Chapter Thirty-One

Carrie

It’s nearly four in the afternoon and I’m sitting behind my desk with Sallie in front of me again, when my intercom buzzes and I hear, “My office. Now.” It’s Reid, of course, announcing that he, and the asshole persona he slips into at work, are now present and in the building.

“Why are you smiling?” Sallie demands. “The man bosses you around like you’re his slave.”

I didn’t actually know that I was smiling, but I don’t miss a beat. “I’m smiling because he’s doing it to piss me off and that’s the entire point,” I say, standing up. “He wants me to lead among all the assholes like him. I get it. I get him. And he doesn’t get to upset me.” I head for the door.

“Kick his ass!” she calls after me, and I laugh. I love this woman who would be horrified and then asking for details that I wouldn’t give her if she knew about me and Reid.

I cross the office where Connie is presently behind her desk. “Beware. He’s in some kind of mood.”

“Really?”

“Really, and I don’t say that often. I get him. I know him. Something is wrong.”

I immediately think of Elijah, but then my mind goes to the DA and his settlement. “Thanks for the heads up,” I say.

“I don’t give a heads up about Reid,” she says, obviously prompting me with the question I ask.

“Then why did you just warn me?”

“I have a gut feeling about you.”

Her gut feeling could mean many things, and for all I know, she thinks I’m too weak to handle his mood. She doesn’t give me time to ask. “Do you want me to buzz him or are you going to retreat?” she asks.

“I’ll just go on in,” I reply, heading for the door and when I open it, she laughs, a kind of gloating laugh that has me thinking I just did exactly what she hoped I’d do.

I enter the office and shut myself inside. Reid is behind his desk, looking his normal ten shades of hotness, and he arches an expectant brow at me. With those blue eyes of his fixed on me, I cross to his desk opposite him and lean on the wooden surface. “Are you really going to be a bossy asshole to me at work?”

“Yes,” he says. “Because I’ve seen you naked and my plan to keep you naked all weekend changes nothing here.”

His reply is what I expect from Reid, but Connie’s warning still rings in my mind. “Did you deal with the stockholder?”

“Was there ever a question that I would?”

“Did you settle your case?” I ask.

“Yes. For twenty million.”

This seems like good news, but he’s so matter-of-fact, that I don’t assume. I dig deeper. “Did you ask for more?”

“I asked for fifteen.”

“Then,” I say, still being cautious, “you won and helped a lot of people today.”

“As best as you can help someone who’s lost someone they love.”

I push off the desk and round it to join him on the other side. He’s on his feet to meet me by the time I’m in front of him, but neither of us touches the other. “You did a good thing and you did it bravely.”

He pulls me to him. “The last thing you should do is to decide that I’m a nice guy with the moral compass you want me to have.”

“Is this where you’re an asshole again because I see too much?”

His fingers tangle in my hair and he stares down at me. “Because you want to see something that isn’t there. Don’t do that to me or us.”

“So I should spend the weekend with an asshole I hate?”

“I want you to see me for who I am.”

“You don’t have to be an asshole to keep me from asking for a ring and a commitment, Reid. I’m not that girl, but I don’t want to hate you. I don’t hate you. Not anymore, so just stop—”

The next thing I know he’s kissing me, that earthy wonderful scent of him drugging me right up until the moment he groans. “That sound wasn’t pleasure,” I say, pulling back to look at him. “What’s wrong? What was that?”

He rests his forehead against mine. “Nothing.” He inhales and sits down, pressing his hands to his head. “Damn it to hell. I do not have time for this.”

I go down on my knees in front of him. He looks up at me. “Don’t go down on your knees in front of me right now when I can’t take full advantage of it.”

“Being crass isn’t going to piss me off and distract me. In other words, you aren’t getting you out of this. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“You’re on your knees and I can’t take advantage of it, is what’s fucking wrong,” he grumbles testily.

“Reid,” I command softly.

“You don’t give up, do you?”

“No, and you wouldn’t want me here if I did. Talk to me.”

“I do not want this going past this room or I swear—”

“It’s just you and me,” I say.

He studies me a long moment that feels like an hour. “I played football in college. I had a few concussions. I used to get migraines.”

“Used to or do?”

“Nothing for five years.”

“Until now,” I supply.

“Yes,” he confirms. “Until now.”

“Do you have medication?”

“Not anymore.”

“Okay, well, you’re rich,” I say. “We’ll get a doctor over here.”

“Did you just stay I’m rich and we’ll get a doctor over here?”

“Yes. I did.” I stand up and reach for the phone. He rolls toward me, his hands coming down on my hips.

“Don’t.”

I turn to face him. “You need—”

“Elijah and who knows who else are having me watched. These takeover roles are high-profile and high-pressure. I cannot have this problem now.”

“It’s a headache, Reid.”

“It’s more than that. I cannot have someone dig up my concussion history and decide I’m going to go off the deep end.”

“It’s one migraine in five years. You’re human, Reid.”

“Outside of my brother Gabe, you’re about the only person who really believes that. I need to keep it that way.”

I don’t miss the fact that he left his sister and his other brother out of that statement. I focus on a solution. “Then you need to get rid of the headache.”

“I use a combination of Advil, Excedrin Migraine, and Sudafed. If I get that rotation in me and take a twenty-minute nap, I’ll be fine.”

“Oh,” I say. “Okay. We can do that.” I try again to turn and he stops me, his fingers flexing at my hips.

“What are you doing?” he demands.

“I was going to get Connie to pick it up.”

“No. Connie doesn’t know about this. No one knows.”

“Not even Connie?”

“Not even Connie.”

“She’s worked for you for ten years?”

“Yes. She has.”

“Okay. I won’t comment on that while you have a migraine. On to Plan B.” I try to turn again and he holds me still. “Reid. Let go.”

“What are you going to do now?”

I reach out and cup his cheek. “I know you don’t trust easily. I see that now more than ever and I even understand it, but on this small thing, I’m asking you to trust me. You said you don’t want anyone to know this, and they won’t.”

He shuts his eyes and draws a breath before looking at me and giving me a tiny nod that actually makes him grimace. “Okay,” he murmurs.

“I have Excedrin,” I say. “Let me start by getting that down you. I’ll be right back.” I step into him and kiss his temple before I can stop myself.

He catches my hand and looks up at me with hard, unreadable eyes and then to my surprise, he flips my hand over. His lips press to my palm and those unreadable eyes are suddenly etched with pain that he allows me to see when moments before he had not. He lets me see. He chooses to be human, to trust me, and it steals my breath. “Hurry back,” he orders softly, releasing my hand.

“I will,” I say, rounding the desk and heading out the door, my knees wobbling slightly with the impact of whatever just happened between me and this man. What did just happen? He happened. That’s the answer to every question in my life right now. Reid Maxwell happened.