Page 36 of Empowered
“Half-British,” she said, maintaining her straight face. “Mother’s side.”
“See? Learning more about you already.”
Sarah stood up, leaving her food untouched. “Sorry to make you buy my lunch when I don’t intend to stick around. I must be going.”
He stood up as well. “Wait.”
She wasn’t going to wait. What was the point in waiting? This man was going to stall her until she fell for him. Sarah had seen it dozens of times under the employment of Damon Monroe. She certainly did not intend to become a woman who fell for those rich playboy tactics.
“I really must be going.”
Sarah turned, one step toward the door.
“Sarah.”
He didn’t quite bark her name, but the command was there.I’m not your dog, Mr. Blackbourne.Yet she stopped.
Why?
Her whole body shivered.Quivered.From head to toe her skin was brushed with the paint of arousal, as if it were last Saturday night and she saw this man through nothing but a sexual lens.God, did I want him.That lust for him was forced underground over the past week. The fact he was still interested in her enough to show up on her doorstep to ask her out hadn’t swayed her, but the lust was stillthere.
“I don’t know what happened to you, but I’m sorry.”
She turned, the full force of her strength propelling her toward Lucas Blackbourne. “Excuse me?”
Her nose almost touched his. Breath as hot as the ire raging within her blasted against his face. Still, Lucas remained unfazed. “I have nothing else to say, Ms. Clayborne. I’m sorry. For everything.”
How dare he.
All her professionalism went out the window. Sarah smacked that man’s cheek as if some outraged woman somewhere paid her to do it.Yeah. Me.
His face only slightly turned away from the impact.
“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me. About anything.”
Her trauma and whatever way she dealt with it wasnotfor Lucas to comment on. Let alone to know about! Even Nigel barely understood the extent to which his sister pushed herself into unhealthy scenarios.If anyone thinks it started with sex, they’re naïve.More like drink. Lots and lots of drink. It was all she practically did while at her mom’s house the month after the miscarriage. Jack Daniel was practically her boyfriend for that whole month.
After Russell’s role came to light? She had never been so shitfaced since a frat party in college made her wake up in a stranger’s house – and the stranger had no idea how she got there.
“I have never intended to anger you or make you feel uncomfortable, Sarah.” So why did he continue to lord over her? “But I clearly have done so. My apologies. I won’t bother you again, unless it’s strictly for work.”
“Please do so.”
“Don’t worry about lunch. I’ll have it sent to the office so you can eat it there, away from me.”
“Away from me.”
Something sounded so final in his voice. This was it. He finally got the clue. Sarah wanted nothing to do with him or his unfounded pity. They had nothing. No relationship. No grounds for one. They had hot sex on a whim one night, before they knew who the other was and how it would affect their lives one day. Life was one crazy coincidence after another. That’s all there was to it.
So why did the thought of this song and dance ending suddenly make Sarah feel…less?
It was that damn sexual tension hanging between them. The tension she tried to deny when he called it out the day before.
Oh, no. It was real. Sarah wasn’t dreaming about his cock because he was a convenient stand-in for a sex dream. She wanted him. It simply wasn’t a good idea to have him.
Sarah and good ideas? They didn’t get along.
Who kissed who first? Oh, who the bloody hellcared?
