Page 60 of Dating the Rebel
She could help others, but she couldn’t help herself. Not that she wanted love.
Falling for Grant had just proved to her that she’d been right to worry that she shared her mother’s poor judgment. Just like Mother, she’d fallen for the person she couldn’t trust.
But she wasn’t going to wallow in a pool of self-pity any longer. She was going to focus on the business—for her sake and for her sisters’. So after her dinner with Blair ended, she headed back to the office.
Her sisters would be gone now. But she would fill them in on her new marketing strategy in the morning. Eventually they would understand about her setting up Teo with Blair.
And someday they might forgive her...
She unlocked and pushed open the office door and stopped. The lights were off; everyone was gone. But there was a strange energy in the reception area, an almost familiar scent...
Boy...
That was what she and Blair had dubbed that rain-fresh and musk scent when they were young. But now Miranda called itman—which made her think of Grant. And her heart ached...
Damn him.
Even when he wasn’t around, he could spoil her mood. No. She wasn’t going to let him get to her. She was going to her office to work on her laptop before she forgot all the things she wanted to do.
Then she pushed open her office door to face the thing she most wanted to do: Grant. He sat in her chair, his feet on her desk, his head back as if he was sleeping.
Her traitorous heart swelled and warmed with desire and something else...something that scared her so much she lashed out. “What the hell are you doing here?”
But she was so distraught, she held up a hand before he could answer, “No. I know what you’re doing. You’re ignoring what I want. I told you never to come back here—that I never wanted to see you again, and here you are, doing what you want, not caring about what I want.” Which was what her mother had always done. Going from man to man while ignoring her children.
“You want honesty—”
“And apparently you can’t give that to me,” she said. “You weren’t really auditioning to join the dating service. You were spying on me to make sure I didn’t mess with Blair and Teo’s relationship.”
He flinched. “Blair told you...”
“Yes,” she said, her heart aching with his betrayal. “So all you’ve done is lie to me.” She shook her head. “You need to leave. And this time, stay away!”
He shook his head and refused to budge from her chair.
“Grant, I don’t want you in my life anymore.”
He stood up then and planted his hands on her desk and leaned across it until he was nearly nose to nose with her. “That’s not going to be possible,” he said. “I am now your partner.”
“What?”
“I just played your sisters for their shares of the company, and they’re not as good as you are.”
She shook her head. “No...”
But he nodded. “Afraid so. I guess I actually own more shares than you do right now.”
She gasped as shock stabbed her heart. This was the ultimate betrayal...by all of them. And just like all those years ago, Blair was the only one she could truly trust. She had no one else.
And now she didn’t even have her business. At least not control of it, and control meant everything to Miranda. Grant controlled the business now.
“Why would you do this to me?” she asked as those damn traitorous tears stung her eyes. “Do you hate me that much?”
Her beautiful face crumpled with a grimace of pain—pain he’d caused her. That pain gripped Grant’s heart, squeezing it so tightly that he thought it might stop beating entirely. “God, no, Miranda.”
“Then why would you take my company away from me? You must hate me...”
He shook his head, disgusted with himself for how he’d handled everything. Her sisters had warned him.
