Worth Every Cent (Worth It 2)

I went to move past him, but he reached out at lightning speed and caught my arm again.

“Even for what?” he asked.

I turned my gaze over to him and took in his determined blue stare.

“You saved my ass when I needed a place to stay, so I saved your ass from jail. Now let me go,” I said.

“We need to talk.”

“I don’t think we have that much to talk about,” I said.

“I disagree.”

“Oh really? And on what grounds to you disagree, might I ask?”

“I owe you an apology.”

Oh, I had no response to that. Only a trickling curiosity that permeated my veins.

“I shouldn’t have behaved the way I did. You have every right to hate me, but I hope you don’t,” Gray said. “The way I came at you and how defensive I got. I should’ve simply answered your questions instead of throwing them back in your face.”

“Yes,” I said. “You should have. Because we could’ve had a civil discussion about it instead of arguing like we did.”

“I don’t blame you for not coming back when I called after you.”

“What?” I asked.

“When you walked out of the house with your stuff. I stood on the porch and called after you. I was so angry at you for walk

ing off on me like that. Like everyone else that had left me high and dry. But I had no reason to be upset with you.”

Wait. He had been calling after me?

He had been asking me to come back?

I was surprised by his apology, and floored by his admission. Gray didn’t seem like the type of man to give many apologies, and he definitely wasn’t the type to stand on a porch and call after someone to come back.

“Thank you for your apology,” I said. “And for what it’s worth, my own reaction was less than favorable that day as well. I shouldn’t have backed you into a corner. I should’ve been willing to offer up my own backstory in exchange for yours. Your bank account wasn’t any of my business. But you need to know that I wasn’t asking for the reason you thought I was.”

“I know,” he said.

“I’m sure men of your stature are used to women cozying up to you to try and get to your money.”

“I am,” he said with a wry smile.

“I was honestly more concerned with who Maria was,” I said softly. “I thought maybe—”

Gray’s stare penetrated mine as his hand softened around my arm.

“I’m many things, but a cheat isn’t something I put on my resume,” he said.

I felt myself soften towards him. Immediately I began to warm up to him again. As sirens rang out down the street, lights flashed around the corner. They flashed in his eyes as he stared down at me and they flashed along his sweating skin as the humidity of the night clung to his body. I didn’t know what to say or how to respond. But I knew one thing was for certain.

It didn’t change the fact that he left. Nor did it change the fact that he wasn’t sticking around again.

He was back for Anton’s estate, and nothing else.

Running into me was simply a coincidence.