadium seating at the edge of one of the rink's open gates, Kat inspecting the ice suspiciously.

She'd been skating before, class trips and once with the Protgolios', but she hadn't been in ages and felt wary on her feet. She was gripping Jove's arms with a vice-like tightness, unwilling to let him go and determined, despite her lack of skating skill, to get through the day without falling.

She looked up to see Jove looking down at her.

"What?" he asked. "You can skate, right?

She nodded confidently, hoping her eyes didn't betray her dishonesty.

He laughed.

"It's ok, you need help? You can tell me if you need help, Kat."

She felt a light flush rise to her ears but shook her head with determination.

"I can skate," she repeated insistently.

"Alright," said Jove, and suddenly he was gone, across the ice in a flash that whipped back faster than Kat could think, then she could realize.

He was nearly flying across the ice, his lean, muscular body looking even more powerful as he expertly propelled himself, pumping his arms athletically as if out for a run. He raced to the opposite wall, spun quickly to reverse his direction, then cut a quick figure eight pattern through the centers of the rink, his feet moving as quickly as they were precise. He spun again, turning backwards this time, and traversed the entire width of the rink once more, this time flying in reverse with little more than a glance over his shoulder nearly as quickly as he flown forward.

Kat was watching with her jaw dropped, unable to close her mouth in her amazement and attraction. She'd assumed he'd be good, he was good at everything he did, but this was next level. She'd never seen anyone, even professionals, do what he did.

He turned as if confirming she was still watching him and smiled at her, then tucked his chin and began to skate towards her so quickly she screamed at his approach, her fear of a collision turning to laughter as he reached her and stopped himself with a flourish, turning so that the blades of his skates kicked up a flurry of ice that settled on her face and in her hair.

"Hey," she protested, giggling and reaching for him without thinking. "I thought you were gonna hit me."

Jove smiled breathlessly.

"Don't worry," he said, accepting the hands she offered and pulling her closer. "You know I'm in control. C'mon."

With her hand tucked firmly in his they made their way back onto the ice, Jove allowing Kat to sink her full body weight into his bent elbow as she found her footing.

"Where'd you learn to skate like that?" Kat asked as they began a slow, methodological slide around the perimeter of the rink, Kat tensing her core muscles in a vehement, and so far successful, attempt to stay upright.

"You know I played hockey."

"Yea, but you were skating like an olympian."

He laughed.

"I was good at hockey."

"You always have to do the most," Kat teased. "You can't just be rich, you have to be one of the richest men on the planet, you can't just like skating, you have to have a private rink where the Foxes play and skate like you're in an olympic trial."

"Well, what about you?" asked Jove, glancing down at her. "You don't do the most? You're a first generation college student, your first job out of college is a big deal, you're making good money. You're 'the most' is more impressive than mine."

Kat rolled her eyes.

"How so?"

Jove shrugged.

"I started with a lot. It's easy to do the most when you already have it, when all you need to do is tap into it. When you have to bring that into your life, navigate it in its newness, and still accomplish what you needed to? I'm not sure I could do that."

They were still sliding in slow loops around the rink, Jove leading the charge, but Kat reached for the wall, stopping them both and causing Jove to swivel to face her.

"Jove, you could do that," she said earnestly. "You could."

He smiled at her but raised an eyebrow at her sudden seriousness.

"Thanks Kat," he replied.

"No, I'm serious," she insisted. "You've said a lot of stuff like that before, while we've been working on the speech and stuff. Like you couldn't have made a name for yourself or accomplished anything if your dad wasn't already rich, but it's just not true."

Jove laughed.

"Jove, I'm serious!" Kat repeated with more emphasis. "I'm serious. You think of yourself as incapable of living outside of your father's shadow but you can, you should. You could've-"

Kat's heart began to pound, realizing she was slipping into uncharted territories, unknown waters with unknown dangers lurking beneath.

"You could've made a name for yourself all on your own. It's not your dad, it's you. And you still can. You can decide to have different goals and priorities, you can decide that success looks like something else, that growth looks like something else."

A half smile was still on Jove's face and he searched her eyes with knitted brows.

"Thank you?" he said, confusion evident in his tone.

"I'm just saying," Kat continued, suddenly desperate to communicate her point without exposing herself. "You know. Maybe winning and being the best, maybe it isn't how your dad defined it or how the world defines it. Maybe it's about how you define it, and what's important to you."

"Kat, I really don't know what you're getting at here," he began.

"Your grandma," she interrupted.

He stared at her, waiting for her to continue.

Kat took a deep breath.

"Your grandma. You said she really really cared about the environment and what was good and bad for the environment and that was the most important thing to her, right?"

Jove nodded.

"Well," Kat faltered a bit. "Well, yea. It is. It is the most important thing. I mean, it's the only thing we have. And it's not even ours, we're borrowing it. And we're supposed to be sharing it, and we're just," her eyes were now locked on her skates in fear of his reaction, insteading studying the metal prongs into which her laces were nestled. "We're just treating it badly. Destroying it. For money. And maybe that's not what you want, maybe you care more about other stuff, like she did." Kat swallowed hard. "And like I do."

Kat snuck a glance at him to see Jove was staring at her now, the unreadable expression back on his face and all traces of his trademark smirk fallen from his lips. She realized how close they were standing in the moment, how the now familiar scent of his musk was enveloping her senses in the way it always did when she found herself in this kind of proximity with him.

She couldn't believe what she'd said, hadn't planned it, hadn't even been aware she'd had the courage to speak those words. Jove was still staring at her in silence and she gripped the wall more tightly, feeling an icy chill she couldn't attribute to their location.