“Shouldn’t be all that hard for you.”
He’d sure done a great job since they’d last seen each other at his sister’s wedding.
The memory of what had happened in the tent started to float up and she mentally face-palmed it back into the darkness.
“I’m going to leave now, James.” It was amazing how calm her voice was. “And do the job I was hired to do.”
She moved to open the door, and he shot out a hand to stop her. His fingers wrapped around her upper arm.
His touch, though light, shocked her and sent tingles spiraling awake every nerve in her body. Her stomach flipped and her breath hitched.
They were close, nearly shoulder to shoulder, and she could smell the familiar cologne or soap that was unique to him. It was spicy and woodsy and entirely too compelling.
“Tori.” Her name was a plea on his lips.
But for what?
She met his gaze and time stopped. His nostrils flared and his gaze darkened.
She knew that just like her, he was remembering the last two times they’d been this close. Her pulse went into overdrive.
Nope. Not going there.
She tugged her arm free, and his gaze immediately shuttered. Their brief and intimate connection was severed.
The anger was back. The accusation.
Gripping the handle of the door, she paused before opening it and glanced up at him.
“You don’t, by some chance, blame me for your breakup with Hannah, do you?”
“Of course not.”
But the answer was in those expressive eyes. They seemed to reveal every damn thought in his mind.
He did blame her.
Of course he did. She shouldn’t have been surprised. People loved to blame her.
“I need this job, James. And I have no intention of leaving unless I come to that choice on my own terms,” she said softly. “So, get used to seeing my ass around. Whether you love it or hate it.”
Ignoring the narrowing of his eyes, she slipped out the door and left him to stew in his own messy emotions.
*
So, get usedto seeing my ass around. Whether you love it or hate it.
James gave a low growl as his feet pounded the pavement during his nightly run.
Tori’s words kept looping in his head—and the visual of her sashaying out of his office after she’d dropped them.
How about hated to love it? Because Tori had a great ass and he’d have to be dead not to notice.
A greateverything. She was gorgeous.
And it pissed him off to no end that he realized it. He’d always been attracted to her, and it had bitten him in the butt more than once.
Hannah’s engaged to one of your best friends because of Tori.