Or just between herself and me.
It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she’d let him in and he wanted to keep her safe. “Quit. Even if you don’t take the job I’ve offered you, quit Kingdom Corp. If you’re really that disposable to her, then she’s not worth your loyalty.”
“It’s not that simple.” She leaned up and kissed him lightly. “And while I appreciate the offer, I’d be just as disposable working for you as I am working for her.”
“No.”
“Yes,” she countered gently. “All employees are disposable to one degree or another. I might be less so than some, but ultimately there are plenty of people out there who can do my job. That’s not even getting into the messy complications around the fact that we’re sleeping together.”
Where the fuck was this coming from? The Samara he’d known up to this point was fierce in her ambition and she’d had no problem taking credit where credit was due. The look on her face, the way she described herself—it was almost defeatist.
Anything he said would be viewed through the lens that she viewed him through—the heir to one of the biggest oil companies in the country. Someone she wasn’t sure she could relate to.
“Come away with me.”
Samara raised her eyebrows. “That’s not a solution.”
“It’s not meant to be a solution. It’s meant to be a reprieve.” He hesitated, thinking fast. “I have to take a day trip to LA. I was going to put it off, but the timing is perfect. At the very least, it will get us both out of here for a bit.” Beckett leaned down. “And if you’re willing, we can make it an overnight trip.”
Samara sighed. “It’s really not a good idea.”
“When has anything between us been a good idea?” He ran his hands down her arms. “If you stay in Houston, what will you be doing for the next twenty-four hours?”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ll be sitting in my apartment, driving myself crazy because I don’t know what’s going on at Kingdom Corp while I’m not there, and probably calling Journey a dozen times and annoying her with unsolicited advice about the proposal.”
There it was again, the flicker of guilt. He didn’t know if it was better or worse that she no longer helmed the bid from Kingdom Corp. I did what I had to do. Strangely enough, that didn’t make him feel like any less of a dick. Saying it was just business didn’t excuse him, either, because it wasn’t just business between him and Samara. It hadn’t been since they slept together the first time.
Samara sighed, drawing him out of his head. “I suppose there’s no legitimate reason to stay.”
He stroked her hair back from her face. “If you don’t want to—”
“No!” She flushed. “I mean, I do. It just feels…I don’t know. Decadent. Forbidden. Like a mistake waiting to happen.”
“How about an agreement—we won’t talk business for the duration of the trip.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I thought this was a business trip.”
“It is, but that just means you’ll need to entertain yourself for an hour or two while I take my meeting. The rest of my time is yours. We’ll go on that date I promised you.” While he trusted that she wasn’t fully under Lydia’s spell any longer, there were some things Beckett couldn’t leave to chance.
Samara looked like she wanted to ask for more details but finally nodded. “I’ll go. I just need to stop by my place and pack an overnight bag.”
“Perfect.” He couldn’t resist kissing her a moment longer. Not when they were so close, and not when they might as well have been holding hands on the edge of a cliff, daring each other to jump. Samara melted against him at that first contact. All he had to do was take two big steps back and he’d hit his couch and they could lose themselves in each other for a few hours.
But there was a plane to catch.
Reluctantly, he gentled his kisses until they were the barest brushing of his lips against Samara’s. Finally, finally, he lifted his head. “If we keep going like this, we’ll never make it to LA.”
“Screw LA.” She kissed his jaw. “They’re all crazy in that city.”
He chuckled. “If ever I forgot you were Texas born and raised…”
She went stiff and stepped away. “Yeah, Texas all the way down to my bones.” Her laugh sounded forced, though.
“Samara.” He waited for her to look at him. Beckett recognized the conflict lurking in her dark eyes. He’d seen it in the mirror often enough over the years. He mentally retraced what he’d said, and it all but confirmed there was some sort of familial conflict. “You can talk to me. If you want.”
She opened her mouth, seemed to reconsider, and shut it. “I’m afraid I’m horribly cliché. Daddy issues.”
He ignored the attempt at a joke. “If there’s anyone in this town who knows daddy issues, it’s me.”
“And Lydia.”
His aunt’s name fell like a stone into a still pool, the ripples washing away the rest of his feel-good from the night before. The ever-present reminder that he didn’t really have a claim on Samara. Not professionally, that was for damn sure. Not even personally, because Lydia might like to dangle Samara in front of him as some kind of distraction, but she’d lose her shit if she thought for a second that Samara actually cared for him. It would be her father choosing Nathaniel over her all over again.
He didn’t like to think what might happen then. If she’d actually gone so far as to kill his father, she wouldn’t hesitate
