“I wouldn’t put it past him,” a voice said.
I swiveled in my chair as Blake entered the room. Dressed in jeans and a navy button V-neck, he looked ruthless despite his casual attire.
“What can I do for you, Landon?” His voice was clipped and his lips thinned into a tight line.
“You can give me a moment with Miss Hathaway.”
“Certainly. We’ll be finished here shortly.”
“Now.”
“Is there a problem?” Max said through gritted teeth.
“You’re the problem.”
With that, Max stood. His chair rolled back and hit the glass window with a thud. He glared at Blake, then left us and shut the door behind him.
My heart beat wildly, a combination of the sheer relief of seeing Blake superseded by a gnawing fear that the deal with Max now hung in the balance. If Blake was going to be this difficult with my affairs, why would Max even want to bother with me now? He’d be signing on for months of irritation.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped.
“I didn’t want to do this, but you didn’t leave me much choice.”
“I told you, I’ve made my decision. It’s basically done.”
“Not nearly. You haven’t signed anything yet.”
“I fully intend to, so I suggest you take your compulsive tendencies and leave us be.”
“It’s too late for that.”
Oh no. I hesitated. A sinking dread overwhelmed me. “Too late for what?”
“I’ve wired double the funds you need into your business account.”
I tried to formulate words, questions that needed to be asked, but instead I stood there, slack-jawed and gaping at his audacity, which true to form, never failed to completely amaze me.
“Don’t bother figuring out ways to give it back, because I’ll block you from getting investors anywhere else in the city,” he continued. “You know I can.”
“What if Max still wants to invest?”
“He won’t,” he said with finality. “No deal goes through here without my authorization, and he won’t be getting it.”
“Why are you doing this?” My voice quivered. He’d effectively backed me into a corner. I could think of other avenues, but I knew he’d already out-thought them.
“I care about you more than Max ever will, though God knows he’ll try to tell you otherwise.”
“This isn’t about your goddamn pseudo-sibling rivalry with Max. This is my life you’re playing with. This is everything I’ve worked for, and you’re ruining it!” I slammed my fists on the table before I stood, facing him.
“This is not nearly close to what you’ll achieve. The fact that you think I’d fuck it up for you just shows how completely naive you are.”
I slapped him, hard, the sound slicing through the room the way his words sliced through me. My hand stung with the contact and my breath left me in uneven pants.
Shock registered on his face, but he hesitated only a second before cupping my nape and kissing me, bruising my lips with his. I fisted my hands at my sides. No. He wouldn’t wear me down. Not this time. I wouldn’t let him.
I went to war with myself, fighting how he made me feel as his lips crushed mine, owning me with every plunging kiss. You’re mine. I heard his voice in my head. A moan escaped me and I realized I was kissing him back, my body responding beyond my control. I trembled with all the love and hate I felt for this man. I hated myself for it. For wanting him the way I did.
He’d worn me down.
He’d won.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Barely out of the city, I sat in traffic heading south, filled with a rage that had me wanting to go eighty instead of ten, which is where the needle hovered over the speedometer. Hundreds of people were headed to the Cape this Friday afternoon, and while I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a family reunion with my newly discovered father, I wanted to be as far away from Blake as I could.
Somehow I’d found the strength to leave Blake in the boardroom. I offered a brief apology to Max but spared him the details, knowing Blake would bring him up to speed. Good riddance to both of them. They could carry on with their inane rivalry until they destroyed each other in a goddamn blaze of glory for all I cared, but I wasn’t about to go down with the ship.
Blake hadn’t given me any other professional options, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to reward him with our relationship. I loved him, madly and with a passion that I would likely never find again, but I wasn’t about to be a kept woman. The apartment, and now the business. He’d keep meddling until I was completely under his power, subject to his whims and wants. In the bedroom, I wanted that, I craved it. But in real life, we needed boundaries, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t get him to accept them. My anger bubbled back to the surface and I slammed the steering wheel.