I was. I was plagued by abject misery watching him move on like I never existed.
I’m not sorry he is in my past,
I don’t long for him.
I loathe him for what he did to me.
But that initial wave of sympathy I felt after seeing the headline about his father, who I know he loved with an idol-like reverence, is a rude reminder that despite everything, I still care about him.
I’ve known enough heartbreak to understand that hate is just the other side of a coin stamped with love. At the telltale prick of tears, I reach for my phone, open my photos to an album titled In Case of Emergency and make my trembling finger press it open.
I watch the video from that night twice and when I’m done, I’m reminded that he’s not worth my tears. Especially not today, when I’m just minutes away from relishing the taste of my hard-earned victory.
I put my phone away, finish my water, and walk to my office.
Duke is leaning against the door with a smug smirk on his stupid face.
“What do you want?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were avoiding me,” he drawls and steps aside so I can unlock the door.
I give him a frosty smile. “You do know better. I’ve asked you repeatedly to forget I exist.”
He clutches his chest and contorts his face into a pained expression. “I really wish you’d be nicer to me.”
"I really wish you’d given me just one reason to be.” I swipe my keycard over the sensor to unlock my office and then duck under his arm to step inside.
I bite back a groan when he follows me inside. It’s a small office, barely big enough for the desk, chair, and row of filing cabinets crammed into it.
I shrug out of my suit jacket and then think better of it when his wolfish smile deepens. I settle in behind my desk and wait for my computer to boot up.
My stomach sinks when he sits in the chair across from me.
He crosses his legs and winks. “Listen, no matter how hard you try to pretend I know you want me.”
“Was it the running in the opposite direction every time I see you that gave me away?” I deadpan.
He scoffs with a knowing grin. “You run because you know I’m an alpha male who loves a chase.”
I cringe at his characterization of himself as an alpha anything. He’s always been on the mediocre dick energy end of the scale. I’ll never understand what my sister saw in him. But there was no mistaking her blind adoration for him. “If you say so,”
“Come on, I remember that night like it was yesterday, and I know you do, too.”
I hold up a hand. “Can we postpone this sexual harassment session? I have a meeting to get ready for.”
I turn my focus to my computer screen and log into my account and start going through my emails. He’s silent, but I can feel his eyes on me. “You know, you really should be nicer to me.” The note of anticipation mixed in with his cryptic taunt gets my attention.
I look up from my screen and run an assessing gaze over him, trying to divine just how worried I should be.
Even though I’m well versed on the corruption of his soul, I can’t deny that Duke Tremaine is a fine-looking specimen of man. He’s tall, well-built with a crown of dark wavy hair framing his classically handsome face.
Throw in his family’s political pedigree and it was understandable why he’s considered one of the most eligible bachelors in the country. A lifetime of never having to prove himself, being heaped with praise simply for participating, has made him into a man with a terrible work ethic and a seriously compromised moral compass.
In a world where success was based on merit and effort alone, there’s no way he’d be a senior associate at Wolfe Construction, wearing a suit that costs more than I make in a month, twirling a Mont Blanc pen like he was born holding it.
Thank goodness his Vice President of Finance role is just a vanity position my father created for him last year after his father’s spectacular crash and burn forced his portfolio of failing startups into bankruptcy.
The job gives him a title, a salary, and all he has to do is show up, sign off on projects more competent, better qualified people manage. He spends most of his days on Twitter trying to build his