“Why you’re buying my company?” she asked, looking confused and I nearly laughed. Was it so unbelievable to her that I might want to be with her?
“Yeah, why I’m buying your company and why I’m here,” I told her and she licked her lips.
“You’re buying my company because you wanted to have sex with me? Wow. You’ve got a lot of money to spare, Grant,” she said and this time I really did laugh.
“No, that’s only partially true. I do believe you have a brilliant product and I also didn’t want some other company to buy you out, who wouldn’t keep your work alive,” I explained and Beverley fell silent. She had her nose crinkled and her eyes narrowed. She was thinking about what I’d said and it appeared that she was still in disbelief.
“You’ve said all this before, and yet you turned up here today trying to prove your authority over my employees,” she said and I noticed that her voice had become a little quiet. I took in a deep breath and nodded my head.
“You’re right. I was being malicious. Coming her and inducting your employees was overstepping on my part. I suppose I wanted to assert some of my authority,” I told her and Beverly clenched her jaw.
“Why?” she asked and I shook my head. I didn’t know how to explain it to her, without also confessing everything.
“Because I was trying to pin you down. I want you to come and work with me, and you somehow keep slipping away,” I said in a calm voice. Her eyes still looked too large for her face, she couldn’t quite put two and two together yet.
“Pin me down? Why? I don’t understand what you have to gain from all this,” she said and I shrugged my shoulders.
“I told you I care for your company and your work. I would benefit from your expertise at my company,” I said and she glared at me with her squinted eyes.
“That’s it? You want my expertise so you come here trying to strong-arm me into submission?” she said and I remained silent. I wanted her to do the math but it was looking like I would have to spell it out for her after all. She still had no idea how I felt about her.
“Yeah, that and also because I wanted to keep seeing you. I suppose after our little rendezvous at the bar, I figured there would be no other way to get your attention other than to piss you off,” I said and Beverley gulped.
The expression on her face was changing now, her shoulders were relaxing.
“You wanted to keep seeing me?” she said, repeating my words and I cleared my throat nervously. I couldn’t remember the last time I had said those words to a girl before. I wasn’t sure what the consequences of that would be, especially with Beverley Wade.
“So, it is just about the sex,” she said and I clenched my jaw.
“It’s more than just about the sex,” I blurted out and her eyes widened again.
We were looking at each other silently. Maybe it was starting to make sense to her now, or maybe it wasn’t; but I didn’t want to take a chance.
“Since college I’ve wanted us to be friends, to get to know each other,” I told her and she took in a deep breath.
“We were competitors in college,” she said and I shook my head.
“You competed with me. I didn’t want that,” I told her and Beverley stepped towards me. Our faces were now only inches away, and if I wanted; I could have just leaned in and kissed her.
“So, what did you want? Your friends made fun of me, you kept your distance…how did you even dream of being my friend?” she asked and I shrugged my shoulders.
“The heart wants what the heart wants,” I said and there was deathly silence again. She was weighing out those words. I had got the heart involved in our midst now and I knew that was a heavy word. Beverley gulped as she stared up at me. Her face was ruddy, her cheeks were flushed and I was so close to simply pulling her into my arms and pressing our bodies together.
“I…I didn’t want to compete with you, Grant,” she said and those words came as a relief to me. I never doubted that she thrived on that competition. I had been so convinced that she despised me that I hadn’t thought about whether she was hiding her true feelings from me as well.
“I wanted us to get to know each other as well,” she said with fumbling words.
Despite myself, I smiled and Beverley bit down on her lip. We were standing close together, her back to the wall, studying each others faces.
“We can start now,” I said and lowered my face towards her, bringing my lips close to hers. In a flash, she had thrown her arms around my neck and drawn me close to her.
“You’re right, being naked together is a lot of fun,” she said and we were kissing.
Chapter 21
Beverley
This time when we kissed it was a hungry one. With our lips pressed together, I had already started unbuttoning his shirt. I had been angry with me, absolutely enraged only a few minutes ago and now I was ripping his shirt off his chest.