Stephen had yet to mention Jade, she guessed Anna had left out she had a daughter now.
“Right,” Stephen said, sauntering even closer. “Four years ago would be right about the time you skipped town.”
“I decided to leave Miami, yes.” She’d fled, but these days she’d learned when to run and when to stand her ground.
“Of course,” Stephen went on, seeming not to have heard her, “if you hadn’t run off like a scared rabbit when I headed your way at Anna and Parker’s wedding reception recently, we could have had this conversation elsewhere.”
She’d hoped he hadn’t spotted her mingling among the guests at Anna and Parker’s lavish beach wedding, but clearly it had been a false hope despite her quick departure.
Her fear of coming face-to-face with him had almost kept her from attending, even without Jade, but loyalty to Anna had ultimately won out.
Still, she wasn’t about to concede an inch. “I did not run away.”
He quirked a brow disbelievingly.
“I just refused to sully Anna and Parker’s wedding day with an unpleasant conversation.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Spare me the drama.”
“Is it so hard to believe there are women who don’t want to flirt with you?” she retorted, her temper igniting.
“I haven’t found any who’ve turned down an invitation to my bed, sweetheart,” he shot back. “Including you.”
“Yes, but I was the one who ultimately walked away,” she countered, then went on the offensive. “Does it bother you, Stephen? Did I ruin your perfect record with women when I dumped you?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw.
She tilted her head. “You know, I promise not to tell….”
His eyes narrowed, his lips becoming a thin line, and for a moment, she worried she’d gone too far.
They’d always been good at pressing each other’s buttons. It was what had added an element of exhilarating excitement to their short-lived affair.
She reminded herself, however, that nothing she could do now could match his betrayal at the end of their affair.
He searched her face. “Did you run because I was getting under your skin?” he mused, his voice lowering. “Were things getting too hot in the bedroom for you? Was your cool facade in danger of melting?”
She sucked in a breath.
“You know it was good,” he murmured.
“Don’t flatter yourself!”
She hadn’t wanted an ugly confrontation four years ago, so she’d walked away without an explanation—without a goodbye. She’d been afraid that if she faced him with her knowledge of his betrayal, he’d convince her to stay.
Because she knew she was weak where he was concerned. Because she was intimately acquainted with just how charmingly persuasive he could be.
He shifted a step back suddenly, laying off some of the pressure. “Why did you leave?” he asked bluntly.
“I told you in the last conversation—”
“A phone message.”
“I wanted a clean break,” she lied again.
“After dodging my calls for days,” he accused.
“You were out of town on business.”
“Yeah, and then you were—supposedly.”
“I was never good at breaking up,” she countered, “and it was clear to me our fling was coming to an end.”
As clear as the woman whom she’d seen leaving his yacht, she added silently.
His jaw clenched. Evidently, he didn’t like her response, but he also wasn’t going to dispute her belief.
She read his silence as confirmation, and her stomach dropped sickeningly. Obviously, if she hadn’t called it quits first, Stephen would soon have been giving her his “it was good while it lasted, babe” talk.
“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” he taunted finally. “A simple explanation for why you ended the affair. You could have given it to me at Anna’s wedding without an ugly scene.”
Perversely, she felt her temper rise again. “Are you suggesting that if you’d had a chance to talk to me before now, you wouldn’t be here today with a brand-new project for Elkind, Ross?” she demanded. “Because if so, I don’t believe it. I know you too well, Stephen.”
“You used to know me well, sweetheart,” he responded silkily. “About as well as any woman who’s shared my bed.”
She was just one in a crowd, Megan thought bitterly. As if she could ever forget.
Yet one more reason Stephen must never, ever, know about Jade.
She could bear working for him if she had to. She just couldn’t bear having him jeopardize what mattered most.
Stephen stared at the woman who’d walked away from him four years ago without a second glance.
He’d wanted her from the moment he’d seen her, coming out of a conference room at Garrison, Inc., right after her firm had inked a deal with his older brother, Parker, to refurbish the offices at Garrison headquarters.
She’d been laughing at something Parker had said, and the laugh, combined with everything else, had hit him like fine aged whiskey burning a path to an empty stomach.
She’d been intoxicating. A tall redhead with legs that went on forever, and a body that was all curves. A Jessica Rabbit come to life in all her bombshell glory.
He’d pictured her beneath him in bed, those long legs wrapped around him as he lost himself inside her.
And the reality had lived up to the billing—for the first time in his jaded experience with women.
Their five-month affair had been explosive. They’d spent weekends aboard his yacht, just enjoying each other, then had sneaked away in the middle of the workday for lunchtime sex in a hotel room.
Fortunately, he’d owned—and still did—the most luxurious hotel in Miami’s trendy South Beach, and he kept a private suite there for his own use.
On days when he was done meeting and greeting the high-rolling hotel guests who’d come to frolic in the sun and party in nearby nightclubs, and he didn’t feel like heading back to his four-bedroom villa and estate near South Beach, he could crash at the hotel.
This particular day, however, was supposed to be about putting a coda on unfinished business. Instead, he was irritated to discover, she still had as much an effect on him as ever.
The
