But how could that be? Because he was Finn Anderson, the man who was destined to live alone.
He wrenched his mouth away, almost crying out at the loss.
Her hands remained locked behind his head, her sharp gaze shredding his carefully tended walls.
“Tell me you didn’t feel that,” she said, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “Tell me the truth. Tell me the truth, because I can’t take any more lies. No more lies. Not today.”
Her words tore at him. If lies had hurt this woman he loved, he couldn’t add another.
“I felt it,” he croaked, new dampness on his cheeks. “But we can never do it again.”
“Why not?” she begged him. “We have something, Finn. Something real. A connection. Do you know how rare that is?”
“Yes, I know.” He pulled her against him, his hand pressing her head against his chest. “But I can’t let you throw everything away… not for me.”
Chapter 16
Saturday morning dawned with Finn still avoiding her.
If I’d known he was going to totally withdraw, I never would’ve kissed him.
Laurie scanned the banquet room, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Girl, you are such a liar. You know you’d do that again in a heartbeat. That kiss was smokin’!
She grinned, in spite of herself.
Yep, you’re right. But I shouldn’t have used the L-word. He wasn’t ready for it.
The afternoon before the big fundraiser, hundreds of people were darting around like bees, moving tables and chairs, decorating, preparing the media. Everyone had a job to do.
Where is he?
Ever since that fateful kiss the previous day, she’d barely seen him. Now the banquet time was approaching, and she would be forced to sit next to the man, at a table full of important donors, and pretend everything was fine between them. The problem was, everything was not fine. In fact, everything was a mess.
Somehow, after sharing the most powerful kiss she’d ever experienced, Finn Anderson had strolled downstairs and casually announced to a roomful of reporters that she was simply a rising employee at Limitless, and he was her employer. End of story. No relationship. No feelings. Then he’d given her a perfunctory handshake and sent her on her way, while he remained to field questions about Phantom Enterprises’ latest projects and the upcoming Limitless fundraiser.
How had it happened? One second their lips were joined in an electrifying kiss. The next he was out the door, announcing they were late for the press conference. When he dismissed her from the meeting, she’d hung around in the back, hoping to continue the conversation he’d shut off so suddenly. While she waited, she’d practiced her arguments.
Number one… being with you is not throwing my life away. And number two… being with you is not throwing my life away. And the same for number three and number four and number five!
But she never got the chance to say it aloud. He’d slipped away with a group of reporters and returned in the wee hours of the night. She knew it was later than two a.m., because that’s how long she waited in for him on the hard wooden bench outside the elevator. Saturday morning he didn’t show up for breakfast and sent a text that he had been called away to a lunch meeting. And now it was time for her to get dressed for the evening, and they hadn’t had a single moment to talk.
Laurie had a lot to say, and it was building by the second. When she saw him she’d probably explode. She pictured him in his tuxedo splattered head to toe with bits of green word-goo.
“What’s so funny?” asked Francisco, a bright, temporary hire who’d become her right-hand man over the course of the week.
She blew a stray piece of hair off her face. “Nothing. I’m just ready to get this over with.”
“Not me,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “This is the best part. I thrive on it.”
“I can tell,” she said. “You’re a hard worker. I think you’ll go a long way.”
“Not me. I’m nobody. Just a college dropout. This is about the best I can do.”
She put her hands on his shoulders and looked him square in the eye. “You listen to me. There is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it. Now, I’m going to be back in a year, and I expect to hire you again.”
“Sounds good.” He shrugged.