Page 18 of Rosabel and the Billionaire Beast

“You’re not the nicest person to be around, Duncan. You snap orders at me and give my number to your friends without even asking me, like I’m some expendable resource. You treat me like I’m a servant who owes you my attention instead of an employee you should respect.”

I sifted through her words. Snap orders? Give her number to my friends? That was just Maddox, and that had been to help plan his rebrand. It wasn’t like I did it all the time.

What did she expect? The only reason I’d snapped at her and pushed her away was because it’d been all I could do to hide my feelings while she’d been dating someone else. Maybe that hadn’t been the best route, but it’d been the one I’d taken.

It’d been self-preservation, really.

“I can’t go home without you,” I said.

She flattened her hands against her stomach. “I still. Quit. Remember those words? I quit. Need me to say them again? I.Quit.”

She strolled out, leaving me gaping after her.

My hands hung at my sides, and I waited. Any minute now, she would return. She would strut back into my office with a smirk on her lovely cheeks and declare what a sucker I was for falling for the joke.

But there was no strutting. No return. No sass.

She was gone. Well and truly gone. And the sense that something vital had just slipped through my fingers carved me from the inside out.

I never would have expected that in a million years. She wasn’t serious. She couldn’t be.

Yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was. And I didn’t know what I was going to do about it.

SIX

rosabel

What did I just do?

I stalked outside, blinked away the August sunlight, and stared at the parking lot, dumbfounded. I’d dreamed of standing up to Duncan. Of saying the exact words that had slipped from my mouth.

Now that I had, the victory wasn’t quite as sweet as I’d hoped it would be. Something inside me felt off-kilter, like I walked to my car with only one shoe on.

I’d expected the conquest to be more of a battle. I’d expected to show him exactly how much he’d taken me for granted.

I’d never expected him to gape at me as though I’d just torn a waxing strip from his leg. He’d appeared shocked. Disappointed. Pained.

I jammed my keys into the ignition, fuming. Why should I care about Duncan Hawthorne’s feelings? He had no right to assume something was between us. And then tell his family about it?

No. Just—no.

And to think I’d date him for no other reason than because he wanted me to?

The guy was higher than a kite.

Actually—never mind. This was SO like him.

I navigated my way out onto the street and into the mild traffic breezing through Westville on a Wednesday afternoon, choking the steering wheel.

Duncan was themostentitled person I knew. Generally, when a person had glaring flaws, their families had something to do with them. Why should I have any desire to go to his hometown and meet the people who raised him?

One Hawthorne was enough. A whole flock of them?

Hold me back.

Apparently, they were the ones demanding I come. I could barely handle Duncan’s beastliness. If his behavior was a family trait, I would steer as clear from them as I possibly could.

Especially now that I’d quit.

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