Page 13 of Peaches

Bingo!

Got you now my little firecracker.

“All I have to do is have one of my interns pull your file and I’ll know anything I want to know about you. If that’s the way you want it, I’m sure we can arrange for everyone to know your real name and make Anne Marie a thing of the past.”

She looks at me with defiance. Her brazenness makes something swell in the middle of my chest, something that makes me want to claim, covet, take and never give back, but I ignore it and stand my ground. A silent standoff ensues, and a huge wall goes up right in front of my eyes. I find it hard to read her, when I pride myself on always being able to read everyone. A big plus in the business world. But this girl!

“Or,” I suggest as I take a step forward and continue to push matters.

There is that word again.

Push.

I’d like to push her back against the seat she’s sitting in and make her cave. Make her scream out one thing,her damn real name, as my tongue slides between her legs and her nails claw at my back.

Shamelessly adjusting myself in front of her, I watch as her eyes cloud briefly with desire and she licks her lips at the thought of what I’m touching.The dirty little seductress, isn’t she?Tempting me. Teasing me. God, what a damn turn on, but I shake my head and come back to the matter at hand.

Well, notmyhand, the one that was just wrapped around something I wish she was instead. The business hand, the onebothour minds should be concentrating on at the present moment.

“You are completely welcome to take your manuscript to another publisher.”

Fear flashes in her blue eyes and I hate myself for putting it there. But like a fiend who doesn’t know when to lay off the drugs, I continue to force this alternative side of myself on her when I’m normally anything but the asshole.

“I’m an extremely busy man,” I insist as I take another step in her direction. “One less writer to have to string along would actually be a blessing.”

A sadness settles across her features next, and I swear I’m going to hell for treating an angel like she’s expendable, but still Ipushthrough.

“If you don’t like the way things are done around here, Ms…”

“Presley. Grace Presley.”

Fucking finally!

“Then feel free to find a new publishing house,” I suggest. “You know where the door is.” The look of horror that fills her face is one hundred percent genuine, and it pushes all the way through to my fabricated two-faced asshole heart. “Don’t let it hit you on your juicy, ripe, plumppeachon the way out.”

I turn quickly, more so than I anticipated as I knock over a few items on the desk, because the look she just gave me makes me want to grovel at her knees and beg for forgiveness for eternity.She doesn’t deserve this.I know it. Hell, no one does. But the foreign feeling I get when I stare into her blue eyes, and the ecstasy that explodes in my veins when I see that Icanread her soul like my own private book, scares the ever-loving shit out of me and leaves me only one recourse in its wake.

Push.

Push her away before I let her push me into another addiction I know I’ll never be able to break.

Her!

My mind races as I busy my hands with straightening some piles on the top of Samantha’s, scratch that,mynew desk. I don’t know what any of them say, and I could care less since they most likely will all end up in the trash. That is, once my team gets here and cleans out all parts of O’Connor Publishing that won’t be useful to me in my new endeavor.

What I do care about though, is the woman sitting behind me. The one I’m reallyreallytrying hard not to care about, and the one I hope like hell, doesn’t take me up on my offer and storm out of this office like she should and take her fine ass and her new manuscript with her.

But, if the fact that I don’t hear movement behind me means anything, I feel myself slowly let out a sigh of relief as my shoulders straighten and I prepare for her smart mouth to continue to feed the addiction I still feel growing between us.

“Are we done here?” her small voice says and I quickly turn back around in shock.

She stares back at me defeated. Beaten down. Ruined almost beyond anyone being able to put her back together, including herself.

I did that. I ruined her. And what’s more, I’ll let myself rot in hell as a self-inflicted punishment if this goes right where I think it may be headed.

“Excuse me?” I ask dumbfounded, but it comes out as more of a cocky demand and I close my eyes silently regretting it.

“I said…”

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