Every emotion I’d spent the day trying to shove into tidy little compartments came roaring back in full force. I was angry, hurt, confused.
Scared.
Scared of how intense my feelings were. Scared of how easily he slipped past every boundary I’d spent years learning how to build.
I didn’t know what to make of the last twenty-four hours of my life.
Of the man standing in front of me.
I stood slowly, not quite meeting his eyes.
“Can I help you?” I asked, my voice clipped and tired and far colder than I intended. If he didn’t already know I was still upset about the night before, he knew it now.
And I didn't care.
Because I wasn’t ready. Not to hear what he had to say. And definitely not tofeelwhat I was already feeling just standing this close to him.
“I’m here for my appointment.”
“What appointment?”
“The one I booked earlier this morning.”
“The one you… you really want to… are youkidding?”I blinked. “You seriously made another appointment with me?”
“Yes.”
I looked at the clock on the wall. “For one-thirty?”
“Yes.”
A moment stretched between us.
Theo walked by, glancing in our direction.
Damn, damn, damn...
“Well.” I was shook. Thrown. Knocked off my game. But here he was… “I guess if you have an appointment… Come on in, then.”
My jaw clenched as I walked to my desk. The door clicked closed behind me. I lowered into my chair, my back as stiff as a rod. I truly never expected to see him again. I’d never gotten into an argument with a client before. I didn’t know how to navigate this.
Phoenix took his spot on the couch and was rolling one of my vesuvianite stones between his fingers, per usual.
We stared at each other for what seemed like two lifetimes, the weight in the room suddenly suffocating, closing in on me with a dead body, the argument, the undeniable attraction between us. Pandora’s box had been opened, and no matter how much I tried to pretend it wasn’t the case, me and Phoenix’s professional relationship had morphed into something else. Something that sent me lopsided and scared the crap out of me. The man was unpredictable, a loose cannon.“No good.”He was everything I’d spent the last twenty years trying to avoid.
Yet there he was, staring at me with those baby blue eyes, pushing his way into my life, expecting another dog and pony show of me trying to heal what was broken while he fought me every inch of the way.
I inhaled.
“You can’t talk to me like you did last night, Phoenix. Ever again. I won’t accept it. I won’t put up with it. Do you understand me?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
I blinked.
I’m sorry?
The words lingered. I expected him to backtrack, or maybe pass out right there on my floor from the admission that he had done something wrong. He didn’t, so I continued.
