Chapter 16 #3
She stared at him, the penny dropping. He’d set her up. He’d ambushed her.
“And I paid more than twice your requested rate for a night with you, Kate, so don’t even think about storming out.”
She reached for her champagne, feeling woozy and furious and hurt and…excited…because at least he was here, in front of her, even if he was being a version of himself she’d never imagined.
“So,” he said, his smile sending a shiver down her spine because of how false it was. “Show me how this works.”
“How what works?” she asked, pressing her fingertips to her pulse, with the sense that the world was suddenly spinning way too fast.
“Do you like to be wined and dined before you’re fucked, or do we go straight upstairs?”
She gasped, the pain too much to bear now.
Far too much. “Go right to hell,” she said, under her breath.
No amount of money on earth was worth this.
She slapped him hard, not caring that there were other people in the bar who saw it, not caring that Roman had been hit and slapped more times in his life than anyone deserved.
“Go right to hell,” she repeated, doing everything she could not to cry as she turned and reached for her handbag.
As a point of pride, she threw some money on the bar top for her drink, refusing to allow him to pay for even that, and then she moved to leave the bar.
She hadn’t really thought he would let her go, but if she’d stayed in that sensual, cosy space a moment later, she knew she would have passed out.
She needed fresh air. She needed to breathe.
She broke into a run, also not caring that the foyer was filled with the sort of well-heeled people she counted as clients, who probably knew the owner of her agency, looking left and right for a cab and careening right into the broad chest of Garrett.
“Kate.” He, at least, sounded friendly. “Are you okay?”
“Let me go,” she said, yanking at her wrist, which he immediately dropped.
But Roman was there, behind her, having caught up easily.
She didn’t know if he’d run or not, perhaps his long legs were able to close the distance with a simple walk.
Just her luck—there were no taxis in sight.
She turned and started to walk in the opposite direction brusquely.
At the next intersection, she spun around.
Roman was right there, the same look in his eyes, his shoulders squared. “Do you plan to follow me home?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“You’re out of your goddamn mind if you think I’d let you touch me.”
“Just everyone else? What’s wrong with my money, Kate?”
She felt physically ill.
“I asked you to stay an extra night. You could have named your price, you know. I would have paid you so much more than any of these chumps to keep you in my bed.”
She gasped, the pain more excruciating than any she’d ever known.
Because he wasn’t leaving her, he was destroying everything they’d ever shared.
And it had been, she realised now, the most meaningful and important relationship of her life.
She blinked away, watching the vestiges of it disappear into the sky, like tiny scraps of paper, gone forever.
“Please,” she whispered. “Leave me alone.”
“I’ve paid for the night in advance.”
“The agency will refund it. Just call them tomorrow.”
“I don’t want a refund.”
“Well, I don’t want a thing to do with you.”
“Liar,” he said, leaning closer. “If I kissed you right now, you’d beg me to take you here, in the middle of the street.”
The lights began to beep, indicating it was safe to cross, and Kate turned and walked quickly, before he could do what he’d said, and prove how right he was. She hated herself that weakness, and she hated him for evoking it in her.
On the other side, he grabbed her wrist, pulling her to a stop. Sparks burst through her. She tried to yank it free but he held tight, pulling her close. Close enough that they were chest to chest. “Tell me why.”
She shook her head.
“Why would you sell your body rather than ask me for help?” He sounded…bleak. Despairing. She gaped, grief ripping through her.
“I would have given you the world.”
“That’s not true.” The world was Roman, and he never would have given her that. He wouldn’t give himself to anyone.
“I offered you money. I bought you jewellery.”
“I can’t be bought.”
“Present facts to the contrary?”
“Fuck you.”
He arched a brow. “Is that a request, sweetheart?”
She only realised she was crying when a tear landed against her breast. She glanced down, shocked by the reality of that. Shocked and appalled. She tried to spin away from him, but he still held her wrist.
“Kate.” Now it was his voice that sounded broken. Broken, and maybe even appalled, too?
“Don’t.” She jerked on her wrist and this time he let it go.
“Just tell me why,” he said, more urgently now.