I stood in the front corner and tried to put my personal life out of my mind.
I couldn't deal with it at work.
"Hey, we passed our floor," the girl next to me said.
I looked at the needle over the door.
The guy nearest the control panel stabbed repeatedly at all the numbers, but none of them lit up .
except for the one for the top floor.
"The buttons aren't working."
My pulse quickened.
"Use the emergency phone," one of the other girls said.
The car raced up and the butterflies in my stomach got worse with every floor we passed.
The elevator finally came to a gliding stop at the top and the doors opened.
Gideon stood on the threshold, his face a gorgeous impassive mask.
His eyes were brilliantly blue .
and cold as ice.
The sight of him took my breath away.
No one in the car said a word.
I didn't move, praying the doors would hurry up and close.
Gideon reached in, grabbed my elbow, and hauled me out.
I struggled, too furious to want anything to do with him.
The doors closed behind me and he let me go.
"Your behavior today has been appalling," he growled.
"My behavior? What about yours?" I crossed over to the call buttons and hit the down button.
It wouldn't stay lit.
"I'm talking to you, Eva."
I glanced at the security doors to Cross Industries and was relieved to see that the redheaded receptionist was away from her station.
"Really?" I faced him, hating that I could still find him so irresistibly attractive when he was being so ugly.
"Funny how that doesn't lead to me actually learning anything - like about you going out with Corinne last night."
"You shouldn't be snooping online about me," he bit out.
"You're deliberately trying to find something to get upset about."
"So your actions aren't the problem?" I shot back, feeling the pressure of tears at the back of my throat.
"Just my finding out about them is?"His arms crossed.
"You need to trust me, Eva."
"You're making that impossible! Why didn't you tell me that you were going out to dinner with Corinne?" "Because I knew you wouldn't like it."
"But you did it anyway."
And that hurt.
After all we'd talked about over the weekend .
after he'd said that he understood how I felt .
"And you went out with Brett Kline knowing I wouldn't like it."
"What did I tell you? You're setting the precedent for how I handle my exes."
"Tit for tat? What a remarkable show of maturity."
I stumbled back from him.
There was none of the Gideon I knew in the man facing me.
It felt as if the man I loved had disappeared and the man standing in front of me was a total stranger in Gideon's body.
"You're making me hate you," I whispered.
"Stop it."
Something passed briefly over Gideon's face, but it was gone before I could identify it.
I let his body language do the talking for him.
He stood far from me, with his shoulders stiff and his jaw tight.
My heart bled and my gaze dropped.
"I can't be around you right now.
Let me go."
Gideon moved to the other bank of elevators and pushed the call button.
With his back to me and his attention on the indicator arrow, he said, "Angus will pick you up every morning.
Wait for him.
And I prefer that you eat lunch at your desk.
It's best if you're not running around right now."
"Why not?" "I have a lot of things on my plate at the moment - " "Like dinner with Corinne?" " - and I can't be worrying about you," he went on, ignoring my interruption.
"I don't think I'm asking too much."
Something was wrong.
"Gideon, why won't you talk to me?" I reached out and touched his shoulder, only to have him jerk away as if I'd burned him.
More than anything else, his rejection of my touch wounded me deeply.
"Tell me what's going on.
If there's a problem - " "The problem is that I don't know where the hell you are half the time!" he snapped, turning to scowl at me as the elevator doors opened.
"Your roommate is in the hospital.
Your dad is coming to visit.
Just .
focus on that."
I stepped into the elevator with burning eyes.
Aside from pulling me out of the elevator when it first arrived, Gideon hadn't touched me.
He hadn't run his fingertips down my cheek or made any attempt to kiss me.
And he made no mention of wanting to see me later, skipping right over the rest of the day to tell me about Angus waiting for me in the morning.
I'd never been so confused.
I couldn't figure out what was happening, why there was