Page 46 of Beck and Call

We went all the way into the parking garage. It was slightly closer to enter through the front, but there were reporters waiting for us to arrive, and the garage could only be accessed by residents. I turned to head up the stairs for my room, but he caught my elbow and pulled me toward his bedroom.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

"Correcting a few things. We're getting married, you sleep with me."

"Not tonight. It's been a really rough day, and I want to be alone," I insisted.

He pulled me into his arms and held me tight. I almost melted right then but straightened my spine instead. "When I saw you laying on that bench, so blue, I thought you were dead. Please don't fight me tonight. I want you close."

I stepped back from him. My heart was begging to stay where I was, but it hurt too bad when he retreated. "I wanted you close all last week." Without another word I fled to the solitude of the guest room.

Next week I'd search for a place of my own.

Chapter Sixteen

Beckett

She was distant for the rest of the weekend. We remained holed up in my apartment, but it might as well have been two different continents. When I entered a room, she found an excuse to leave it.

Monday morning, we rode to work together, but she retreated to her office the first second possible. I had back-to-back meetings, which left us no time to talk.

I entered her office through our adjoining door after lunch. The moment I stepped inside, she rose from her chair and started for the door.

"Where are you going now?" I snapped. I was tired of being ignored. It gave me a better sense of how she felt last week when I was acting like a petulant dickhead.

"I need to make sure the brochures are ready for your four o'clock meeting." Her smile was fake, and I started to fear there wasn't anything I could do to hold onto her.

I fought against my nature on a constant basis. My father was as polished as any other member of our upper crust society. I tried to emulate him, but faced with losing Evie, and I was devolving to my baser nature.

There was a receipt on her desk, and the pharmacy logo on the top caught my eye. I noticed she'd filled a prescription for the mini-pill and she'd purchased St. John's Wort.

Colter had a situation when we were teenagers where a girl he'd been dating had been on that type of birth control. What he didn't know was if it wasn't taken at the same time, religiously, every day it was not as effective as the combination pill. Combined with St. John's Wort, it was hardly a reliable form of contraception.

Lucky for both of us I'd had a vasectomy years ago. My family would want me to carry on our name, but I'd seen too much darkness in my life to want to bring a child into this world. I certainly had no intention of telling them about the procedure. While there was a part of me that mourned the loss of a family before I ever got to have one, I couldn't risk letting a child down the way I had Callie.

For just a moment I regretted getting snipped three years ago. There seemed to be little I could do to hold on to Evie, but I imagined a baby would convince her to marry me. I shook off the strange thought, since it was disgustingly manipulative, not to mention not an option anyway.

I went back to my office and listened for her to return. While she was out, I contacted the executives from marketing I was supposed to be meeting with and cancelled the meeting. It was time for me to stop trying to manage every department personally anyway.

I let the department managers know to send Colter and I their top proposals and we'd send them notice on their budget appropriations and which proposal we wanted to go with by mid-week. With that taken care of I effectively cleared my schedule for the rest of the day.

Evie's office door opened and clicked shut. Instead of chasing her down again, it was time for me to reassert some control in our relationship. She was angry at me, and she didn't really trust me anymore. That was clear. But I knew how to turn off her brain and stop her from overthinking and letting herself feel what has always been there between us.

I pushed the button for the intercom. "Evie, can you come in here?"

She didn't reply, but a second later the door between our offices opened with a soft whoosh.

"Close the door," I demanded. She complied immediately.

Standing in the middle of the room, she folded her hands in front of herself. "You wanted to see me?"

I moved around my desk and studied her. Even with her ordeal on Friday night, she was the loveliest woman I'd ever seen. Her dark hair fell in soft waves down to her waist. Large hazel eyes watched me with wariness, but the flush creeping across her porcelain skin gave away her continued attraction for me.

Moving around her, she held herself stiffly as I entered her personal space. I stopped behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders. Her breathing sped up, and I knew she wouldn't refuse me.

"What do you want?" she whispered.

"You, on your knees."

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