“Right now? We’re in the middle of discussing—”
“We were in the middle of discussing. Now we’re done. And, in case you can’t figure it out, the answer is no.”
He looks shocked. “But why?”
“Are you really that ignorant? You go snooping into my background without my permission, twice, open me up to all of this”—I gesture wildly to the reporters outside—“and then show up here like I owe it to you to do you this favor because you’ve decided it’s what you want. Well, screw that. I don’t like lying and I don’t like liars. I never have.”
I give up waiting for him to show himself out and march to the door. “And, by the way, since you’re in the middle of listing all the ways me doing this is going to help you out, have you done any thinking about what I get out of it? I mean, besides one massive headache.”
If possible, he looks even more surprised. “What you get out of it? I thought it was obvious.”
“What? The chance to publicly date you?” I snort. “Dude, you’re really not all that.”
“You said yourself that your business is going crazy.”
“Yes, so crazy that I’m not sure I can keep up with demand. Not being able to fulfill the orders I have is almost as bad as not having orders. And just to be clear, my business was doing just fine before you came along. I don’t need to use your name to make a living for myself and my employees.”
“I didn’t say that—”
“No, but you sure as hell implied it.” I’m close to seeing red at this point. I’ve worked my ass off to build my business from nothing, and there’s no way I’m going to stand here and listen to him imply otherwise. “And frankly, I don’t see why you need me at all. You and your ego make a beautiful couple all by yourselves.”
Now he looks angry too, which is more than fine by me. The angrier he is, the faster he’ll leave. At least, that’s always been my experience with men. Why should Garrett be any exception?
He opens his mouth to snap back, but closes it before anything can come out. Then he takes a deep breath. Runs a hand over the back of his neck. Shakes his head. Takes another deep breath and lets it out slowly.
“I’m sorry,” he finally says, after the silence has gone from seething to merely sullen. “Can we sit back down and just talk about this for a few minutes?”
There’s a tiny part of me that begrudgingly admires his self-control—and the fact that he’s still here. But that miracle doesn’t mean I’m not still pissed. “That depends.”
“On what?” Impatience flashes in his eyes but doesn’t make its way into his voice.
“On what exactly it is that you’re sorry for.”
His laugh—big and booming—breaks the last of the tension in the room, and has my anger settling down if not draining away completely. “Can I just admit that I’m an ass and then we go from there?”
“A really big ass?”
He laughs again. “A huge ass. A colossal ass, really. And it’s not that I’m blaming the job for my behavior, but…I’ve spent my life thinking of little else but my country and its best interests. Which is good for Wildemar, but not so great for my relationships with other people.”
Slowly, he walks over to the dining table and sits down. Then he picks up his coffee and gestures to the seat opposite him. “Can we try this one more time?”
“Third time’s the charm?”
“God, I hope so. I wear a size-fourteen shoe. I’ve only got so much more room in my mouth to stick the second one.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. And to cross back to the table so I can sit with him. Which is ridiculous, I know, considering every instinct I have is screaming at me to show him the door. Every instinct but one, that is, and I am so not thinking about that right now. Any more than I’m thinking about our kiss from last night.
“Fine,” I say with a shrug as I pick up my now cold cup of coffee. “Hit me with your best shot.”
He grins, then rubs his hands together like he can’t wait to dig in. And maybe he can’t—as heir to the richest and most powerful constitutional monarchy in the world, I’m pretty sure he cut his teeth on negotiations much tougher than this.
That should probably scare me, but the truth is, nothing about Garrett scares me. His life, yes. The maelstrom he’s inadvertently tossed me into, absolutely. But him, no. There’s nothing about him that is the least bit frightening—except how much I want him, even now, when I know I shouldn’t.
Chapter 13
Garrett
I want this to work.