Chapter Thirty-Two

Carrie

I hurry out of the office, avoiding Connie’s gaze. I can’t invite her questions when I’m trying to answer my own about me and Reid. About Reid. About what he’s making me feel that I can’t even name. He’s not stone. He’s a man hiding beneath stone and I just saw a little piece of that man. It was enough to convince me that I want to see more, not that I needed much convincing.

I stop at Sallie’s desk, certain that she will help me without any unwelcome questions. “It’s going to be a long night, and I have this sudden sinus pain in my face that I was hoping would go away. It’s not.”

She perks up, eager to help. “What do you need?”

“Advil and some Sudafed would be great.”

“What about some sort of cold medicine?” she offers.

“I called my doctor earlier and he said Advil and Sudafed should work.”

She grabs her purse. “I’ll go next door and get it.”

“Thank you. Just set it on my desk. I’ll sneak out and get it soon. We’re about to be on a conference call.” I hurry into my office, reach in my desk and grab the Excedrin and pour a few in my hand for fear the bottle is too obvious. Snatching up the bottle of water on my desk, , I hurry out of the office and back toward Reid’s.

“Everything okay?” Connie asks.

“Seems his normal asshole self to me,” I say, “but I haven’t known him ten years like you. However, the asshole part of him wants me to review some paperwork now.”

She laughs. “Now is one of his favorite words. Maybe he is normal today after all.”

“Wish me luck,” I say, entering the office without giving her time to ask another question, and shut myself inside.

Reid’s still behind his desk, on the phone. “Monday,” he says. “Ten AM. Be ready for all hell to break loose.” He pauses a beat. “Saturday night? Doubtful. In fact, no. Call me Sunday night.” He disconnects as I round the desk and hand him two Excedrin. He pops them in his mouth and I offer him the water.

He downs them and I pull open his top drawer and stick about ten more inside. “I didn’t bring the bottle. I thought that would be obvious.”

His hands come down on my hips and pull me to him. “Thank you.”

“Did you, Reid Maxwell, just say thank you?”

“Yes,” he says looking up at me. “Apparently, for you, I’m capable of manners and apologies.”

“And crassness.”

“That you like,” he counters.

I don’t deny or confirm this statement but rather reach for one of his hands. “Come and lie down.” I tug on his hand.

“Believe it or not, I’m not going to argue.”

He stands up and his hands come down on my shoulders, his head resting against mine for a moment that I’m pretty sure is about pain, not me. “Come on,” I urge again, walking backward and holding onto him, taking him with me.

I manage to get him moving and he sits down on the couch, but he doesn’t lie down. “There will be a press conference for the settlement on Monday. It’s going to bring a media craze. They’ll hunt me down here. We’ll need extra security. I would say I’ll stay away for a few days, but until they explore every piece of my life, the press won’t go away.” He lies down. “They suck.” He says those words bitterly and shuts his eyes.

I sit down on the stone table right next to him. “We’ll handle it. I’ll alert the appropriate people.”

He looks over at me. “I’ll be accused of being a press whore, trying to sweeten my sins. My father and my ‘uncle’ who isn’t really a fucking uncle dragged the company into an insider trading mess a few years back. It haunts me.”

“I read about that, but clearly you’re well-respected.”

“It still comes up. Often. I get past it, but it infuriates me to have to explain myself. That’s why I was even at that bachelors’ auction. It keeps coming up and my sister felt she could work magic and rework our reputation.”

“Why did you take this case?”

“Not for the press.”

“Why?” I push.

“Because I could win.”

He’s not giving me what I want. I rephrase. “Why’d you forgive your fees?”

“The same reason my client, Cole Brooks, isn’t taking the money. Because we don’t need the money and the victims do. And before you ask me if I did it for our reputation, no. I did not. It’s just going to drag out the press again and that always drags up the past.”

Now he’s given me what I was looking for. “Then you did a good thing, for the right reasons. That’s all that matters.”

He pulls me down next to him. “You’re the good thing.” And with a quick shift, I’m underneath him and he’s pinning me in a blue-eyed stare. “Too good for me.”

“Does that tie into my destiny to hate you?”

“Yes. It does.”

“Why am I going to hate you, Reid?”

“You ask too many questions.” Before I can stop him, he’s kissing me, a drugging, almost brutal kiss, his hands sliding up my sides to cup my breasts. “Reid,” I hiss, covering his hand with mine. “Not here.”

“We fucked on the desk, baby. Lighten up. What’s different?”

There is something about how he says this that hits ten nerves. He makes it sound so dirty and this time it bothers me. It feels like he’s trying to make me feel like I’m some sort of call girl. “I need up.” I shove at his chest. “Take your nap.”

He raises up just enough to search my face. “What just happened?”

“Let me up, Reid.”

“No,” he says, as his phone starts to ring. “I’m not letting you up.”

“Answer your phone.”

“What just happened?” he repeats, ignoring the call.

“I don’t want to do this. I need up and I need to go to my office. And I don’t like you trapping me like this.”

He rolls us to our sides, but his leg cages mine. “Talk to me.”

“Now you want to talk?”

“Yes. I do. I’m not letting you up until you tell me what just happened.”

“It’s like I challenged you to make me hate you so you have to prove yourself right. I can’t do this. I can’t feel—this.”

“Don’t say that. Whatever I just made you feel, whatever ‘this’ is, I didn’t mean to make you feel it.”

“Says the man who wants me to hate him.”

“I don’t. I don’t want you to hate me. I don’t want you to push me away.”

“You’re the one pushing.”

“I’m going to say this again because I want you to know I mean it. Whatever I just made you feel, I don’t want to make you feel that ever again.”

“I don’t think you can help yourself.”

“I can. For you, I can.”

“I’m a strong person.”

“I know you are.” He strokes a strand of hair behind my ear. “And it’s sexy as hell.”

“I’m strong because I know what makes me tick. I don’t even date, in order to stay focused on my career. I can’t mix this and that. I can’t be what you want me to be, what I need to be for me, in the boardroom, with you fucking with my head.”

“Carrie,” he says, his hand settling on my face. “I don’t want you to push me away. We’ll do this together.” His thumb strokes my cheek. “We’ll work out rules this weekend.”

“You’re going to follow rules?”

“I want you, baby. I want to know you, not just fuck you, and the migraine is not an excuse, but it makes it easy for me to slip into old ways.”

The phone on his desk buzzes. “Reid, you have Grayson Bennett on the phone.”

“Tell him I’ll be right there,” he calls out and looks at me. “Don’t move. Please.”

“Go get the call.”

“Tell me you won’t run for the door.”

“Reid, damn it, get the call. We need his business. I won’t leave.”

He kisses me and rotates, walking to the desk and grabbing the phone. “Grayson,” he answers. “Good to hear back from you.” He listens for a moment. “We’ll be at the chopper pad in two hours.”

I’m standing at his desk across from him when he disconnects. “He wants us to have dinner with him at his Hamptons home. Tonight, baby. Let’s go pack for an overnight stay and then go nail the deal of a century. He wants to get to know you before he talks about a project he has brewing.” He rounds the desk and pulls me to him. “But not the way I want to get to know you.” He cups my face. “I want to know you, Carrie. I’m obsessed with knowing you, woman. I know the smartest thing for you to do is to walk away, but I already told you last night—I can’t let you.”

“Instead you’ll just push me and push me until I do it for you?” I don’t give him time to reply. “No. In or out, Reid. Isn’t that what you told me? And before you answer, I don’t want asshole-Reid. I want you. The real you. I won’t tell that he exists if you don’t.”

“You might not like what you discover,” he warns.

“Does that mean you’re going to let me find out?”

“Apparently it does. In, baby. I’m in with you.”

“No more warning me away or promising me that I’ll hate you and then trying to make it happen to get it over with.”

He narrows his eyes at me. “That’s what you think I do?”

“I know you do, Reid.”

“As I said. You see too much.”

“I don’t see enough.”

“Well, that’s about to change.” He kisses me. “Let’s get out of here.”