Damn it. He couldn’t dwell on what Ethan said. Ethan had to be wrong.
“Mistake or not, I don’t want you seeing them anymore.”
“Alex. We may have slept together, but that doesn’t give you property rights. You don’t get to tell me who I can or can’t see.”
Why was she making it more difficult than it had to be? If she stopped seeing the Rodales, Ethan would back off, and everything would be fine.
“Just do it,” he said, his voice sharper than he intended. “Besides, it’s a conflict of interest for you to see them. Rodale International is DDE’s rival.”
Her jaw dropped. “Don’t be ridiculous. I had friends in other investment banks when I worked for Goldreich.”
He hated this. He couldn’t tell her the real reason and felt like a fraud. “Okay. Then just do it for me. Please.”
“Alex,” she said softly. “No. You either trust me or you don’t, but you don’t own me.”
Wasn’t that the truth. He didn’t own her. And seeing her with Rodale…and how she’d defended him even though the bastard had manhandled her…
Alex’s hands tightened. He should’ve ripped Rodale into pieces.
Was Ethan right? Was he repeating the same mistake his father had made decades ago?
Alex wouldn’t be able to stand it if Natalie turned out to be like Emily. God, he couldn’t bear to look at her right now, not when he was wondering if Charlie and Natalie were more than the friends she claimed they were and whether she was working for Emily.
He had to leave before he did something stupid, like telling her how crazy he was about her and that he would forgive her for anything as long as she confided in him. His weakness and obsession with her was making him sick to his stomach. It made him feel stupid to think he might be making exactly the same mistake as his father. And he didn’t like feeling stupid. Not at all.
He released her and stepped back a pace.
“Put some ice on your…injury. It’s probably going to bruise and swell up. I’ll see you on Monday.”
He left.
Chapter Fifteen
NATALIE WALKED TO the small conference room listed on Ethan’s meeting invitation. The bright morning sun streamed through the frosted glass and lit the hallway. Despite his parting remark, Natalie hadn’t seen Alex since the fight, and it had been almost a week. She didn’t know what to make of his mood. Was he avoiding her? She understood he’d been upset about her getting hit, but Charlie hadn’t done it on purpose. To demand that she not see the Rodales over something so relatively trivial was unreasonable. Surely, Alex would have realized that by now.
His attempt to dictate who she could see brought back unwelcome memories of Marcus, who’d always tried to control her social life to make sure she was surrounded by people he approved of. He was ambitious, with political aspirations of his own, and that had been the reason for everything he’d done. She could understand the impulse, even if it seemed somewhat silly. But what was Alex’s reason? That line about a conflict of interest between DDE and Rodale International didn’t ring true. And Natalie was starting to get the feeling that Alex had known about her connection to the Rodales before they’d met in person.
Well, whatever the reason, she wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake where men were concerned. What had her spineless compliance with Marcus’s demands gotten her? Not a single real friend, just casual acquaintances from the right families.
Charlie had been the only one in her original social circle to pass Marcus’s litmus test: the right pedigree. Charles Montgomery Rodale the Third. And hadn’t he always been a good friend to her? Maybe that was why she was so disappointed by his request on Saturday.
Sighing, she brushed her hair back from her face as she walked. As she did so, her thumb skimmed over her right temple, which still hurt a little.
She got to the conference room and paused when she saw Alex in it. Ethan hadn’t said anything about Alex coming to the meeting.
He made her breath catch in her throat, sitting there like a god who owned the world, but his unreadable expression almost made her falter. “Good morning,” she said, flashing an uncertain smile.
“Good morning.” His voice was pleasant, but his face was barren. “Please have a seat.”
Natalie swallowed and took a chair across from him. She noticed with surprise that her hands were trembling and placed them on her lap. “So how are—”
Ethan’s entrance interrupted her, and their meeting began. She could barely concentrate. This was one of the few rooms that had real walls instead of frosted glass, and she began to feel suffocated as the minutes ticked by. There was some kind of odd tension—and understanding?—between the two men, and she felt left out. It didn’t help that Alex was abrupt and Ethan bored. Maybe they had argued. Or maybe Alex was taking his frustration with her out on everyone.
Finally the meeting ended, and Ethan walked out, leaving Natalie alone with Alex. When Alex rose from his seat, Natalie said, “Wait!”
“Yes?”
“We need to talk.”