Page 17 of The Merger
My teeth clenched. “You were condescending. What did you expect me to do?”
Malcolm stared at his drink, swishing the remaining liquid in the glass making the ice clink off the side. “It was a joke, Brina. I didn’t realize you were so sensitive.”
“Implying that I only have my job because of my brother? You find that funny?”
“I don’t want to fight with you,” he sighed.
I dropped down next to him on the sofa. “Me either.”
Malcolm put his hand on my knee and slid it up my thigh. “Good. There are so many other things we could be doing.”
I tensed up. He didn’t know I was married to his brother. Stryker and I weren’t together, but we were legally married.
“We still need to talk,” I insisted, moving my leg away from his touch.
He closed the small space I put between us, and put his hand on the side of my face. “We’ve spent most of our lives talking. I want you. We can talk later.”
Every inch that Malcolm moved closer, I retreated until I was nearly on my back and he was hovering over me.
“No, Mal,” I protested. His lips met mine, but I continued to try to squirm away.
Hot, burning rage built in my chest. It was the restaurant all over again. Malcolm didn’t listen to me last night, and he wasn’t listening to me now. I worked my hands between us and shoved.
The coffee table screeched across the floor as he toppled off me, crashing first into the table and then onto the floor with a thud.
“What the hell, Brina!” He straightened out his clothes as he rose from the floor. “Yeah, I guess we do need to talk. I thought we were starting something here, but every time I make a move you freeze up.”
My lip curled. “I’m not a possession, and you can’t treat me as one even if we’re dating.”
“You say that as if you aren’t sure if that’s what we’re doing.”
And there it was. The line that could take us from whatever we were to nothing at all. “I thought that was the point in dating, to figure out what is happening between us.”
His eyes latched on to mine and held. “Be honest with me. Do you want me? And, not as a friend.”
“I don’t know. That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” I answered him. I sounded like a broken record, but he refused to hear me. A voice in the back of my head told me now was the time to tell him I was married to his brother. But the way he reacted when he found out I was only working with his brother made me think that the moment he found out I’d lose him. As a friend, as a lover, everything, he’d be done with me.
Malcolm grabbed his jacket off the back of a plush chair and angrily shoved his arms in the sleeves. “Wrong answer. You do know, and you show me every time you push me away.”
I stood silently watching as he stomped across my apartment. Malcolm stopped at the door. Without turning around he said, “I need you to make up your mind.”
He rapped his knuckles against the doorway. “We’ll talk later. Can we try dinner again? There’s something here, Brina. Let me show you.”
He left without hearing my answer, perhaps because he wasn’t sure he’d like it.
* * *
Jana pulled out her chair the next day at the cafe we liked down the block from the AG offices. “Lunch twice in one week? I’m glad you aren’t avoiding me anymore.”
“I know. I was being stupid.” I took a deep breath and twisted the cloth napkin in my hands.
Her eyes narrowed as she watched the emotions play across my face. “Did he do something else since the other night?” her voice was low and angry.
I shook my head. “No, I haven’t talked to him, but I still feel like I owe that to myself and to him to say it out loud.
She took a long slow breath in through her nose. “I know you want to see where this is going.” She took another pause, struggling with how to talk to me about Malcolm without pushing me away.
I held up a hand to stop her. There was no reason for her to struggle so hard. “I know I sound like one of those women who make excuses for the man who treats them like shit. I should write him off and be done with it, but I need closure.”