Page 15 of Unworthy
Chapter 7
In love with someone else
Heath
“Hey, Penny. You mind if I come in a sec?”
Penny looked up at me from her computer. She was wearing a silk shirt with a pencil skirt and high heels, and her hair was back in an immaculate bun. Her make-up was perfectly applied. Her black-framed glasses added to the effect. Objectively, she was gorgeous. Anyone could see that, I told myself.
She smiled a wary smile and leant back into her chair. “Oh, sure. How’s everything in ED?”
“Yeah, fine. I just came to apologise for the other night. Not sure what got into me, to be honest.”
Penny reached up and took her glasses off, levelling me with a shrewd stare and sweeping out her hand to indicate for me to sit in the available chair.
“Don’t you?” She sounded genuinely curious.
I shrugged. “Long hours, and I haven’t been sleeping. It’s no excuse, but I didn’t mean to behave like a tosser and make you feel uncomfortable.”
She tilted her head to the side. “It’s not really me you made uncomfortable, Heath.”
“Well, you were there as my date and so–”
“I was?” Penny’s perfectly shaped eyebrows were raised in surprise.
“Well, yes, of course.”
“It didn’t seem that way to me.”
“We’re dating,” I said firmly, annoyed that she was now being deliberately obtuse. Penny sighed.
“Heath, you’re not remotely attracted to me.”
I faltered for a moment before regaining the power of speech. “That’s… that’s not true.”
Penny pinned me with a shrewd stare and stood up. “Right then,” she said as she marched around her desk and right up into my personal space. “Kiss me.”
“Er… what?”
“If you’re so attracted to me, then kiss me.”
“Well, I–”
“Because you have made no move to kiss me so far. You hold my hand or put your arm around my shoulders in the most perfunctory manner, as if you’re going through the motions. I knew from the very first time we went out that you had absolutely no interest in me sexually, yet you continued to ask me out. Iamattracted to you, by the way. Not that you would have noticed.”
I frowned at her and puffed out a breath. “Why do you even agree to go out with me if you’re so convinced I’m not really interested?”
“Heath, you’re bloody gorgeous. You’re charming, fun – ofcourseI agreed to go out with you. It’s been confusing, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been fun.”
“But I–”
“Go on then, kiss me.” Penny put her hands on her hips. Her tone was full of challenge, almost like she was daring me to do something.
“I–”
“You see,” she said, all smug as if she’d just proved her point. “You can’t even–”
I cut her off mid-sentence. Grabbed her round the waist, pulled her into me and kissed her, hard. She melted into me, her hands went into my hair and I felt… nothing. When we broke apart, I took a rapid step back and shoved my hands into my pockets. She looked up at me with a dazed expression for a moment before clearing her throat and smoothing down the front of her skirt.
