Heart Of The Billionaire(3)

“You still want me,” Sam answered vehemently, his eyes raking over her body, settling on her face.

Looking him straight in the eye, she answered angrily, “No, I don’t. My body might respond to a gorgeous man, but it’s just physiological, a sexual reaction. You,” she poked a hand to his chest as she spat out, “mean absolutely nothing to me anymore.”

“You want me to fuck you until you scream. I can still make you purr, Kitten,” he told her arrogantly, a satisfied smirk on his face.

She shrugged, trying to force down her violent desire to slap the conceited look from his handsome face. “I wouldn’t know. You’ve never fucked me. And you never will.”

Wrenching her arm from his hold, Maddie stormed through the office door, scooping her jacket from the hook by the reception desk and bolting through the lobby and out the front door of the clinic. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t. One of Hudson’s security officers escorted her to her car and she drove away as if she were a convicted criminal with the law on her tail, wanting nothing more than to get as far away from Sam as she could possibly get.

Maddie drove in a daze, two words playing through her hazy brain like a broken record.

Never again.

Never again.

**

Sam Hudson walked slowly through the reception area of the clinic, lost in his own thoughts. What the hell had just happened? He’d stopped to see if Maddie was okay, concerned that she was still at the clinic so late - a quick stop to make sure all was well because he knew she was here alone. Damn. Could he ever see the woman and not want to possess her, make her want him as much as he wanted her?

You’ve never gotten over her. You probably never will. She’s haunted you for years. She got under your skin like a sliver of wood that’s always a little bit raw and irritated, never working its way out again.

Stepping outside, Sam closed the door behind him. He glanced at one of his security officers. “Can you lock up?”

The man nodded. “Yes sir. Hope your meeting with Dr. Reynolds went okay.”

Sam barked a humorless, self-mocking laugh. “Yeah. It was very informative.” I learned that she still fucking hates me as much as she ever did. He lifted a hand to the other guards as he departed, making his way to his vehicle.

Yep. That meeting had gone really well, he thought darkly as stepped into his Bugatti and started the engine.

You never even said you were sorry.

Her words haunted him, would probably always haunt him now. “Fuck!” Sam slammed his fist against the steering wheel in frustration. Nope. He hadn’t ever said he was sorry. Then again, he hadn’t been able to say it back then. Still, he should have said it, found a way to apologize later. It hadn’t been possible after the incident had taken place, and he had just blown his second chance a few minutes ago.

What was it about Maddie that made him lose his reason?

You’re acting like an asshole because she doesn’t really care about you anymore and it’s eating you alive. You might be able to have her body if you seduce her…but never her heart. Never again.

Once, years ago, Maddie had looked at him with eyes that sparkled with admiration, adoration. One brief incident, and he had washed that look from her beautiful eyes forever.

Leaning his forehead against the steering wheel, he closed his eyes, still able to picture the Maddie who had looked at him with respect and affection even when he hadn’t had two pennies to rub together. It was ironic, now that he was one of the wealthiest men in the world, she eyed him like a bug that needed to be squashed, a rodent that needed to be exterminated.

You’ll see her again. She’ll be forced to talk to you for Simon and Kara’s wedding. The wedding was being held in his home, so Maddie wouldn’t have a choice. He was the best man and she was the maid of honor. Maddie would have to at least be civil, and Sam knew she would. She was considerate and loyal to anyone she considered a friend. Her own feelings would take a back seat to making sure Kara had a happy wedding, one with no hassles or ugliness.

And no matter how Maddie treats me, no matter how she looks at me, I won’t be a dick to her. Shit. I hope she doesn’t bring a guy with her. I never asked Simon if she was involved with anyone.

Sam sat back in his seat with a heavy sigh and put his car in gear, wondering if it was even possible anymore for him not to be an asshole. Truth was, the years had changed him, made him into a man who he wasn’t at all certain he liked anymore. And if Maddie had a man in her life, he was even more likely to lose it.

Find a woman, someone to take your mind off Maddie.

Snapping his seatbelt on as he backed out of the parking space, Sam took a deep breath and ran through a mental list of possible willing females…until he caught a tantalizing smell, an elusive scent that clung tenaciously to his sweater. Her fragrance. A reminder of what had just occurred in her office.