He walked toward her. "You left Romatech in a hurry. We were in the middle of a conversation."
Her eyes darkened to a stormy gray. "The conversation was over."
"You left your car behind."
"Like I had any choice! That damned Connor confiscated my keys." She blinked when Phil jingled the keys in the air. "You—You brought my car?"
"Yes. It's parked across the street."
"Oh. Thank you." She skirted the desk and approached him. "That was very kind of you," she grumbled.
"You're welcome." He dropped the keys into her outstretched hand. "Now, about my sponsorship…"
Her hand fisted around the keys. "There is no sponsorship. You can't force me to take anger management."
"I believe we can. It was the court's decision. If you want the lawsuits against you dropped, then you have to comply."
She tossed the keys on the desk. "Do I look like the kind of person who complies? Only cowards and trained monkeys comply. I'm a free spirit. Nobody's going to tell me what to do."
Phil couldn't help but smile. Vanda's words were almost identical to the speech he'd given his father nine years ago before he'd stormed out of Montana. "Then what do you plan to do about your anger problem?"
"I don't have an anger problem!" she yelled. With a groan, she pressed a hand to her forehead. "Why won't people stop trying to force me to do things against my will?"
"Believe me, I understand." Phil's father had tried to force him into a preplanned life. At the age of eighteen, he hadn't possessed the maturity or strength to fight his father. He'd simply left. Then his father had banished him from the pack. "Things don't always go the way we want them to. And it's very frustrating when there's nothing you can do to change it."
Vanda frowned at him. "Are you sympathizing with me just to get me to agree to the program?"
"I'm saying if you want to talk, I'll listen."
Her face grew pale and she tightened the whip around her waist with a jerky motion. "Why should I believe you care? You haven't bothered to see me in three years."
She'd counted the years? Phil swallowed hard. What if he'd misinterpreted things? He'd felt sure that Vanda had considered him nothing more than a toy to relieve her boredom. Good God, what if she had genuinely cared about him? No, this had to be more of her fun and games. "I didn't realize you wanted to see me."
Her eyes narrowed. "What do you need, an engraved invitation?"
"You opened a male strip club, Vanda. You're surrounded every night with available men. Nearly naked, vampire men." He tossed the costume onto her desk. "I really didn't think you were lacking for companionship."
She lifted her chin. "I get all the companionship I need."
He gritted his teeth. "Good."
"Excuse me for thinking you might want to keep in touch. I had thought we were friends."
"We were never friends."
She gasped. "How can you say that? We…we talked."
"You taunted me."
She stiffened. "I was nice to you."
He stepped toward her. "You were bored, and you tormented me for the fun of it."
"Don't be silly. It was just a little harmless flirtation."
"It was sheer torture." He advanced another step. "I hated it. Every time you touched me, I wanted to rip your little catsuit off and make you purr."
Her mouth dropped open, then shut suddenly with a snap. Her cheeks flushed. "Then why didn't you? Why did you let a stupid rule stop you? Ian didn't let anything stop him from going after Toni."
He grabbed Vanda by the shoulders so quickly, she gasped. "I would have taken you in a second if I had thought you actually wanted it."
Her cheeks grew a deeper red. "How would you know what I really want?"
He leaned close. "I was on to you from the start. You're a tease. You like to get a man hard, then leave him panting. You enjoyed watching me suffer."
"That's not true. I–I really liked you." She winced as if she'd admitted more than she had wanted to.
He brushed his nose across her cheek and whispered in her ear, "Prove it."
She trembled in his arms. He could feel her breath coming in quick puffs against his skin.
He moved his mouth closer to hers. "Show me."
With a small cry, she turned her head away from him.
Shit. He had been right all along. He'd been nothing but a game to her. He dropped his hands from her shoulders. "Admit it. You flirted with me because you were bored and I was safe. I desperately needed the job, so I was going to follow the rules no matter how much you tortured me."