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“How am I the bad person here? I came with you. Followed you into this fucking cold weather and got you tickets to the damn Christmasfest.”
She snapped her gaze back to him, flames flickering in her eyes. Then she smiled and a ball of ice formed in his gut. He’d fucked up. On a massive scale.
“You’re right, Mr. Rhodes. You’re not. I appreciate what you did.” Then a mask fell over her expression and he couldn’t read her. There was nothing. No anger, rage, disappointment. No anything.
The woman beside him could have been carved out of stone. As soon as they returned to the hotel, he expected her to dash out, but she waited for Finnegan to open the door.
“Thank you, Finnegan. I appreciate it.”
“Ms. Wentz,” he said with a smile. One that had a growl of possession rumbling up Livingston’s throat.
He gave the man a nod and headed after Daisy. She had stopped at the desk and was talking to the woman there as she accepted some messages. He waited for her at the elevator. Not that it took long, she wasn’t far behind him. His little spitfire still didn’t speak to him, and she was very decisive about closing her door in his face.
Yanking on his tie, he kicked off his shoes as he went through the suite. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty of work waiting for him in his office but damnit, this woman had screwed him up in the head and all he wanted to do was be near her. Talk to her, get that ice to melt.
He tossed his tie to land on his bed and shoved his feet into a pair of slip-on loafers. Then he went to her door and slapped his hand on it three times.
“Daisy!”
The door opened and she waved him in but she was on the phone. He entered and closed it behind him.
“That’s right, Tedi. You have to keep those as well. You’re doing fine, honey. Keep all of those receipts and I’ll swing by when I’m done here. It won’t be until after Christmas but I will come help you get it all straight. Nope, it’s not a problem.” She laughed and the sound punched him in the gut.
“I have to go, have to finish up this job I’m at now.” Daisy touched her ear and walked over to the table. “One minute, Mr. Rhodes.” She moved something lying there and rolled her shoulders as she bounced on her toes.
His lips twitched. No shoes, and today’s socks were like she’d skinned the Grinch and put him on her feet.
“Hey, Vi, I’ve not been able to get in touch with Iris. Have you heard from her?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I tried both numbers. I know there’s that huge storm but I’ve not even heard if she made it out to the house. Let me know if you hear, yeah? Thanks. Gotta go. No, I’m not talking to you about that, not now. Hanging up. Love you.”
“Who’s Iris?”
“My sister.” She took her earbud out and dropped it on the table. “None of us have heard from her for a few days.” She firmed her lips. “Not pertinent to this. What are you doing here? I was on my way to your office, figured you’d be back working there.”
“You’re still mad at me.”
“I have neither the time nor the inclination to be mad at you, Mr. Rhodes. To do so would imply that you mean something to me other than a job and that simply isn’t the case.”
Damn that hurts.
He took a step toward her but his phone rang and when he pulled it from his pocket, he froze at the name, Eli Mattson.
“I have to take this.”
Her response was to walk back to the whiteboards across the room.
“I’m such a bitch,” she muttered as he closed the door behind him, leaving her alone in the room.
Scrubbing a hand over her face, she groaned. When she stared at the boards once more, she frowned and rushed to her pile of filled legal pads. She flipped through to the fourth one and lifted it. About a third of the way into the pad, she found what she needed.
Shit!
Rapidly pinning her hair up in a loose bun, she got to work, streamlining what she’d found and the true culprit of everything. It took her two hours to get it all lined up how she wanted for her presentation. Another hour to clean off her boards and pack away the additional items she’d not used. The used legal pads she spent time shredding, they weren’t something she would take with her or risk the information falling into anyone else’s hands.
Then she packed her bags and got herself a flight out of the city. She wasn’t staying here, that man was too much of a distraction and she just…couldn’t.
