Page 9 of Mine Forever
My eyes snap back to hers. “Owe you? I don’t owe anyone anything, Eden. You’d do best to remember that.”
That isn’t entirely true.
We’ve done our fair share of hurting each other, and my actions are no small part of that.
I should try to hear her out, but I know what will happen if she’s around me for too long.
She’s my fucking kryptonite, and I’m no superhero.
Her eyes flash green fire, and the defiant look in them makes the blood rush to my dick.
Fucking A.
“I’d do best to remember that? Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, Hanover? I’m not some minion on your team or one of your little groupies.”
My palms itch to touch her.
I scoff. “I remember once upon a time when you loved being my personal groupie, Sunshine.”
Silence hangs heavy between us.
It’s a shitty thing to say, no matter how I feel about her now. And I don’t mean it in the way it came out.
I hate how the nickname I’d given her in college slips off my tongue, and I want to take that back too.
Nicknames like that signal affection, and I don’t have the capacity to give any woman—but especially this one—that sort of thing.
I put my hands on my hips and look down for a moment. After a couple of deep breaths, I lift my head to meet her angry gaze. “Eden, level with me. What do you want?”
She continues to stare at me for a moment before clearing her throat. “My company was hired by a group to plan andcoordinate a charity ball. Big names, high rollers. But my A-list keynote speaker is now…indisposed.”
“And you want me to be your keynote speaker.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
I walk toward the ladder and bend down to gather my tools.
She’s hot on my heels. “What do you mean, no?”
I raise up and look her in the eye. “As in the opposite of yes.”
“But you barely listened to me.”
I place the drill in the tool bag and hoist it up.
Pain radiates down my arm, but I keep the wince off my face. I’d overdone it today and my shoulder is protesting.
Loudly.
“Sure I did. You lost your keynote speaker and you want me to take his place. Bail you out. I said no.” I raise a brow and smirk. “I think it’s pretty simple. But then, you always were the queen of complicated.”
Damn, she really can bring out the asshole in me. But I need to push her away, send her back to New York. Get her the fuck off my island.
Four years isn’t long enough to get her out of my system since I can’t continue to look at her and not want to touch her.
She’s my own personal heaven and hell all rolled into one.
