Page 31 of My Wildest Obsession

“For hurting you. For lying.”

“Lying about what?” I ask, and he sighs, looking away from me.

“Can I come inside?” He asks, and I step back, letting him come inside.

He seems to take up all of the air in this place. He’s stands out like a sore thumb here in his suit that costs thousands of dollars. Everyone in Sequoia is either a rancher or a college student and most wear jeans and t-shirts.

“Nice place,” he says, and I cross my arms over my chest.

“You only have another minute,” I warn him and he rolls his shoulders back.

“I’m sorry,” he says.

“Right. You’ve said that.”

“Shit, Clara. I’m not good at any of this.”

“At what? What are you trying to do here?”

“To apologize. To get you to come back and work for me. We can go back to normal. You’ll be my assistant and we can be fuck buddies or whatever you want to call it.”

“Not good enough,” I snap, stalking towards him.

I open the door and shove him out, catching him by surprise. Then I slam the door in his startled face.

“Clara!” He yells, and I roll my eyes, grabbing my diary and heading back to the guest room that I’m staying in.

I can hear him banging on the front door, but I ignore him. I lay down on my bed and enjoy the cool breeze blowing through the open windows. I can hear Theo yelling out front and I do my best to tune him out.

I open my diary, getting ready to write some more when the sound of my screen being popped out has me jerking up in bed. A second later, Theo is hoisting himself over the windowsill.

I gape at him and he glares at me.

“I still had a minute,” he says, and I glare back at him.

“You forfeited that minute by being an asshole,” I inform him.

“I can’t,” he shouts and then freezes, scrubbing his hands down his face. “I can’t lose you, but I’m not good at this. I never have been. I’ve never even wanted to try before,” he tells me, and I study him.

“Try what?” I ask him, and he starts to pace.

He stops pacing, takes a deep breath and his dark eyes lock with mine.

“I love you, Clara. I have since you started working for me. I think I knew when I hired you how important you were going to be. It’s why I bought that apartment and said that it came with the job. I wanted you to be close. I wanted to watch over you and take care of you.”

“What?” I ask in shock, and he keeps going.

“I love you. When I kissed you that first night, it was because I just couldn’t hold myself or my feelings back anymore. When I said we would sleep together just once, I knew that it would never be enough.”

“Okay, but then that night at the gala, you were a total dick. You shut me out when I said that I wanted more,” I remind him.

“Because I know that I’m going to mess all of this up!” He shouts, and I blink.

“Why do you think that?” I ask him.

“Listen, I’ve never wanted to date before.Growing up, I didn’t exactly have the best role models for relationships. I never thought that this would happen to me, but it did and I don’t know how to navigate things.”

“You never talk about your past,” I say tentatively, and he shrugs.

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