Page 25 of Should Have Been Me

There was also a slight possibility that part of my irrationality stemmed from the fact that I’d been suffering from some rather inconvenient sexual frustration since that kiss. I didn’t know up from down, and when I was thrown off balance, I tended to act before thinking. It wasn’t the best character trait to have, but at least I was aware and owned it.

I just hadn’t done anything to actually fix it.

Vaughn hadn’t taken those unique eyes off me since I stepped into the reception area, and I would have been lying if I said that being under his intense scrutiny wasn’t a little disconcerting. He just had this... energy about him, all the time. Tarryn would call it big-dick energy, and for the first time in my life, I understood what that meant, because this man reeked of BDE.

“May I speak to you?” he asked in that hard tone that seemed to be his default. He cast a furtive glance at my girls before returning those oxidized copper eyes to me and adding, “Alone?”

I opened my mouth to tell him anything he had to say to me, he could say in front of my partners, but Ryan got there first. “Why don’t you take him back to your office?”

My jaw dropped in affront as I turned to look back at her like she’d just lost her damn mind, but I read her expression loud and clear, and it said don’t screw with me or I’ll make you pay.

“Fine,” I said with a childish pout, turning my glare back on Vaughn. “Come on.” Then I stomped down the hallway without waiting to see if he was keeping up.

13

JOLIE

Irealized just what a huge mistake I had made when I shut the door to my office behind Vaughn, sealing us in together.

I should have taken him out into the parking lot for this conversation, not closed myself in a room where just turning around would have me bumping into those linebacker shoulders of his. It wasn’t like it was a very big office in the first place, but having him in the space made it feel like a shoebox. A shoebox that suddenly smelled strongly of his amber and spice scent. God, why did he have to smell so damn good? It was probably going to take forever to get that smell out of here.

I moved around my desk, putting some space between us, and plopped down into my chair before waving for him to take one of the small fluffy white upholstered chairs sitting across from me. Like most everything else in the Three’s a Charm building, my office was designed to cater to our clientele, meaning everything was soft and feminine and downright pretty.

As soon as Vaughn sat down, I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at how ridiculous he looked. Even all that BDE he was swaggering around with was no match for tufted velvet. He shifted his considerable bulk in an attempt to get comfortable. When that proved to be impossible, he shot me a withering look. “Really? You couldn’t have sprung for full-sized furniture? You had to get these hobbit chairs?”

I rocked back in the white leather executive chair, bracing my elbows on the arms and steepling my fingers together. “You aren’t exactly our target demographic here.” The skin around my eyes tightened as I narrowed them into a vicious glare. “We cater more toward the bride. You know, the woman who most likely doesn’t know her fiancé is running around kissing complete strangers?”

His chin came up, his eyes pinning me in place. “What?”

“You came in demanding that we help you plan your wedding. That’s what Becca said before you ran her off. You know, the sweet receptionist you made cry? Still not over that, by the way.”

His top lip curled up, exposing a row of straight pearly white teeth. “Trust me, there is no woman. I know this may come off as an insult given your line of work, but I have absolutely no intention of marrying. Ever.”

My face pinched up. “Then who—” I stopped and sucked in a jagged gasp. “You did not come here demanding that we coordinate the wedding of your sister to my ex-fiancé!”

“In my defense, I didn’t know it was your company at the time.”

I shot out of my chair, bracing my palms on the top of my desk. “Nope. Nuh-uh. Absolutely not. You may as well just go now.”

Vaughn closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, slowly blowing out a breath like he was silently counting to ten. When he finally opened his eyes again, that impassive mask of his was back in place. “Would you please sit down so we can talk like two adults?”

If people didn’t stop telling me to behave like an adult, I was going to start throwing shit. “You have a lot of nerve, you know that? I can’t believe?—”

“I’m not going to ask you to plan Leighton’s wedding, alright?” He pushed an irritated gust of breath past his lips. “Believe it or not, I’m not that big of an asshole. I didn’t come here for Leighton anyway. I came for my father.”

Something moved over his face, a flash of emotion I might have missed if I hadn’t been paying close enough attention. It was there and gone from one blink of an eye to the next, but the impact of that one little blip was strong enough to steal the breath from my lungs, it was so profound.

I collapsed back into my chair, the fight draining out of me. “I don’t understand. For your father?”

A vein in his neck throbbed, his Adam’s apple bobbing prominently on a thick swallow. “He’s sick. That’s why I temporarily relocated to Pembrooke in the first place. But Leighton...” He reached up to rub at his temple. “She seems to forget he’s undergoing treatment for cancer. Or maybe she doesn’t consider it since it’s not about her. Either way, he’s spoiled her since the moment she was born, and when she called him, crying that she couldn’t get an appointment with the most popular wedding coordinators in the area, he was going to try to handle it himself. I couldn’t let him do that. Not when he needs to focus on himself.”

My chest expanded on such a deep breath, it was a wonder I didn’t pop a lung. A lump the size of a golf ball had taken up residence in my throat, and I had to work overtime to swallow it down. “I-I’m sorry about your dad,” I said quietly. “I didn’t know.”

He gave his head a resounding shake. “I wouldn’t expect you to. And it’s fine. He’s going to be okay. Eventually.”

“But it’s still hard. I get it.”

His head came up, his eyes narrowing on me like I’d spoken aloud what he was thinking. His expression shifted again, turning hard all of a sudden, as if he was angry at himself for showing even the slightest bit of vulnerability. If it were possible, he grew grumpier.

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