Avoiding Temptation (18 page)

“Well, that’s the end of it anyway. He is doing everything after this point.”

“Are you sure?” he pleaded.

“Look, what do you want me to do? Your sister…” She shook her head and glanced away. “She’s going to try to bury him six feet under. She knew Jack’s past. I fucking told her about his past. After accepting that and marrying him anyway, she is going to try to
divorce
him over it? That’s just twisted.”

“It’s their problem. Please don’t make it our problem, too.”

“It’s not my problem. It’s not your problem. But at the same time, we are invested in it, Ramsey. It would be stupid to think we aren’t. Bekah is your sister. Jack is one of my closest friends.”

“No,” Ramsey said, putting his foot down. “We can’t get involved in this. Promise me that you’ll stay out of it, Lexi.” His voice softened at the end, and he pulled her back in for a kiss.

She let him kiss her with the unanswered promise hanging between them.

Lexi stood outside of the conference room in the rented office space where the Bridges medical wing team was working. She had thought it was strange that they would rent space when they had all of Bridges Enterprise to use for the conferences with Global as well as the contractors, architects, and various other businesses they were working with to get this building up and running. But Ramsey had told her that when they had first gotten the place, they had wanted something semipermanent near where they would break ground.

Apparently, the location of the new Bridges tower was far enough away from the rest of Bridges Enterprise to warrant this. Lexi thought it was ridiculous. The plot was already being cleared, but it wasn’t like they would be looking up at a skyscraper next week or anything. Why waste the money? Besides the fact that they could

This was why she had never gone into business. She found it incredibly boring—not that law didn’t have its moments, but this whole thing just looked like a headache.

Some days, she was happy that Ramsey was keeping her in the know about every little detail, and other days, she felt herself zoning out. Really, he could settle with what was important and stick the rest through some kind of filter.

She yawned and sank back into a chair. Ramsey had said the meeting wouldn’t be that long, and she could come with him if she wanted. This was her last Friday before she started her new job, and she had thought she would get to spend some time with Ramsey, finish unpacking a few of the stray boxes from New York, and get prepped for the big day on Monday before heading out to the D-Bags show with Jack later that night. But one meeting had turned into three, and she still couldn’t believe that three hours later, she was wasting the day in meetings.

Lexi had sat through the first one, but when it had become clear that it was a bunch of gibberish that she couldn’t comprehend, she had lost interest in trying and dipped out. The battery of her smartphone was dying a slow death, and if it didn’t last to the end of this meeting, she was definitely going to leave.

Shuffling in the other room brought her out of her thoughts, and she stood, praying to anyone who would listen that they could leave. She was never agreeing to this again.

Several contractors walked out of the room without so much as a glance in her direction, and then the door closed. Lexi sighed and fell back into the chair.
Seriously?
She could
not
handle waiting.
It was the worst thing ever.

A second later, the door opened again, and John walked out. Lexi raised her eyebrow when he looked over at her still seated.

He smiled brightly when he saw her. “You want to get out of here?”

“Desperately,” she said, lifting her eyes to the ceiling and leaning back in the chair.

“We could go get something to eat,” he suggested.

She didn’t even have to glance at him to know he was smirking.

“You want me to walk out on you again?” Lexi asked

He chuckled, and she did look at him then. He had on dark dress slacks and a gray button-up, rolled up to his elbows. His dark hair was neat, but he was sporting a five o’clock shadow that really worked on his cut features.

“They’re sticking around to talk for a few more minutes. I needed something to drink. Could you at least manage a walk to Starbucks?”

Coffee. Heaven. Life force
. “Yes, I think I can manage anything for coffee.”

Lexi stood and stretched with a yawn. She wasn’t even tired, but she had been sitting there so long that she almost felt exhausted. Plus, the mention of coffee had made her brain seem to slow down as if it couldn’t function properly on her caffeine addiction without the stuff running through her veins.

They walked out of the building and down the steps to the sidewalk. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and ducked her head against the wind. John looked at her questioningly with humor in his eyes.

“What?” she demanded.

“How are you cold? This weather is beautiful.”

“You live in New York. You’re used to the freezing weather.”

“Didn’t you live in New York for the past three years?” he asked.

“I never adjusted to the temperature change,” she said with a shrug.

“Well, I think you’re crazy. Sixty degrees is not freezing.”

“In the South, it is.”

“Right. It’s not where I grew up in Michigan. It’s laughable,” he told her.

“Laugh all you want,” she grumbled. “I’m still cold.”

“Good thing we’re here then, huh?”

John opened the door to Starbucks, and Lexi walked inside, shaking off the cold that had sunk into her cardigan.

They walked up to the counter. John ordered a chai tea latte and then allowed Lexi to order.

“Just a venti coffee for me.”

“Cream and sugar?” the associate asked.

“No, thank you. Black is fine.”

John smirked at that, too, and she didn’t even bother asking him about it. Most guys didn’t expect girls to drink their coffee straight. With as much as she drank, she would gain a million pounds if she added anything to it. Not to mention, she had gotten used to the taste in college and had never gone back.

John paid for the drinks, and then they set back out for the conference room. Lexi blew on her coffee. She didn’t want to scald her mouth, but she really wanted to drink it. Giving up, she dove in and started drinking the steaming brew.

“So…you moved in with Ramsey, I hear,” John said.

Lexi sputtered on her coffee. It was pretty freaking hot.

“Yeah, I did,” Lexi finally got out.

“Kind of quick, isn’t it?”

“Not really. We were living together before I moved back to New York.”

“And that worked out so well for you,” he said dryly.

“How do you even know we moved in together?” Lexi asked.

She hadn’t talked to John since that night when she had walked out on him. She figured he had moved on. After all, he was attractive and charming. He could get any other girl he wanted. She just needed him not to focus on her.

“A little birdie told me.”

Lexi turned to face him, narrowing her eyes. “A little birdie?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss.”

“You have someone feeding you my personal information, and you won’t tell me who said it?” she asked. That sounded like some pretty messed-up bullshit to her.

“That is what not being at liberty to discuss means,” he said with a glimmer in his hazel eyes.

“Well, you tell your little birdie to fuck off for me!” she spat.

John burst out laughing and shook his head. “My little spitfire. You never do what I expect. It’s really hot.”

Lexi rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee. “I’m serious.”

“That’s what makes it all the better.”

They made it back to the office, and Lexi turned to face him. She didn’t want this little birdie to keep broadcasting her information. John didn’t need to know what she was up to. She had closed that door, and she wanted it to remain firmly closed. She couldn’t do that when he kept flirting with her, buying her coffee, and instigating the banter while he knew so much about her new life. If it were the chase he was after, she would have to show him that she had meant what she said. Ramsey was the one she had agreed to commit to. Someone who thought sex was the end game wouldn’t cut it—even if John would deny that to his last breath.

“So, are you really not going to tell me who told you?”

“If you think about it, I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” he said, clearly enjoying having the upper hand. “Aren’t you going to a concert with your ex tonight…the married ex?”

“That’s really
none
of your business,” Lexi shot back defensively.

“I sure hope this isn’t the one who I can’t compare to because if you thought going to dinner with me bordered on bad ideas…” He trailed off.

“This conversation is over. You’re just poking at something you don’t understand,” she said.

He was getting her flustered, and she needed to extricate herself from the situation. He didn’t know her history. He didn’t know about Jack or even about Ramsey. John most certainly didn’t what she had gone through to get to the point where Jack was married. And it was quite clear that John had no idea that she would have preferred to go with anyone else other than Jack to this show. So, while him prodding her for a reaction was working, it was surfacing the wrong emotions.

“Don’t be mad,” he said, reaching for her elbow.

“Then, tell me who you’ve been talking to.”

He smiled devilishly, and her knees wobbled.
God, he was handsome. It was so unfair in this situation.

“You’ll figure it out, babe. Thanks for going to get coffee with me.”

Lexi took a deep breath as he walked past her and inside. The coffee warmed her fingers, so she didn’t follow him inside right away. She was sure she looked ready to pounce on someone.

Who the hell would feed John information about her? Who could benefit from that?

It didn’t actually do her any harm. She was not getting back with John. That had bad news written all over it. But still, her personal information was her personal information.
She didn’t like this at all.

When Lexi heard Jack’s car door close outside, she literally jumped since she had been listening so hard. She looked over at Ramsey apologetically when he arched an eyebrow. She knew he had heard it, too.

After getting out of his last meeting, they had left the office and had since been sitting around the kitchen table, staring at their laptops. Well, that wasn’t completely true. They had tried to relax and watch a movie, but neither of them had really managed to relax. Thus, they had nixed that idea and spent the time working over coffee.

She had felt pretty ridiculous during most of the time she had sat there. She hadn’t done anything that she had wanted to. Half the time, she had fretted over what John had said to her at the office, and the other half, her mind had been on this concert. She had kept thinking about backing out, knowing it was a bad idea.

Sure, she wanted to see the D-Bags, but she didn’t want to see Jack. In fact, she wanted nothing less than to punch him in the face. He deserved it for what he had put her through. She was sure it would be a feat to get through this show with him. Never in her life had she been uncomfortable around Jack—even when she had been angry with him, even when they had been with other people, even when those people had been around. It had always been Jack.