Page 70 of As the World Falls

I roll my tongue on the inside of my cheek, attempting to calm down. It made me feel slightly better that her brother had her back, and I trusted that he took care of it, but it didn’t make me want to murder the woman any less. I try not to mix women into my bad business, but sometimes they put themselves there. Unfortunately, a woman would have to do something unspeakable to get more of my attention, and although I was pissed off, this wasn’t enough for me to cross my boundaries and target her.

“Are you alright?” I finally ask her.

She made another frustrated noise, and I couldn’t help but smirk because she looked like a little fiery dragon. “I’m fine. Now, can you tell me why you came all the way here so you can leave?”

“I came because I wanted to see you, and now that I have, I’ve decided you’re fired.”

She lifts a brow at that, and a glint lights her eye as the corner of her mouth lifts into a smirk, and it’s like my chest deflated at the lift in tension. “You didn’t want to see me,” she states in disbelief.

“What if I did? How would that make you feel?” I ask curiously.

Her smile fades, and she straightens, her gaze becoming more stone-like. “I feel like that would be silly of you because I said I never wanted to see you again, and I also think my brother would kill you for being here.”

I laugh now. “He probably would.” She smiles, but it quickly falls from her face, and she busies herself with something else on her desk. I tilt my head, observing her more. “Do you really wish never to see me again?”

She pauses for a moment, never looking back at me. “It wouldn’t change anything if I didn’t mean it. You said so yourself.”

I grind my teeth together and tear my gaze away from her. “I never said that.”

“You saidwe can’t,” she quotes me, meeting my gaze now. “And that’s fine because you’re right. We can’t because I don’t want that.” Her eyes fall to her desk as she fidgets with the same distraction from before.

I found it interesting that she couldn’t look me in the eye. I had a hunch she was lying to herself and me. “Cecilia,” I say gently, but she cuts me off.

“Thanks for coming to terminate me in person. It was a pleasure,” she bites out, picking the stack of books up off her desk and zipping past me, essentially dismissing me.

She wasn’t getting rid of me that easily, though.

I spin around, following her through the stacks as she puts books back in their proper place. “Do you like working here?” I ask curiously, attempting to change the subject to something lighter.

She gives me a dirty look over her shoulder. “Yes. Why are you still here?”

I ignore her last question. “You did well working with my design team. They actually came up with decent sketches this time around. It made me wonder if you ever had interests in doing anything else.”

She quickly turned down another aisle, but I kept pace with her. “Honestly, I never thought about it. I got the job here right after college, and I loved books so much that I just settled into the job and pretty much lived happily ever after.”

“Ah, but happily ever after usually ends with a Prince Charming, right?” I muse. “Do you have one of those hanging around here?”

She furrows her brows as she looks over to me. “No... I don’t.”

“Then is it really happily ever after?”

“Since when does a woman need a man to have finally made it in life?”

“She doesn’t. I guess what I’m wondering is if you’re happy?”

She stops in the aisle, staring at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Why do you ask me things like that? I find it hard to believe these are your normal topics of discussion.”

“Nothing I say or do equates to normal around you.”

“See, that right there,” she snaps, pointing at me. “You say these things sometimes that sound so… meaningful. It’s hard to know what you’re really saying when you’re not a meaningful person.”

I step closer to her, her energy drawing me in like an undeniable force. “What if I was with you?”

She blinks. Once. Twice. “I don’t believe you.”

“Why not?”

Her breath shudders as I move closer, only a foot away now. “You’re cold and calculated. What could I have done to make you feel anything at all when I’ve been trying to destroy you?”

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