Avoiding Temptation (Avoiding #3)(58)

“We’re about finished here. Are you ready to head out?”

“I’ve been ready,” she said through a smile of her own. She was sure he had read the edge to her own comment, Before you were playing nice with Parker.

“Great, I’ll just be a minute,” he said.

“I’ll be right here.”

She knew she was acting a bit crazy, but that tended to happen when her boyfriend of a year and a half told the entire world that the medical wing he was working on with his ex-girlfriend was all on her genius!

Ramsey returned a few minutes later as promised, and they managed to duck out of the groundbreaking ceremony before she could run into any other unpleasant surprises…like Bekah.

The ride back to their place was tense and silent. Lexi stared out the window, unseeing. Ramsey was gripping the steering wheel a little too tight. She knew she should say something, but she didn’t.

They made it all the way up the stairs and closed the door before she burst open at the seams.

“Parker is the mastermind behind this whole project?” she shouted at him. “She’s the reason you decided to do this? It’s all her?” Her hands were flying as she spoke, and she couldn’t keep her temper under control.

“What do you want me to tell the cameras, Lexi? Do you want me to tell them that I f**ked everything up with my girlfriend, so I did this, trying to make it right by her?” he demanded.

“It would be a better f**king story than telling the f**king cameras that it was Parker who made you decide to do this! You want to know why that would be a better story?” she asked, striding right up to him.

“Why, Lexi?” he asked, his green eyes narrowed and fiery.

“Because it would have been the truth!”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Are you f**king serious? Because it’s news to me that Parker was the reason for any of this!”

“Parker has been doing a lot of the work. I’ve been the Bridges name and have offered my two cents on the business side. She knows the medical side. It’s her baby.”

“Only because she lost the other one,” she said before she could stop herself.

Ramsey glared—actually glared at her. “Don’t talk about that,” he said calmly.

It was a scary calm, one that was bordering on madness. She had touched on the topic that he couldn’t possibly discuss with a level head, and she knew it. She was pushing him for no good reason, pushing just because she was angry and wanted the fight in that moment. She wasn’t even playing fair.

“I don’t like her. You said she would be gone if I wanted. You said that she didn’t have to be in our lives anymore. I don’t want her in our lives anymore,” she told him flatly.

“I said that before I signed the contract for the medical wing,” he said, some of the fire in his eyes leaving.

“Another broken promise,” Lexi said, shaking her head.

“Look, I have to work with her now, and I’m doing all of this shit for you. I can’t just push Parker away when we’re in the middle of getting this company off the ground. But it changes absolutely nothing in our relationship whatsoever.”

Lexi looked away. Sometimes, it felt like it changed a lot more than he would ever admit.

“And what about you?”

“What about me?” she snapped. Her temper clearly hadn’t run its course yet.

“I have to work with Parker, but you don’t have to be around Jack, and you still are. So, why are you still around him?”

“Yeah, I don’t work with Jack, which means I don’t have to be around him every f**king minute of every day. It means I don’t have to tell the press that he’s the reason for my next big project,” she said, raising her voice as she spoke. “It means there is distance between us.”

“Don’t be hypocritical!”

“Hypocritical?” Lexi cried.

“Yes! Just because you’re not around him all the time doesn’t make it any better.”

“Jack Howard is not my problem anymore. He is married to your sister and has been nothing but a good friend to me since that happened!”

“No one is that good of a friend when he stares at you like he does.”

“Are you just trying to make me mad? Are you just trying to push me away?” she asked, walking away from him.

“Lexi, get your ass over here,” he growled. “Right now.”

“No,” she said stubbornly.

Ramsey took two big strides to close the distance between them before crashing his mouth down on hers. She didn’t want to enjoy this. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to slap him and tell him to get his shit together or she was out the door. Of course, she wasn’t going to leave, not really. It was an irrational anger coursing through her from months of pent-up frustration about Parker being around Ramsey, months of wondering if something was going to happen, months of keeping her mouth closed.

Then, she hadn’t been able to keep it closed any longer.

His hands were on her in an instant, yanking her dress over her head, unclasping her strapless bra, and grasping her br**sts in his hands. Her hands went to his belt buckle. She wanted him out of these clothes. She didn’t want him in anything that matched Parker ever again.

Once she was finished with his pants, she grabbed his tie and jerked his face back toward her. “Did y’all plan this?” she demanded.