“Bullshit.”
My eyes widen and angry heat flushes my skin. “You’ve said that to me twice tonight, Ashton. I won’t put up with it again.”
“Someone has to say it to you. I suspect not many get the chance to challenge you.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “And what does that mean?”
“It means you run hot and cold, and I can see that you close yourself off at the first sign of trouble. But what you need to know about me is I don’t give up easily. I want you and I will have you.”
I exhale a harsh breath. “And I keep telling you that sometimes you just can’t have what you want.”
He dips his face to mine and traces my lips with his finger. “Baby, you can keep fighting me if you want, because trust me, I fucking love a good fight. But what I’d really love you to do is let me fuck that fight out of you. I thought I’d done that today. Clearly I need to up my game.”
My legs sway.
Ashton does not need to up his game.
Far from it.
But I’m finished playing his game.
I drop my arms, straighten my shoulders and take a deep breath. “No. I want you to leave.”
His face is still close and he doesn’t shift away fast. He holds my gaze for what feels like forever before finally taking a step back. “This isn’t done, Lorelei. Not by a long shot.”
With that, he leaves and I close the door behind him. His scent lingers, and I close my eyes and inhale it as I sag against the door. The tension knotting my shoulders eases, but not by much, because as much as I don’t want to admit it, Ashton was right. I do run at the first sign of trouble. Usually, though, that trouble takes a lot longer to find me. Usually, I don’t fall this fast.
* * *
“Why do you look like you’ve been hit by a truck?” Sienna asks the next morning over coffee in the office.
I sigh and place my mug on the table. “Because I’m pretty sure one hit me last night.”
She frowns. “Come again?”
“Ashton. He may as well be a truck with the way he rams into people’s lives.”
She raises her brows and her lips form an ‘O’. “Tell me more. The last I knew, he’d rammed himself into things other than lives, and you were smiling about it. How can a man fuck shit up that fast?”
“Oh, trust me, he can,” I mutter before filling her in on what happened last night.
Once I finish, she says softly, “I don’t think Ashton’s the problem here.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She holds her hands up defensively. “Hear me out, okay?”
I lean back into my chair and cross my arms while scowling at her. “Fine.”
“I think you’re having a hard time letting yourself fall for him. From everything you’ve told me, he’s as alpha as they come, and you’ve never dated a man like that. He’s pushing for a lot straight away, more than you’ve ever had to give at first.”
Fiddling with my pen, I stare at her. “It’s true. He is pushing.”
“And you’re resisting.”
I nod.