Raine (Gods of the Fifth Floor #2) - M.V. Ellis Page 0,100
by my own incredibly dubious standards, I was so far out of line it was totally inexcusable, under any circumstances. Yet here you are making excuses for me.”
“I’m not making excuses. I’m not saying you weren’t an asshole, because you were, there’s no denying that. What I’m saying is that I can forgive you, because I have more to lose by walking away than I do by sticking around. So, here I am. And guess what? I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be by your side every step of the way.”
“Here you are, and I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my life, not that I deserve it. Did you mean what you said in the park that day?”
“What, that I’d sue you for unfair dismissal if you fired me? No, I didn’t. I lashed out in anger in the heat of the moment. And let’s face it, even if I’d intended to sue you, you know I don’t have a buck to my name. There would be no way I could afford it. I mean I guess I could have looked at Legal Aid, but like you said, with your resources, you could bury a Legal Aid lawyer like a mummy in a tomb.”
“That’s not what I meant.” And I was pretty sure she was well aware of that fact.
“Okay. You mean the part where I quit? Oh, I meant that for sure. For one reason or another, I didn’t, and still don’t think the whole working together thing is a wise move for us, so yeah...”
“Not that.”
“What else is there? My memory seems to be failing me.”
I could tell by the playful light dancing in her bright chestnut eyes, and the quirk of her full, kissable lips, that she was playing with me, and I didn’t blame her. If I were her, I’d make me work for it to.
“I’m talking about the part when you said that you love me.”
“Hmmm... I don’t know. That conversation was very emotionally charged, and heated. I might have just been getting carried away in the moment. Why do you want to know?”
“Because I love you too, and I want you to know it.”
“I figured. I mean, I had an ‘inkling’ before the fight in the park, and even then, as much as you were mean as all hell to me, there were some clues there.”
“I should have known you’d figure it out. You really are a regular Nancy Drew, huh?”
“I am. Do you want to know what the biggest clue was, though? Bigger than you calling me every name except my own, like a kid pulling a girl he like’s pigtails in the playground? Bigger than you risking your professional reputation in order to engineer a legitimate business reason for us to work extensively together. Alone. For weeks on end?”
“Hey! That was actually all about the work. It was best for the client, and best for us.”
“Of course, it was.” She smirked as though she didn’t believe me for one moment. “Bigger than you opening up to me about Lily, sharing a side of yourself that very few other people on the planet have seen before? Bigger than the way that whenever we were alone, you couldn’t keep your eyes, hands, or certain other body parts off me?”
Damned straight, I couldn’t. I was like a rabid dog around her. Even laid up in bed on a drip like an invalid, my dick was instantly hard at the thought of how I’d struggled to keep it in my pants whenever she was around. Noa glanced down at the tented sheets and raised an eyebrow.
“Bigger than all of that, was the fact that regardless of everything that had gone on between us up until that point—good, bad, and really fucking ugly—when the worst happened, it was me you called out for.”
“I’m glad you see it as a good thing, because I definitely don’t”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that this is exactly what I wanted to avoid.”
“This what?”
“All of this.” I motioned around the sterile-looking hospital room. “I feel so weak and helpless, and I never wanted you to see me this way. I haven’t even started treatment yet, and already there’s pity in your eyes. This isn’t who I wanted to be, and it definitely isn’t what I wanted us to be.”
“What did you want? I’ve already seen behind the curtain of the caricature of the ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know’ adman that you present to the world. I know by now that