Page 45 of The Merger

His head bobbed up and down with every word she spoke. “I know. Our timing was off before. Maybe we can find some time this week to go to dinner and chat.”

If I ground my teeth any harder together I’d risk cracking one of them. I was still standing next to Sabrina, so I dropped my arm around her and tucked her close to my side. She went stiff in my arms, but she didn’t squirm away. It could have been the way my arm kept her trapped next to me, but my message was clear, she belonged next to me.

When Sabrina didn’t respond right away an awkward tension surrounded us. Subtly, she elbowed me in the ribs, but I didn’t let go like she was hinting. Instead, I focused on Aaron. He squirmed the longer I looked at him, but Sabrina hadn’t spoken up to turn him down.

The longer she kept her mouth shut, the more irritated I became. All she had to do was tell him she was married. Hell, she could have said she was seeing someone. Anything so long as she let him know they wouldn’t be going on some kind of a fucking date.

I grew tired of waiting and cleared my throat. “Sunshine, you were just asked on a date. Aren’t you going to answer?”

For his part, Aaron stood there making me question his intelligence. It didn’t take a genius to ascertain Sabrina and I were together.

Sabrina shifted her weight from one foot to the other. “Aaron, there’ve been a lot of changes, I don’t think we should have dinner.”

His head drooped, and I felt bad for the guy. He deserved the truth, but I wasn’t going to relish delivering it. “I hope you’ll still help dig through the reports. You did an amazing job uncovering these transactions. I hope you’ll understand me not wanting my wife to go on a date with another guy.”

Sabrina glared at me, and I knew she wasn’t planning to tell him. Worse, she seemed pissed at me because I did. “Did you have any questions about the report right now? We need to get back to the office,” she said through clenched teeth.

“You’re right, Sunshine. There’s something we need to address back at the office.” I turned toward Aaron. “I don’t have any questions at the moment. I’d like to examine the report again and then touch base with you later.”

“Of course,” he agreed.

I caught Colter’s eyes, and he nodded. I didn’t need to explain further. He and Beck would understand I was taking my woman to get a few things straight. Without further delay, I guided her to the elevators.

ChapterSeventeen

Sabrina

The entire way back to the office was tense. Neither of us spoke, content to let our anger fester. I’m not sure if he was pissed because I left or if it was because I didn’t feel like that was the moment to broadcast our marriage. A marriage I was still coming to terms with and wasn’t convinced was going to last. So, yeah, forgive me for wanting to keep that under wraps for a while.

I knew why I was angry. It had been building for days and not all of it was Stryker’s fault. But, every hurt inside of me had tangled together to form this swirling mass in my gut. I was twisted up and I didn’t know how to get free.

Sure, I was more than a little irritated at him for yelling at me earlier when I went to see if he wanted to grab lunch. If I were honest with myself though, I had to admit that I was angry because he’s had five years to come to terms with being married to a stranger, and I was struggling to catch up. Yet he was ready to announce our marriage to the world.

He was right, that was the best way to handle the rumors going around the office. The problem was it was also making a declaration I wasn’t sure I was ready to make. I thought I could, we’d discussed it, but when the moment was in front of me I couldn’t speak the words. I knew it wasn’t his fault, but a part of me blamed him for all of the chaos in my life right now.

Stryker pulled the car into the concrete tunnel and started spiraling up the ramp to the upper floor. I held my breath as we went around several turns. This was another reason I had avoided getting another car. The way the ramp seemed to get smaller the higher we got made me feel like the ceiling was coming down on us. Not unlike how I felt like everything was closing in on me now.

My mind wandered until Stryker slipped the car into his parking space and turned off the car. I knew he was going to try and talk about what was going on, but I wasn’t ready. He turned to me, and I braced myself.

“Sunshine—“

My fight or flight instinct kicked in and I practically leaped out of the car and ran to the elevators. Stryker’s large body took a bit longer to unfold from his compact car. I thought I would be able to flee to my office to find a moment to think, but he caught the elevator door right as it was sliding closed.

“Thought you’d get away from me that easily, huh?” he said and added a tsking sound.

“I’d hoped,” I mumbled petulantly.

My foot tapped as I watched the numbers rise for each floor we passed. I wondered how I might slip by him and barricade myself in my office for the rest of the workday. Which a quick glance at my watch told me was only another hour and a half if I wanted to set a bad example and high tail it out of here the moment the clock struck five. After spending my morning lecturing the stodgy executives about the importance of dedication to the company, that would likely undermine any progress I’d made. Assuming, of course, the collection of chauvinists who work here listened to a single word I’d said.

A ding sounded in the car signaling we arrived on our floor. Before I was able to enact my escape plan, which was nothing more than trying to run past him while wearing heels, he grabbed my elbow and dragged me toward his office. I made a mental note to switch my office footwear as he pulled me past a crowd of the employees who had not listened to a word I had said and were loitering in the lobby doing absolutely zero work to benefit the company.

I might have been more irritated by their ineffectualness, except they were already whispering about what they were watching and didn’t even give us the courtesy to wait to get behind Stryker’s office door.

Yanking on my arm, I whisper-yelled through clenched teeth. “Drop my arm, everyone is watching!”

He dropped my arm, but then he tossed me over his shoulder and continued to march toward his office like he was being chased. Maybe in his Neanderthal sized brain, judging solely on his caveman tactics, he saw all the other men standing around as competition.

“Stryker!” I screeched, no longer caring about keeping my voice down.