Falling for Fate (24 page)

Jealousy was not an emotion he was accustomed to. And he hated the hell out of it. Hated the feeling that someone else held some type of control over him.

Keaton was right. This was a crucial point in his career. He couldn’t piss it away because of one woman. He had no clue as to what in the hell had come over him since that night back in June, but it was time to cut it the fuck out.

It was one thing for Keaton to notice. Keaton was his best friend and had his back. Collin Pierson would probably gladly stick a knife in it.

Staring at spreadsheets full of numbers he could care less about, he seethed in his office, unaware of the time for the rest of the afternoon. Until Denise poked her head in to say goodnight. Behind his assistant stood the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. The one who’d left his office earlier with swollen lips. Two sets.

Just the sight of her was enough to bring back the vivid memory of her coming on his desk. The panic in her eyes as she’d lost control had been a type of turn-on he’d never experienced before. The woman possessed a unique brand of vulnerability that brought him to his knees. Literally.

Damn it to hell.

He watched as she waited for Denise to pass.

Stepping into his doorway, she met his eyes and smiled. “Hey, um, Gwen got a ride with Keaton, so I have her car if you want me to stay and discuss that prop—”

“That won’t be necessary. I took care of it.” He gestured toward the door. “Have a good night.”

He didn’t look down fast enough to avoid the sight of her eyes going wide as they filled with a familiar hurt. He clenched the pen he held and made a few random marks on whatever report happened to be in front of him.
Let her go.

It was one thing that Keaton knew about his feelings for her, but hearing Collin Pierson tell him he was being so transparent was alarming. Thank God he hadn’t mentioned the weekend at the beach house to her. If he wasn’t careful, she’d be signing them up for a wedding registry at the damned bed and bath store before he had time to blink.
Fuck. That.

When the door clicked into place, he looked up. She was gone. It was for the best.
It’s for the best.

Right. It was. He knew that. He also knew that his chest was constricting so tightly that it felt as if he were having a heart attack. She was leaving—again. This time, he was letting her go, but it didn’t change the fact that she was taking a part of him with her. Judging from how deep his chest was aching, it was a vital part.

Rolling the pen through his fingers, he leaned back and tried to breathe normally. Okay, so it was done. As it should be. Except…he probably could have let her know that he didn’t want to pursue a relationship of any kind without being such a colossal dick about it. God, he’d hated to see that look in her eyes. The one that said she’d gotten her hopes up only to have them thrown back in her beautiful face.

Words he hadn’t thought of in months came back to him. Words she’d uttered the night they met. “
Please don’t stop. I can’t take any more rejection tonight. I can’t. Please.”

Rejection. Someone had rejected her. And now, so had he. On the same day he’d licked her to an orgasm in his office.

All because Keaton had said some scary shit about rings and romantic getaways. If Gwen was cool about casual sex, who was to say Fate wouldn’t be? More importantly, what was he still doing sitting here?

Jumping out of his chair, he banged his knee hard on the underside of his desk, but he barely noticed. Bursting out of his office, he surveyed the empty bullpen. And after sprinting down the hall to the elevators, he watched as the light displaying the numbers of each floor went down until PG lit up. Parking Garage.
Fuck.

An overwhelming sense of déjà vu hit him as he bolted down the stairwell. If she made it out before he could stop her, if she went home angry with him, hurt by him, that would likely be the end of whatever they had. At that particular moment, he didn’t care if she signed them up for a wedding registry, a baby registry, and what the hell ever other kinds of registries there were. He just didn’t want to face the possibility of not getting to be inside her again. Of not seeing the mischievous little gleam she got in her eye when she bit her luscious bottom lip.

The metal door exploded like gunfire as he shoved it open. The garage was mostly empty since it was nearly six. Thank fuck because he had no clue what kind of car he was looking for. He scanned row after row until he saw her across the lot. Her back was to him and she was struggling with her purse—digging out keys, he figured—while balancing an armload of files. He didn’t call out for fear that she’d tell him to go to hell. Which he deserved. Jogging over to her, he slowed as he approached.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly.

She jumped as soon as his voice broke through the silence. The sound of her keys hitting the concrete startled her even more. Both of them bent to retrieve them so quickly that they nearly slammed into each other. Fate got to them first. After snatching the keys from the ground, she stood and hugged her files to her chest.

“Sneaking up on women in deserted parking garages is not a good idea. If I’d had a free hand, I would’ve tased you.”

“You have a Taser?”

“I do.”

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t. Though I probably deserve it.”

Looking at her more closely, he realized that something was off. Her makeup was smeared around her eyes. Was she just tired from a long day at work or had she been crying? He hadn’t noticed the smudges around her eyes in his office a few minutes ago. Seeing the evidence of the pain he’d caused made it hard for him to swallow.

She didn’t say anything, just arched an eyebrow and studied him for a few seconds before turning and opening the door of the compact car. He watched helplessly as she slid the files and her purse into the passenger’s seat.

“Hey,” he began gently. “Please don’t be mad at me. I didn’t mean—”

Before he could finish his apology, she whirled on him and took a step in his direction. “Look, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but I’m done. Tag I’m out or whatever.”

“I wasn’t trying to—”

“No. I’m serious. This hot-and-cold act may work on whatever other women you’re screwing, but I have other stuff going on. As you already know. So I’m going to have to pass on riding the Dean Maxwell Bipolar Express.”

He couldn’t help but grin even though she was clearly mad as hell. He took a step in her direction. “Fate, don’t be—”

“Dean, I am not kidding. Back off or I will make good on my threat to tase your ass.”

“I might like it.” He winked at her and took another step closer. The heat in her eyes was cooling, so he took one more step and braced his arms against the hood of the car on either side of her. “Let me speak. Please.”

He waited to make sure she was going to let him finish a damned sentence. When she remained silent, he spoke. But what came out of his mouth wasn’t exactly what he’d intended to say. Apparently, his brain or some other part of him that controlled his mouth felt there were more pressing issues to handle at that particular moment.

“Am I still the only one?” He pressed his gaze hard into hers. Suddenly, her answer was important to him. As vital as the oxygen needed for his next breath.

She swallowed hard, her chest heaving as she took a deep breath. “The only one what?” Her expression said that this was a challenge. She was daring him to say the words.

Letting out a low growl, he moved forward until his chest grazed against hers. “You know what. The only one who’s been inside you. The only one to feel you come around his dick. The only one to fuck you.”

She pressed her lips together, but he was betting he’d already seen the answer flash in her eyes.
Yes.
She hadn’t been with anyone since that night either. Relief tugged at his nerves, but he needed to hear her say it.

Instead, she turned her back to him. There were probably a dozen security cameras on them, but he didn’t care. He gripped her waist from behind and pulled her against him.

“Tell me the truth. Am I?” he asked low in her ear.

A small whimper escaped her throat and it nearly tore him in half. “Why are you doing this to me?”

The tightness in his chest escalated to a painful throbbing. “I’m not trying to upset you. I’m sorry. Hey, look at me.” When he turned her in his arms, his stomach clenched as he took in the tears welling up in her eyes. “Hey, don’t cry, beautiful. I’m a dick. I’m sorry.”

She bit her lip in that way that drove him to the brink of insanity.

“I am, aren’t I?”

She sniffled. “A dick? Yes. Yes, you are.”

“You know what I’m asking.”

Suddenly, her eyes were dry and she glared at him with everything she was worth. “Yes, okay? There, you happy now? Congratulations.” She shoved him backwards so hard that he almost lost his grip on her.

He grabbed her wrists to stop her next attempt at pushing him away. Using them to pull her to him, he said, “Tell me why you’re angry.”

“What, is this part of the new Maxwell Medical employee mental health plan?”

“Maybe. Now tell me.” When she didn’t answer right away, he relaxed his grip on her wrists. “I don’t have anywhere to be, Fate. I can do this all night.”

W
as he kidding? He wanted to know why she was angry?

“Well, let’s see. I tried to behave like an adult when I realized we were going to be working together and you did everything you could to make me uncomfortable. Including but not limited to threatening to fuck me seventeen more times. When I finally give in, you go down on me in your office until I nearly scream your name for the whole company and possibly the surrounding businesses to hear. Then you dismiss me like some random office slut when I come to talk to you about reciprocating. Does that about cover it?”

“No. It doesn’t. First of all, I wasn’t trying to make you uncomfortable. Secondly, I was promising those seventeen times, not threatening. And if I’d known you were going to scream my name, I wouldn’t have stopped you. Furthermore, you will never be some random office slut.”

She hated herself for watching his mouth as he spoke. Hated that she was still turned on by the memory of how he’d used that mouth on her a few hours earlier. “If I recall correctly, your exact words were, ‘I took care of it. Have a good night.’ And I can tell you this much: you can find someone else to ‘take care of it’ because I’m done trying to figure out what in the hell you want from me.”

He sighed loudly and released her wrists. She was ashamed at how much she was enjoying the slight pinch of pain his grip was causing. She watched as he leaned against the car beside her and glanced up at the florescent lights above.

“For the record, I’ve never had any kind of inappropriate relationship with anyone from the office. I leave that to my dad.”

She didn’t say anything. What could she say? For the record, she’d never had any kind of inappropriate relationship with anyone period.

“I don’t know how to do this, and I had a plan. But then Keaton said some shit and I got all fucked up in my head and…dammit. None of what I’m saying is making any sense, is it?”

She stared at him intently, trying to decide which part of his little speech to respond to first. “What kind of
plan?
”

He tilted his head toward her. She stared into his eyes as they lit up. “A plan to ask you to spend the weekend with me at the beach house so we could finish what we started last time we were there.” Now he was talking.