Page 13 of Her Every Fantasy

Dared him to say the words I knew in my heart would flay and wound. He didn’t disappoint me.

‘The guy you knew is gone. You’re doing us both a disserviceby clinging to the past. It’s time to move on.’

I didn’t speak as he slowly strolled back to where I stood, praying my eyes wouldn’t mist with the tears prickling wildly.

‘My executive assistant will let you know if I can make it. If I can’t, have a great opening. I’m sure you’ll blow their socks off.’

‘Bryce—’

‘I have a meeting to get to. I’m sure you can find your own way out.’

And then, just as he’d done on my wedding day, he calmly walked out of the living room, the deafening silence leftby his departure confirming what I already knew.

We’d crossed a line that night three years ago when I was forced to face the fact that the dream I was secretly chasing would never come true. That Bryce would never belong to me the way I fully and desperately wanted him to. That walking away instead of clinging to false hope had been the right thing to do then, and probably was now.

That really, when it came down to it, he didn’t want or need me. I was the girl who’d made him laugh when he was bored, who’d challenged his intellect and dug him out of his funk when the family drama he’d always been so tight-lipped about drove him into deep, scary silences.

Basically, I’d been useful as a crutch until he hadn’t needed me any more. Then when I’d needed him the most, he’d simply...walked away.

I’d seen the signs long before Bryce had left for good. The anguish of that distance, of being thrust farther and farther into the fringes of his life was what had made me give in that night, then made me deliver a promise I hadn’t been able to keep in the long run, my need to belong sending me down the wrong path.

And as much as I wanted to blame him, the one thing Bryce had never misled me on was that he would never become something more to me than a friend. No, that layer of torment was all down to me and my foolish yearning.

With a thick swallow, I crossed his stunning living room to retrieve my clutch. I paused for a beat, toying with the idea to confront him wherever he’d disappeared to, then dismissed it.

The best way to tackle an intransigent Bryce was to let him cool off. But if nothing else, this particular dare had proved one thing.

Bryce was still hot for me. I could either test the boundaries of this strange new world we found ourselves in, or heed his warning and back off.

In the lift, I leaned back and let a small smile slip free while the after-effects of the incredible orgasm trailed through my bloodstream as I contemplated my next move.

Twenty minutes later, I was back in the apartment I’d rented for the duration of my stay in Singapore. Padding on bare feet to the kitchen, I poured myself a glass of wine and sipped, my mind whirling with possibilities.

He was right. We weren’t the same people we were three years ago.

But he was very much a man. And I was a woman with needs who was done relying on the cosmos to dictate my destiny.

Friendship or sex?

Friendshipandsex. I’d settled for one over the other once upon a time.

This time...

My heart lurched wildly as it accepted my truth.

This time I wanted both.

CHAPTER THREE

Bryce

‘MRMORTIMER,Ihave Miss Knight on the line for you again?’

I smothered a groan and raked a hand across my face. A small, non-disgruntled part of me was thankful she hadn’t kept that bastard’s name. I wasn’t sure how I would’ve handled hearing her addressed as Mrs Wallis.

Nevertheless, her persistence had grown beyond just a pain in my arse. If I weren’t frustrated and in danger of dying from blue balls, I’d admire her tenacity. She’d called every hour during business hours for the last couple of days. I was running out of excuses and my EA was using that put-upon voice that said come Christmas she would be expecting a hefty bonus.

I didn’t want to lose Tandy. As an executive assistant she was second to none. And normally, she was good at dispatching unwanted calls. So why not now? What the hell was stopping me from instructing her to bar all calls from Savannah?

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