Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(29)

“Yeah. That’s what I mean. To do what I do, I have to step on a lot of toes. A lot. But in the end, I believe in what we do as a company. We take failing businesses out of the hands of people who can’t run them properly. We streamline them and make them more effective. It’s better for the customers and for the employees, but we also have to break the whole thing apart before we can put it back together. Being a teacher just seems like I’d be building people up instead of having to knock them down first all the time.”

Kira looked thoughtful. “That’s a good way of looking at it.” She narrowed her eyes. “I need you to be honest. Is this the real you, or is this some conversation you scripted to make me like you?”

I sighed in mock relief. “So it worked?”

“A little.” Her finger was running an idle circle on the table, tracing and retracing a line through the ring of water her glass had left. “In the end, I don’t think it matters how I feel—how either of us feel. I made a promise to my friends, and that has to be more important than anything else.”

The damn promise again. While I understood that it had made sense seven years ago, the fact that Kira and her friends still treated it like some sacred oath today bordered on ridiculous. But I knew saying so would be a mistake. “Has to be. It sounds more like you’re trying to convince yourself than me.”

She breathed out a soft laugh through her nose. “Is it that obvious?”

“Hey,” I said, leaning in a little until I caught her eye. God, she was beautiful. She looked so vulnerable, but I knew there was a solid, unshakable core of strength in her. The combination was sexy as hell. She was soft enough to hold, but hard enough that she could stand on her own. “Despite what you may think about me, I’m not looking to rush you into a decision you’ll regret. So take your time with it.” I grinned a little mischievously. “Besides, I’m pretty sure the longer you delay the inevitable, the sweeter it’s going to taste.”

Her cheeks reddened again. “The inevitable, huh? And what exactly is so inevitable?”

“Us,” I said simply.





Chapter 11





KIRA


Rich lived on the top of one of the biggest hills in West Valley. The house had belonged to some famous musician or other a few years back. By Rich’s billionaire standards, it probably seemed modest. I guessed the garage held only four or six cars. It was probably five times the size of a normal house, but not so big you could definitely call it a mansion. But it took only one look to know it was bigger and more expensive than anything I’d be able to afford in my wildest dreams. It took only one look to know what kind of extreme wealth to expect on the inside.

I stepped out of my car and laughed softly at the thought. Rich and this house were similar in that way. What you saw was what you got. He looked like a guy who had been bringing the world to its knees for as long as he could remember. The kind of guy who could hardly contemplate the idea of failure because he was so accustomed to success. He looked like he had his life in perfect order. It was the kind of thing you’d see from a distance, maybe on TV or in a magazine, and you’d think there was no way—there was absolutely no way—anybody could actually be like that.

But I thought Rich might be exactly what he appeared. Or I had. His little scheme of forcing himself into my life wasn’t supposed to work. My plan was to harden my feelings against him and endure it. I wanted to prove I never needed his apology, and more importantly, I never needed him.

I still didn’t need him, of course, but I’d unfortunately glimpsed another side of Richard King. When Miranda and Iris had grilled me about my feelings for Rich, I’d felt like I was lying when I said I had no interest in him romantically. They’d made me promise to keep them completely up to date on everything he asked of me in his pseudoblackmail scheme. His latest request had brought me here. For reasons he chose to remain coy about, he supposedly couldn’t come to the high school to “learn to be a codirector” and needed me to make a house call.

It was my own fault. Instead of actually talking at the magic show about how he could help direct the school play, I’d spent the entire time buried in a haze of hormones and dreamy eyes. The real magic had been how easily Rich had put me under his spell—how he’d changed his tactics so smoothly that I hadn’t seen the next move coming. I’d been expecting a frontal assault, but he sneaked in through the back door and caught me off guard.

I grinned like a little kid at the thought. Apparently I lacked the maturity level to think of frontal assaults and back doors without getting perverted. Then again, I’d been having dark sexual thoughts far more often the last few days. I could play innocent and strong all I wanted, but my body knew exactly what it craved.

I knocked on the door and waited. It felt like my stomach was in my throat, but I did my best to calm my nerves. Even if my feelings were starting to get cloudy, it didn’t have to matter. I was a big girl, and all I had to do was resist him like I’d resisted so many gallons of ice cream over the years. After all, what mattered at the end of the day wasn’t if you wanted the ice cream; it was if you ate it. Right? Although I wasn’t sure the analogy was a great comfort, considering I didn’t count a few stolen spoonfuls at midnight as cheating when it came to ice cream.

When the door opened, I was surprised to see the ice queen herself. She stood proud and tall with a straight neck fit for a dancer and eyes that cut through me. She was beautiful in the most intimidating way, but I straightened my own back and tried to sound confident.