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  "I'm sure that's not true. Secretaries are the heart of the company. What account is your team currently working on?"

  "Oh. Um." She frowned slightly, but then smiled, dismissing whatever reservations she had. "It's this body wash account. The marketing idea Kruger Advertising came up with is actually really dumb. They're partnering up with some news segment in Florida. I mean, don't tell anyone I said that." Her face turned slightly red again.

  "What news segment?" Matt asked.

  I kicked him under the table.

  "Fuck," Matt said, and grabbed his shin under the table. He shot me a nasty look.

  "Are you okay?" Bee asked.

  "Yeah." Matt let go of his leg. "I'm just super hungry. Where the hell is that food they promised?"

  Bee picked up the glass of wine in front of her and took a sip. She looked uncomfortable. I had this whole night planned out. Wine her, dine her, and then make her get on her knees and beg for my cock. Nothing was going to distract me from the end game. I put my hand on her knee and slowly traced my palm up her thigh. I heard her gulp. I was starting to wish I had bought her a shorter dress.

  Chapter 39

  Bee

  Mason had kept his hand on my thigh the whole time I was eating. And it was very distracting. The food was delicious, but all I could think about was his hand. I wanted to be alone with him. But I didn't know how to bring it up. When I had tried to invite him up to my place last night, he had rejected me. Maybe the dress and the makeup would make him say yes. I couldn't stop thinking about our first date. I wanted to pick up where we had left off. And every day it didn't happen, I wanted it more and more.

  He was starting to get a 5 o'clock shadow. He had loosened his tie slightly so that he looked a little more casual despite his tux. I ran my thumb across my ring finger. I was definitely ready to move on. And despite all the things I didn't know, I found myself falling for Mason. Penny was right. Sometimes you just knew. And I knew I wanted Mason. I just hoped he wanted more than just sex. Tonight was kind of the reassurance I needed. He had introduced me to his brother and one of his best friends. If he just wanted a one night stand, I wouldn't be here right now.

  Mason stood up and put his hand out for me. "May I have this dance?"

  I smiled up at him. "Of course." I put my hand in his and he pulled me to my feet.

  It was a fast paced song. I laughed as he crossed one of his feet over the other and spun around.

  "Are you laughing at my sweet dance moves?"

  I laughed again as he did another move that had to be straight out of the handbook for dorky dancing. "I didn't realize you were a terrible dancer."

  He laughed and grabbed my hand. "Luckily I'm with you so no one even notices me."

  "I'm sure that isn't true."

  The song switched to a slow paced one. He pulled me to his chest and placed his hands right above my ass.

  "It's definitely true. You're the most beautiful girl here, Bee."

  The way he was looking at me made my heart beat quicken. Kiss me! Instead of answering my silent plea, he just stared down at me. I was very aware of his hands on my back. They seemed to slide a fraction of an inch lower. He slowly raised his left eyebrow.

  I swallowed hard. Did he want me to ask him? It seemed like he said he wanted to take things slow out of respect for me. He was just being nice. But I didn't want him to be nice anymore. I wanted him to be like how he was that first night. I wanted him to say what was on his mind.

  "What do you want, Bee?" He ran the tip of his nose down the length of mine. But his lips avoided mine again. "Tell me what you want."

  I wanted unspeakable things. And I was too embarrassed to ask him. "What do you want?"

  "Isn't it obvious? I want you." He leaned down and placed a soft kiss against my lips.

  I grabbed the back of his head and immediately deepened the kiss. I had missed the taste of him. And the tingly feeling he gave my body. I loved the way he kissed me. It made me feel like I was floating. I was vaguely aware of the fact that his hands had slid down onto my ass. But I didn't care. I loved his hands as much as his tongue. I ran my fingers through his hair and made out with him in the middle of the dance floor. Just like I had always dreamed about doing during high school dances when no one even asked me as their date. And I didn't care that people could see us.

  He seemed to pull back far too soon. "It's impossible to control myself around you." He squeezed my ass before moving his hands back up.

  "I don't want you to control yourself around me anymore."

  He seemed to study my face for a second. "How about I give you that tour of my place?"

  "Okay." Showing me his place was just a nice way of asking for sex, right? I hoped so. I wasn't sure how much longer I could wait. I was done taking things slow. It was time to move into the fast lane and press my foot down on the gas.

  He grabbed my hand and led me off the dance floor. "I'm going to go get our coats. I'll be right back." He dropped my hand and walked toward the doors. God was he sexy. I folded my arms across my chest as I watched him walk away.

  "You always looked beautiful in those earrings."

  The blood in my body seemed to freeze. I'd recognize his voice anywhere. Patrick. I turned around. I hadn't seen him in person in a few months. His hair was different. He looked good. He certainly seemed to be handling the breakup better than me, at least before I met Mason. But then again, Patrick wasn't the one who's heart had been broken. He had done the breaking.

  I blinked hard. For some reason, seeing him made me want to cry. All those memories of us seemed to flood back. It was like ripping off a Band-Aid too soon. Maybe my wound wasn't healed yet. But he wasn't the same person that I loved. I didn't even know him anymore. It was like looking at someone I loved and looking at a complete stranger at the same time. And I didn't know what to say to him. I wasn't going to thank him for a compliment, that was for sure. I didn't want to speak to him at all.

  "You look amazing, Bee."

  "Thanks." Damn it! He doesn't deserve my thanks!

  "Do you want to dance?"

  "No. I'm here with someone."

  "Oh."

  "What about you?" I didn't really want to know the answer. But at the same time I did.

  "Yeah." He looked over his shoulder. "My girlfriend just went to the restroom."

  Girlfriend? "That's great. I'm happy for you." I wasn't happy for him. Is that why he had come over here? To tell me he was dating someone else? My chest was starting to hurt. This dress was too tight. It was growing hard to breathe. I wanted to walk away but my feet seemed stuck in place. There were so many things I still wanted to say to him.

  He gave me a small smile. "I still miss you. I think I always will."

  "Don't, Patrick." Why is he doing this to me?

  "I'm just telling you the truth."

  "I didn't realize you were capable of telling the truth."

  "Bee..."

  "You don't get to say that you miss me, Patrick. That's not fair. You're the one that messed this up. You don't get to miss me now. Not when you didn't like being with me when we were together."

  He stared at me. "You know that's not true. I loved you. You know that."

  Loved. Past tense. "You should probably get back to your girlfriend. Or are you just talking to me because you're hoping you can cheat on her too?"

  Patrick laughed. "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

  "I'm good. No, I'm great. I've never been happier." I was having trouble holding back my tears now. I blinked faster.

  "I'm glad that you're happy."

  "Are you?"

  "Of course I am. I still care about you."

  Fuck you! "If you cared about me, you wouldn't have betrayed me."

  "I didn't betray you. I made a mistake."

  "A mistake is something you make once, Patrick. It's not something you make dozens of times."

  "I told you I was sorry. I don't understand why you won't forgive me."

&
nbsp; "Because I loved you. Your betrayal hurt so much because I loved you so much."

  "I know. But I'm not doing that anymore. I just don't understand why you wouldn't give me a second chance."

  "Because it was more than one time. You had a million chances to tell me the truth. We were engaged, Patrick. If I hadn't found out, you would still be doing it. And we'd be married."

  "That's not..." He sighed. "I would have stopped. I have stopped."

  "That's great. I'm happy for you and your new girlfriend. Hopefully that'll work out better for you."

  He ran his hand through his hair. "We're not even serious. It's not like she's you."

  "Well, sorry." I hated him. I hated him for saying he missed me and pretending he cared about how I was doing.

  "I miss you," he said again. "I miss what we had."

  I wiped underneath my eye where a tear had finally escaped. "What we had wasn't real."

  "That's not true. You know that's not true."

  "You really should get back to your girlfriend."

  "Let's get out of here," he said, ignoring my comment. "Maybe we can walk through Central Park and talk? I know how much you love that."

  I wanted to slap him. He never offered to go to Central Park with me when we were actually together. "No. I told you, I'm here with someone. We've already talked about all of this. It is what it is. We don't have anything else to talk about."

  "I think we do. You don't seem fine, Bee. And I'm not fine either. You're all that I think about. You're my other half."

  "Give me a break. You're so full of shit."

  He grabbed my wrist. "Let's just go somewhere quiet to talk. You can see my new place..."

  "You have a girlfriend. What is wrong with you?" I pulled my wrist out of his grip.

  "Fine, I'll go break up with her first. Would that make you feel better?"

  "No. It would make me feel better if you stopped talking to me. I don't want to be having this conversation. I don't want anything to do with you."

  "Come on, Bee. I still think we can work this out."

  "We can't."

  "You keep saying that. But you're not really telling me why."

  "Do you remember when we first moved here? And how nervous I was? It was so different from what I was used to."

  "Yeah. I do."

  "And remember what you said to me? You said that when you were with me, you felt like you were home. That meant the world to me. And then you promised me that the city wouldn't get in our way. You promised."

  "And I said I was sorry. I'm different now."

  "I know. I'm very aware of that. Because the guy I fell in love with promised me he wasn't going to run off. He said he loved me with everything that he was. And he said he'd never leave me." I was crying now. I hated remembering how sweet he was. Because I didn't understand how that person had disappeared. It felt good to finally get that off my chest. It wasn't just about the cheating. It was about breaking his promises. That almost stung more. I might have been able to forgive the cheating. But I couldn't forget his broken promises.

  "I didn't leave you, Bee. You kicked me out."

  "Because you cheated on me. And when I found out, I realized that your promises were all empty. And I don't trust you. I'll never trust you again."

  "Bee?" I felt Mason's hand touch the small of my back. "Is everything okay over here?"

  I rubbed my eyes with my palms to remove my tears. "Yes. Patrick was just leaving."

  "You've got to be kidding me," Patrick said as he glared at Mason.

  "Nice to see you again," Mason said and nodded at Patrick.

  Patrick turned back to me. "You're seriously not giving me a second chance, but you're sleeping with a guy like him?"

  "That's none of your business," I said.

  "You think I'm bad? Do you have any idea who this guy is? What he does?"

  "I know that he's nice to me. And that he likes spending time with me. Which is a lot more than I can say about you."

  "You're so gullible, Bee. This guy is a piece of shit. He's just using you. And if you're okay with that, then you've changed too."

  Using me? Using me for what? Sex? I looked up at Mason. He looked so mad. Was he hiding something else from me?

  "You're mad at me for what I did. But that's all he does," Patrick said. "He's the one you should be mad at. Not me. Don't you see that? He's the one that ruined us."

  "How about you step back, man," Mason said.

  "Make me." Patrick grabbed my wrist again. "Let me take you home."

  "Don't touch me, Patrick." I pulled my arm away from him. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You can't blame what happened between us on Mason."

  "Come on." Patrick grabbed my wrist again. "You have to trust me on this."

  Mason shoved his chest. "She asked you not to touch her."

  "Mason." I put my hand on his arm. I didn't want them to fight. God, this whole thing was ridiculous. People were starting to stare at us.

  "What, like she's yours to touch?" Patrick said.

  "Yeah. She is mine. So fuck off." Mason sounded so mad.

  "You think that guys like him date girls like you?" Patrick laughed. "He doesn't even date. He's a womanizing asshole. Don't you see that?"

  Girls like me? The only person that could make me feel worse about myself than I could was Patrick. His insults had always hurt me the most. I thought maybe it would be easier to hear now that I wasn't in love with him. But it still hurt. Lots of people were staring at us now. Mason had invited me to this extravagant thing. And Patrick was right. I didn't belong here. I was embarrassing Mason and myself.

  I opened my mouth to say something, but there was nothing left to say. I just needed to get out of there. I turned around and ran toward the exit.

  Chapter 40

  Mason

  Shit. I ran after Bee.

  "This isn't over!" Patrick yelled.

  Yeah it is, asshole. I threw open the doors and spotted her down the hallway. "Bee."

  She kept running.

  "Bee!" I quickly caught up to her. "Stop."

  She ignored me.

  "Just stop." I got in front of her and grabbed both her arms. There were tears streaming down her cheeks. I had a strange tightness in my chest as she looked up at me. I didn't want to see her cry. It hurt me to see her like this. "Bee." I wiped away her tears with my thumb. "Hey, it's okay."

  "Mason, I'm so sorry." She looked embarrassed. But she didn't have anything to be embarrassed about. Patrick was a dick. And now everyone else knew he was too.

  "There's nothing to be sorry about." I wiped her tears away again. "Please don't cry." I pulled her against my chest. It was strange holding her like this. I let my fingers run through her hair. "It's okay." I said. It may have been strange, but I liked it. I liked how small she felt in my arms. And I liked that she wanted me when she was upset. I wanted to be the one she turned to. I wanted to protect her.

  I looked down at the top of her head. "My place is only a few minutes away."

  She lifted her head and looked up at me.

  God she was beautiful. Even when she cried she was beautiful. I wiped away her tears again with my thumb.

  "Can you take me home?"

  I felt the night I had planned slipping away. But I'd give her whatever she wanted to get her to stop crying. I hated seeing her like this. "Of course." I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called my driver. Bee let me wrap my arm around her as we made our way outside. The car was already waiting out front. I wrapped Bee's coat around her shoulders. If I had any idea that Patrick was going to be at the gala, I would have planned something else.

  But I didn't dislike the position I was in. Having Bee cling to me like I was her lifeline was something I had never experienced before. When I sat down in the car, she put her head on my shoulder.

  Maybe this was more than I was letting myself believe. Maybe this was what I really wanted. And not just the tight feeling in my chest. Her. I wanted her. And I didn't wa
nt to just sleep with her. I wanted this.

  She lifted her head and looked up at me. She had stopped crying. "I'm so sorry, Mason. Before Patrick showed up, tonight was so...perfect."

  I smiled.

  She sat up. "I'm sorry that you had to see that. I'm so embarrassed. And I embarrassed you in front of all your friends..."

  "You didn't embarrass me. I don't think you could embarrass me if you tried. You were the most beautiful girl there. Everyone else was envious of me."

  "Yeah, right."

  "I'm usually right."

  She laughed. "I just hope I didn't ruin your whole evening."

  "All I cared about doing tonight was hanging out with you. Besides, the night isn't over yet."

  She looked down at her lap.

  Maybe this could still end the way I wanted. Same plan, different location. The car pulled up outside her apartment. "Let me walk you up." I got out of the car before she could protest. I opened up the door and held my hand out for her.

  She took it and I pulled her to her feet. I kept my hand in hers as I walked her to her door.

  "Thank you, Mason. Tonight was..." she laughed. "Actually, it was like a fairytale."

  I leaned down and kissed her. I had won the whole chivalrous game. I had made her think that I was her knight in shining armor. And now I wanted my prize. When I pulled back, she was panting.

  Chapter 41

  Bee

  Mason was amazing. I had only known him for a little over a week, but he didn't run away when I cried. He held me. This wasn't a one night stand kind of guy, despite everything I had heard. He was sweet. He was the nicest guy I had met in New York. Actually, he was the only nice guy I had met in New York.

  "If it's a fairytale, I believe that I'm the prince you won over. So what do you want to do with me now that you've won me?"

  "Say goodnight and go out again when I haven't been crying for half an hour?"

  Mason laughed and looked down at his watch. "It's only 11 o'clock. It seems a shame to cut the evening short."

  "What did you have in mind?"