Chapter Five #3
This was decidedly adult, and was something she hadn’t been looking for.
But it had come and found her all the same.
Perhaps that was why she felt hunted. And he was still touching her, his hands hot and rough, still looking at her, those eyes fathomlessly deep and utterly unreadable.
If he was feeling what she did, she would never know.
His was the black unknown of the darkest sea.
“Yes,” he said. “This will be perfect.”
She took a breath, desperate to gain her footing back.
To gain some of her own back. He might be her boss, he might be older, he might be more experienced in life, in the world, but they had sat across from each other eating lunch for two years, and she would be damned if she let him make her feel small.
“I need to look at rings for him as well.” She smiled at the attendant.
“Of course.”
“Gold,” she said. “Yellow gold. I would prefer something with symbolism.”
“It will only be one moment.”
He didn’t say anything, but he was watchful in that way of his. That way that let her know she might well be in danger. That was just fine with her.
She would take the danger. She would take the challenge.
A tray was presented only a few moments later. Rings of gold, many woven together in a knot pattern. But her eye was caught by a simple design, a gold band with a geometric pattern that she recognized as being quintessentially Greek.
“What is that?”
“Oh,” the woman said, picking up one of the gleaming rings and holding it out toward her. “This is Meandros. The interlocking pattern is unbroken and is a symbol of infinity.”
She was suddenly filled with spite. And took the ring out of the woman’s hand, and held it in her palm.
“I think that will be perfect. Unbroken. Eternity. With the one thing you value most.” She lifted her eyes and met his gaze.
Of course anyone watching would think that she meant her.
What she meant was his company. This would be her wedding gift to him.
She would pay for it herself out of her outrageous earnings.
Because the one thing he would have left would be his company.
She needed to remember that. That this had nothing to do with her.
That there was nothing romantic about it.
Of course he had managed to choose a ring that was perfect for her. Because he knew her. Perhaps that was why it had been so easy for him to manipulate her into doing this.
You were hardly manipulated.
She wanted to snuff her inner voice out like a misbehaving candle. She hadn’t asked for a fair and balanced reporting of the situation. She wanted to feel sorry for herself. Standing there wearing a diamond ring with astronomical value.
“If that is what you think suits us best, my Cricket,” he said.
“I think so. But unfortunately you can’t wear it until the wedding.”
“Unfortunately,” he said.
He selected a matching band to go with her ring, and those jewels were packed up and sent back to his home, while she wore the outrageous engagement ring on her hand.
From there they went to the bridal store, where he sat in a room by himself while she tried on gorgeous bespoke gowns made of the most glorious fabric she had ever beheld.
Buttery smooth and light. This wasn’t a real wedding, but she didn’t plan on ever getting married.
So she let herself get lost in the fantasy.
There was no other man she ever meant to do this with.
She put on a strapless gown with a sweetheart neckline with a glorious chiffon overlay that made her look like she was floating when she walked.
The trouble was it was far too easy to imagine walking toward Alex like it was something romantic.
She felt dizzy after the whole day. Everything was Alex, everything.
That moment in the ring shop.
She had tried to gain her own footing back. But...
This was all beginning to get to her.
When she was out of the gown and back in her street clothes, Alex came back and pointed at a vivid pink dress on a mannequin. “And what is that?”
“A special occasion dress.” The attendant looked at him. “Would you like me to get that down for her to try on?”
“Yes. She can wear it to dinner.”
Verity didn’t have time to argue before she was bundled back into the dressing room, and practically stitched into the dress. It had a flowing skirt, and the top gave away almost every secret she possessed.
The attendant gave her a pair of hot pink Barbie heels to put on with it, and when she stumbled out of the dressing room like a frightened, sexed-up baby deer, she was sure that she must look ridiculous. She didn’t look at the mirror. Rather she looked at Alex’s face. And she saw...
Exactly what she had hoped to see when she had played games with his wedding band. He was the one who was dumbfounded. Except she realized, it wasn’t about a ring, or about her knowing him. It was her boobs. Which was actually not all that satisfying.
Liar.
Okay. Maybe it was a little bit satisfying to know that she had affected him in some way.
“Perfect,” he said.
She was hungry for more. For something. For it to not feel like there was a wall between the two of them. She wondered if she was asking for just a bit too much. But the way that he had looked at her had hooked on to something inside of her, was forcing her to reckon with some hard truths.
If she didn’t have Stavros to distract her then she had to admit that she found her boss more compelling than any other man she had ever met. Her boss, who was absolutely, unequivocally the last man she should ever be interested in.
Not only because he was her boss, but because he was everything she had ever told herself she needed to avoid. He could hurt her.
She had been hurt enough.
So she locked down any of the feelings that were trying to claw their way to the surface, and she met his gaze. “Perfect for?”
“Dinner. We are dining in the city tonight.”