“If I wasn’t wanted on that trip, there’s should’ve been a lot less guilt thrown my way when I said I couldn’t go.”
He grins. “We were bluffing.”
“Your mistake then.”
“You know I don’t have a private jet, right?”
I grin back at him. “Why do you think I haven’t tried to seduce you?”
“Haven’t you?” He leans toward me, blue eyes smoldering. “I thought that was the point of that outfit.”
My breath hitches in my throat at his implication. And then it swooshes out as another thought hits me. “Lucas Deiss! Is that why you’ve been avoiding me all night?”
He drops my hand. “No,” he says unconvincingly.
I stop in the middle of the sidewalk, just steps away from the entrance to his building. My hands fly to my hips, even though I really want to use them to cover my face.
“It is.” If I could melt into a puddle of my own embarrassment, my entire body would be seeping into the cracks in the concrete. How obvious have I been? Could they all see it in my face yesterday at lunch? Is that why he left with Zoe last night?
“I told you to go with Zoe,” I remind him, latching onto the one thing I can use in my defense. “I basically sent you off to sleep with someone else. And now you have the nerve to assume I’m trying to seduce you?”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” Deiss takes a step back, looking toward the door like he’s considering making a run for it.
A couple of weeks ago, I would’ve done the same, taken a cool step back. A woman should never close the distance with a man. It gives him the power. The smarter move is to retreat, triggering the man’s biological urge to chase. It’s not a couple of weeks ago, though, and I’m done doing what I’m supposed to do.
I move forward, pressing into his personal space.
“You did mean it like that,” I say, my embarrassment transforming into something that feels a lot like anger. How dare he act like I have no more pride than to throw myself at a man who doesn’t want me? I’m Olivia June Bakersfield. I’m the freaking Ice Queen. “And it is why you avoided me all night.”
“I was—”
I hold up my hand to stop him, but we’re standing so close that it ends up pressing against his chest. “Don’t you dare say you were busy.”
“I was busy.” His assertion may be true, but it lacks conviction. He looks down at my hand like he wants to remove it, and I feel another surge of something that could either be embarrassment or anger. The difference between the two has blurred, melted together in the heat they’ve burned into my skin.
“I’d never try to seduce you,” I say sharply. “You’re my friend.”
“I know.” He holds his hands up at his sides as if in surrender, but I spot something in his face, some effort at restraint that makes me suspect he’s merely placating me.
“You’re not my type,” I insist.
“I know.”
He’s going distant. It’s as clear as if I were watching him evaporate into a blur of smoke right in front of me. His eyelids lower the slightest bit, like a curtain sliding closed. The tilt of his chin and the slight curl of his mouth turn him into a mildly amused spectator instead of a participant. The change is infuriating.
“You were holding my hand,” I say in an accusatory tone. “The whole way here, you were holding my hand. Why would you do that if you were so concerned I couldn’t keep them off of you?”
“You’re being ridiculous,” he says dispassionately.
“Excuse me?” My fingers curl into his shirt, and I’m not sure if they’re forming a fist or attempting to hold onto him so he doesn’t disappear entirely. He can’t disappear into a puff of smoke before I get the opportunity to eviscerate him. “I’m being ridiculous?”
“Yes.” Deiss’s eyes flash with annoyance, and suddenly he’s back, solid and present and leaning toward me with an intensity that throws me completely off balance. “Look at yourself. What are you doing right now?”
My head jerks back like I’ve been slapped. It feels like I have been.
“Right,” I say. “Because how dare I have a genuine response! Silly Liv. Don’t I know that I’m supposed to be too cool for that? I’m making everything uncomfortable. What a ridiculous way to behave.”
“I wasn’t talking about your behavior.” He looks so annoyed that I want to stomp on his foot just to give him something real to be annoyed by. “I was talking about the way you’ve added two and two together and gotten eight. Have a little self-awareness, Olivia. Do you really think I was worried about you coming on to me? Every man in that place would’ve set themselves on fire for just five minutes of attention from you.”