Page 15 of Salacious Park Avenue Prince

I leaned my head in close to his and said in a whisper, “Could you maybe stop rubbing up on me? It’s very distracting.”

“Rubbing up— I’mnotrubbing up on you. The chairs are too close.”

“Yeah, but you’re squirming in yours.”

“I am not. And did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m trying to get away from you?”

I feigned a pout. “Now why would you want to do that?”

Caleb’s eyes trailed over my face as though he were searching for something—don’t ask me what. “Maybe because you sprayed half a bottle of cologne on this morning.”

“Not half a bottle, no. Just a spray in all the places that get hot enough to make the scent permeate. I’m glad you noticed.”

“Pretty hard not to when it’s giving me a headache.”

“I know a good way to relieve that. Just move your arm so I can reach under the desk.”

“Try it and die.”

I shrugged and turned back to face the front of the room. “Your loss.”

Caleb mumbled something I didn’t quite catch, and while I told myself I didn’t care what he’d said, that familiar feeling of self-doubt and humiliation tried to creep its way back in, just like it always did around Caleb.

It was annoying that, even after all these years, he still had this power over me. It didn’t matter how many people I’d been with, or that I could just look at someone and get them between the sheets—the complete and utter contempt Caleb felt toward me would always trump everything else.

Andmake me feel fucking worthless.

But I refused to let him see that. Wouldneverlet him see that again. I’d let him in, lowered all my defenses, and whathad I gotten for it? The cold, hard slap of rejection—something I’d promised myself I would never let anyone make me feel me again, especially Caleb fucking Reeves.

Which explained why I was the way I was with him.

We both knew the truth. Had for years now. But instead of admitting it and taking what was right there in front of us, Caleb had bottled that shit up tight. He’d stuffed the genie back in the bottle and then danced around it with all the harem girls.

Well, all the blonde ones, anyway.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, saving me from the self-destructive path I was heading down. The last thing I needed was to get so caught up in the past that I forgot who was sitting beside me. I couldn’t let Caleb see the effect he still had on me. I couldn’t allow him that kind of control. All he needed to know was that the night he walked away from me was the night he walked away from the best thing he never had.

I shifted so I could reach for my phone, and when Caleb looked down at my lap, I added an extra thrust for his benefit.

“Why don’t you take a picture? I know you have your camera.”

“Yeah, I’ll pass.”

I smirked and drew my phone out of my pocket. “I remember a time when you begged to take my picture.”

“Begged?” Caleb snorted. “That’s not how I remember it.”

“No?” I leaned in until our shoulders touched. “I guess you tell everyone there’s somethingcaptivatingabout their face.”

Caleb shook his head. “I’m a photographer. I’m always looking for interesting angles and shapes, and your face is?—”

“Captivating.” I angled the face under discussion in his direction and Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “Your words, not mine.”

Caleb shoved me off his shoulder and back to my seat.“That was a long time ago.”

“Not that long.”

“Long enough. I don’t know why you always have to bring it up.”

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