I grunted.
Kayla bit her bottom lip. “But in the interest of transparency, you should know that I did agree to help by planning some activities that I thought might work well for the story Rebecca is writing.”
“I figured as much.”
Kayla fidgeted. She straightened out the pens on her desk, lined her laptop up so that it was parallel to said pens, and pulled her hands back into her lap. “I didn’t want to cross any lines, Lukas. But I’m not in a very comfortable place. I’m trying to make Lisa happy and she’s the one who hired me. But I’m also trying to make sure I don’t—I don’t know.”
“Don’t what?”
She shrugged and looked at her feet. “Piss you off.”
I sighed, got to my feet, and smoothed out my tie as I walked around her desk so I could lean against it and look down at her. Kayla tilted her head back and her lips parted ever so slightly.
The sight of her looking up at me like that was maddening.
“I don’t want you to feel like you have to walk on eggshells around me,” I said.
Kayla frowned but didn’t say anything.
So I continued. “Look, I’ll go along with this little game you and my sister have concocted because I don’t have much of a choice right now, but don’t expect me to suddenly give my fortune away. I’m not Bill Gates. I’ve come by my money through hard work and ambition. I’m never going back to the days of having nothing. Ever.”
Kayla swallowed.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “So I’ll go through the motions. I’ll jump when you say jump. But you’re wasting your time if you think this is going to end with me having some kind of change of heart. This isn’t a movie. It’s real life. I’m not the guy you and my sister want me to be.”
Kayla’s brow furrowed and her stare hardened. She got to her feet and put her hands on her hips. “I’m not forcing you to do anything, Lukas. I’m just trying to help. If you’d prefer to work with another charity, that’s your prerogative. But you listen to me. If you’re going to work with me, then you’re going to have to check your bootstraps mentality at the door. I’m here to help the people who need it. I don’t have time to convince you to be a better person, and to be perfectly honest, I think it’s absolutely ludicrous that you’ve come all this way to try to convince me that you’re not who I think you are.”
“Excuse me?”
She gestured around her office with an incredulous laugh. “Can’t you tell I’m just as busy as you are? I have my own priorities. You aren’t one of them. Lisa wanted a favor and I have the means to help but that does not mean I have to cater to your every whim and smile and nod when you talk down to me. I won’t stand for it.”
This wasn’t going how I expected. My temper flared as she continued to glare daggers at me. Who did she take me for?
“There’s nothing wrong with the person I am,” I said darkly as I stood from where I leaned against her desk.
She continued glaring up at me with her hands on her hips.
“I’m the personification of the American Dream, after all,” I said.
Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Not everyone’s dream is so generic, Lukas.”
I scoffed. “Generic?”
“You heard me.”
“There’s nothing generic about what I’ve done with my life.”
Kayla shrugged and turned her back on me.
My temper pricked like a strummed chord on a guitar as she sat down, opened her laptop, and proceeded to work.
“It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself of that fact, not me,” she said simply.
“You’re stubborn,” I grated.
“Maybe I learned it from you. We grew up together, after all. Not that you seem to remember that. You’ve been treating me like—”
“Like what?”
“Like your chew toy,” she said with frustration. She slapped her laptop closed and got back to her feet.
I almost grinned. So she wasn’t as unbothered by me as she wanted me to think.
“You have no idea who I am now,” she said boldly. Her eyes danced back and forth between mine and her hands balled into fierce little fists at her sides. “I am not someone to be taken lightly. Success comes in different shapes and sizes. Just because you have a glitzy office and a stupid shiny watch and I don’t does not mean I’m not exactly where I want to be, Lukas. Do you hear me? I’ve worked just as hard to be here and I refuse to let you walk all over that in your stupid expensive shoes and your—”
I grabbed her chin. Kayla fell silent. Her eyes widened with surprise. Her body went rigid. But she didn’t pull away.
“Stop talking,” I growled before I leaned in and grazed my lips across hers. Her breath hitched in her throat and her eyes fluttered closed. Her long dark lashes cast shadows on her flushed cheeks and she smelled like vanilla.
I pulled her close and sealed my lips over hers.
Kayla drew a deep breath. Her hands raced up to the front of my shirt. She gathered it in those little hands of hers as I lifted her off the floor and set her on the desk. I stepped between her thighs and cupped the back of her neck as the kiss deepened.
As her lips parted and she let me explore her mouth, I tried to figure out how I’d gone from furious to desperate for her in a matter of seconds.
Chapter 10
Kayla
My body was rigid with shock as Lukas stood between my legs and kissed me like he needed to taste me to breathe.
The boy I’d had a crush on since I was a little girl was kissing me.
Lukas Holt is kissing me.
My thoughts whizzed around my brain at a million miles an
