Page 76 of The Grumpy Billionaire
I stiffened, already knowing what his evaluation of Bruce had to be. “That’s none of your business. And you can’t tell anything by looking at someone.”
Although hadn’t I judged Rainy the same way?
Reid laughed. “Give me a break, Mara. The guy practically has S.T.U.P.I.D. tattooed on his forehead. How can being with some goombah like that be stimulating for you?”
I looked at him straight-on and raised an eyebrow. Reid already assumed I was sleeping with every himbo I went out with. It was much safer to let him go on believing that.
His expression darkened. “Well, all right, if that’s all you care about, then I guess a guy with muscles on top of his muscles wouldserviceyour needs adequately. But what about above the neck? It just doesn’t seem like the girl I used to know.”
“I’ve changed. You’ve changed, too. It happens.”
He shook his head in disagreement. “There’s no way you’ve changed that much. I think the real you is still in there somewhere under that front you put up. You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool me. I know you.”
He leaned toward me as he said it until only inches remained between our lips.
My heart slammed against my sternum. I was in trouble. He did know me. And he knew exactly how to break through my defenses, exactly how to seduce and confuse me until I couldn’t remember how the “new” me was supposed to feel or act.
His face was so close, so beautiful. I wanted desperately to kiss him.
No.I couldn’t let it happen again.
Each time Reid held me in his arms he managed to pry another scale from my armor. I sat back against the couch cushion, restoring the space barrier between our faces. Grabbing a throw pillow, I wrapped my arms around it, holding it to my chest.
My tone was flippant. “What is it you think you know, genius?” I was ready to debate anything he might come up with.
One of Reid’s eyebrows went up as he saw the challenge in my eyes and accepted it. “I think you don’t care about any of these guys. I think you don’t even like them all that much. I think you’re fucking them as a distraction.”
The expectant look on his face told me that was a random shot—he’d thrown it out, fishing to find out how far I actually went in these frequent, casual relationships.
That hook was going to come up empty. I ignored it. “A distraction from what?”
Reid slowly moved his upper body toward me, his gaze lasering in on mine. “From the way you really feel. From what you want more than anything.”
My breathing shallowed. He was so close to the truth it was scary. I didn’t want to know his answer to the next question, but it left my mouth anyway, barely a whisper.
“And what do I want?”
“You want it all—home, family, kids—you want love. Not that half-assed thing you have with all your boy toys. You want the real deal.”
I shook my head slowly in denial, my heart beating in heavy, almost painful thumps as he continued moving toward me, a slow-speed chase with his eyes locked on mine, bringing his face ever closer.
His voice became dangerously soft as he finally reached me, his whisper brushing my lips.
“You want me.”
And then he kissed me.
TWENTY-SIX
Confession
Mara
And, oh how right he was. I kissed Reid back, wanting him more than I wanted oxygen, more than I wanted safety in that moment.
Knowing he saw right through my façade into my soul stripped away all the fight in me. What was the point? I had never been able to fight my attraction to him.
That was why I’d had to physically leave the state and never speak to him again. Apparently, that had been a futile effort, because my addiction to him had actually gotten worse instead of better.
