His Terms

Rian glanced at her, and for a few seconds he didn’t speak. When he finally did he sounded annoyed and tense. “It really isn’t that big of a deal, or it wasn’t at first.”

“What do you mean?” She shifted in her seat to face him better, and a second later he was putting up the privacy screen that separated the back from the front of the car.

“It’s nothing, just work, and then a slight annoyance from a…” He glanced away for a moment, and she saw his jaw harden.

“A lover scorned?” She phrased it like a question even though she already knew that was what the drama was about.

Rian looked at her again. “That obvious?”

She shrugged. “It was an educated guess given the number of women you’ve pissed off.”

He started chuckling. “I can’t argue that.” His voice was so deep, but soft right now. This was the Rian she liked being around.

“But seriously, there isn’t going to be an ex-girlfriend that comes knocking on the door ready to kick my ass, is there?” She was half teasing. Although she could handle herself, Sorcha really didn’t want any drama, even if she was only with Rian for seven days.

“She wouldn’t get past security.” He said it in a teasing manner, but there was truth behind his words, she could feel it.

“Great, like this whole situation wasn’t awkward enough.” She chuckled uncomfortably, and turned back around so she was facing the front.

“Some women just don’t know what it means when a man says they don’t want any more.”

She slowly looked at him. “Are you serious?”

He looked at her as if she were the one that had lost her mind. “Very.”

“So it wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you use women as if they were nothing more than vessels to unload your orgasms into?” Sorcha was blunt, but Rian was the type of man that needed to hear that. He could be conceited, arrogant, cocky, and could be an all around douche-bag. Maybe it was his upbringing, the fact that he had whatever he wanted at the tips of his fingers, women included? Or maybe he was hiding something deeper inside, reflecting that in his actions? She didn’t know, but it wasn’t her place to question it anyway.

“Coarse and crude language for a lady, Sorcha.” He said the words with a bite to them, but she didn’t care if she pissed him off.

“You didn’t specify that you wanted a lady in your contract, Rian. If that’s what you wanted you picked the wrong woman.” He didn’t respond, but then again she didn’t think he would. “You used those women, Rian, just like you’re using me.” She was silent for a moment. “You’ve shown me a different side of you, a softer side. How can you expect a woman not to fall for you?”

He stared at her with this stormy and pissed off expression, but also something else flickered in his blue eyes. Was he thinking about what she had just said? She hadn’t exactly hidden her own emotions.

“This conversation is finished, Sorcha.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not finished, Rian. If I have to be subjected to some jealous rich bitch coming at me because she is in love with you and thinks I’m stealing you away from her, I think all of this needs to be brought to light.” She stared at him just as hard as he was watching her. “You use women until a time when you don’t want them anymore. Hell, you’re doing it to me, because clearly a week is the cutoff time in which you can deal with my presence.”

“It’s not that—”

She held up her hand and shook her head. “I’m the last person to judge anyone. I signed that contract, took the money you offered, so I am using you as much as you’re using me.” She lowered her hand to her lap. “But I also know when the truth is right in front of me. You get what you want because you’re gorgeous, intelligent, and know what you want out of life. I can appreciate and respect that. But don’t try and lie about it, least of all to yourself.”

He stayed silent, and she knew that her words had penetrated him. He faced forward, his brow furrowed as he thought, but she didn’t continue speaking. She had said what she needed to say, and what he needed to hear. He had said he liked her not backing down, not to get sucked into his alpha-ness—clearly her words not his—and so she had delivered on that.

But on the heels of what she had said, Sorcha couldn’t think about her own words, and reflect them on her. Glancing at Rian again she saw that his hands were in tight fists on his thighs, his knuckles white from the strain. He was facing away from her, but his reflection showed an almost distant and forlorn expression. She could see that he knew her words were right, and what surprised her was that he wasn’t outright rejecting them.