Page 108 of My Temptation

“I just like to piss him off.” Kyle wiggled his eyebrows. “Keeps shit interesting.”

Mila shifted her attention to Striker. “Heard Beth’s coming back to work here.”

Striker nodded. “Starting tomorrow.”

“That’s what Leah said.” She grinned and sat back in her seat. “You gonna be able to handle working with your fiancée?”

Striker shrugged, but a grin played around his lips. “Guess we’ll find out.”

“Absolutely not.” Kyle laughed.

Mila laughed with him but moved on. “How’s your sister?”

“Yeah.” Kyle leaned his chair back on two legs. “How’s Bridget?”

Striker rolled his eyes toward Kyle. “Leave her alone.”

There was no way Kyle was listening to that warning. “Heard you two have been getting together weekly.”

“I’m not joking.” Striker raised his eyebrow. “Leave her alone.”

I shared a look with Mila and knew she was wondering the same as me. Those two always went back and forth, but they were really good friends. This seemed like something that was straining their relationship. I hoped Kyle was just being himself and trying to get a rise out of Striker.

“Alright.” Jax started talking just as he and Brody came back into the room. “That’s it. That’s the update I was hoping we’d get.” He pointed at me and Ethan. “You two are off for the rest of the week.”

“Why?” Mila asked.

“You just had a monthlong assignment. Take some downtime,” Brody instructed and then looked at me. “Your sister’s been in town the whole month, and you haven’t spent any time with her.”

“She works every day.” I shrugged. “Probably wouldn’t see her until evening anyway.”

Brody studied us and then frowned. “It’s up to you. If you want some time to clear your heads, take it. If not, there’s a stack of assignments on my desk, and I could use help with installs.”

“You have to take today at least.” Jax cut in. “Let the information you just got settle, make sure you don’t need a few days to clear your heads. You saw and experienced a lot, and we all know how that can creep up over time. We need to be confident you’re good.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Sure,” Mila added while we all stood.

Everyone filed out of the room, and I followed Mila through the lobby to the stairs leading outside. We were just outside the building when Mila laid her hand on my arm. “Wanna grab something to eat?”

I shook my head. “Think I’m just gonna go home. Maybe take Jax’s advice.”

She studied me, almost as if she was looking for something before she continued. “I think we need to talk, don’t you?”

I stared into her green eyes and felt a heavy weight settle over my chest. I couldn’t do it. I’d thought about it the whole way home on the plane and wondered if I could play along for a while until shit settled down and give us time to figure it out, but when I saw her today, I realized I couldn’t. Actually, if I was being honest with myself, I knew when I forced my way into the room where Samson was holding Mila, saw the other man’s hands on her, and lost my fucking mind. I would’ve killed Samson if she hadn’t kept talking to me, and then I would’ve moved on to the man trying to buy her. After that, I knew we were either together or we weren’t, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I could pretend anymore.

I considered being honest and telling her I loved her, but I had a feeling this was only a casual thing in her mind, and I didn’t want to hear her give me those words. “I think we just need to take a step back. We’re not gonna agree on how to move forward, so maybe we should just end it now.”

She shook her head. “Just like that? After all we’ve gone through, it’s just over? Can’t we at least talk about it? You said you would think about doing what I proposed. Maybe we can work out something that we both can agree on.”

“Would that include telling the team we’re in a relationship?”

“I…” She searched for the right words, but it was obvious when she couldn’t find them. “No, I just can’t do that right now.”

“And I can’t pretend we’re not, Mila.” I glanced toward the door, knowing we were on borrowed time. I was surprised no one had come down yet. “I’m not willing to hide something this important or lie to the entire team. That’s not who I am.”

She ran her hand through her hair. “And I’ve proven that’s exactly who I am, right?”

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