Total pages in book: 224
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 215705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1079(@200wpm)___ 863(@250wpm)___ 719(@300wpm)
My hand firms on his chest. “Alone is the last thing we need to be. I can’t do this, Reid. I won’t do this.”
“It doesn’t seem to me that either of us has a choice.”
“You,” I say, “have many choices, many of which involve me. I have two. Stay or go. And right now, I’m going.”
“Let’s go talk,” he says. “Just talk.”
“We won’t talk. We’ll fight or fuck, and neither of those things work in my favor. Let me go, Reid, or I swear to you I’ll start screaming.”
“We both know you won’t do that.” His eyes harden. “But if that’s what you want, I’ll let you go.” He does. He lets me go and I should be pleased, but I’m not. I hate that he let go. I hate he didn’t fight me on this as much as he fights me on everything else, but why would he? It’s a fuck. He, no doubt, has a proverbial black book of women. He’s Reid-fucking-Maxwell.
I step around him and start walking, steady and controlled though I don’t feel controlled at all. I feel the weight of his attention, of him watching my every step, and when I reach the corner, I tell myself not to turn, but I do. I turn, and I find him at the railing dividing us from the ocean, his hands on the steel bars, his head lowered. As if I’ve affected him. As if the unbreakable Reid Maxwell has a crack in his steel. I don’t know why I want to believe it matters, or that I matter. The truth is, he isn’t a man that knows rejection. I’m a rejection to him and rejection has to be conquered. I can’t forget that. I am nothing but a conquest to this man in all ways. I admire that in him, but I hate it, too. I turn away and start walking. I hate him and yet, I don’t.
I don’t hate him.
And that’s a problem, a weakness. And a weakness is not something I can allow myself to have with a man like Reid Maxwell. All he can see is me meeting him head to head, conquering him as he tries to conquer me. And I will, just not tonight, and not with his mouth all over me.
Chapter sixteen
Carrie
Instead of sleeping, I spend the night alternating between thinking about Reid and thinking about Reid. By the time I finally try to sleep, I’m back to Reid—there’s a surprise—wondering what it would have been like to go home with him. Wondering what the apartment of a man like Reid looks like. Wondering too much about a man, who—oh God. He has my panties! He doesn’t get to keep my panties. Not him. Not after ordering me to go home after fucking me on his desk.
I grab my phone and I’m about to hit Reid’s number when I come to my senses. What am I doing? I can’t call him about my panties. Why would I even consider such a thing? In fact, he can keep my panties. That’s as close to owning me he gets to come. Except maybe when he kissed me by the water tonight. He’d felt different like he had during that few minutes in his office when he’d held me and didn’t seem to want to let me go. It wasn’t just him though. I’d been different. We’d been different. In those moments, we’d felt connected beyond handcuffs and some unspoken mutual conquest between us. In those moments, I’d felt myself falling for Reid, which was, and is, insanity. He’s the man who stole my father’s company.
I’m not falling for Reid Maxwell. I’m not that stupid. I ran from him tonight to make sure I’m not that stupid. I punch my pillow and roll over. “Sleep,” I order, myself. “Sleep.”
I sit straight up. Oh God. I ran. He’s going to see that as a weakness. I can’t afford to have that man think I’m weak, which is exactly why I can’t be getting personal with him. He’ll judge what he sees outside the office. I reach for my phone again and set it right back down. Calling him would also seem weak. Tomorrow I will own my decision to walk away tonight. Because that’s all Reid will respect.
I don’t remember falling asleep, but suddenly the alarm is going off and I sit up, exhausted to the bone, but I’m out of the bed in seconds, hurrying to the shower. I need to do something. I need to take action and win back my company. Nothing else can matter. Reid will not distract me ever again. Exactly why I dress in a simple black dress with no buttons. I’m keeping my top on and my panties, too. In fact, I wear my favorite black lace panties that I’d never allow to be torn.