Page 89 of Saved By the CEO

“I think I broke about a dozen traffic laws driving to the hospital. And then there you were, dying.” His face hardens. “I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I never want to again, which is why I’m here now.” He looks me straight in the eyes. “This can’t happen again.”

The guilt and shame feel like a heavy weight on my shoulders, pressing me down into the chair. “It won’t. I promise.”

“But how can I know that, Carly?” If I didn’t know better, I’d say he looks pleading. “How can I know that you’re not just saying that?” He pauses. “I understand that I’ve crossed a line, and if you feel unsafe with?—”

“No,” I yell, and stand up so fast my chair scrapes against the floor. “Oh my god, Andrew, is that what you think?”

I drag a hand over my face, then remember the hood and stop before I accidentally reveal the Pepper.

“You think I’m scared of you?” I ask.

His expression doesn’t clear.

Fantastic.

Now I have to explain.

I take a few steps away from the table and turn my back to him, because looking at him while saying this is absolutely not happening. I stare instead at the window and at my own faint reflection in the glass. A hooded swamp creature standing in her kitchen, and a handsome prince getting out of his chair behind her.

“It’s not that,” I say. “It’s kind of the opposite.”

“The opposite?”

My pulse thumps loudly in my ears. “It stopped feeling like a treatment.”

Behind me, Andrew goes very still.

“What did it feel like?”

I close my eyes. “Don’t make me say it.”

“I think you may have to.”

“I just—” I make a helpless gesture as heat creeps up my neck. “I just liked it too much, okay?”

The silence stretches long enough that I start regretting every decision I’ve ever made, beginning with learning how to speak. Then the floor creaks softly behind me, and I realize he’s moved closer.

“In what way?”

His voice is low, and the sound of it sends a shiver down my spine.

“What do you mean?”

“Is it only physical?”

That would be the safe answer. I know that. I should say yes, obviously, because that would be embarrassing but survivable.

Congratulations, Andrew Bennett, you are extremely good at orgasms. I can leave you a five-star review on Yelp.

But for some reason, I just can’t bring myself to lie right now.

“No,” I whisper, but the word feels too loud in the quiet kitchen.

Andrew is still behind me. I wish I could crawl into his head and look around for a minute. Find out what those calls meant. Find out whether this is as bad for him as it is for me.

After a few seconds, he asks, “And Josh?”

The question catches me off guard.