“You spent weeks hating me and then out of nowhere, you show up on my doorstep offering me a truce. What am I supposed tothink?”
He clenched his hand around the fabric, then discarded my dress on the bed. “You were supposed to see how I was trying to do better, Georgina.Bebetter.”
“Maybe. Or maybe you figured sex was one sure way to guarantee I’d never take yourjob.”
“What thefuck,” he said slowly, “does thatmean?”
“You knew what last night would mean to me. I’m not saying it didn’t mean the same to you, but . . .” Unexpectedly, my throat thickened.Intimacy. The problem with getting it meant it could be taken away. “How do I know there wasn’t a part of you that recognized you could use my ‘kindness’ againstme?”
“That’s not goddamn fair.” He fisted his hair. “I’d never do that, and you knowit.”
“Idon’tknow it. I thought I did once, and I was wrong. I won’t make those same mistakesagain.”
His gaze darkened. “You’re going to compare me to your piece-of-shit ex after everything you told me yesterday? Don’t evengothere.” He inhaled, his nostrils flaring though he seemed to try to calm himself. “I’m not trying to bend your will in my favor,” he said deliberately. “I’m just stating the facts—this is my job. Mylife. I wouldn’t give it up to anyone without a fight, and I certainly wouldn’t get into a relationship with that person. Wouldyou?”
“Would I? Here’s what I would do.” I clutched the sheet at my hip with one hand, held up a finger, and counted off. “Spend nearly two months trying to save the job of a man who hates me. Invite him to my home. Introduce him to my dog. Spend my Sunday falling for him. Turn down a great opportunity and a salary I could really use. All for him, when he clearly wouldn’t even give me a secondthought.”
“Nowhere in there did I hear that you actually want thejob.”
“I don’t,” I cried. “I don’t want it. I’m not going to take it, but you never even gave me the chance to saythat.”
He stared at me, his shoulders loosening along with his fists. We held each other’s gazes, something sizzling between us. The light of day only served to remind me how that chemistry could be as dangerous as it wassweet.
“Then we don’t have a problem,” hesaid.
“Oh, we have a problem,” I threw back at him. “I told you togo.”
“Look,” he said, stepping toward me. “This doesn’t need to come between us. I like you, Georgina. I haven’t said that to someone and meant it in . . . I don’t even know howlong.”
I shook my head. “If that were true, you would’ve considered me the way I did you. Instead, you assumed I’d automatically back down to give you what youwant.”
“If I assumed anything,” he said gently, “it was that you’d do the right thing, which doesn’t make you a doormat. It makes you a goodperson.”
“It makes me a sucker. What if taking the jobwasthe right thing—just not for you? What then?” My face heated as I recalled that I’d been standing in the same spot when Neal had told me he never should’ve left me for a “stronger” woman—one who hadn’t put up with his shit for more than a couple months. “You were so sure I’d do what’s best for you, you never once stopped to consider if it’s best for me. I’m sorry, but I’m not doing thisagain.”
“What are you saying?” heasked.
I couldn’t say it, so I showed him instead. I went into my bathroom and slammed the door on him. Onus. I turned on the faucet to brush my teeth, but instead stared at myself in themirror.
After a moment, he knocked. “Georgina.”
We’re over. Done. I tried to get myself to say the things I should’ve said to Neal a million times. “Pleasego.”
“No. We’re not done talking aboutthis.”
I didn’twanthim to go. Iwantedhim to be the man for me, but how could I ignore the warning signs after wasting years of my life already? My confidence had only just begun to recover. It would be so easy to open the door and continue getting to know Sebastian as something other than a rival. But would I look back one day and wonder how I could’ve made the same mistaketwice?
If he kept pressing, I worried I’d give in, so I took a deep breath and opened the door just enough to face him. “We’re professionals, so I trust we can finish out my time there inpeace.”
Hurt flashed in his eyes. “You can’t beserious.”
“I’ll see you at work,” I said. I closed the bathroom door, leaned back against it, and took deep breaths to attempt to slow my pounding heart. If this was how it felt to be a bitch, I wasn’t sure I liked it, but I either had to choose myself or lose myself. When there was no more hate, only love, where was theline?
And had I just crossedit?
23
Sebastian
