Before she could argue the point, he skewered her with those gorgeous hazel eyes and she felt it all the way through her soul. He'd burrowed under her barriers, winding his way through her heart despite all her vows to refuse him entrance. At the end of the day, she was the problem here. Because against all odds, she had started to trust him in spite of it all. And she shouldn't have.
"You came when I needed you." He held her gaze and wouldn't let go. "And we fell into something that I was hoping would continue. I meant it when I said I wasn't ready for it to end."
The rawness in his voice sliced through her. She wanted to believe him. Believe in him. The past week had been so amazing and surprising and deep, and sex had only been a small part of that.
When had she lost her "it's only sex" mantra? When had this become a relationship and not just sticking to a man to learn his secrets?
Unfortunately, she could pinpoint it exactly. It had happened the moment she'd answered Gage's call and he'd said, I need you.
He'd ruined her for other men-Gage Branson was it for her. She realized that now.
And she had to know once and for all if she could trust him.
"Rebecca Moon," she blurted out and his expression darkened so rapidly that the rag fell from her suddenly numb fingers.
"Yeah, what about her?"
"So you admit you know who she is?" Cass squawked.
"Of course I do. She used to work for me," he acknowledged without a scrap of shame. "My company isn't so big that I've lost the ability to keep track of my people. Especially those who worked in Research and Development."
"Used to work for you?" she prodded. "But not anymore?"
Gage stood, unfurling to his full height a good three inches above Cass. He crossed his arms, leaning a hip against the bar casually, but his frame vibrated with tension.
"Since I'm pretty sure we both know she works for Fyra now, it sounds like you're the one who has something you need to tell me."
This was her opening. The other Fyra executives were counting on her to solve the company's problems and the last thing she wanted was for her team to accuse her of letting her feelings for Gage get in the way of justice. Alex, in particular, was already poised to lambast Cass. She had to pull this thread.
"I'm sure there's a rational explanation." She resisted the urge to back away. "But Rebecca's in a lot of debt and maintains contact with people in your area. You can see how someone might think that's a suspicious combination. It just looks bad, Gage."
"Bad how?" he asked softly. Lethally. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
The pressure of his accusatory expression pushed on her chest, stealing her ability to draw in air. He was going to make her spell this out. She swore. "Come on. You agreed to help me identify a probable suspect for the leak but have spent almost every second distracting me from that goal. Almost as if you wanted to steer me away from any evidence pointing to a name."
Of course she was the dummy who'd fallen for it. Half of the fault lay with her.
"You seem to forget that I had an interest in finding the leak, as well. The formula is worthless otherwise."
She waved it off. "Only if you don't have another way to get your hands on it."
"Cass." He huffed out a sigh of frustration. "We agreed you'd talk to the others about selling when we found the leak. We haven't yet. What other possible way would I get my hands on it?"
Did he think she was born yesterday? "Turnabout is fair play, right? That's what you said when you demanded I sell you the formula less than twenty-four hours after its existence was leaked to the industry. Tell me the timing is a coincidence."
"It's a coincidence." His knuckles went white as he contemplated her with clenched fists. "But you don't really think so, do you? You suspect that Rebecca's the leak and I'm pulling her strings like some kind of corporate raider puppet master. You think I've paid her to steal the formula."
"Well...in a nutshell, yeah." It didn't sound so concrete coming from Gage's mouth and she wavered. He didn't look guilty. He looked furious. "Are you denying it?"
"Hell, yes." A muttered expletive accompanied the declaration. "Though why I have to is the real question here."
Instantly, her hackles rose. Was he that out of touch? "Really? It's confusing to you why I might have a problem trusting you?"
Obviously, he didn't see anything wrong with being there for her and giving her a place to get away from all the pressures of life, being understanding and strong and wonderful...and then taking it away at a moment's notice. Like he had the first time. "You dumped me in college like yesterday's trash with no explanation. I can't-"
She shouldn't have brought that up. Not now.
"No explanation?" He stared at her, his expression darkening. "Our relationship is one of my fondest memories, or I wouldn't have rekindled it. But it ended at the right time, once it had run its course. We talked about it. That's what I said."
"Oh, you said that all right. But you might as well have said, ‘It's not you, it's me.' Either way, it's a lame line designed to brush off the person you're tired of." All of this had been bottled up for far too long. It came rushing out-the formula and the baby and let's see how it goes all muddled together into a big emotional mess she couldn't control. "Surely you didn't think it was an actual reason."
He'd broken her and she wasn't letting him do it again. Not personally. Not professionally.
"Wait just a minute." He threw up a hand as if to ward off the barrage of words. "We had a lot of fun in college. But that's all it was-fun. Are you saying you expected an opportunity to talk me out of it when I said it was time to move on?"
"No," she countered. "I expected that you'd figure out you loved me as much I loved you and ask me to marry you."
She'd thrown up wall after wall to prevent a repeat of those feelings. Unsuccessfully. Because at the end of the day, that was still what she wanted.
And she knew now it was an impossible dream.
* * *
"Marriage?" The pattern of Cass's granite countertops blurred as Gage processed that bombshell on top of the Rebecca Moon accusation. "You wanted to get married? To me?"
Of all the things he'd thought about their time together, her in a white dress and diamond rings and...other together-forever stuff that he couldn't even fathom right now-none of that had ever crossed his mind. None of that had ever crossed his mind with anyone, let alone back in college when he'd just begun to spread his wings.
He'd vowed to himself, and to Nicolas, to have the quintessential college experience-drink a lot of beer, sleep with a lot of women, have a lot of esoteric conversations at coffee houses with foreign exchange students. No one got married in college.
He and Cass had totally different viewpoints on their history. How was he only discovering this now? And in the midst of a conversation where apparently, he was being accused of planting an employee at Cass's company. His temper simmered again, which was not a good sign. He never got angry. Mostly because he never had much of an emotional investment.
Looked as if he was going to experience yet another first with Cass.
"I guess this is news to you," she said and her voice broke.
There were no tears, no hard lines around her mouth, but he could tell she was upset about their relationship ending. Still upset. The bitterness radiated from her and he caught it in the gut.
"Completely. Jeez, Cass. We were kids with our whole lives-our whole careers-ahead of us."
But that wasn't true now. If that was what she'd wanted then, what had she wanted this time around? The same? While he was trying to reconcile and explore these new, unprecedented feelings she'd evoked, had she been waiting for a proposal? The thought put his chest into a deep freeze and none of the beating and breathing that should have been going on inside was working.
She crossed her arms over her abdomen as if to protect herself. From him. "So what's different this time that makes you say things like let's see how it goes? Am I suddenly more palatable now that I have power and money? Or is my allure strictly related to your bottom line?"
His anger mounted. How dare she accuse him of not only consorting with a former employee to steal from Fyra but then playing other angles, too. As though he'd faked his attraction and feelings for Cass strictly because of her formula?