Page 24 of Her Every Fantasy

His jaw went slack for a moment before he snapped it shut. ‘No? To what exactly?’

‘To you still treating me like I’ve committed some cardinal sinby leaving the morning after you...after we...’

‘You gave me your word, and you went back on it. I don’t take that lightly.’

‘I know! But, damn it, are you going to hold it over my head for ever?’

‘No. A month, give or take, should suffice.’

‘And after that? We pat each other on the back and move on like our friendship never happened?’ Sarcasm dripped from my lips onto the table.

‘You broke it, Savvie. This new path is your idea. I’m just...making it interesting.’

A vice squeezed my insides tight despite this originally being my own plan. ‘If you think I’m just going to roll over and accept your terms, think again.’

‘I haven’t stopped being reasonable since you sailed off into the sunset. I’m willing to hear you out.’

I laughed again, conscious I was attracting more attention. Again Bryce glared at the man on the next table, who was wilfully ignoring his dinner date and shamefully eavesdropping. ‘You? Reasonable? When were you ever reasonable with me?’

‘Savvie...’

‘You didn’t talk to me for a week after I got my first modelling assignment. And when you turned up at the show you spent the entire evening in a foul mood, and snapped at anyone who came within three feet of me. If I recall, you never attended another show of mine.’

‘I sent flowers. Expensive ones.’

‘Yes, and a note writtenby some random florist saying you were proud of me. But you really think they made up for your absences?’

His eyes narrowed. ‘You expected me to drop everything and fly over to wherever you were just so you felt appreciated?’

Hurt lanced my diaphragm. ‘Of course not, but we were in the same city for some of the time, Bryce. You always had something more important to do.’

‘Gideon and I had decided to branch out on our own, away from the family business. Against the wishes of everyone but Aunt Flo. I needed to devote every minute to making it a success—’

‘Okay, I accept that, but...’

‘But?’ he jerked out tersely.

The pain intensified. ‘But I can’t help think, even before the whole thing with Dan, that you were already pulling away from me.’

His nostrils flared at the mention of Dan’s name and I wasn’t surprised when his expression closed off completely. ‘Don’t put this all on me. One minute you were lining up interviews for a marketing internship in the City, the next you were packing your bags to fly to Paris for a modelling gig simply based on a random scout’s offer of a job. I’d never known you to be flaky and even you have to admit graduating with a marketing degree, then abandoning it to pursue a modelling career, was a little surprising.’

‘Not when you knew I’d minored in fashion design and had a sizable portfolio locked in my closet.’

‘Doodles on art sheets you refused to show to anyone but me, and told me to ignore because you had no intention of doing anything with them even though I told you they were great.’

I tightened my grip around my wine glass, recalling another time he’d wholeheartedly believed in me even when I’d doubted myself. ‘So I changed my mind. Was I not allowed to do that? Or was I just not allowed to do that without your permission?’ I threw back.

His lips compressed and his gaze narrowed before it swept over my face, down my throat to my chest before rising again. The intensified gleam in his eyes escalated the heatwave sweeping through me. ‘We’re getting off-topic again, rosebud,’ he rasped, his low voice containing a dangerous edge that lit up my nerves.

I took another sip of wine before answering. ‘On the off-chance I accept this dare, here’s my deal. If you get to choose the time and place for when I get my secret wish fulfilled, then I get to choose the when, where and how you get to fuck me before then. It can be as early as tonight or two weeks from now. I get to say whether you fuck me on top of your car in a dark alley or on three-thousand-thread-count sheets in my private apartment.’

He shifted in his seat and his fingers resumed drumming on table. ‘It can’t be two weeks, not if you’re only around for another three weeks. Otherwise this is pointless.’

‘A week with me in your bed is pointless?’

‘If you choose to make me wait for two weeks, something has to happen in between. I’m not walking around with this fucking hard-on for fourteen straight days, that I can guarantee you.’

My breath strangled in my throat. ‘What are you saying?’

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