Page 21 of Whatever You Need

I wanted to yank my hair out. I could not handle this man right now. “You humiliated me.”

I wasn’t sure why I even tried explaining this to him; he wasn’t mature enough to understand. Owen couldn’t handle being in a relationship back then and quite frankly not much has changed since.

He checked his watch and looked bored with this conversation. “Look, I’m not going to let you make me feel guilty for something I did years ago. You are either in or you are out.”

“I told you. I am in.” God, it sounded like I had just made my decision. Had I? It wasn’t like I had any other choice, not if I wanted to take this company into the next generation. I haven’t invested the last ten years of my life to this business just to hand it over to some faceless buyer. Sure, I could move on and find something else to do. I had plenty of money, but where would that leave me?

“Good, I know you don’t want to let down the old man. And quite frankly, I’m sick of my grandfather calling the shots. The old bastard thinks he can dictate my life. I can’t wait to be free of him and make my own decisions.”

“We both have a lot to lose,” I reminded him. Owen didn’t want to marry me anymore than I wanted to marry him, but we were in a no-win situation. I found it ironic that he was worried about me screwing things up for him. My job was way too important to me to let that happen.

He arched back and folded his leg across his knee. “All we need to do is play house and try to get along. Maybe we should start working on developing a physical connection.”

“You’re kidding,” I said in disbelief.

He better not be suggesting what I think he was.

“Nope. If you want people to believe us, we will need to brush up on our physical chemistry. You know, kissing and hand holding in public.” His eyes moved from my legs up to my chest. “You’ll need to get used to having my hands on you.”

“Owen.” I shivered at the thought. “I think it’s time we discuss boundaries.”

“I don’t want it to feel like I’m twisting your arm to be with me. I think you are forgetting everything that I am giving up. You can’t expect me to be all work and no play.”

My palms started to sweat. “I’m not having sex with you.”

“No one is going to believe that we are passionately in love if we aren’t physically familiar with each other.”

Pretending to be in love with him was going to be hard. Letting him touch and kiss me without throwing up would be virtually impossible.

“Are we done?” I asked impatiently.

He took a sip of his drink and licked his lips. “For now.”

I turned on my heel and strode out of his office. I needed a damn drink and it wasn’t even noon yet.

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