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“But inappropriate for our current situation, don’t you think?” she accused. He grimaced and she further attacked, “I don’t want you here.”
“I didn’t think you did.”
Flustered and just wanting to escape to her office to regroup her thoughts without him there to witness, she asked, “Then why are you here?”
He took a long breath. “That, my dearest Natalie, is a long story.”
“I’m not your dearest Natalie. I’m not your anything.”
Matthew raked his fingers through his inky hair, then glanced down the busy hospital corridor. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk?”
“Are you asking as my new boss?” Okay, her tone had been a bit snarky, but at the moment she didn’t care. “Because otherwise, my answer is that we have nothing to say to each other. Not ever.”
“Natalie—”
“Don’t Natalie me. From the moment we said goodbye at the airport, I’ve been Dr. Sterling to you. Nothing more. Your three days expired long ago.”
His expression taking on the dark and dangerous one he’d worn so well at the airport and on the plane, he nodded, as if her response didn’t surprise him. Then again, why should he be surprised? He’d known what he was doing: stealing her dream job.
“Fine. As your new boss, is there somewhere we can talk in private?”
Without a word, Natalie led him down the corridor of offices. When she came to the one with her name on the brass plate, she punched in a code, then twisted the handle.
Opening the door, she paused, facing him. “I’m only letting you in because you’re my boss now. No other reason.”
His expression just as terse as her insides felt, he nodded. “Understood.”
She moved aside, let him into her office, then shut the door behind her, wondering if she could claim temporary insanity if she lashed out at him for invading and upsetting her well-planned life.
If Matthew had had the slightest doubt as to Natalie’s intentions on inviting him into her office, she’d made it clear before letting him pass through her doorway, and immediately began reiterating her feelings the moment the door clicked closed.
“Is this some kind of sick joke to you?”
“A joke?”
“Taking a job in Memphis.” As if she couldn’t be still, she paced across the room. “Why in the world would you leave your research in Boston?”
“I didn’t leave my research, just relocated the parts I’ll remain involved with to Memphis,” he explained, wishing she’d sit down and let him tell her about the events that had led him to this moment.
Interest piqued, she lifted her brows. “Your research with the Libertine robot? How can you do that?”
“The Libertine research will continue in Boston, but it has gotten approval for use and will soon be available to other areas. Expanding my work to a second location, bringing my experience, will be of benefit to the medical community as a whole.”
“You just happened to choose Memphis for this expansion?” She shook her head. “I’m not buying it.”
“Even if I didn’t have personal reasons, with Memphis Children’s Hospital and St Jude’s located here, it’s a great location for my research. You can’t deny that.”
“Personal reasons?” She glared at him with pure loathing. “If you think for one minute your being here changes anything between us, you’re wrong.”
His being here changed everything, including how he could think of Natalie. What had been a pleasant interlude from reality had turned into a nightmare for them both.
“I chose Memphis before I ever met you.”
As what he said sank in, her eyes widened. “You knew about this when we were in Miami? That you were moving to Memphis?”
Matthew raked his fingers through his hair again and sought for the right place to begin, to make her understand how they’d ended up in this exact moment.
“How could you?” she accused before he got a word out. “How could you smile and laugh with me when you knew that we were going to have to see each other day after day, that you were going to be my boss. You had sex with me anyway?”
