“I wasn’t planning on the double shift, but when someone calls in sick, you have to,” she says quietly to the other waitress. “Now I’m not sure I have time to walk home before my kid gets back from his dad’s, but I can’t afford to take a car.”
Melanie. Madison. Mary…
“Maria,” I say.
“Mr. King.” She straightens, flushing. “I’m so sorry if we were too loud.”
“Not at all.” I order a town car while she watches, slack-jawed. “It’ll be here in five minutes,” I say when I hang up. “Take it wherever you need. The charges are on my account. Could I get a spoon?”
She runs to grab one, murmuring thanks as she passes it to me.
I shift back into my seat and hold out the spoon to Rae. She takes it, her gaze holding mine long enough that I wonder if she overheard the exchange.
“We have unfinished business.”
“And it couldn’t wait.”
“No.”
Rae shifts back in her seat, scanning the room behind me.
I see her shut down, feel it in her body language. It pisses me off that she can pull away emotionally while she’s still within reach.
I like to come across as in control because I’ve had to, which only highlights how painfully ill-equipped I am to deal withher.
There’s no reason for me to feel out of place in this restaurant full of attractive Angelenos in their West Coast business casual. But I do. It took everything in me to walk out the door without a jacket.
And I did it for Raegan.
“I’m trying to help both of us, but you’re making it exceedingly difficult,” I state.
Now I have her attention. She leans in, eyes flashing as if she can burn me from the inside out. “Really? Because so far, every time I’m near you, I get holes shot in my reputation and my career. You don’t get to show up here and demand I follow your rules. There’s no contract this time. Who do you think you are?”
I pick up my drink and drain it. “A man who keeps asking why the fuck he bothers.”
She rises from her seat and she stares at me with eyes full of fire. “Then stop.”
Before Raegan reaches the door, I’m on my feet.
7
Rae
I’m over the games.
Harrison King might get any woman he wants, but he’s not getting me.
I shouldn’t have opened the door enough to give him a chance, but I wanted to talk about the gig. And maybe to see him. But he behaved like an utter prick, crashing my dinner with Beck like a jealous boyfriend, then acting as though I’d fucked up.
Just because he helped one of the waitstaff when he thought I couldn’t hear doesn’t mean he’s not the devil.
I’m nearly at the front doors of the hotel when someone grabs me and tugs me behind a huge potted plant. My shoulder hits the wall. “What the fuck?”
Then he’s pinning me in place with his fierce expression, filled with anger and desperation.
“You wantmeto stop?” he demands, his voice dripping with incredulity. “You came into my club, my house, my island, and turned them upside down.” Harrison angles his body to box mine in, and his fingers find the nape of my neck, squeezing hard enough it steals my breath. “You fucked me like you needed it, and the next morning, you were gone. So at least be honest about your reasons. It wasn’t because of some paparazzi shot. It was because you didn’t believe in me enough to stay.”
He’s breathing as if he’s been running. His corded throat is bobbing, that firm mouth parted, those piercing blue eyes full of shock and desire.