He wants me out of his life? Fine. I’d be happy to leave this yo-yo bullshit behind me forever. I pull a pen from my purse and rip open the document to the last page. I sign my name, scribble I fucking hate you next to it because I’m petty as fuck, and slam the stupid folder closed.
James pulls into the valet at a building that has North Industries etched into the glass, and I jump out of the car while it’s still rolling to a stop.
“Ms. Wilder, wait!” James calls behind me, but I slam through the glass doors without stopping.
My sneakers squeak on the polished floor as I cross the lobby toward the elevators.
“Excuse me! Miss!” a petite woman behind a circular desk calls as I pass her. “You have to check in!”
Men in security uniforms jump to their feet and start after me. I quicken my pace, and thankfully, the elevator door opens, and I slip inside before they catch up. I make a quick assessment of the buttons and hit the top floor that reads Executive Suites.
My heart hammers so hard it makes me dizzy, but the anger at his rejection, the casual way he used me and tossed me aside, burns my veins and clears my head.
The elevator doors open to a lobby that is light, airy, and filled with sunshine. If I weren’t so angry, I’d stop and take the time to appreciate it. I stomp down the hallway like a charging bull, nostrils flared, teeth bared, and seething. The offices are all glass, which should make him easy enough to find.
“Ma’am, can I help you?” a woman in a red suit says as she stands from her desk.
“Alexander North. Where is he?” I say without stopping.
“He’s just headed into a meeting,” she says from behind me.
A group of men in suits comes around the corner in front of me. Alexander is leading the pack. Our eyes meet, and his brows pinch together. I stop a few feet ahead of him, and when he stops, the group he’s with stops, too.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” a voice says.
I don’t take my eyes off Alexander, but I’m ninety-nine percent sure that voice belongs to Hayes.
“This!” I hold up the folder with the signed NDA inside. “Is this what you wanted all along?”
His intense hazel eyes flare, but his expression gives nothing away.
I throw the folder so hard the document flies out, narrowly missing his face. He doesn’t flinch or watch as the papers flutter to the ground. “Take it. That’s what you really wanted. Fine. I signed it. You didn’t have to fuck me to get it. But hey”—I laugh, but the sound is just sad—“why not get one last romp in first, huh?”
The sound of stomping footsteps behind me is nothing more than white noise compared to my own pulse roaring in my ears.
“But this?” I pull the check for twenty grand from my pocket. “This is an insult.” I rip the check in two and toss it at him. “I am not your whore, asshole!”
“Get her out of here!” Yeah, that’s definitely Hayes. He motions to something over my shoulder, and that’s when I see the first flare of emotion in Alexander’s expression.
He holds up a hand, and his gaze burns with fire. He closes the distance between us, dips his chin, and looks out from under his eyelids at whoever is behind me. “If you touch her,” he says in a low growl that rolls over me and raises goosebumps on my skin, “I will break every bone in your body.”
“Sir,” a voice says, and the sound of shuffling feet retreating sends Alexander’s gaze on me.
“My office. Now.”
“Um, gee, let me think… fuck you!”
He hooks my upper arm and drags me through the crowd of suits back in the direction he came.
“Alex, come on! You can’t just walk away from this meeting,” Hayes says to our backs.
“Start without me.” He guides me into a corner office. He doesn’t take his hand off me while he closes the door and flips the lock. He also doesn’t release me when he hits a switch that turns the clear glass walls opaque.
Gently, but with overpowering strength, he pushes my back to the glass. His lips hover so close. “This mouth,” he growls and slams his lips to mine.
I press my hands against his chest and intend to push him away, but as his tongue slides into my mouth, my fingers curl into his lapel. I kiss him back with the force of everything I’m feeling, the yearning and desire mixed with rejection and anger. A dangerous cocktail of emotions that could easily put me right back where I was last night, naked and begging.
No!
I shove him off me, but he stays close, his lips wet and parted. “I’m done.”
He cups my jaw and brushes my cheekbone with the pad of his thumb. “We’re just getting started.”
“Let me go. I’m leaving.”
“No.”
“No?” I reel back, pressing myself into the unforgiving glass in an attempt to put distance between us. “Back off. I’m leaving!”
He cringes slightly, then nods and backs away. “Let me explain.”
“There’s nothing to explain. Message received loud and clear—”
“I didn’t want you to sign the NDA.”
“Oh, really? So the contract just magically appeared in the getaway car you had waiting for me without your knowledge?”
He licks his lips, and God, I wish he wouldn’t do that. “For the last three nights, I’ve sat outside your restaurant, hoping to see you. My intentions were to ask you to sign the document.”
“You got what you wanted. Goodbye, Alexan—”
“Then, on the third night, I finally saw you. I watched you from my car. Watched you smile, laugh, and chew your lip when you were concentrating.” He clenches his jaw. “I watched men stare at your tits and your ass. That stupid uniform—”
“You were stalking me. You have no room to judge.”
“—and I realized I want you. I don’t want you to sign the NDA because I want to kiss you in front of people. I want people to see us together, to talk about us, to speculate. I want all of that. With you.”
“Wow, Grizzly,” I say dryly. “Forgive me for not swooning at your feet because you’ve decided you’d like to publicly claim me.”
“You’re beautiful.”
My stupid heart melts at the soft sincerity in his voice.
“You’ve made me smile more than I’ve smiled in...” He shakes his head as if he can’t remember the last time. “You’re strong. Brave. Tenacious.” He shoves his hands into his pockets, tilts his head, and the ghost of a smile tilts his lips. “I don’t know a single person who would storm into my building and speak to me the way you did today. And in front of a prospective client.”
Damn… That is kinda messed up. I run my teeth along my lower lip, feeling, well, pretty shitty about that. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”
“Your little outburst could cost me a ten-million-dollar job.”
My hand flies to my mouth. “Oh, God,” I say against my palm.
He smiles, like really smiles.
“This isn’t funny!”
“It’s not, no.”
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because you’re cute.” His expression sobers, and his gaze locks on my lips. “Because I’d give up tens of millions just for the chance to kiss you again.”