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“Your parents want you back, Bella. You left them high and dry. Their only child not taking over the business when they needed you most.” To Eli he said, “I understand what the two of you have in common.”
Eli’s glare turned murderous, eyes honed in on Josh like a pair of heat-seeking missiles. “You have two seconds to get the fuck away from us.”
Josh’s eyes flitted left then right, visibly nervous, but he stood his ground. “We’re in public, Crane. I’d hate to see you make the paper for an unbecoming reaction.”
“One.” Fists balled, Eli took a step closer and Isa felt his biceps flex beneath her palm. Josh had a few inches of height on Eli, but nothing in the way of muscles on his upper half. Eli would mop the floor with him.
“Very well.” Josh held up both hands in a surrendering gesture. He stepped back from an advancing Eli and straightened his tie. “Enjoy the party.”
Josh turned and walked away, nothing in his demeanor suggesting he was riled.
“He’s good at that,” she told Eli. “Saying the right words to ignite your temper, then walking away cool as a cucumber.”
“What did you see in that asshole?” Eli grumbled, his intense focus now on her.
“I wish I could remember. I was a different person when he and I dated. He’d rage and I’d step down.”
“What kind of rage, Isa?” Eli’s voice gentled as he lifted a palm to her jaw. He searched her face, his expression a mixture of hurt and concern. “Did he ever…Did he hit you?”
“Eli. No.” She shook her head vehemently. Josh was a jerk but had never crossed a line. He was all show. “Nothing like that. He delivered an ultimatum when he wasn’t successful at getting my compliance. That’s it.”
“That’s enough.” Eli swept his thumb over her lip. When his eyes returned to hers there was more concern swimming there. “This scar?”
“I fell out of a tree when I was eight.” She smiled. He’d noticed that tiny silver mark on her lip. He cared. She liked how Eli’s intensity had focused to a finite point—her.
“You don’t want to be here, do you?” he asked.
She shook her head and then told him the truth. “The only good part about being here is being with you.”
Eli dipped his head and covered her mouth with his, a claiming, delicious kiss she hoped her mother and Josh and everyone in the room witnessed. She hummed, feeling warm and relaxed and happy.
Against her lips, he made her an offer she didn’t want to refuse. “Then let’s get the hell out of here.”
***
As Eli pulled from the valet station, he had an uncomfortable realization. He’d put Isa in a similar situation at work as Josh had when she’d dated him. Eli had been the one pushing her and challenging her at every turn. Hell, he’d fired her several times.
For a second he’d worried that Josh had hit her. He’d never believed someone could actually see red until the crimson veil washed over his vision. Josh was lucky Eli believed her, because if he’d sensed that Isa was fudging the truth even a little, Eli would have beat the other man unidentifiable.
There was never an excuse to physically harm a woman, which made him wonder if he’d crossed a line of his own.
“I cut the buttons off your shirt,” he said in the quiet air of the car, shame coating him.
“Uh. Yes. I remember.”
“You weren’t scared of me then?”
“Of course not,” she said so easily, he turned and looked to where she lounged in the passenger seat. Elbow on the edge of the window, she twirled a loose piece of her hair, giving him a smug smile.
“Because I’m so cuddly?” he asked. She put a hand over his and the pressure in his chest eased. She didn’t see him the way she saw her ex—as overpowering her. If anything, she’d overpowered Eli—and his sensibilities.
“When I was with Josh, I was different. I didn’t know what I wanted. Now I do…”
She let her voice trail off and Eli wondered if she’d been about to admit she wanted him.
“Josh never loved me for me. He loved the idea of our partnership. Like my parents, he was enamored with the dollhouse style of our coupling.”
Eli could relate. When he and Crystal had dated, she’d gone on and on about having a family and a house and a sizable yard. What she’d failed to see was that he wasn’t the kind of man who wanted a house with a yard to mow every weekend.
