ХеленКей Даймон – Reunion With Benefits (страница 3)

“As uncomfortable as this conversation?”

For some reason, the response knocked the wind right out of him. He almost smiled, but managed to beat it back at the last minute. “Look, we’re going to need to get along.”

She shrugged. “Why?”

Man, she had not changed one bit. “Why?”

“You’ve been back for three weeks and we’ve successfully avoided each other. I say we keep doing that.”

She sounded aloof and unaffected, but he could see her white-knuckle grip on the files. Much tighter and she’d cut off circulation to her fingers. In fact, this close he saw everything. The flecks of gold around the outside of her eyes. The slight tremor in her hands.

He could smell her, that heady mix of ginger and something sweet. It was her shampoo and it floated to him now.

He inhaled, trying to calm the heartbeat pounding in his ears. “Now who’s running?”

“Do you really want to have this conversation? Because we can.” She took one more step. The move left little more than a whisper of air between them. “I’m not the one who saw something, misinterpreted it and then threw the mother of all hissy fits.”

The air in the room closed in around him. He could actually feel it press against his back. “Misinterpreted?”

“You’re offended by my word choice?”

“You were kissing my father!” He shouted the accusation loud enough to make the walls shake.

A sharp silence descended on them right after. In the quiet, she retreated both physically and emotionally. The air seemed to seep right out of her.

“That’s what you think you saw.” Not a question. Not really even a statement. She said the words and let them sit there.

The adrenaline shooting through him refused to ease off. “Hell, yes!”

“You can let yourself out.” She walked around him and headed for the door.

“Hey.” His hand brushed against her arm. He dropped it again when she glared at him. “Fine. No touching.”

“None.” Which sounded like not ever.

Regret plowed into him. He came here for them to talk this out. He’d gone into the computer and looked up her schedule. Came here unannounced, thinking he’d have the upper hand.

“I want us to be civil toward each other,” he said as he struggled to bring his voice back under control.

She shook her head. “No.”

“What?” He’d been the one to offer the olive branch. He hadn’t insisted on an apology or that she take responsibility. But she still came out swinging and didn’t stop.

“You lied to me,” she said in a voice growing stronger with each word.

For a second, his brain misfired. He couldn’t think of a response. “When?”

“You let me believe you weren’t that guy, but you are. Rich, entitled, ready to bolt, tied to his daddy and desperate for approval.” She counted out his perceived sins on her fingers.

That fast his temper skyrocketed again. Heat flushed through him “That’s enough.”

“The suggestion still stands. We ignore each other.”

“Does that mean you’re going to leave every room I enter? Get off projects I’m overseeing?”

She shrugged. “That all works for me.”

No, he was not going to be pushed into a corner. He was the boss. He wasn’t the one who screwed everything up.

He pointed at her. “You did this to us.”

Her mouth dropped open. For a second, she didn’t say anything, and then she clenched her teeth together. “You’re unbelievable.”

She slipped by him a second time. Got the whole way to the doorway.

“Stop trying to storm off, and talk to me.” He didn’t try to grab her but he did want to.

She was absolutely infuriating. Every word she said pushed him until the frustration mixed with the attraction and it all pounded in his head.

“Okay.” She whipped around and faced him again. “You want me to talk, try this. You’re no better than your father.”

The words sliced through him. Ripped right through the layers of clothing and skin.

“I guess you should be the one to compare us since you kissed both of us.” When she just stood there, staring at him, he wanted to lash out even harder. “What, no comeback?”

“Stay out of my way.”

“Or?”

“Don’t push me, Spence. Other people might be afraid of you or want to impress you, but I know better.” She shook her head. “What you need is for someone to kick your butt. Keep talking and I will.”

Two

Everything was weird now. For the last few weeks, Abby didn’t think twice about heading over to Ellie’s house on the tree-lined street in Georgetown for a visit. She lived with and was engaged to Derrick Jameson and their high-risk pregnancy had people at work, their friends—everyone—on edge.

Derrick was Spence’s older brother, and Spence was the nightmare that just wouldn’t go away, so Abby was torn. Being friends with someone tied that closely to the man who broke her heart promised more pain. That was the last thing Abby needed.

Ellie and Abby met by accident, really. Someone wrongly suggested Abby and Derrick were having a “thing” and Ellie stopped by Abby’s office to apologize for getting her dragged into their personal business and someone else’s vendetta. Abby still didn’t understand what happened, but she was grateful for the warning and the show of trust from Ellie, a woman who didn’t know her at all at that point. That was three weeks ago and they’d been friends since.

Trust was more than she ever got from Spence, the man she’d planned to date, sleep with, before he stormed off refusing to listen to her months ago. The awful day played out so clearly on a loop in her head.

Panic and frustration whirled together in her mind. “It’s not what you think.”

“I have eyes, Abby.” And that furious gaze switched back and forth between her and his father...and his hand on her waist. The noise rumbling out of Spence almost sounded like a snarl. “You want the top of the Jameson food chain? He’s all yours. Good luck.”

She tried to follow him but Eldrick held on. “Spence, wait—”

“I told you.” Eldrick smiled down at her as she yanked her arm out of his grip. “You’re going after the wrong Jameson.”

“I’m so happy you came...” Ellie’s smile fell as she talked. “What happened?”

The memory blinked out at the sound of Ellie’s voice. Abby snapped back into reality as she stood in the doorway to Ellie and Derrick’s bedroom, holding a box of brownies from that place in Foggy Bottom that Ellie had raved about a few days before.

Abby had no idea what conversation she missed as her mind wandered, but both Derrick and Ellie stared at her. Ellie was cuddled up in a blanket in the center of the gigantic never-seen-a-king-size-bed-that-big bed with pillows tucked around her body and the television remote control in her hand. Derrick, still wearing his dress pants and button-down shirt, sat next to her. Not on top of her, but close enough for the intimacy, the closeness, to flow around them. His only nod to being home and not at work came in the removal of his tie. It lay over the armrest of the overstuffed chair by the bed.

“Nothing.” That seemed like a reasonable response to most things, so Abby went with that as her answer.

“Huh.” Ellie made a face. “You look furious.”

Derrick let out a long breath. “So, Spence.”

“Definitely Spence,” Ellie said with a nod.

Well, they weren’t wrong. Derrick and Spence were brothers and her bosses. But still. “I don’t know how you two are related.”

“We’re actually a lot alike.” Derrick smiled at first but when Abby stood there, not moving, Derrick bit his bottom lip. “But I can see that’s the wrong answer.”

“Did something happen?” Ellie patted an empty space on the bed, inviting Abby farther into the room to take a seat.

Seeing the two of them, with Derrick’s arm resting on the pillows behind Ellie and his fingers slipping into her hair and massaging her neck, struck Abby with the force of a slap. A pang of something...jealousy, regret, longing...moved through her. She couldn’t identify the feeling or grab on to it long enough to assess it. But the idea that she was interrupting did crash on top of her.

She was about to drop the brownies and run when she saw both of their faces. The concern. Derrick was the big boss and he deserved to know Spence hadn’t really done anything wrong. This time.

She shook her head. “Nothing, really. He walked onto my job site unannounced.”

Derrick winced. “Yeah, about that.”

Ellie’s head slowly turned and she pinned Derrick with a you’re-in-trouble glare. “What did you do?”