can’t have it both ways, Miss Prentiss. Either you’re insulted enough by the kiss to think I’d need to pay you off, or you liked kissing me.”
Heat rose to her face.
He sighed. “The order to get the money into your account went out before we went to Italy. The day we left, HR called and told me there was too big of a disparity between Betsy’s salary and yours. We couldn’t give you a raise to take you up to Betsy’s salary since you won’t earn that much in Accounting, so we chose a bonus. Your direct deposit is equivalent to an extra thousand dollars a week while you’re filling in for her.”
Her mouth hung open. Everybody had told her Betsy would be out eight weeks, ten tops. Now suddenly it was twelve? Twelve weeks with a guy she liked, a guy she’d confided in, a guy she’d kissed...a guy who now hated having her around?
“I can’t take it.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s not right.”
“Betsy makes about three times what you make in Accounting. Adding another thousand dollars a week hardly evens the score. It was a compromise number set by Human Resources. Besides, you earned your keep last week.”
“I did very little.”
“You understood Antonio. You knew to jump in when he needed someone to intervene.”
“We haven’t told him Constanzo’s his father.”
“Constanzo wants the chance to tell him himself. We have to respect that.”
“I still don’t feel right.”
He leaned back and steepled his fingers. Vivi surreptitiously studied him, suddenly realizing why she didn’t want to take his money. She wanted him to like her and he didn’t. She didn’t know why he behaved so different in Italy, but they’d talked honestly. Openly. He’d apologized. She’d explained things to him that she’d only ever told Eloise and Laura Beth. They’d connected.
That’s what made him different from Cord. That’s why she liked him. It wasn’t the money or his good looks or even the romantic trip to Italy.
They had connected.
“I don’t want your money.” She lifted her chin. “I want to go back to what we had in Italy.”
“We didn’t have anything in Italy.”
“Yes, we did. We talked. We got close. You kissed me.”
“That was a mistake.” Tucker looked away, but he knew this was his opportunity to fix the slip up of kissing her and talking to her, to get the stars out of her eyes and get their relationship back to a professional one.
He deliberately caught her gaze again, held it. “Kisses lead to becoming lovers and if I take a lover it’s for sex and sex only.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t have to believe me.”
“You liked talking to me.”
“Maybe, but in that conversation I also realized you like connections. Continuity. You want somebody to connect with long term. Somebody to share your life with, I’m not that man.”
“How do you know if you won’t even try?”
“Because it’s not what I want. And I’m rich enough that I don’t have to do things I don’t want to do.”
He saw the light of recognition come to her eyes. They widened with surprise, then dulled with acceptance. In essence, he’d just dumped her.
She rose. “I still don’t want your money.” Head high, she walked out of his office.
The relief he expected didn’t come. Instead, his stomach soured with the truth. No matter how much he wanted her, how tempting her body and how alluring her honesty, he couldn’t have her. And it was time they both faced that.
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