Page 29 of So Much More

He nods. “But if you came to see me, why were you heading the other direction?”

I pick at a fingernail instead of looking at him. “I came over here because I was afraid you were avoiding me after our conversation earlier. I hadn’t seen you all morning.” I pause. “Well, not since you left my place. And then I felt silly and immature for coming over, so I turned around.”

“Wendy, look at me,” Randall says.

I peek up at him through my lashes.

“Fully look at me.”

I drop my hands, sit up straight, and look him in the eye.

eleven

“You can come see me for any reason you want at any time,” I say to Wendy, “and I won’t ever make you feel bad about it. Got it?”

She nods.

I continue, “I’m in this one hundred percent. I’m committed to you and only you. I’m committed tousand what I’m hoping we’ll become.Got that?”

She nods again.

I ask, “Why do you think I might not be all in?”

She looks back down at her hands again but then quickly refocuses on me when she realizes what she’s doing. “You said you stayed with Colleen for a long time after you didn’t really care about her, and I know this is very new with us and that’s not what’s happening here, but I’m afraid it will and you won’t tell me, and I’m not used to having a man be committed to me, and I’m sorry I’m putting you in the same boat as the guys in my past, but it’s hard not to because I don’t know what it’s like to be in a normal relationship with someone who really cares about me.” She sucks in a deep breath after her long, run-on sentence, but she doesn’t break eye contact.

My chest hurts, and it’s all I can do to stay in my seat. “I want to hold you so badly right now.”

After a few seconds of silence, she says, “Then do it.”

At first, I laugh because I think she’s joking, but I grip the arms of my chair when she doesn’t join in, and I realize she’s dead serious.

“Come here,” I say.

Wendy stands and slowly walks around my desk, and I swivel my chair to the side so I’m facing her.

When she steps between my knees, her gaze still laser-focused on mine, I say, “You don’t have to do this. Anybody could walk in.”

“I don’t care.”

“I think you do care, because you’re trembling. I think you’re doing this because you think it’s what I want and maybe what you think you should do as my girlfriend. I want you in my arms so much, but I don’t want this for you. I don’t want someone to walk in here and find you on my lap and think less of you because of it.”

A variety of emotions flicker across her face and through her eyes, but I don’t help her communicate them. I’m not going to physically stop her from doing this, but I’m also not going to encourage it. It needs to be her decision.

“I hate it when you’re right,” she finally says, with a mock glare.

I chuckle. “I know you do. But even though I’m right, I can’t tell you what it’s taking for me to keep my hands off you right now.” My gaze flickers down the length of her body and back up. “I don’t have the words to explain how much I love those form-fitting business suits.” I wish shoulder pads would go out of style, but somehow she makes even those atrocities look amazing.

She smooths a hand down her hip. “I get them tailored to fit me just right.”

My pulse kicks up, and I force myself to focus my eyes on hers instead of drifting lower again. “If you don’t want me to inspect the tailor’s work for myself right here, right now, you’d better head back to the other side of this desk so I can tell you why you didn’t see me this morning.”

“We’ll keep that inspection on the back burner for now, but we’ll be revisiting this conversation at a future date.” Wendy grins at me before flouncing back around the desk and making herself comfortable in the chair.

I say, “I was meeting with George and the outside team of lawyers about my father’s lawsuit against Carter-Jenkins.”

Her hand goes to her chest. “Oh. Can you tell me about it?”

“Not the details, but it’s not going well. Dad’s playing hardball.”

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