“Please tell me you didn’t.” His voice dropped low. “Alex, what did you do?”
“The only thing I could do.” She swallowed hard with a jut of her chin. “I told him yes.”
CHAPTER FOUR
“Over my dead body.” Coulter fumed as he stared back at Alex. “Call him back right now and tell him you’ve changed your mind.”
“No.”
“No?” His blue eyes blinked with surprise. “You can’t just say no, Alex.”
“And yet, I’m pretty sure I just did.”
He pressed his lips together as he fought the urge to growl while also forcing his gaze to remain locked with her defiant eyes. She was standing feet away in an adorable cotton pants and semi-cropped, boxy t-shirt pajama set, and it was obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra.
The woman had no idea how incredibly tempting she looked, which only added to her magnetic appeal. But since nothing was ever going to happen between them, especially now that Alex knew the truth, Coulter kept his eyes up and his focus homed in on the most important matter at hand.
“Alex, I’m serious.” He needed her to understandjust how much. “You know the kind of man Crawford is.”
She nodded with a look of disgust. “I do now, which is exactly why Ican’tcancel. I don’t want him even suspecting that I know anything about the other.”
“He won’t.”
“He will.” Alex sounded quite confident of that before she went on to explain. “Think about it, Colt. Two hours ago, I was basically fangirling all over the guy, especially after he suggested the possibility of showcasing my paintings. He knows what it would mean to have his name backing my work. If I pull a complete one-eighty out of the blue, he’ll wonder why, and that will lead to questions neither one of us want to answer.”
“So the decision to have dinner with him tomorrow night is about protecting me, is that it?”
“I’m trying to protect us both. Trust me, the last thing I want is to have to sit at a table with that slimeball and pretend I’m ever-so-lucky to be in his presence. But he was pushing, and I’ve had a really long, very bizarre night so I caved, okay? Not to mention, my professional reputation is on the line. But it’s just dinner. One meal. I’ll listen to his ideas about my paintings, make it sound as though I’m still honored by the chance to work with him, but then I’ll tell him I need to check my calendar for a good time to meet up again later. We’ll say goodnight, and I’ll fly back to Charlotte the following morning.”
“And when he calls you again after you’re home?” Coulter challenged. “What excuse will you give him then? Because the bastard will follow-up with you, Alex.You said it yourself; he knows the kind of opportunity he’s proposing. And once Crawford sees something he wants?—”
“He doesn’t give up,” Alex finished for him. “I know, but it’ll be fine. I’ll just . . . ghost him or something.” She shrugged. “I’ll start avoiding his calls and get ‘too busy’ to return his messages. Eventually he’ll move on to the next shiny, new thing and forget all about me.”
“And you don’t thinkghostinghim will raise the guy’s suspicions?”
“I’m sure it will, but I was kind of hoping that, by then, you and your team of spooks would have put him behind bars. Come on, Colt. I mean . . . what else do you want me to say? Would you rather I cut him off completely now, or stay in contact with him until I go back to Charlotte? You’re the super-secret spy, so you tell me. What exactly is it you want me to do?”
“Well, for starters, I want you to have never agreed to have dinner with the son of a bitch.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a little late for that now,” she bit back. Half-a-second later, a large yawn struck. Alex covered her mouth and waited to start talking again. “It’s late, Colt. And much as I’m dreading spending even a second in that disgusting pig’s presence, I don’t see that I have much choice. So we can either stand here and keep doing this back-and-forth bit until one of us crashes, or you can let me get some sleep. Oh, and if you wake up in the morning to find me gone, don’t freak out. I have to go shopping.
“Shopping?”
“Chez Martine, remember? I assumed I’d be going home tomorrow, so I only packed one dress.”
“And no self-respecting woman would be caught dead wearing the same dress two nights in a row, right?”
“What do you think?” Alex sent him a pointed brow.
Coulter stared back at the stubborn woman knowing she was right. Not about the dress. Well, that, too, he supposed. But she was also right about following through with her plans to have dinner with Crawford.
Shit.
Dammit.
Shit, shit, shit.
He hated it when she was right. Actually that wasn’t true. Her record for besting him at family gathering debates was impressive by anyone’s standards. But this was the one instance when Coulter needed her to be wrong.
