“Sorry, I think I need coffee for this. Are you saying—”
“No more agreement. Be my girlfriend for real.”
The words started pouring from his mouth faster and faster, and all she could do was press herself tighter against the headboard in an attempt to avoid the dizzying onslaught.
“Let’s not end things. Come and work for us. You’d be the heart of the company. You’d keep us running the way you keep me running. Ineedyou, killer.”
“What? No.” She blurted it out over the pounding of her heart in her chest, jerking away from his grip.
He frowned. “What do you mean, no?”
“I mean,” she said, groping on the nightstand for an elastic to secure her tangled hair into a bun, “that I’ve been awake for five seconds and you’ve just dumped all this on me and I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes.” He reached for her hands again, but she dodged him and folded her arms over her chest.
“Say yes. Just like that.” Her words dripped with skepticism.
“Yes. Just like that.”
He smiled that confident Aiden smile that she usually adored, but today it felt like a trap. That smile was a snare, pulled taut and ready to tangle her up until she couldn’t run away. “What am I saying yes to exactly?”
“To me.” His smile dimmed as he started to notice that she wasn’t falling in line with her new marching orders.
“To… what? Loving you? Working with you? Maybe evenmarryingyou someday?” Her voice rose with each question, getting sharper and higher with each ludicrous suggestion.
“Yes! All of that!” He launched into motion again, and Blue trotted at his heels as he paced, her tongue lolling happily with every mincing step of her little paws. At least one woman in the room was excited by this surprise attack. “It’s so simple when you think about it.”
She laughed a little wildly. “You think all that issimple?”
“Okay, you’re right.” He stopped in his tracks, pressing his thumb to his temple. “I’m not a ‘marry me’ guy, or I didn’t think I was. But”—he moved back to the edge of the bed—“that was before you.”
Her brain was finally lurching fully to life, and with each passing moment, the weight of what he was saying settled heavy on her heart. What was he doing? Why was he doing this?
“No.” She shook her head, wishing she could shake off his words as easily. “This was supposed to be safe. Easy.”
“Easy.” He repeated the word in a flat tone.
Now she was the one up and moving, pacing from the bed to the closet and back again. “This wasn’t supposed to be about feelings, remember? You’re the guy who doesn’t do love. You’re…”
“Easy.” His voice hardened.
Was he taking this personally? “Come on, I don’t mean it like that.”
He stared at her for a long moment, and she watched the hopeful expression on his face fade. “You’re no different than the rest of them. I’m just the guy you fuck.”
That last word, dripping with curdled bitterness, seemed to hang in the air between them for a moment before he bent to collect his clothes from where he’d shed them the night before, and she scrambled to set him straight.
“You’re obviously not just the guy I fuck. You’re…” God, how to explain it? “You’ve been this unobtainableideafor so long, so you were safe for me to fantasize about. But you weren’t supposed to… toloveme.”
“And you want me to apologize for that?” He was shouting now, startling her with such an out-of-character outburst.
“Yes!” she sputtered.
“Right. Because I’measy.”
She watched him jam his legs into his shorts and yank his shirt over his head, getting madder the whole time. He was changing the rules and expecting her to jump in with no questions asked when he knew—he knew—about her commitment issues and exactly why she had them.
“Come on, you weren’t being choosy. I was just the person standing closest to you when you needed a fake girlfriend, and you tossed me into the middle of your life. We’ve never even gone on a date! This isn’t love—it’s convenience.”
