Page 23 of Desirous

This may be my only chance. I can’t let her leave without hearing me out.

So I hurry behind her and catch her just as she makes her way out into the lobby. “Kat, wait!”

She doesn’t respond, so I grab her arm to stop her. When she spins around, I see nothing but pure hurt in her beautiful eyes. “Don’t let me interrupt your date, Alex.”

“It’s not a date. Well, it is, but not a real one.”

Fuck, I’m getting lost in the useless details. I need to focus on what I want to tell her. “Forget that. Come with me. Please? I want to talk to you but not here.”

When she doesn’t answer, I take that as a yes and pull her back into the restaurant just in time to see Randy on his way over to me filming the entire thing. Jesus, is this guy for real?

I need to figure out where the hell we can find some privacy in this restaurant. My father’s office will have to do, so I tug her into the hallway next to the kitchen and hurry her away from Randy and his damn camera.

“Where are you taking me? Let me go!”

“Just give me a few minutes. That’s all I ask, okay?”

She doesn’t try to leave, so that’s something. Thankfully, Randy doesn’t follow us, and when I slam the office door behind us, I finally have her all to myself to say everything that’s been on my mind for the past few days. Now I just have to hope she’ll be willing to listen and not bolt before I finish.

“You look beautiful, Kat. I’m so happy to see you here tonight.”

Glaring up at me, she practically growls when she says, “Whatever you’re planning on saying, Alex, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is what you did and that you’re having the night of your life with Emma.”

Not a good start, but maybe that means things can only get better.

CHAPTER TEN

Kat

I don’t wantto focus on how gorgeous he looks standing here in this black suit that seems to fit every inch of his body perfectly, but I can’t help myself. If it had been months since I was next to him naked in bed or even weeks, maybe my mind wouldn’t go to that place, but it’s too soon and he’s right here, so close and looking so good.

No! I can’t let him and that beautiful body of his make me forget what he did and what I just witnessed for the past half hour.

“Let me out of here, Alex. I want to leave.”

As I try to push past him, he stops me by holding my arm. “Kat, please let me explain. This isn’t what it looks like. I swear.”

God, he must think I’m some kind of idiot. I know what’s going on out there at the table. I have eyes.

Even though I know it’s a mistake, I look up at him and practically get lost in those luscious brown eyes of his. “Aren’t you on a date with Emma? I hear you two are an item now onthe show. Good for you. She’s a nice person. Too bad for her, though.”

That’s my hurt talking, but since the only other choice is to let my feelings for him come out, better to stay with the hurt.

“Kat, I’m sorry. I’ve been texting and calling and even coming over to your apartment to tell you that. Did you get any of my texts? Did Sadie tell you I stopped by?”

His voice sounds almost frantic, like he’s worried I won’t listen to him give the same excuses he’s given for days. Or maybe he’s more worried that he wasted all his precious time typing out those messages pleading with me to believe how sorry he is.

Sorry enough to go out on a date with another woman just days after we slept together. God, I really am an idiot. First, I was a shrew, and now I’ve graduated to idiot. Or maybe that’s a demotion. This certainly would be the week for that.

“I read them all. So what? You’re sorry that at the moment I needed you the most in that studio, when everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of criminal, you didn’t do what someone good would do. Great. Thanks. With that and two bucks, I can grab a soda on my way home tonight.”

His eyes soften, and I don’t know if it’s possible, but I swear he grows even more gorgeous right in front of me. “I know I fucked up. I want to fix it. I tried to yesterday. I went to Maria and Shane and told them everything—about how you were at my place that night and how you couldn’t have been at the studio to put anything in that food. I confessed everything.”

My spirits soar for a moment, but then they crash down to earth again. Maria and Shane haven’t called me to come back to the show, and if he had actually said a word to them about my being innocent because we were together, they would have.

“I don’t believe you. They haven’t contacted me, and don’t you think they would if they knew the truth?”

And then I see a sheepish look come over him and know what happened.

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