Page 33 of Arrogant Playboy

Rosie stops and it takes me a couple of steps to realize she isn’t following me. I turn around and she’s standing there staring at me with a frown on her face.Fuck

“Ignore me,” I say, turning to keep walking.

“You make it hard to.” I still, her confession dances on the night air and swirls around me. “Shit,” she says as she storms off in another direction from the path we are taking.

“Rosie, wait,” I call after her.

Ignoring me as she continues to stomp through the grass, I catch up to her and halt her steps.

“Daniel, I shouldn’t have said that.” I can see the anguish on her face as she chews her nails nervously.

“I think you should have,” I tell her, stepping closer.

She shakes her head as she steps back away from me. “You need to stay there, and I need to stay here.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re my client.”

“Not because of any other reason?” I ask, raising a brow. “Are we going to talk about what happened in France?”

Rosie gasps, and for the first time I see color on her cheeks. “Nothing happened.”

“Yes, it did.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she argues, turning and heading into the park’s darkness.

“You don’t want to hear the way you took what you wanted from me in the darkness?” She shakes her head as she continues to walk off. “It was one of the hottest things I’ve ever experienced?” I yell after her.

She rushes back toward me shushing me. “Are you insane yelling like that for everyone to hear?”

I look around where we are, and no one is paying us any attention. “Well, it’s the truth.”

“Doesn’t matter. It can never happen again.” Then I watch as she literally draws a line in the dirt. “You are there, and I am here.”

“You drew a line in the dirt?”

“Yes. You are my client now. Everything that has happened between us can never happen again. Do you understand me?”

“No,” I say, shoving my hands in my pockets.

Rosie throws her hands up in the air. “Please, Daniel. Hear me when I say, nothing can happen. Working for Ivy is a dream, and I will not do anything to jeopardize that. My career and my reputation in this business means more to me than … than …” she stumbles over her words.

“Than me,” I say, answering for her.

Her face falls. “I don’t mean it like that.”

“But you did mean it.” Silence then falls between us. “Come on, let’s get you home,” I say as I start to walk in the direction of Chelsea.

“Daniel, wait,” she calls out after me. I ignore her and she grabs my arm and pulls me to stop.

“I’m sorry, okay. What I said …”

I can see the anguish on her face. “I’m a big boy, Rosie. It’s fine.”

“Friends. I want us to be friends. Please, I need you as my friend right now,” she pleads with me and the desperation in her voice kills me. “I like this,” she says, waving her hands between us. “The walking, talking, the hanging out together.”

“I get it.” I shove my hands in my pockets. “I’ll be your friend, Rosie,” I say. Her brows pull together. “Come on, let’s get you home.”

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