Page 55 of The Revenge Agenda

“Think our plan will work?”

Rush considers my question for a moment. “It’s a long shot. He has to think that I’ve had no contact with you since that night if he’s going to get loose-lipped about the whole thing, and the variable here is that neither of us knows if he knows that we work together.”

“Did you ever tell him where you work?”

“Who knows? He knew I was in insurance, and that’s about it. When we talked, it …” Rush’s cheeks pinken, but he pulls his shoulders straighter and continues. “It was more about sex. How much he missed me. The things he wanted to do to me.”

Every word pisses me off. “Right.”

“It’s becoming clearer that he really did think of me the way he said. A hole.”

“Fuck that.” I take Rush’s phone from him. “If he didn’t want to get to know you better, that’s on him. He has issues. Not you.”

“I would agree with you if it wasn’t for one thing.”

“Which is?”

“That it’s a common theme in my relationships.”

Rush might sound matter-of-fact about it, but my pulse rate keeps skyrocketing. All these men, getting to do things with him that I can’t stop thinking about, and all they did was take him for granted.

“I might suggest dinner,” he says.

I frown and try to pick what might have gotten us to this subject change. “Dinner?”

“Yes.” Rush takes his phone back. “He can explain over dinner—that he will pay for—and I will try to get information about you out of him. Ohh, maybe I’ll act all worried that you’ll see us together—that’s a legitimate concern for a side hole to have, right?”

“Stop calling yourself that.”

“It’s how he sees me.”

“But it’s not how either of us sees you.” I pinch his side until he looks my way. “I’m serious. That’s enough of that.”

“Okay. Yeah, you’re right.”

I’m not sure I believe him though. I watch his face the whole time he types out a message to Ian asking if they can get together to talk, not liking this plan at all. The response is immediate, a date and time for a restaurant downtown tomorrow night.

I’m uneasy as fuck, but it isn’t my place to mention that. Rush isn’t my guy to protect, and the wires getting crossed in my brain at the moment are too much. He’s my employee first and foremost, but I’m struggling to keep that focus with everything else going on. The cheating and abandonment, feeling close to Rush after this fucked-up experience, then closer still after we kissed. Plus, he’s a good person.

I really tried to hate him.

And now, I might be falling for him a little bit.

Fuck me, I’m pathetic.

There’s no way I can bounce from one long-term relationship that ended badly straight into another one, let alone with the man my ex cheated on me with.

But Rush never said anything about a relationship.

Just sex.

No-strings-attached sex.

And as I watch him take a long sip of his beer, admiring the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallows, my mind fills with filthy images of the two of us.

I can’t act on the soft feelings I’m growing for him, but I can act on his offer.

An offer that I’m starting to think I’m way too weak to resist.

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