“Yes,” he responds, though quick to add, “because then I can ask you questions.”
“Me?”
“I’m not the only mystery, Milana. The only difference is that when I Google Milana Milenov—I get a picture of a girl graduating Anchorage Business School and that’s it.”
I smile, finding him kinda cute now that he Googled me. I finally manage to look him in the eye and allow my body to feel him over me. It’s powerful—this force—everything I felt before this a distance memory.
“Dinner, my place at seven sharp,” he demands with a smirk.
“Deal…but I have a ton of work to do so I can’t stay over.”
“No deal. You’re staying over. If you have to go to New York next week, I want you every moment I can have you.”
“You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Rich.”
He grins, playing with his jaw in a sexy way. “About that, call me Mr. Rich one more time and I’ll bend you over right here, right now and fuck you till you have no choice but to scream Mr. Rich.”
He knew exactly how to get to me.
Wearing a vicious grin on his handsome face, he exits the room leaving me alone to think about his powerful proposition.
He did it—again. Made me go from hating him to wanting him in a deadly heartbeat.
Inside my office, I fire up my laptop and take a deep breath. My mind is an unorganized mess and with everything going on—I needed to get into shape and start prioritizing. I spend the next hour syncing my diary with Emerson’s, making calls and confirming all our travel arrangements. Charlie had already emailed the both of us; a ton of legal documents that made sense, given my experience but nevertheless—this is going to be a long-winded battle.
By the time I peel myself away from my inbox, it’s just after five and the office is surprisingly vacant. Today felt like the longest day of my life and with my laptop shut down and bag packed, I balance everything in my hands to only have my cell scare the shit out of me as it rings.
My heart races, and without thinking—I answer.
“Hey, it’s me.”
Liam. The sound of his voice brought back a whole other world. I place my things back down, worried that I would so carelessly fall apart from the sound of his voice.
“Hey.”
Silence falls between us, and not wanting to play on the obvious, I bring in the small-talk in an effort to repair what I so easily broke.
“How have you been?”
“Good, I guess, considering. I’m dating someone.”
“That’s quick.”
Shit. I shouldn’t have said that, and trying to retrace my stupidity, I tell him, “I don’t mean it’s quick, I mean that you…never mind.”
It suddenly dawns on me that Phoebe told me Liam was seeing that Sienna girl only a day after he got back. I didn’t have the right to even question Liam’s fidelity but his new relationship didn’t add up either.
“I slept with her, while I was still with you. I missed you…not that it matters now. I just needed to tell you that.”
The pain in his voice subsides, almost to relief. There’s a slight pang, a wave of hurt from hearing that. None of it mattered now. The damage is done and the universe played its part. It was not my place to reprimand him when I played the same card he did.
“Wesley’s not good for you.”
“Liam, please.”
“Listen to me. Do you remember the time we watched that program on serial manipulators? T
hey had personality disorders and that dad was jailed for murdering his wife?”