I unfold my arms and place them in my lap.
He’s not wrong.
If it were anyone but Jax, I would be selling this project to them, trying to win them over.
Can I ignore the fact that it’s him?
“You’re right,” I say, watching for any smugness. Credit to him, his expression remains impassive. “I’m not going to blow smoke up your arse. As you said, Caleb stitched us both up, me especially with the board. I can’t back out, not without serious consequences. I’ve worked too hard to get this project through to walk away now, and I’m not prepared to go back to the drawing board.” I lift my chin and square my shoulders. “But let me make myselfveryclear. I don’t trust you. I want to sign off on everything. Do you understand?Everything.This ismyproject.”
“Crystal,” he says, sending a flush of adrenaline tingling through my body. “But remember, Kat. My reputation and that of my firm are at stake here, too. I will not let you do anything to damage that. DoImakemyselfclear?”
Our eyes clash.
“Crystal,” I say, repeating his word back at him.
“Good, then I think we have a deal.”
He swallows the rest of his coffee. When he puts down the cup, he holds out a hand.
Our hands meet, his head lifts, his eyebrows drawing down, as if he’s trying to read me.
I school my features, ignoring the sparks shooting up my arm and into my chest.
His lips curl up, and I swallow a snarl.
He withdraws his hand, and it’s then I realise we were all but holding hands.
Ahhhhhhh! That man!
“Did you receive my answers to the list of questions you sent over?”
Jaxson looks at me, a frown marring his brow.
“No, I…” He picks up his phone and begins scrolling through his emails. I sit back and wait.
Jaxson looks up, startled. “Two-thirty this morning?”
“I wanted to send them over before I left. Did you think I wouldn’t look at them?”
He taps his screen and opens the document on his phone. All fifty pages of it. I may have gone a little overboard with some of my answers.
I’d spent every free moment of the weekend going over them. They were good questions, well thought out. Had got my creative juices flowing, as they say.
“In all honesty, I wasn’t sure,” he admits, his eyes scanning the document. “This is detailed,” he adds, sounding surprised.
“As I said before. I need this project to be a success. I don’t want any additional delays.”
Jaxson’s eyes meet mine.
“When you refused to see me. I assumed,” he runs a hand through his hair. “That you were stonewalling me. I apologise.”
I bite the inside of my cheek.Not entirely incorrectly, but I don’t tell him that.
“I do run a company. Being out of the country means meetings had to be brought forward.”
“Touché.”
I grip my pendant in my hand. A gift from Mum and Dad for my twenty-first. The boys got watches, we girls each got a necklace.
