Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 129084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129084 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
He says, “I don’t need anything.”
“Are you here to tell me you’re quitting?”
“Now, why would I do that?”
I shrug. “Figured you want to do what’s best for the company.”
“Best for the company?” He bursts out laughing. “Look, Liv—”
“It’s Olivia.”
“Olivia. Oliv-vi-a.” He rolls my name around on his tongue like he’s tasting it for the first time. “Look, Olivia, I’m not sure why you want me gone, but we need to talk about what’s really going on here.”
“What’s really going on is that you invited yourself into my world without even so much as a hello—”
“Interesting requirement since you struggle with goodbyes.”
I laugh just to mimic, to stay on even footing, though there’s no humor or believability in it. Not even to me. I’m the worst faker, even if it would serve me better after having the rug pulled out from under me.
“Hello.” His voice is calm, too comfortable for someone who shouldn’t feel that at home here, much less act like he has the upper hand. But moreover, why does he have to look so handsome in his arrogance?
It takes me a second, but then I realize what he’s doing. He’s toying with me.
I can’t even look at him without anger taking over. Walking to the window, I tighten my hands to my arms because if I don’t, I’ll be fisting them again, and I refuse to show him that weakness. “Look, Noah . . .” I start, sounding calmer at least. Keeping my eyes set on the avenue below, I shift, lowering my arms just before turning to face him. “This may be a joke to you, but it’s my life, my career, and my reputation that will be ruined in an instant if—”
“If word gets out that we slept together? Is that what you think I’d do?” He stands on the other side of my desk, an ease in my presence taking over his hard body. “You think I’d tell everyone about our night in the Hamptons, gossip about that night just to win them over as if this is a competition and only one of us survives?”
“I don’t know what you’d do because I don’t know you. Sleeping with you—”
“We didn’t sleep together.” His voice is firm, the edges of his patience tested in the reply. “I fell asleep waiting for you, so you don’t have to dance around the act of sex to make it more palatable. Just call it what it was.”
“What was it?”
“Fucking.” His eyes leave mine as his temper flares—the tic of his jaw, the hard lines of his shoulders returning when he stands.
“I can’t argue with that, but I need it to stay in the past forever.” I sit back down and pull myself forward. Clasping my hands together on the desk, I say, “I’ve worked hard to get where I am. It’s not been easy. In fact, the hoops I had to jump through to prove my value to this company and to my own father would have deterred most people. But I jumped. So if anyone finds out, it will set me back again and—”
Staring at me, not a blink shared between us, he sets his phone down and presses his palms to my desk, lowering himself until he’s eye level with me. “I won’t tell anyone.”
“Thank you.”
He straightens his back and pulls at the front of his suit jacket. “But you need to work through whatever has you so hell-bent on me leaving this company because I’m not quitting, Olivia.” I shoot daggers when he turns his back to me. Opening the door, he adds, “You’ll have to excuse me. I have a meeting.”
When he walks out, he closes the door behind him.
I suck in a harsh breath, not realizing I had stopped breathing when he was so close. I want to hate him . . . so much. But the best I can muster is hating him for turning my world upside down twice. Though I can’t hate the outcome.
Feeling a smile cross my face, I turn back to look out the window again. My gaze travels the three blocks, and my smile grows, my chest feeling lighter as joy fills me with images of my son. “It will be okay, Liv.” I jump, my smile wiped away before I could find comfort. Noah adds, “I forgot my phone.”
Our eyes go to the desk between us. He slips the phone from the surface and tucks it in his pocket. He says, “We don’t have to be enemies.”
Enemies? Is that what I’m making him?
I just worry about the damage he could do If I even open the door an inch to let him in. Until I know the man behind the smirk, the sexy swagger, and who he is on the inside, Noah Westcott is the key to my demise.