“This house is perfection, Jagger.” I ran my hand along the plush bedding and made my way closer to the door. My pulse picked up when he didn’t move. “Can I ask you something?”
His smile was lazy. “You just did.”
I tilted my head and took a tentative step closer. “What made you come out here this weekend?”
Jagger pursed his lips. “You should probably get back home so Edmund doesn’t worry.”
“Edmund’s sound asleep.”
Jagger still hadn’t moved from the doorway, so I took another step closer.
He cleared his throat. “It’s late.”
“You always do that,” I said. “Ignore my question when it’s one you don’t want to answer.”
“What would you like me to do? There are some things that shouldn’t be said.”
Another step. We were maybe a foot and a half apart now.
“Why shouldn’t they be said?”
His eyes dropped to my lips and stayed there as he spoke. “Because they’re highly fucking inappropriate.”
I took another step, a baby one this time. Only a foot separated us.
“Did you come out to Montauk because I was going to be here this weekend?”
“It doesn’t matter if I did.”
“It does to me.”
Another baby step. Six inches now. The air around us crackled. His breathing picked up, and I could feel it tickle my skin. Instead of making me nervous, it invigorated me. “Answer the question.”
He stared at me while I wondered if I should take the last step. I was just about to do it when he closed his eyes. “You should go home, Sutton.” His voice was stern, cold, and detached.
I took an immediate step back. Had I been misreading his desire? I suddenly felt like a troll rather than the temptress I’d thought I was just a minute ago. Heat crept up to my face. “Okay.”
“I’m going to use the bathroom.” Jagger stepped away from the doorway to let me out. “I’ll meet you downstairs and walk you out in a minute.”
My heart felt heavy as I returned to the living room. I thought about leaving before he came back, but that would only make me look like a petulant child. Instead, I took a seat on the living room sectional and forced myself to wait to say goodbye. Staring down at his piles of work papers, I felt so damn foolish, and I wasn’t really seeing anything—at least until some pages ripped from a yellow legal pad caught my eye. They were sticking out sideways underneath a stack of clipped-together papers, and I recognized the computation since I’d worked through it myself just yesterday. I bent and slipped the pages out.
At the top, a number was written above the margin and circled. The answer—therightanswer.
Did Jagger work through the rest of the problem after we left the conference room? For some inexplicable reason, I knew he hadn’t.
I scanned the pages, eyeing rows and rows of computations. There were at least a dozen sheets ofpaper filled, and from what I could see at a quick glance, they were all right. I reached the last page just as Jagger returned to the living room. He looked at my hands before his eyes met mine.
“You let me win?” I asked.
He looked conflicted. So I asked a different question.
“Whydid you let me win?”
“I figured it would help your confidence. Plus, I didn’t finish that much faster than you.”
“You even offered me a prize after I supposedly won—why add that to the mix?”
He met my eyes again. “I wanted to see what you’d ask for.”
