“Or I could wait in your bedroom until you’ve fixed whatever crisis has come up. I’ll keep the bed warm and give you something to look forward to,” she says.
She runs her tongue over her lips and I feel nothing.
“For fuck sake Natalie. Take a hint. We’re done here. Just get out,” I snap.
Her face changes from seductive to shocked and then angry.
“You absolute asshole,” she snaps.
She storms back into my bedroom and for a moment, I think she’s still not planning to leave, but then I remember her stripping off her trousers. I’m not going to insist she leaves half naked.
I stand in the hallway, still rooted to the spot. I hear Natalie huffing as she grabs her trousers. She comes back into the hallway with them pressed against her front, her shoes dangling from her hand by her side.
I can see tears shining in her eyes. I don’t think she’s that upset. I think she’s angry and humiliated, and I wish I could make it better, I really do, but I can’t. Anything I say now is only going to make this worse. I keep my mouth shut as she stalks closer to me.
“You really are a first class fuck boy,” she snarls.
I shrug. What is there to say to that? It’s not like she’s wrong, and it’s not like she didn’t know that when she came back here with me. She just didn’t care when she thought she was going to get her way with me.
I don’t say any of that to her. I don’t want to argue with her. I just want her gone. I can smell her perfume and now it doesn’t smell sweet like I thought it did earlier. It’s over powering. Nauseating.
She’s still making no move to leave.
“Well? Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” she demands.
“Close the door on your way out,” I say.
Her mouth drops open and she shakes her head.
“Wow. Just fucking wow,” she says in a low voice that bristles with anger.
She finally starts to walk away from me. She reaches the top of the stairs and turns back to me. I can see the venom in her expression, the embarrassment in her flushed cheeks.
“You should know I don’t do business with people who are unreliable. The deal is off Sebastian. Don’t bother calling me.”
Dammit. That’s what Matt said would happen. But then again, he was the one who dropped that bombshell on me. What did he think would happen after that? I have no idea, but I know I have to fix this. I’ll give her some sob story, make her feel sorry for me. Maybe I’ll even promise to make it up to her at the weekend when my head isn’t reeling.
“Kimberley wait,” I say, taking a step forwards.
“Did you just call me Kimberley?” Natalie demands.
Fuck. I did. I know I did. There goes any chance I had of rectifying this.
“Natalie,” I say, still not quite ready to give up without at least trying to turn the situation around.
“Fuck you,” she says.
She starts down the stairs. I hear her running down the hallway at the bottom and then I hear the front door open and slam closed. I don’t bother going after her. What’s the point? The deal is off. I screwed up big time. And Kimberley is back in town.
I take a step backwards and my back hits the wall. I slowly slide down it and sit on the ground, my knees drawn up and my elbows resting on them. I run my hands over my face and try to make sense of the swirl of bottomless emotions that flood through me.
Kimberley is back in town.
Chapter Two
Sebastian
I’ve been trying to call Matt for the last hour, but his phone keeps going straight to voicemail. I’ve called his office and his secretary insisted he was in a meeting. I know that’s bullshit. I could hear it in her voice. He’s avoiding my calls on purpose.
Well he’s not going to be able to avoid me in person. Screw what his secretary has to say. I’m going to have this out with Matt right now. I step out of the elevator and stalk along the corridor. A few associates run back and forth going about their day like the whole world hasn’t just been turned upside down. I return their nods, their good morning greetings. It’s anything but a good morning, but I remind myself how I let my own emotions screw up a deal last night and I keep myself in control now. I don’t want to take my foul mood out on the staff here.
My head is banging from the alcohol last night and the lack of sleep. I was expecting that but I was expecting it to be for a very different reason. The sort of reason that makes the pain bearable.
I move through the open plan centre of the floor, trying to ignore the way the low hubbub of voices pierces my head. Even the sound of computer keys clicking sets my jaw on edge. I reach into my pocket and pull out a strip of painkillers. I dry swallow two and tell myself they’re working.
“Rough night?” Bradley, one of our top accountants, grins when he sees me popping the pills.
I bite my tongue to stop myself from snapping at him that it’s none of his business. Bradley and I go way back and we’ve always had an easy relationship, more like friends than a boss and a worker. Any other day I would have laughed and regaled him with stories of the wild night I’d had last night.
“You could say that,” I reply, forcing a laugh.
He pulls his desk drawer open and hands me a sealed bottle of ice cold water. I’m glad now I didn’t bite his head off.
“Thanks,” I say as I open the top and drink half of the bottle down in one go.
The cool water
