Page 55 of Crave Me
Her hands clasps my arms. “I don’t want to either. But you’re a good man. You don’t deserve all this crazy.” She purses her lips. “Curran warned Bryant to stay away from me. So far he has, but that could change. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“It won’t.”
“You don’t know that,” she says.
“Wren, look around,” I tell her. “My company is virtual fortress. There’s no safer place for you or us. Work for me.”
For a long moment, she doesn’t respond. Her gaze on mine as if waiting for me to reconsider. When I don’t she finally says, “If I work here, he’ll think we’re together.”
“Let him. It’s what I want for us.”
She regards me as if I’m mad. “But if I work here, we can’t be together,” she says slowly. “I can’t have sex with you.”
I freeze, my mind taking me back to the time I was six and I learned there was no Santa Claus. “You don’t want me?”
Ardor warms her stare. “You know that’s not true. But if I take this job, I can’t have you, not like that.” She groans. “Things are messy. You understand? I was part of a really bad relationship with a twisted and cruel man. And now this hot guy, I can’t have, wants me working directly under him.” She rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“Why can’t you have me?” I ask. “Hear me out,” I add when she regards me as if I’ve lost my mind. “I would never ask or obligate you to anything you didn’t want to do. But you’re an exceptional woman, who can help me with the challenges I’m facing. So why can’t we have both? We’ll see each other, and we’ll help each other. To me, it’s a win for both sides.”
“Because I already screwed up once, pretty damn bad considering the type of man that I dated. I don’t want to screw up again, not with you. You and me, sleeping together and working together, that doesn’t just have the potential to wreck things to hell, it has the ability to implode with like, flying monkeys flinging flaming chunks of zombie bits. You know, End of Days crap.”
“Then we won’t sleep together,” I tell her, ignoring her reference and the shock riddling her features. I don’t blame her for doubting me. I’d take her to bed now, if I could. But I don’t want to ruin what we could have. Just as she’s made mistakes with past lovers, I have as well.
Her silky strands glide through my fingers as I push her hair behind her shoulder. “You came here to tell me goodbye despite your desire for more.” She bites down on her bottom lip, the motion confirming my thoughts. “If you take the other job, it will be goodbye given the schedule I keep. That’s not what I want.”
“I don’t want that either,” she admits. “Before all this, I wanted to get to know you.”
“Then say you’ll stay. Here, you’ll know me at my best and worst.” I smile softly. “And with time, I’ll know you in the same manner.” My lips pass over her cheek. “We don’t have to touch or wake up next to each other, never mind that I want to.”
She shudders when I whisper against her ear, “Very much want to.”
“Evan,” she says, her words releasing with a soft moan.
“The decision is yours,” I say. I step away, although the last thing I want between us is distance.
She crosses her arms, appearing torn. “I don’t know what’s happening with Bryant,” she says. “But my gut tells me he’s not done with me.”
“This is one of the most secure buildings in the city,” I remind her. “He can’t hurt you here. And if he tries, I’ll make him regret the day he was born.”
An emotion I don’t recognize flashes across her face. She turns away, reaching for her phone as she walks out. I follow her, certain she’s leaving until she opens the cupboard behind the desk and tosses her purse inside.
“Hey, Marcelo. It’s Wren O’Brien,” she says into the phone. “I’m sorry to call you at the last minute, but I won’t be available to see you.” She looks up, the corners of her full lips, lifting into a hopeful smile. “I just accepted another job.”