Shattered Trust (Colorado Trust 4)

ed her mouth again, then closed it with a frown. Hah. She hadn’t expected that.

“Don’t agree with me.”

“Okay, I won’t.”

Her lips pressed together as she crossed her arms and stared him down with that defiant look on her face.

Where the hell to start?

Marley tapped an impatient finger against her arm as Justin stared at her. The man’s presence was too damn disturbing. He was too good-looking, and his arms around her had felt entirely too wonderful. She hung onto her resentment by a mere thread.

“I’m here to offer you a job.”

That was as unexpected as him agreeing with her a moment ago. She eyed him with suspicion. “Why? You afraid I’m going to sue?”

He smiled without humor. “You have more respect for yourself than that.”

He was right. How could he know that about her? “Why would you give me my job back?”

“I didn’t say ‘job back’, I said ‘a job’.”

Hmm, this sounded interesting. “I won’t work for you again. I don’t trust you.”

He looked at her for a long moment before turning his attention to the city in the valley below. “My reasons for doing what I did had nothing to do with you,” he said quietly.

She huffed in disbelief. “You fired me. Exactly how do you figure?”

He shook his head. “I’m talking about lying about who I was. Isn’t that the issue here?”

“That’s only half of it, Justin. And why did you lie, anyway? Why not just be upfront about what you were doing instead of the underhanded spying?”

At first she didn’t think he’d answer. Then she heard him blow out a breath. “It’s complicated.”

“In other words, you don’t want to tell me.”

He cast her a glance. “Not really.”

Marley uncrossed her arms. “You told me not to feel bad about the mistake. You said it could’ve happened to anyone. Now I’m supposed to trust a job offer without knowing if one day you’ll decide to just up and fire me again? I don’t think so.”

Her thread of resentment strengthened to a thick string as she started back inside. He hadn’t even come close to apologizing, much less explained himself.

“Don’t you even want to know what the job is?”

She faced him again. “It doesn’t matter. I’m through with Hunter Construction now that the Blake brothers are running it.”

“I want to hire you for the Jenkins building. If your design wins the bid, then you’d oversee the project. Supervised, of course.”

Marley’s hand froze on the sliding door handle. That was the design she’d given to Dale Blake. He must’ve shown Justin and his brother. Slowly she faced him to see he was as serious as he sounded.

“Dale said he’d ask about an internship.” The moment the words were out, she could’ve kicked herself. An internship was peanuts compared to what he’d just offered.

“My father is a condescending, selfish jerk.”

Taken aback, she said, “He’s been nothing but nice to me.”

“He wanted your design without having to pay for it. He was using you.”

She frowned. They’d been meeting for a few weeks, but he hadn’t known about her design before Monday. “I only showed him the design a few days ago.”