Page 40 of The Perfect Deception
“I was right?”
She swallowed and plunged ahead. “I’m not your girlfriend, not really. We have an arrangement.” So getting involved in his work politics was pointless.
“An arrangement?”
“I’m helping you get back in your father’s good graces and you’re escorting me to my reunion. We might enjoy each other’s company, we might have even gone out on a date, but we shouldn’t make this into anything more than that.”
“Dina—” He looked stricken.
“No, Adam. I’m not your type, and frankly, you’re not mine, either.” God forgive her for lying. “I overreacted.”
“You overreacted?”
She nodded, glad he was finally understanding. “I’m sorry your friends are behaving the way they are. You’re probably right, though. Introducing me to them would only have hurt your reputation with them.” She didn’t need to delve any further into his difficulties at work.
He frowned and looked at his hands.
“I’m glad we got this straightened out,” she said, as she rose and led him toward the door. Saying the words, reminding them both of their agreement, was useful. It made things clearer, like drawing a map or an org chart.
He followed her. “Everything will be fine, Adam. I don’t usually overreact, and I won’t do it again.”
He had his “little boy lost” look and it was all she could do not to react to it. She needed him to leave before she wrapped him in her arms. Opening her front door, she waited for him to step back over the threshold. It took him a while, but when he did, she leaned against the doorframe.
“We should grab lunch again sometime,” she added.
“Lunch?”
Friends ate lunch together, right? “I promise I won’t walk out on you,” she said. Smile, she told herself.
“Walk out on me?”
She raised the corners of her mouth, and it lasted while he turned and walked down the hallway, after she closed the door, and until she sat on the sofa he’d recently vacated.
Her stomach fluttered at his scent that remained in the fabric of her sofa and a shiver of desire ran up her spine. Tears coursed down her cheeks.
She’d done it. She’d restored their equilibrium. They were just friends.
Adam climbed into his car and shut the door before opening it and slamming it again, so hard the car shook. He pounded his hands on the steering wheel, the force sending shockwaves up his arms and jarring his teeth. His nostrils flared as he blew air in and out, in an attempt to get his raucous breathing under control.
What the hell just happened?
She wanted to be friends.
The only kind of “friend” he wanted to be with her had “boy” attached to it. No, that wasn’t true. He did enjoy her friendship. It added depth to their relationship and prevented it from being a purely physical attraction. Because he loved talking to her, hearing her opinions, sharing himself with her.
But the physical part was also important to him. He was becoming more attracted to her. So far, they’d only kissed, but that one kiss, that unbelievable kiss, haunted him. His lips still burned where they’d touched hers, his insides still turned to jelly when he thought about it. In fact, he’d been hoping there would have been more kissing in her apartment once he’d apologized for his gaffe.
But she’d focused on their arrangement and her overreaction, and here he was pulling away from the curb into rush hour traffic.
She thought he was dating her only to impress his father. If he were one hundred percent honest with himself, he’d acknowledge the partial truth in that statement. But the more time he spent time with her, when he wasn’t royally screwing things up with her, the more he wanted to move beyond their arrangement.
His head was another matter. It was still focused on not making a fool of himself, of maintaining the right reputation, of spinning the right message.
But listening to his head was probably what had gotten him into this mess in the first place. As unbelievable as it might sound, it was time to follow his heart.
Dina’s phone rang late that night.
“Dina, it’s Adam.”