Right Through Me (The Obsidian Files #1)(10)

“Actually it is.” Her voice had a bell-like clarity. “I’m entitled to know why he stopped wanting me.”

Chairs scraped and the table rattled as all present scrambled to get the hell out of there. Batello alone stood his ground, breathing heavily. “Don’t waste words on this son of a bitch,” he said. “We’ll let our lawyers deal with him.”

“Give us a minute, Rand.” Simone didn’t even turn to look at him.

Batello snarled an obscenity and stumped out of the room.

The door shut behind him and a freshly awful silence fell.

“So?” Simone said. “Do you have anything to say to me worth hearing?”

He didn’t.

“Like I thought.” Her voice was soft and bitter. “You’ve got nothing.”

Jesus, this was heading right off a cliff, and he couldn’t think fast enough to head off the inevitable nosedive. “Listen. Simone. I’m sorry that I—”

“Just tell me one thing, Noah. Were you even aware that I was sitting next to you while that girl was shaking her tits in your face?”

He closed his eyes, took a moment. “I knew you were there,” he said.

Some answer. Simone was just warming up.

“I’m thinking you did me a favor,” she hissed. “First during the dance when you forgot that I existed and went off into your porno fantasyland right in front of everyone. Then just now when you broke the deal. I don’t like being blindsided, Noah.”

“It wasn’t intentional.”

“Just . . . shut . . . up. I’m not interested in your bullshit.” Her voice snapped like a whip. “I’m not sorry this happened, Noah. Better now than after ten years and two kids. Much better now.”

Listening to her was like holding a live electrical wire. All he could do was hang on, letting the charge buzz until his teeth rattled and his hair stood on end. The pain in her eyes was very real. The raw anguish in her eyes said it all. He’d thought that she was cool by nature and he’d liked her coolness, hoping it would mesh with his own preference for control. Hoping she might not need the intimacy all the other women he had sex with always wanted.

He’d bought a ring. Proposed. Entered into an actual engagement. He’d promised something that he didn’t actually have to give.

He cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Asking you to marry me is the biggest compliment I could pay a woman. I admire you. You’re brilliant, accomplished, beautiful. And I . . .” He searched for more. Found nothing to say.

“And you thought that was enough,” Simone finished. “Until you didn’t.”

He didn’t dare reply. He was in over his head.

She turned away so all he could see was the sharp line of her jaw, the small gold drop earrings. “You know what, Noah? I really thought you were different.”

He had no idea where she was going with this. Certainly nowhere good.

“How?” he asked.

“All that old-fashioned courtship. You, telling me you were happy waiting to have sex. I thought, aw, how sweet. How quirky and unusual and romantic. I thought you must have hidden depths. And that there would be so much more to discover. Hah.”

“Simone—”

“But it’s all a front. You have no hidden depths. There’s nobody home in there. I’m glad I never had sex with you.” She tugged her finger, pulling off the square-cut diamond he’d given her. “Take this back.”

He held up his hands. “Wait. Simone, can’t we talk first?”

“Take it, or I’ll flush it in the ladies.” She grabbed his hand, and closed his fingers forcibly over the ring. “Do you think I want to remember this feeling? Oh joy and f*cking rapture. You want some advice, Noah?”

He wanted advice from her about the way he wanted a fractured skull, but he had no right to show her any attitude. He clenched his teeth and gestured for her to have at. Stick it to him.

“Give yourself a birthday treat.” She flung the words at him. “Celebrate your freedom. Play out your pathetic sexual fantasy right here on the conference room table. Better her than me.”

She walked out, her elegant back very straight.

Noah stared at the door. The diamond ring dug deep into his palm. He breathed slower, slower . . . until Simone’s kill plan winked off his inner screen in the absence of visual stimuli. He was glad when it did.

He’d held back on sex with Simone, and he finally understood why. Because he was afraid of that inevitable moment afterwards. When she’d cuddle up to him with a hopeful, expectant look on her face, and there he’d be, like he always was. Wondering what the f*ck to do with her now. And how soon could she leave.

He pressed his hand against the table. The sensual grain of wood made him think of the dancer’s hair. That sexy fanning flare it did as she dipped and spun.

Play out your pathetic fantasy right here on the conference room table if you want. Simone’s words unleashed vividly erotic images. Lust shocked his unstable AVP into action again. Enough. He’d never analog dived to stall a sexual fantasy before, but there was a first time for everything.

When he had himself more or less together, he stepped out of the conference room and into an unnatural silence. Everyone in the place who had an office with a door that closed was behind it. The ones assigned to cubicles hunkered down and made themselves small while he stalked through the place.