“I’ve managed to catch up with Matt and Chance since I’ve been back, and it’s good to finally get a chance to catch up with you,” I say.
I see Sebastian’s face change slightly although he tries to hide it. Is that why he’s pissed and acting like this? Because I’ve seen his brothers and not him? How can he not know why that was? How can he not know that I contacted his brothers because they were the safe options? And surely he knows that I was hoping they’d tell him about our catch ups and that maybe, just maybe, he’d call me and we could just forget about the past and move on.
Now I’ve seen this side to him though, I’m not sure I’d have wanted him to call me. I really don’t have time in my life for this petty nonsense and quite frankly, I’m done trying to play nice with Sebastian if he’s just going to stand there looking at me like I’m some animal in a circus doing tricks for him.
“For God’s sake Sebastian, are you broken or something?” I snap.
“Or something,” he says.
He turns to walk away from me and I am at once pleased that he’s finally responded to me and pissed off that he thinks he can just dismiss me this way. He wouldn’t act like this around Joe or Gary and I’m as much a part of this damned merger as they are. And Sebastian is either going to have to learn to deal with that, or stand aside and let someone else handle it.
I reach out and touch his upper arm, stopping him from turning away from me. The second I touch him, I feel a spark fly up my arm. Even through his suit jacket I can feel the chemistry sizzling between us. I pull my hand away quickly and clear my throat to cover my sharp intake of air. I don’t know if Sebastian felt what I felt when I touched him, but he’s stopped trying to walk away which is something.
“Look Sebastian I’ve tried to meet you half way but you clearly don’t want to be friends or whatever and I’m cool with that. But let’s get one thing clear here. This is business and I expect you to treat me with the same courtesy as you’d treat any other potential client or partner. Is that clear?”
“Crystal,” he responds, that amused expression back on his face.
Is this just the way he looks now? No. He didn’t look like this in the meeting. In fact, until the end when he made the kill shot on the discussion, he looked every bit as thrown as I felt.
“We both work on the finance side of our businesses and I can’t see any scenario where we won’t be working on this merger together. And I’m cool with that. I just want to make sure you are too,” I say.
“Of course. It’s business Kimberley. I do this shit every day,” he says.
He turns and walks away from me again, and this time, I make no move to stop him. I can’t help but admire his toned ass as he walks and I instantly reprimand myself and force myself to look away.
Sebastian has made it quite clear I am nothing to him. Nothing except an obstacle to getting the deal he wants out of the merger. I’ve tried to be friendly and clearly, he doesn’t want that. So screw how fucking sexy he is. If he wants the gloves to come off, then mine are well and truly off and we’ll do this the hard way.
I’ve already won this battle. Sebastian might have stopped when I called after him, but he’s still given himself away. Instead of heading out of the building like he tried to imply he was doing when he spotted me, he’s headed straight back to the elevator.
I’m the one wearing the cocky smile as I move across the lobby and out of the building.
Chapter Six
Sebastian
It’s been another long day to say the least. First the meeting from hell, and then the conversation with Kimberley in the lobby. I know I played that awfully, but when it comes to Kimberley I seem to have only two modes. Lose my shit or turn into a complete jerk. I went with the complete jerk option. I stood there looking at her like she was just a side show in the deal and I know that’s not fair. But as I discovered at eighteen, life isn’t fucking fair.
What I should have done was calmly explained to Kimberley that it hurt me a bit to know she’d contacted my brothers and not me, but that it was water under the bridge and I would work with her and be courteous and professional. Instead, I stood staring at her with a cocky grin and ignored her attempts to extend the olive branch until I finally made it sound like I thought she was the one acting crazy by telling her I do these kinds of deals all day.
Let’s just say it was far from my finest hour, but it served a purpose. It convinced me I was doing the right thing handing this over and taking a step back from the negotiations.
I spent the rest of the day holed up in my office craving a cigarette and going back over Bradley’s report with a fine tooth comb. I needed to make sure every single number was right, because while I can bluff my way through questions I don’t necessarily have the answers to, I would never expect Bradley to do that and Bradley is going into that meeting tomorrow. Him and Kimberley can spend the time going through each other’s books. I trust Bradley
