“No! I was making that up.” Sort of. Actually, she was kind of trying to come off her anger a bit since she could almost see how he would suspect her. It still gave him no excuse to sleep with her if he thought she was stealing from his business. Something was still off.
“You said you’d give me five minutes to explain. So far, I haven’t gotten to do much other than defend myself. Please hear me out,” he said, hands clenched in his lap.
She leaned back and crossed everything she could cross, making herself as closed off as possible. “Five minutes.”
He grabbed his knees and leaned forward. “I came into town at Michael’s request. He had evidence that there was a spy working at the auction house.”
She glanced unseeingly at her watch. “Four minutes left.”
He frowned. “At first, you looked like a good candidate, but then I came to your office—”
“To get evidence and information out of me.”
“No! To get my coat back. But you were cute and funny—and hot. And you have a great ass.”
“You’re pushing your luck. Three minutes.”
“Bullshit. I have not used two minutes.”
She smirked and recrossed her legs. “So you decided you wanted to bang me and find out if I was the spy.”
“Yes…I mean no. I mean, I wanted to get to know you—”
“Bang me and find out if I was the spy.”
“Date you. I knew you weren’t a spy the minute I touched you.”
“So your fingers and lips are spy detectors? You should hire out, Mr. Anderson.”
He ran his hands over his hair. She suspected he’d have pulled his hair if it were long enough. “You said you’d hear me out.”
“Two minutes.”
“You are unbelievable!” he said, scooting to the edge of the seat.
“And you used me, Will. You never cared about me. You saw a way to get information, and being military-trained, you selected the most effective weapon in your arsenal, your body. And I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker. Well-played.”
He slid off the seat and scrambled toward her, then stopped on his knees just short of her. Her heart hammered in her chest as the smell of him filled her nose. Her heart and mind may have been furious with him, but her body was still gunning for a joyride.
He took a deep breath. “Listen to me. From the moment I touched you in your office, I knew you were incapable of doing something underhanded like divert deals.”
“How on earth could you know that by touching me?”
“I’ve spent years of my life relying on instinct to keep me alive. I can tell a lot about a person simply from watching them and even more from talking to them. But when I touch you, there is nothing false. No layers. If you were hiding something, you wouldn’t be like that. Hell, you certainly wouldn’t be walking on the edge by going out with me.”
He almost fell over onto her as the limo swerved and pulled to a stop.
“We’re here, Mr. Anderson,” Jacob’s voice called through the speaker.
“Thank you.”
She gathered her purse and scooted to the edge of the seat to launch. Will put his hand on hers. “Please, Claire. I never thought you were the spy.”
She ached seeing him on the floor of the limo on his knees like that. “Michael does.”
“No, he doesn’t. That’s why he’s frustrated and mad at me. We have no clue who it is.”
Jacob opened the door.
She started to exit the car and Will tightened his hold on her hand. “Don’t. Nothing I said or did was a lie. You know it. We have something. You feel it, too.”
She did feel it. She was falling for this man and it was killing her. She had to end this now before she was in so deep she’d never climb out. She pulled her hand away and stepped out of the car. “I’ll be in the office in the morning to get my things. Consider this my resignation.” She spun on her heel and headed up the sidewalk, hating how dramatic that had sounded. She couldn’t go back to the office, though, knowing they thought she was a thief.
She heard his footfalls on the sidewalk behind her. Why hadn’t he just stayed in the car? This sucked so bad she couldn’t stand it, and prolonging the inevitable was making it worse. She was done.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop right outside her doors. “Look at me. Really look at me.”
She raised her eyes to his and her heart pinched at the absolute sadness in his expression.
He released her. “I understand why you’re mad. You have every right to be. I’d be mad, too. God knows I’ve been screwed over by someone, and I know exactly how you feel: betrayed and used, and it makes me sick that of all people, I’m the one who made you feel that way.”
She had to look away. It was like slowly ripping a scab off a wound to see the pain in his eyes.