Chapter 12
SHANELLE
“Shit,” I hiss under my breath. There’s no way to keep avoiding this, and I can’t afford to make a scene in front of the company. I step away from my car without trying to open the door this time. I check the time on my watch, realizing how late it’s getting for lunch, and I really wanted that tuna sandwich.
“I’ll venture to say you’re in a hurry.” His voice pulls me in like a magnet, forcing me to look at him. As I do, I find myself caught in an intense gaze. “Am I wrong?” I hope the heat I feel in my pale cheeks isn’t showing.
“No, you’re not wrong.” I glance toward the entrance of the company and can see Viki on the other side of the glass. “Alright, fine, let’s talk. Let’s get out of here, please.” I grip my purse tightly.
“My car is on the other side.” He gestures across the street, in front of the company, to a black Bentley. “I’m not crossing with you, I’m not getting in your car.”
“Why not, if you’ve done it before? And not only have you gotten into my car, but also…”
“I get it, there’s no need to continue. You’re going to cross, get in your car, and drive a few blocks away from the front of where I work.” He raises an eyebrow, puzzled. “And then I’ll cross the street and get into your car.”
“And what guarantees me that you won’t run away?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Nothing can guarantee that.”
He sighs in annoyance, but he does it-he crosses the street as I asked and gets into his car. This would be the perfect opportunity to escape, but I won’t because I want all this to end. He can’t keep harassing me like this, because he is harassing me, right?
I walk as fast as my heels allow, losing sight of the company, and head toward the next corner. I stop and signal for him to cross the street with the car and wait for him to do so. When he arrives, I muster up the courage, open the passenger door, and get in with all the familiarity in the world, fastening my seatbelt.
“To be honest, I thought you’d leave.”
“And then you’d come looking for me again. I think it’s best if you tell me what you want so we can put an end to all this.”
“There will be nothing ended,” he growls as he says the words.
“Did you just growl at me?” He shrugs. “Well, it felt like it; that was genuinely an animal growl.”
“It wouldn’t be just any animal; it would be more of a wolf.”
I look at him in disbelief.
“Look, if what you expect is to hear an apology, you’ll have to ask yourself for one,” I let out. “For not allowing me to clearly know who the man was that I was remodeling the penthouse for. I had no clear understanding of who my boss was, and you can’t blame me for wanting to have a little fun with a man I found simply attractive.”
He raises a dark eyebrow, making it clear that he’s displeased.
“You found me attractive? In the past tense. Are you saying I no longer seem attractive to you?” I sense an annoyed tone in his voice.
“That isn’t the case here.”
“You’re not also going to tell me that you didn’t know Rosa Thomas is my mother?”
“You too?”
“How do you mean, ‘You too’? Who else has asked you that?”
“Well, clearly my boss. And as I told him, I’ll tell you, Mr. Thomas, do you know how many Thomases there are in the world? And I’ll repeat it (and I hate having to do so), you never allowed me to have knowledge of who you were, how was I going to clearly know what your last name was and associate it with Mrs. Rosa? So you can’t say anything about that; Mrs. Rosa has been my client for quite some time.”
“I know, she was the one who recommended that remodeling agency to me. Fine, I’ll accept my part of the blame, as I set some confidentiality rules for my job, which doesn’t give you a reason to keep running away from me.”
“Part of the blame, Mr. Thomas? I’d say all of it. And I have every right to distance myself from you once I find out that you’re the client I worked for and who I had sex with.” I watch him clench his jaw, a tic appearing in it as he keeps his gaze forward, driving through the streets of Chicago.
“Let’s start this off right, Miss Murphy. The Saturday night prior, you’d addressed me informally more than once while we were making love, because that wasn’t just sex, and you know it. So you’ll stop calling me by my last name and start addressing me informally.” Now I definitely feel my cheeks burning with embarrassment from the vivid reminder he just gave me. I take a deep breath to try to calm myself.
“I don’t want to be rude, Mr. Thomas, but…”
“You are being rude,” he cuts me off. “But I’m willing to be magnanimous and excuse your lack of manners given the circumstances.” I blink several times in an attempt to process what I just heard from his lips. Did he just insult me? Did he just reprimand me? I don’t know anymore; I feel so confused. He insults me and reprimands me in the same dialogue.
“Do you realize you just were rude to me?” I make a gesture with my hand, straightening up in my seat, looking ahead. “Forget that; let’s get to the point, please. So you can leave me alone and go torment someone else.”
“Nobody runs away from me, little Shane; I always get what I want.”
“Is that what this is all about?” My anger is beginning to simmer inside. “Why the hell are you doing this? Is this some kind of revenge for having sex with you and then leaving you alone in your hotel room?”
He doesn’t respond immediately; he keeps driving, and when I realize where we are, it’s too late. Tears well up in my eyes, but I blink, forcing them away. Liam slows down and enters the parking lot of the West Wolf, a place I didn’t think I’d return to.