Page 53 of Seductive Scoundrel

Dean

I’ve never beenone to be moved by a woman pouting. As a point of fact, I’ve always found the behavior annoyingly manipulative, so it’s never achieved the desired results. In the business world, emotion has no place, and I’ve stepped over temperamental people too weak to play in the big leagues.

Watching Mia’s face fall when she realized she wasn’t spending last night with me isn’t what set my chest aching and made me feel like the world’s biggest asshole.

No.

It was the brave face she quickly put on to smooth over her sadness and disappointment. It was the way she tilted her chin defiantly when I told her she’d already served my purpose for the evening when it wasn’t what I meant at all. It was the fact that she did everything she could to try not to manipulate me by pretending to be strong and unaffected.

With Mia, it’s everything she doesn’t say and what she fights so hard not to show that cuts me to the quick. She keeps trying to be more like me when I should be the one trying to be more like her.

I’m obsessed with her. I can’t deny it. Sacrificing time with her and sending her away is only making my fixation worse, not better.

That shouldn’t be a bad thing, yet all I do is test her and try to put distance between us that I don’t even want to be there. I’d never sabotage a business relationship, so why have I decided to spend my time pining for a woman whodoeswant me back.

Yeah. That makes sense.

Hell, what I want to do is take Dex’s advice and bring her to Florida.

Dean: I’ll call you when I’m back from Florida – hopefully by Friday.

And there I go again. Like I’m not going to call her every day, yet I’m pretending otherwise. I’m sure she’s not buying it either unless she’s decided I’m an asshole not worth her time based on the way I treated her after the fundraiser.

Mia: Sure :) have fun

I want to pick up the phone and tell her something real. I want to hear her voice soften when she realizes that she’s getting to spend time with Dean the man and not the mogul. More than anything, I want her face to transform with a genuine smile as she unconsciously nestles closer to me. I want herhere.

But instead, I send her another text.

Dean: You can plan our next date. Let me know when and where.

Mia: We don’t have dates. We just spend minimal time together between fucking.

Shit.

It sounds a lot colder and more callous when she’s the one saying it.

The phone ringing in my hand startles me so much I nearly drop it. “What?”

“Dean, you made me rearrange your schedule at the last possible moment, and then you don’t even meet Robert on time? You’re going to miss your damn flight.”

Jacqueline’s voice isn’t the one I want to be hearing right now, especially when she’s right and I’m letting the distraction of Mia knock me off my game.

Again.

I’m going to meet Dex and his dad. This is major. I can’t fuck it up.

And yet…

Dean: Aw, come on, beautiful, there’s more to it than that. More to us.

Mia: Not according to you. We didn’t even get a chance to play our tell me a secret game because you were too busy running away.

Mia isn’t the type to give me an inch I don’t earn and it makes me smile. Who would have thought the challenge would be so welcome when you’re used to easy? Apparently, bedmates without brains aren’t nearly as fun.

Dean: Can you miss work? I’ll fly you to Florida to have a beach day with me. You can ask me all the questions you want.

Mia: You’re ridiculous.

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