He laughed and set down his drink. “Yes, that horrible date with that horrible man that you wound up with at a function the next week! Come on, Phoebe, you’re not fooling anyone.”
The second her name left his mouth, he frowned and cursed, turning away from her.
“Don’t you dare walk away from me! How did you find out my real name?” she yelled as she followed him. “I never said anything about it, so how?”
“You don’t cover your tracks as well as you think.”
“Oh, and you do? Why the hell didn’t you tell me your real name? Riley Marston! Richest damn man in the city, and you lied to me! What, were you embarrassed to be seen with someone of my standing? Am I not good enough for the likes of you?” She shot back the rest of her martini and wiped her mouth on her hand. “You CEOs are all the same. Cold, hiding behind your damn money.”
He shook his head as he went into the kitchen and grabbed an oven mitt.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I will not,” he said, pointing a bright green mitted hand at her, “let my dinner burn just because of you and your…your ignorance!” He yanked the oven door open, leaving Phoebe trying to catch her breath and tapping her fingers on the countertop. “That is ungodly annoying by the way.”
“I don’t care! You stole those files from my place! You lied to me!”
Riley slammed the oven closed, cutting off whatever delicious smells were emanating from it, and turned it off. “Like you didn’t know who I was at the restaurant! Stop lying, Phoebe, I know everything.”
“Know what? I didn’t know who you were ‘til today.”
“Don’t give me that shit.” He stalked towards her, but she refused to move. He reached around her with another muttered curse and grabbed a file, a different one from the ones she’d shown him. “No? Are you sure about that, Phoebe Baron of Yancey Securities? You’re more than just the archives girl, aren’t you?”
He slammed the file down on the counter and Phoebe hurriedly flipped it open. She stared down at a picture of herself, the same one that matched her ID badge for work. “How did you get this file? This is confidential! You don’t even work for Yancey.”
“I know people. Just like you know people—all the wrong damn people.”
Phoebe shook her head frantically as she tried to wrap her head around what was going on. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“The game is up, Phoebe. I’ll admit you put on a good act, but I’m not blind any more. I have my sources,” he snapped, “and they have never lied to me. They saw you with Diane Chandler, you work for my enemy, of all people, and you’re dating Mitch Harper!” He held up his fingers when he said dating. “I should’ve known something was up when you showed up with him at the function, then left him to sit with me.”
“I didn’t sit with you. I was with Linda, or whatever her name is.”
“I don’t care. You have done everything you can to get close to me. That weekend? Everything you told me? How much of it is actually true?”
The harshness of his words took all the anger out of Phoebe, and she felt tears start to stream down her face. He cursed and stepped away, laughing at her or his stupidity, she wasn’t sure which. Her hands shook as she picked up the file. He thought she had lied to him about everything. About her mom, about Mitch. Why was Mitch even such a big deal? Unless he’d figured out her profile on that damn website, too. But either way, that did not give him the right.
“You still stole my files,” she whispered, holding on to the last little bit of argument she had.
“No, those were my files that you stole, and for all I know, you have the damn laptop too. You forgot to mention that you interned at my company two years ago,” he said, jabbing a finger at the file. “Seems odd, especially when I told you who I worked for.”
Phoebe frowned. “Internship? What are you…” But then she remembered. It had been her first big offer, but her mom had gotten sick and her parents moved in with her. Things had gone downhill. She’d barely been there for two weeks when she had to quit. “You son of a bitch. You think I stole files from you two years ago? Why would I show them to you?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know why you did half of the things you did. Playing on my losses to get close to me,” he said, glaring at her. “Why did you do it, Phoebe? Part of Yancey’s grand plan?”