Page 55 of Enemies with Benefits

Dear God, I’m not ready!

The need to stop the damning words from spilling out kept my lips firmly shut as he paced to the liquor cabinet. His jaw remained set as he splashed a finger of cognac into a glass, then glanced over at me, one eyebrow raised. When I refused the silent offer of a drink, he picked his up and swallowed it in one gulp. Setting it down with suppressed force, he faced me.

‘There’s a board meeting tomorrow morning that requires my presence.’

I frowned. ‘You didn’t know it was happening?’

Granite-jawed, he answered, ‘Hell, no. But I have no intention of missing it.’

Questions crowded my brain but his forbidding demeanour dried them all up. And really, wasn’t this short, sharp shock of a break exactly what I needed?

No,my senses screamed.Take whatever you can get.

And then what? My chest squeezed painfully as desolation took hold. When Jasper crossed over to me, slid his hands into my hair, it was all I could do not to melt against him as he fused his lips to mine. To do everything my instinct warned me would only intensify the impending anguish.

‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, but this is unavoidable.’

I forced a nod. ‘It’s fine. But I think I’ll stay, make sure everything is in place before I leave.’

He took a long moment to reply and when he did it was with a curt nod. ‘Okay. I’ll send the plane back for you in a couple of days. And I’ll take you out to dinner when you get back to London.’

One small step, Wren. That’s all it takes.

The words that fell from my lips seared my insides raw and bloody. ‘No. I don’t think that’s a great idea.’

A frown clenched his forehead. ‘Why not?’ he growled.

‘What are we doing, Jasper?’ I blurted before I could stop myself.

To his credit he didn’t give me a flippant answer. And even when his hands dropped, his gaze remained fixed on mine. ‘Do we need to label it? As long as it feels good, why question it?’

‘But that’s the problem. How long would it feel good for?’

I was aware I was worsening the mood when his eyes shadowed. ‘Wren—’

‘That ride this morning? It felt exhilarating. But it ended.’

He shrugged. ‘So we’ll choose the next adventure. And the one after that.’

‘That’s all life is to you? A series of thrilling rides?’ If so, how long before I was a stale experience he needed to replace with a more stimulating one?

He paced away from me. ‘This is so not the time to be dealing with this, Wren.’

A part of me felt sympathy for him. Whatever reason had triggered the unscheduled board meeting, it’d rattled him. But the grounded part of me stressed this was exactly the moment to end this, before I lost even more of myself. ‘Is there ever a right time?’

His eyes narrowed, my answer obviously incensing him. ‘Nice try, sweetheart, attempting to slot me into some ordinary box you usually reserve for past lovers.’ His phone beeped and his jaw gritted after a furious glance at it. ‘I need to leave for the airport. But trust me on this...this isn’t over.’

‘Isn’t it?’

With strides powered by frustration, he returned to me, dragged me against his body and stole another hard, tongue-stroking kiss. ‘Fuck no, it isn’t.’

Self-preservation insisted I didn’t prolong this moment, so I pursed my lips, remained in the living room as he stalked to the bedroom. Five minutes later, his suitcase was at the door. Another kiss and he was gone.

And for the next twenty-four hours, I remained in suspended animation of heartache, anguish and mind-shredding debate as to whether I’d done the right thing.

Then it all ceased to matter as all hell broke loose.

‘Let me get this straight. You called a board meeting to get us to vote for you to stage a hostile takeover of Bingham Industries?’

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