CHAPTER NINETEEN
MASON
––––––––
“Nice place.” I say, breathing in her jasmine and spice that is unmistakable throughout the apartment.
“No, it’s not.” Lexi replies, dropping her bag and a brochure for a nearby bar, On The Rocks, onto the kitchen bench.
I rip off my blazer and put it over the back of the stool. In some ways, her straight up, slightly abrasive personality is refreshing. You get what you get with her, and I probably don’t deserve more.
We are both guilty of things.
“Would you like a drink? Let me see,” She opens the fridge. “I have wine. Probably not anything you’d like, plus it was opened two weeks ago. Or water. One beer. A half-drunk Coke.”
She half closes the door, glancing at me for an answer.
“Water is fine.” I glance around the apartment and hate this for her.
Lexi is such an intelligent and capable woman at the beginning of her adult journey. I know she’ll create something of herself, but I’ve put a bump in that road.
Or Mark did?
I fucking hate not knowing.
I’m not here to fix her life, but there’s an overwhelming desire to do just that.
What is it about this woman? I’ve never wanted to be Superman. Yet, the glint in Lexi’s eyes has burned out, and she looks sad.
That fucking breaks me.
Sebastian said Emily wouldn’t tell him anything about what happened back in London while Lexi worked for Harrow it’s becoming harder and harder to stand so far away from her and see her suffer.
Which makes no damn sense.
Why would I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything will be okay?
For all I know, this woman was setting me up and about to destroy my business.
Do you really think a friend of Emily’s would do that?
Maybe they are both in on it.
Fuck I hate this paranoia.
“Were you going to fire me?” Lexi looks back at me. “Before I quit.”
She deserves my honesty, and while the answer was yes initially, by Friday morning I was almost certain I wasn’t. So that’s the answer I give her.
“No,”
“Liar,” Lexi scoffs.
This is getting us nowhere. I’ve hurt her, and unless I have something more to go on, I can’t move past this.
I climb off the stool and walk to the center of the room.
It doesn’t take long. Three steps.
“Well, it looks like we both don’t trust one another.” I pull my key fob out of my pocket. “I’m going to go—”
Lexi climbs to her feet.
“Mason, wait.”
I take a step back—mostly to give her space—as she walks over.
She stops in front of me.
“You’re right. For Seb and Emily, we need to make a truce.” Lexi holds out her hand. “Peace?”
I stare at her hand, then back up at her beautiful green eyes. As I place my hand in her warm palm, her hand almost vanishing in my large one, I can’t help the feeling I’ve lost something and will come to regret it.
“Peace.” I nod.
Do not pull her in for a hug.
Our hands part, and I brush my knuckles over her cheekbone. “I’m sorry, beautiful.”
When her cheeks turn deep pink, flushed with something that isn’t anything to do with embarrassment, our eyes lock and my heart swells.
Lexi steps back.
I do the same.
“Thanks. By the way, I’m not going to call you Mr. Kingsley anymore, so you’ll have to get over that.”
I smirk when I turn toward the door as a spring of hope blooms. What a shame. My cock liked hearing her call me that in her sexy British accent.
“Goodnight, Lexi,” I say at the door and take one last private look at this beautiful woman.
Who is now just a friend.
“Goodnight, Mason.”
Lexi wraps her arms around her middle, and we stare at one another, both trying to ignore the roaring chemistry that doesn’t seem to die, no matter how angry we are with one another.
“Go,” she whispers.
I close the door with a curse.