Page 170 of The Grand Duel

I sigh, shaking my head at him. I should have texted him back. “It’s ten thirty, and you have a meeting at HQ. Get a grip for five minutes. We can talk later, okay.” I nod. “At the end of the day.”

I flick my eyes towards Scott and find he’s fighting a smirk.

Charles just stares at me. “Did you just tell me to get a grip?”

I tilt my head, pleading with him. “Later?”

His eyes tell me no a thousand times over, that it’s happening now because it cannot wait a second longer. Eventually, he must find something within himself. He sighs, long and heavy and lost, simply annihilating my existence with his stare until he seems to get enough of me, and then he reaches for his laptop, reverting back to his silence. Just as he did when we first met.

I used to think he hated me then, the way he’d type away whenever we were in the car, but I wonder if I actually drove him as mad then as I do now.

He knew it was me back then.

Knew that I was the woman he’d touched in the most carnal of ways.

No wonder he ignored me.

At three thirty, Charles comes and stands at my office door. He doesn’t say anything, he just watches me, his legs and arms crossed as he leans against the doorway in a way that makes him look even more edible.

Last night already doesn’t feel like enough.

“If you’re going to stand there until five with nothing better to do, could you at least get me a cuppa?”

I see him shake his head in my periphery. “How do you do it?”

I lift my gaze. And I know my eyes naturally soften once they reach him. I can’t even help it, the way the chaos calms at a glance. “Do what?”

“This.” He gestures to my office. “Work.”

I shake my head as if not understanding.

He stares through me. “I can’t think straight for trying.”

“This is my job, Charles. I can’t?—”

“I want you to stop calling me that.”

I swallow, my heart hammering in my chest. “It’s my job. That’s how I do it.”

“I texted you last night.”

A pang of guilt ebbs through me. “I know.” I flick my eyes up, chewing on my bottom lip. “I just needed to be on my own for a bit. My head was all over the place after I left the club.”

He nods. “I couldn’t find you. After.”

I give him a sad smile.That’s because I didn’t want you to see me cry. “It’s been a shit few days. I wouldn’t have been good company to keep.”

I’m not sure why I did what I did with him last night. I was devastated after my phone call with Jovie, and when Charles showed up at the club, I felt nothing but anger. I fucked him angry, too. At first. But then it became something else entirely, and I realised I didn’t choose to be in the room with him because I was angry at him or my sister at all. I wanted him in that moment because he has something inside of him I crave. A comfort. A flickering flame I long to burn in, that I can’t stay away from.

Charles Aldridge makes too much sense to just be a coincidental moment in my life.

If I know anything, it’s that.

I force my eyes away from him and to my computer, knowing if I don’t, then I won’t be able to think for trying either.

“So, tonight?”

I start typing random words, already checked out. “Tonight?” I ask, my pulse kicking up.