Seducing The Boss (Pulse #2) - Mari Carr Page 0,50

didn’t like the idea of being alone just yet. She didn’t consider that he might spend the night with her. And while she’d insisted repeatedly that was the way she wanted it, the truth was…she wasn’t so sure anymore.

Sleeping—just sleeping—with him last night had felt…good.

Her phone beeped. Picking it up, she glanced at the screen and sighed.

“Everything okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It’s from Gabriel. He wants to know if I’m free for dinner tomorrow.”

Kellan frowned, but made no further comment. She wondered if that information would jar him out of whatever weird mood he was in—if it would stimulate him enough to make a move.

“Are you going out with him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know.” Gabriel was a nice guy, but she felt zero attraction to him. If Kellan weren’t sitting there with her, she would have already come up with an excuse to get out of the invitation.

Unfortunately she wasn’t sure if that lack of desire was based on her feelings for Gabriel or her feelings for Kellan. If she hadn’t fallen for the world’s least eligible bachelor, perhaps she would have felt a spark for Gabriel. Maybe.

Her gut said no, but right now, all her emotions were jumbled. She was tied up in knots. A mess.

“Why wouldn’t you go out with him?” Kellan pressed. “I thought you liked him.”

“I do. He’s…” She couldn’t come up with anything more exciting than, “A really nice guy.”

“So text him back and say yes.”

“You want me to date Gabriel now? The other night you said—”

“I was wrong, Sara.”

“About Gabriel?”

He shook his head. “No. About this. Us. I should have stuck to the time limit and not pushed for more. Actually, I shouldn’t have even made the damn offer to begin with. It wasn’t fair to you.”

Sara sucked in a breath, feeling as if she’d just been punched in the stomach. It was a ridiculous, overblown reaction, but she couldn’t help it.

He took her hand, and she was struck by how warm his felt in comparison to her ice-cold fingers. Why was she behaving like this?

As Kellan liked to say, she’d known the score going in. The problem was she had thought she was different. That he would actually be able to open that ice-encased heart of his and let her in.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Can I ask you something?” Her initial surprise was giving way to anger. Ordinarily she was able to control her emotions, but Kellan somehow managed to evoke every extreme in her. Her feelings were hurt, her heart crushed.

He’d called their weekend together a mistake, and it infuriated her. How could he think one single thing they’d done was wrong? How dare he use her, discard her, and then say “Oh sorry. My bad.”

There was a very good chance they were no longer going to be friends when they left this table, but she was too furious to give a shit about it, to guard her words.

Kellan nodded hesitantly, her aggressive tone giving her anger away.

“Why are you so afraid of commitment? And please”—she raised one hand—“don’t feed me the same crap you’ve been spouting for years.”

He glanced around the room uncomfortably. He was probably scoping out the exit and plotting a quick escape. She was about to cause a scene. Kellan didn’t do scenes or drama any more than he did emotions. Which made her even more determined to provoke some sort of response from him.

“My reasons aren’t crap. I don’t know what you expect me to say.” His tone was so cool and collected, so distant it stung. She was in serious danger of crying and there was no way in hell she’d let him see that.

“Forget it,” she said at last, deciding she couldn’t do this anymore. She had been a fool to let herself get caught in Kellan James’s tractor beam to begin with. The man was too damn good at laying on the charm, and she’d let him suck her in, make an ass of herself. She should have known better. “Forget all of it.”

She started to scoot out of the booth, but Kellan caught her wrist, stopping her.

“My dad cheated on my mom. He had an affair with another woman when I was thirteen.”

Whatever she’d expected him to say, that sure as hell hadn’t been it. “Are you sure?” It was a stupid response, but she had grown up next door to the James family. She had never known a more loving, devoted couple in her life. It was one of the reasons she had always struggled