One Night with Gael (Rival Brothers 2)

‘I don’t think of you like that.’

‘Oh, good—I’m so glad we’ve got that established. What about your note? You’ve “decided to go a different route”? The only difference between you actively pursuing me last night and leaving me that poor excuse of a Dear Jane note this morning is the fact that we slept together. So pardon me if my powers of deduction are right on point!’

His jaw visibly tightened. ‘Calm down, Goldie.’

‘No—and stop saying my name like that.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like I’m a recalcitrant child you’re trying to manage. I’m done talking to you. I want nothing to do with you. Let me go and I’ll try to forget we ever met.’

‘Santo cielo. You should stop pursuing a career in acting and form an international debate team. You’d absolutely excel at it.’

Without waiting for an answer to his damning of her character, he dropped his hand from her arm to her wrist and dragged her towards another set of doors.

Shoving them open, he led her into an empty conference room, making sure to block her exit.

She didn’t want to look at him—didn’t want to be close enough to him to breathe in his unique scent, to watch the beauty of his square-jawed face and be reminded of how she’d explored his body last night, how he’d moved so powerfully inside her. So she stalked as far away from him as possible and stared out of the window at the Midtown traffic.

‘Ignoring me isn’t going to make this conversation conclude any faster,’ he delivered.

She placed her hands on the window ledge to steady herself. She wanted to drop her forehead to the window too, but that would be one weak gesture too far. ‘I told you, I have nothing further to say to you. Nor do I imagine you have anything to say to me. Your little note and the deplorable cash buy-off said it all for you. But I’m prepared to grant you two minutes. Say what you dragged me in here to say, then I’m leaving. And don’t even think about trying to stop me.’

She sensed him prowling behind her for a full minute before he spoke. ‘The money wasn’t supposed to be taken the way you took it.’

What her laughter lacked in humour it more than made up for in scorn. ‘Right. And I was born yesterday.’

‘Dios...’

She heard his deep inhalation.

‘I’m good at reading people, Goldie. Reading between the lines. Deny it all you want, but you’re in a fix. Otherwise you wouldn’t have fought for dear life to hang on to that tattered bag last night. And you wouldn’t have chosen not to call a cab to take you home if you’d been able to afford it. Unemployment means different things to different people. I suspect in your case it means near destitution.’

Shame dredged her, sending prickles of tears to her eyes. She blinked it away rapidly. ‘Bravo for that incisive dissection of my life.’

He sighed. ‘Hate me all you want for pointing out the obvious. But you also mentioned that you needed a job quickly. The money was my gesture of assistance—’

Pride and anger made her whirl around. He was standing a few feet behind her. Tall and imposing and altogether too much for her roiling senses. ‘I’m not a charity case!’

‘No, you’re not. And I didn’t think you were.’

He paced a few steps before shoving his hands in his pockets. She was beginning to notice it was his self-calming gesture.

She supposed he needed calming after her calling him out and making a spectacle of him at his meeting.

‘Are we done?’

He shook his head in a decisive movement. ‘No, we’re not done. You’ll accept my apologies if I didn’t make it clear that the money had nothing to do with what happened between us last night. It was a gesture of generosity, not payment for services rendered.’

A large dose of the hurt that lingered in her chest abated, but she wasn’t about to show her relief. ‘Fine, apology accepted, but you can keep your money.’

She started to walk past him. One hand shot out of his pocket and slid over her hip. Goldie jerked out of the way, in no way wanting to be reminded of what it felt like to be in his arms.

‘Please don’t touch me.’

His jaw tightened but his hand balled and dropped back to his side. ‘As you wish. But before you walk out the door and demolish the chance you’ve created for yourself, stop and think for a moment.’

‘What do you mean, the chance I’ve created?’