Page 20 of I Choose You

She delivered every single word with bold authority. Confident and cool. Almost daring, like she expected to have an issue with me. I can’t blame her.

I bit my lower lip, hiding a smile. She’s really grown into herself. Gone was the quiet teenager. In her place was a determined woman who wouldn’t take shit from anyone.

“Will that be a problem?” She arched one brow and tilted her head.

“No. No problem at all.”

8

BROOKE

“This way, please.” I gestured for Kaden to follow me down the hall. As I passed the receptionist station, Sandra sat up and winked at me, mouthing you tell him, girl.

I had to turn away from him just to give myself a breather from looking at him. He didn’t request to speak with Todd instead. He simply nodded and agreed that it wouldn’t be a problem to handle this account with me.

I can’t believe I did that! Kaden wouldn’t have been the first man to hear that don’t fucking mess with me tone. Sometime between graduation and now, I’d found my backbone. But standing up to him and projecting authority threw me off. I couldn’t help but feel like an imposter telling him how things would go. The last time I’d dealt with him, I’d been in a totally different position, inferior to him and his twin. In high school, I was vulnerable and eager to not make waves to stay under everyone’s radar.

That couldn’t apply now, but I couldn’t ignore the feeling I was faking this tough persona with him.

“We can go over that contract in my office just ahead,” I told him, keeping my tone firm and reminding him I was in charge. No vulnerability here. I was an independent, headstrong working woman, and he’d be a fool to assume otherwise. If he hoped to play any games with me and treat me like the meek ugly duckling he remembered from high school, he had another thing coming.

I glanced over my shoulder to face him as I spoke. He hadn’t said a word since we entered the hallway, and that quiet unnerved me more. He glanced up, caught red-handed checking out my ass. I looked at him before facing forward.

He had the nerve to smile, not apologize or look away.

Men.

“Nice office,” he said as I let him precede me.

I narrowed my eyes as he sat in the one chair that faced mine behind the desk. What? I paused while his back was to me, analyzing his words. I did all right here, but the one window didn’t offer a grand view of the city. Is he mocking me? Trying to remind me I’m less-than somehow? I was sure he had a whole fucking suite at the Wagner Industries building.

“I have that same mouse.” He pointed at it. “Helps my tendinitis.”

I approached my chair, picking at that extra information he gave me. Why would he have tendinitis? He looks like he spends plenty of time at the gym and can tend to his fitness. And why do I care?

“Oh.” I sat, keeping a level gaze on his as I prayed I emulated a fraction of the badass I wanted to be in front of him. “Overused it?”

A blush stole across my face as the first idea of what he could do with his hand hit me.

Oh, my God. What the fuck? Stop. Just stop. I schooled myself not to react. I kept my gaze locked on his, but he gave in to a slow, sexy smile.

Dammit. He’d had the same damn thought. This meeting was about that contract I’d sent him, and this wasn’t the time for either of us to be thinking about him masturbating.

Head in the game. Come on, Brooke. I cleared my throat and straightened my already straight piles of paper.

“From tennis,” he finally replied. “Not sure what’s on your mind.”

I couldn’t look at him just yet. That blush warmed my cheeks again and I cleared my throat. Hadn’t I decided there would be no games played here? Then again, I’d walked right into that one.

“Thank you for addressing your concerns about the points on page two.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call them concerns.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing his leg so his ankle rested on the opposite knee. “Just ideas.”

I blinked. “I wasn’t aware you were in the mood for debating semantics.”

“Do you want to know what kind of a mood I’m in?”

I didn’t flinch at all. “No.”