Page 38 of Legal Seduction
Apparently, he never should have trusted her.
* * *
Bette studied his face, waiting for him to assure her that he wouldn’t get mad at her. But he didn’t. Instead, he just looked very tense, his jaw tightly clenched.
But she shouldn’t care if he got mad. In fact, maybe that would be the best way to get him to release her four days early from serving out the rest of her two weeks. Or maybe it would at least get him to post her job.
She drew in a deep breath and admitted, “I’ve been playing you.”
He released a sharp breath as if she’d punched him. But he nodded and said, “That’s what I thought.” He cursed and admitted, “I’d just hoped I was wrong.”
“That night I undressed in the office.” Heat rushed from her face throughout the rest of her body as she thought of that night, of how she’d taken off her glasses and taken down her hair...
She should have stopped there. But then she never would have known what sex with Simon Kramer was like and why all those other women had been so desperate for it to never stop. She didn’t want to become that desperate, though.
So she had to make sure there was an end in sight for them. For the sex and the job.
“I was playing you,” she said.
His brow furrowed. “You didn’t really want to have sex?”
“I—I had always wondered what it would be like to be with you,” she admitted. “I just didn’t have this undying attraction to you that I’d said I had.”
He stood up now and walked around his desk. He didn’t reach for her, though. In fact, he leaned back against the front of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re not attracted to me?”
She snorted with self-derision. “I’m not a liar. Of course I’m attracted, but I’m not in love with you.” At least she didn’t think she was.
Of course she wasn’t...
“I just wanted you to think that I was falling for you,” she said.
“But why?”
“So you wouldn’t make me work out the two-week notice,” she said.
He shook his head as if he was having trouble following her—which was strange since she’d figured he was onto her this entire time. “How would that make me release you from the terms of your employment contract?”
She snorted again but this time in derision of him. “I’ve worked for you for two years,” she reminded him. “I see how you treat women.”
His face flushed now, his skin getting a little ruddy. “What do you mean?”
“As soon as they profess any feelings for you, you dump them,” she said.
“You think that makes me heartless?” he asked.
She’d thought once that it had but now she understood. “It’s probably the nicest thing you can do,” she said. “If you’re not able to return their feelings, it’s better to break it off before they fall any harder.”
“You sound as if you’re speaking from experience,” he mused.
She shrugged and admitted, “I’ve never been in love.” She’d been too focused on fashion—on her designs.
“But you’ve had men fall for you?”
She shrugged again. There had been boys in school who’d professed love. She figured they’d just been trying to get her to have sex with them. She hadn’t really believed they’d loved her—not when they hadn’t really known her. But then they hadn’t cared about her goals and aspirations. They’d cared only about their own. And if she’d fallen for them, she would have gotten sucked into their lives instead of living her own. Just like her mom and sister had and countless other women she’d known.
“I don’t know,” she said, willing to give those old boyfriends the benefit of the doubt. “Who knows if another person’s feelings are real?”
He chuckled. “Apparently, I don’t.”
