Twelve
“I must see him.”
He heard her voice as he crossed the lobby. Callie tapped her foot impatiently on the tiles where she stood at the visitor check-in area of the Tremont Tower.
“Ms Lee, Mr Tremont made it quite clear that you are not permitted on the premises.” The security guard behind the desk held firm on his stance.
“C’mon, Ted, please. I need to talk to him. Get him on the phone for me.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
She visibly flinched at the tone of his voice. Good, he thought. She had no right to be here and if his speech was enough to rattle her then she’d be gone all the sooner.
“Thank you, Ted. I’ll take care of Ms Lee. It should only take a few minutes.”
Josh wrapped his fingers around the top of Callie’s bare arm, ignoring the warmth of her soft skin beneath his touch and the reminder of how soft her skin was all over her body. He staunchly reminded himself that this encounter was unfortunate, but unavoidably necessary. Clearly, she hadn’t understood him when he’d sent her away.
He all but frog-marched her to the elevator bank and into a waiting car. He swiped his card in the reader and hit a button. As the doors closed them into the isolation of the car Josh faced her. He knew the expression on his face was anything but friendly.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
“Why aren’t we going up to your floor?” Callie countered.
“You wanted to talk to me. You have my undivided attention for the next five minutes. Now, talk.”
“You used me.”
“As you did me. Call it even.” He crossed his arms and assumed an expression of boredom. “Is that it?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Anger suited her—her brown eyes, usually doelike and sexy, hardened and shone like dark polished cherry-wood. He tried to keep his observation on a dispassionate level, but the primal beat of his libido shouted him down. Even as distant as he attempted to remain, face-to-face she still affected him on a base level he couldn’t control. And knowing that made him need to withdraw even more.
He raised one brow and waited for her to continue.
“You deliberately fed me information that would damage Bruce Palmer.”
“You gave it to them.”
“How could you do that?”
“Business.” He sighed, “Look, this is a waste of time. You made it quite clear the other night where your loyalties lie and they’re not with me. The fact you gave them the information you did is proof positive.”
And that, he admitted, hurt more than he’d been prepared for. The past two weeks had been hell. He hadn’t even begun to look for a new assistant. This close to Christmas who could be bothered anyway? No, he needed to be honest. He’d tried to tell himself he didn’t trust anyone else to work alongside him, but it was much more than that.
He’d missed Callie with an aching need that he didn’t want to begin to examine. The last time he’d felt so bereft, so lost, had been when his mother died. But Callie was nothing like his mother. It hadn’t been difficult to remind himself of that.
“What happened with your employers is no more than what they deserved.”
“Was everything a lie, Josh?”
He looked at her and bit back the retort that flew to his lips. She should know all about lies.
She closed the short distance between them and laid a hand on his chest, her slender fingers curving over his heart.
“We had something there. Something special. I know I screwed up, but please. Won’t you hear it from my side—my reasons why?”
“You and I have nothing further to discuss. You took your job with me under false pretences. You abused a position of trust to feed information back to people you knew were my enemy both personally and professionally. Why the hell should I believe that whatever else we shared was any different?
“To be honest, you went above and beyond the call of duty by sleeping with me. I don’t think even Irene Palmer could have expected that of you.”
He didn’t miss the look on Callie’s face and felt ice form deep inside his chest at the truth he saw reflected there. He took her hand and removed it from him.
“So, she did expect that of you. And like a well-trained puppet you did exactly as she said. Well, I hope they’re looking after you, Callie. You’re quite the employee of the month.”
“I told you before. I couldn’t have done that if I hadn’t been falling in love with you. I’m not like that.”
“I believe you mentioned food and shelter once before. However you dress it up, this was no different.”
“Josh,” her voice broke, “I love you.”