So cold. It was like taking a step back in the past, where I don’t mean anything to him again.
Only I know him now. I know his soul and his heart.
I look down to where his fingers are still around my arm, before pulling myself out of his grip. “I don’t want a fucking thing from you.”
He sighs, stepping back and loosening his tie in the way that I know he did only when he was frustrated. “Come to dinner tonight. I may as well write your check.”
“My what?” He better have not said what I think he did.
Barbie behind me clears her throat. “Bryant, did you want to see me?” Her eyelashes flutter, her shoulders hunched in a submissive stance. It was as though she was too afraid to look the man in his eyes.
I throw my head back and laugh. “If you think you’re going to last ten seconds with Bryant, you are so very wrong. To marry a wolf, one must become a wolf, and you seem more like the prey.”
She dismisses me without a single word, turning and walking out of the conference room.
“She won’t bite, Isa.” Bryant’s voice cuts through my anger, and I close my eyes.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Motherfucker.
I slowly turn to face him. The sun is setting behind the large floor to ceiling windows, leaving a burnt orange hue across the sky and offering the perfect lighting to shadow every defined feature on his face. “You replaced me.” I said the words aloud, but I was really repeating them to myself again. Needing to hear it once more. Maybe it will solidify the fact that I have to let go.
He doesn’t want me.
He allowed my father to take me.
He didn’t save me.
I hate him. I should hate him. I should want to hurt him.
I will hurt him.
He takes one step toward me. “She won’t bite because she’s trained not to do so.”
I don’t answer. My brain is still trying to wrap itself around my own words.
You replaced me.
His hand comes to my chin, tilting my face up to his. He peers down at me and I don’t know if it’s the proximity, or my mind playing tricks on me, but I see a flash of the old Bryant in there. My Bryant. Only deep down, I know that every part of this man is mine. Will always be mine. “You look good, Isa.”
I swallow past the hurt. “Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
The cushion of his thumb glides over my bottom lip. “Am I the type of man to use my breath on lies?”
My eyes collide with his. “Why did you replace me?”
“I didn’t,” he answers, dropping his hand. I instantly miss his touch. The hunger of not having him in my life all-consuming. I may not survive this. “You’re irreplaceable.”
“And you talk a lot of shit.” My anger once again ascends to the surface. His eyes snap to mine and his shoulders tighten. “Remember who the fuck you’re talking to, baby, or I’ll have you bent over this fucking desk with bite marks on your ass.”
He steps back. “The house in Connecticut. Be there. On time at six.” I take one more look at him. The pain that flashes over his eyes before his fingers dig through his hair distracts me briefly from the pain he has caused. “Leave.”
I head for the door, flipping off the pert little bitch at the reception desk. As I stepped through the open doors of the elevator, I duck my head out and catch her glaring at me.
“For your information, Bryant is my husband, so next time I walk through this fucking building, don’t call security unless you want to be jobless.”
Then I step back inside and let out a long breath as the doors close in front of me.
I hate this.
The elevator lowers, taking me to the lobby as I step out and rush through the doors and onto the busy street. I love New York, it is my favorite place in the whole United States, but right now, the towering buildings only remind me of the monster who owns them.
Arriving back at the hotel room, I toss my jacket onto the small table that’s right behind the door and find Max on the bed, his knees drawn up.
“Everything okay?” His eyes are slightly frantic as he nibbles on his bottom lip softly.
It’s a side I haven’t seen from Max, since he’s all Me Tarzan, you Jane. Usually.
“Fine,” I say, running my hands through my dark blonde hair nervously. I hope Max agrees to come tonight. Since Bryant has clearly moved on with someone else, I want to make it as if I have too. “We have to go to his house for dinner tonight.”
“We?” Max quirks an eyebrow, standing from the bed and making his way toward me. I want to step back. Not give him any more of myself than I already have, but then images of the blonde bitch flash through my brain and I step forward instead of back.