deep groan of need, “I want you. So damn much just being around you is painful.” He shoved one hand across the top of his head. “But you’ve got enough going on in your life right now. You don’t need this as an added distraction.”
Erica blinked at him. She couldn’t believe what he was saying and wasn’t sure he believed it, either. “So you’re backing off for my sake, is that it? Making a grand sacrifice so poor Erica doesn’t get confused by too many things at once?”
He winced, either at her words or the sharp slap of how they were delivered. “All I’m saying—”
She interrupted him because she’d heard enough. “I’m sick and tired of people deciding what’s best for me. My father and brothers did it for years. And if you think I’m going to allow you to jump in and do the same, then you couldn’t be more wrong.”
She was trembling, her body shaking and quivering, not only from the rush of anger. Once again, he’d turned her body into an inferno of desire only to shut it down before it could fully erupt.
“That’s not what I’m trying to do,” he ground out.
Frustration and fury mingled inside her.
“Oh, no. All you’re saying is thanks but no thanks. You’ve made that clear.” She turned her back on him and walked back to her desk. Once she was safely behind the rosewood barrier, she looked at him again. “Well, I’m just so grateful for your help, Christian. With so many things going on in my life, I don’t know what I would have done without you there to help me keep things straight.”
He looked just as angry as she felt, and she was glad to see it. At least she knew that his ridiculous decision to pull away from her was making him as crazy as it was her.
“Erica, damn it—”
“Just stop it, okay? I’ve got a lot of work to do and I’m guessing you do, too.”
He stared at her for a long second then nodded as if accepting that the conversation was over. “Fine. We’ll leave it. For now. But neither one of us is going anywhere, so you can be damn sure this isn’t finished.”
“Isn’t it?” Erica asked. “How is it that you suddenly get to decide how this relationship will go? When did you get the controlling vote?”
“Excuse me?”
He sounded angry—his voice was low and taut. Well, good, she thought. Why should she be the only one furious here?
“Do you seriously think so little of me to believe that I’m incapable of making my own decisions?”
“Of course not. That isn’t what I meant at all.”
“It’s what you said. Poor Erica. Too many new things in her life.”
“Damn it, you’re deliberately misunderstanding.”
“Oh, I understand more than you think I do.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that this isn’t about me at all, Christian. You can tell yourself that if it makes you feel better. But this is really about you playing by a dead man’s rules.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw and she saw the flare of anger in his eyes. She recognized it because she knew that same emotion was shining in her own. She’d spent the past several days torn between anger and misery, but now the fury was spilling over.
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