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She stood in front of his desk and handed him her resignation. Her lips parted to let him have it, but all coherent thought fled at the sight of his brilliant blue eyes staring up at her. He looked like he hadn’t slept in at least a week. All her hard work, days spent putting together the best revenge rant in history gone to waste.
But she had to say something.
“I quit.” Hands on hips, she decided to go on gut instinct and say whatever came to mind. “You are the biggest jerk on this planet. Do you know that? Are you aware?”
He opened his mouth to speak; she cut him off with a violent sweep of her hand.
“No! I listened to you when you decided to pat me on the head and send me home. Alone. Now it’s my turn.” She pushed up the sleeves on her sweater as if getting ready for a physical altercation. In truth, she was getting too warm with the heater on, her anger, and his intense gaze. “When I agreed to fool your family into believing we were in love, I must have been out of my mind. It was the dumbest decision I’ve ever made.”
She paused long enough to take a much-needed breath. “But then something amazing happened. I fell in love with you. That’s right. I was stupid enough to let you into my heart and silly enough to believe you were falling for me.”
Tears pricked the backs of her eyes. Determined not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry, she headed for the door. He called her name. She stopped long enough to gesture to the letter in his hands. “I can’t work here another minute,” she said. “No matter what perks you offer me or promises you make, I can’t deal with seeing you every day with what might have been stuck on constant repeat in my head.”
She walked out, slamming the door behind her.
♥♥♥
Skylar stared at the resignation in his hands. Cold fear filled his heart. If he allowed Anna to leave the building without knowing how he felt, it was over. Somehow he knew he’d never see her again. He’d lose her forever. His mother and grandmother were right. Anna Burkhart was the one woman in the whole world with strengths that made up for his weaknesses, enough understanding and patience to deal with him, and the unconditional love he needed.
She was his soul-mate.
He ran out the door, shot past several astonished partners, and raced down the hallway to her office. He caught sight of her from the corner of one eye. She was waiting for an elevator. Quickly he reversed direction, but she saw him coming. She hopped onto a crowded elevator as the door slid shut.
He shouted her name.
She stared down at her clasped hands, effectively ignoring him.
He reached the elevator too late. It was already descending with her and his future trapped inside. Thinking fast, he took the stairs. He went down them at breakneck speed, hitting the wall a couple of times, and he jumped over the last four steps to reach the door. He had to beat the elevator and stop it from continuing to the lobby.
Three floors down from where they’d begun, he pushed the button and waited for it to stop. The door slid open to reveal a startled Anna. Face pale and hands trembling she gasped at the sight of him. Without giving her a chance to protest, he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her behind him to an empty elevator.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “I do not want to go back up to the office.”
“But that’s where your gift is.” He pulled her into the elevator and hit the button without releasing her arm. “Your Christmas gift. You didn’t open it.”
She rolled her eyes. “So what? I am not in the mood to open a present. Give it to someone else.”
“I can’t. It’s yours.”
♥♥♥
The elevator stopped and Anna shuddered with it. Her mind worked overtime as she searched for a way to extract herself from the situation without making a scene. She hurried ahead of him to her office since that was their destination. She didn’t want to give her colleagues something else to gossip about, so she stopped fighting him. It would be easier to just open the present. Then she would give it back to him, whatever it was, and tell him she didn’t need a parting gift.
She grabbed an empty box next to her secretary’s desk on her way in. Entering her office ahead of him. “You understand if I don’t want to give you two weeks’ notice, right?”
Skylar retrieved her present while she tossed personal belongings into the box. He checked the gift from every angle. The red wrapping remained in place, untouched, but the gold ribbon and bow had fallen off. He held it out to her. “Open it.”
“Yes, sir.” She performed a mocking salute. “Your every wish is my command.”
His lips twitched, and amusement glinted in his eyes.
She silently swore she’d hit him if he smiled. What was so blasted funny about their situation? She was ready to burst into tears at losing himandher job, and he seemed to be on the verge of spontaneous laughter. Considering the only way to get rid of him was to open the gift, she ripped the paper to shreds with violent movements.
Beneath the wrapping was a plain white box. She lifted the lid and gasped in shock.Noway! Carefully she lifted the glass jewelry box out with trembling hands. “Is this my... how did you find it?”
She set the jewelry box on her desk and sank into her office chair. Her body felt rubbery, numb from head to foot. Her vision drowned in unshed tears. She swiped at her eyes, desperate to clear them so she could see what was inside her jewelry box.
Skylar explained. “The firm has a private investigator on retainer. I sent him out to find your mother’s friend, the one that told you she would hold onto some stuff from your childhood. He tracked her in just two days. There’s a whole box of stuff at my house. But you mentioned the jewelry box specifically, so I wrapped it.”
