Page 75 of The Grand Duel
“No, I’m done with my meal.”
His eyes meet mine, hard and angry.Shit. “Then I will meet you in the car. You go ahead.”
All I do is piss him off.
“Thank you for lunch,” I say to Elliot and Mason. “It was great meeting you both.”
“Likewise, lovely Lissie,” Elliot sings, taking a hefty bite of his burger.
I hot foot it from the office.
I’m halfway down the corridor, almost at the reception desk and wondering if this will be the day he gives up on me and fires me, when I remember why I came here in the first place.
“Crap.” I gingerly make my way back towards the office.
As I push inside, I see a pillow being flung across the room. “I don’t fucking fancy her, Montgomery.”
“Bullshi—”
Everyone silences, frozen in place.
“Uh”—I look from Charles to the other two men, eventually feeling safer with Charles and holding his eyes—“I forgot…the documents…and the keys.”
He lets out a breath that has his nostrils flaring, his hands planted on hips as his face reddens. “Lowell. The keys.Please.”
I roll my lips, not daring or being able to cut the eye contact. He’s devastating like this. The man seems impossible to ruffle and yet right now, his eyes searing into me, chest heaving, he’s gone. Lost tosomething.
“You’re welcome back anytime, Lissie,” Mason tells me, handing me the keys. “I’ll have Charles sign the documents.”
I smile—it’s fake—then back out of the office, quickly walking out of Ellis and Frey and into the elevator.
I’m learning all about Scott’s wife and children when Charles slides beside me into the back seat of the Land Rover fifteen minutes later. And if the awkwardness back in the office didn’t make it obvious what a shit show that meeting was, his silence seals it for me.
“I’m really sorry if I embarrassed you in there,” I tell him, feeling the need to fill the silence.
“Embarrassedme?”
I look at him with wide eyes. “Yeah. I wasn’t going to stay for lunch, but you hadn’t replied, and then I received your email mid meal. I thought it would be rude to leave after that, and it wasn’t until just before you arrived that I realised they are your friends as much business associates.”
He chuckles, although it holds little humour. “Those dicks are not my friends.”
I watch him for a minute before adding, “They were very polite to me. For what it’s worth.”
He sighs. “I don’t doubt that.” His eyes eventually lift and lock on me. “Are you okay? I’m sorry I overreacted. I’m just…”
I frown. “Me? I’m good.” I swallow and smile, feeling a little off with the weight of his stare so wholly on me. “Are you?”
“Am I okay?” he asks.
I nod.
The corner of his mouth twitches. “I’m good.”
I nod again, quickly looking out the window so that he can’t see my full toothy grin.
“I don’t fucking fancy her, Montgomery.”
If I smile any wider, my face will crack in two.