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“You aren’t driving me anywhere. Time got away from me and I have a dinner engagement. Just do a full lockdown when you leave, please.” He smiled at Lila before turning toward Nick. His smile noticeably thinned. “Understanding your position doesn’t mean you are in the right. She deserves far more credit.” Then he shifted back toward Lila again. “Tell him what we discussed. It’s important.”
Lips pressed together, Lila nodded. “I will.”
Nick frowned as the door shut softly behind Donovan. “What discussion?”
“Not yet.” She moved to Donovan’s desk and did something quickly on the computer. She was probably hiding all vital financials or something from Nick’s prying eyes.
Like he gave a shit what Donovan got up to in this icy tower of his.
Finally, she stepped back and took a shaky breath. “Do you truly think so little of me?”
Nick swallowed hard. “Li—”
She shook her head and strode to the windows, opening the fancy reflective blinds that obscured the view. The lights of LA in the distance appeared, the vantage from Donovan’s lofty tower perch beyond stunning.
For a second, Nick returned to a much different night, years ago now. One where Li had given him a proper dressing down before a difficult concert and he’d followed through by visiting her office afterward. She’d been nearly alone in the building, as it had been late that evening too. Even later than it was now. When he’d walked into her office, full of righteous fury and so much more, she was gazing out her window just as she was now, though her scope was different than Donovan’s due to the tower’s incredible height. She’d seemed utterly alone to him, and at once, his anger had ebbed.
He didn’t have anger in him now, just regret.
“I’m sorry.” He shut his eyes and shook his head. “Jumping to conclusions like that is indefensible.”
She was quiet for a long moment. “Do you think I’d ever do that to you?After my past, do you honestly think I could?”
“No,” he said finally, hating that what he’d done and said had reminded her of her fucker ex for even one second. “It’s not about what you would do.”
“Oh, really.”
“You’re the fucking sun and moon to me, and I can’t believe a sane man could even be near you and not want you. But it’s not because I don’t trust you. It’s all of them.” He let out a frustrated breath as she pivoted to face him, one slim brow raised in a fashion much like her boss’s. “Also, Lewis is a female’s fucking wet dream. All these years, I’d kind of hoped his suits were just cut really well and he wasn’t a goddamned Adonis under there. But nope.” Nick shook his head in disgust. “Bastard.”
A hint of a smile curved her lush mouth. “I’ve never noticed him that way. Clearly, you have.”
“Who hasn’t? I’m straight as an arrow, but I have eyes.”
“Yes, well, so do I, and I don’t view him in a sexual manner. He’s my employer, Nicholas, and only my employer.”
“You mean like I was just your client?” He didn’t mean to say it. Especially not when he sensed her irritation in his direction was weakening.
But not her hurt, and he’d just brought it storming back to the fore with his insensitive remark.Asshole.
“Look, I didn’t mean—”
“Oh, yes, you did. And you aren’t wrong.” She ran a hand over her hair, adjusting the tidy clip that held back the silken strands he’d felt against his skin more times than he could count. Never enough.
He’d never have enough of her.
“I never intended to be like Martin and misuse my influence,” she said, bringing him back to the conversation. “I resisted for a long time.” She smiled faintly. “I did a fine job of convincing both of us I hated you.”
“You didn’t misuse shit with me, and we both know it. If I hadn’t come to your office that night, you never would’ve made a move. I’d still be fucking dreaming of you and you’d be—goddammit, I don’t know what you’d be. Alone still? With some traditional dude who is perfect for you on paper and couldn’t begin to love you the way I do?”
The tilt of her head allowed him to see the minute tremble of her chin. “You don’t know what would’ve happened. I don’t know either. You can wonder and question the difference one action would make, if the timing had just been a little different, if things had aligned in another way—”
“Randy.”
She nodded. “I can’t stop thinking about it. I feel responsible.”
“Fuck, no.” He’d been trying to give her space because she wasn’t happy with him right now, but there were conversations he couldn’t have with distance between them.
This was one of them.
