Chapter 31 CHAPTER 031
Amelia POV:
"You asked for me." I uncross my arms from around my chest, I know it makes me look confrontational, but I am too nervous, I can't help it. It has been four days since I walked out of this office with dread choking me up. Now I am back, and I don't know where to look without feeling my cheeks heat up with untamed flashbacks.
"Ames. How are you?" Linc's baritone is smooth and solid. Reassuring.
God, I miss him.
"I am okay." I shrug. I have managed to avoid him since that day. But being back here, looking in his eyes, and I can't help the gentle fluttering of my heart.
I don't think I will ever get used to how he looks at me. He might not know it himself, and it is even possible that I am just being delusional, but he looks at me like I am the only one around. Like I am the only one he can see.
He always has. And it does something to my self-control.
"Amelia, you can't keep avoiding me every time after we fuck. This was what I was talking about when I said you should move out after our first time together. I wouldn't have it." Linc's voice doesn't change in tone and that is what sets me off.
Doesn't he get why I was avoiding him this time around? Will he ever get over that first time I ran away from his bed?
"I was avoiding you because we were reckless and one of your employee saw us, Linc." I say, crossing my arms over my chest. Fuck him, I will be confrontational if that is what he wants.
"And that is the only reason?" He holds my eyes and I drown in their dark depths.
"Yes." The lie is easy. I can be confident and reckless when he touches me but after the moment passes, I simply can't help the guilt that washes over me still about what I just did. No matter how great it was, my mom's face inevitably flashes through my mind.
That look of absolute disappointment she always had for me even when I wasn't doing anything to deserve it. She just never thought of me as something worthy because she knew I judged her for her over the top glamorous lifestyle. In my darkest moments, I believe she never really liked me. But that doesn't help my guilt.
"We both know that is not true but I will let it slide." Linc says quietly.
I roll my eyes.
"Have you heard anything?" I can hear the hesitation in his calm voice, he doesn't want to talk about it as much as I don't want to.
"No." The past four days has been hell. I wanted to just skip work all together but Ashley wouldn't hear it.
Every morning, I walk into the firm with my stomach knitted in tight knots of terrible nerves. Ashley is always by my side, doing her best to assauge my paranoia. But it does nothing. I am always on the edge of running away. I couldn't stand it.
"Did you?" I ask, hopeful.
Before he shakes his head in the negative, I already know. Nobody in their right mind would go to him for any reason. Blackmail or whatever. I am the obvious target here and I don't like that thought one bit.
Ashley got nothing too. Today being the fourth day of her snooping around for information, she told me that the possibility of the door clicking shut due to wind or the person not knowing who I was, was high hence we shouldn't worry much about it. But it was easy for her to say.
I couldn't not worry about it. The worry is messing up my appetite. And my already non existent social networking skills. I can't look anybody in the eyes for longer than five seconds. Can't communicate with my coworkers without feeling like they are judging me.
"Amelia... Amelia, look at me." I refuse, keeping my eyes down, then I hear his chair scrap back. My head whips up immediately.
"Don't come close to me." I say, the panic in my voice is painfully obvious. I know how easy it is for me to get reckless when he is only a few feet close to me. Every shred of common sense flies out the door and I cling to him. I don't want that. It is too soon.
Linc stops halfway out of his seat, he cocks a brow at me and I can't read the expression on his face. He straightens to his full height and walks up to me across his desk.
"Will it make any difference if I tell you I had the door securely fixed? Nobody can enter if I don't push that button there," He points at a small round button on his table, it is so inconspicuous, I didn't notice it since I came in, "I can't believe it took this to happen for me to do that. Though, I will admit no one has ever entered my office without express consent."
"No. I don't care. Don't come closer." I say, already feeling the heat rise up my cheeks with just the way he is looking at me, his huge body blocks the sunlight from his window and I can't help but to look up into his face as he towers over me.
"Your eyes say something different though." He says, leaning back against his desk, he crosses his legs at the ankles in front of me, watching me with an amused look on his handsome face.
"Is this why you sent for me?" I say, pushing out of my chair. We are too close, I can't breathe.
When will I ever be able to survive his charm up close without feeling the need to jump him or run far away? Sometimes I wonder if I could do both.
I start backing away towards the door, holding his dark eyes, he just watches me quietly till I reach the door and I try to open it but it doesn't bulge. Fuck.
"I had that door fixed immediately you left, that very same day. And I have been waiting for you to come back ever since." Linc pushes away from the desk and stalks towards me, the intensity behind his eyes is like liquid fire pouring over me, my body tingles with naked shameless anticipation.
"Linc..." I breath when he covers the distance between us, melting like hot wax against the heat pouring out of his body.
"Four long days, Amelia." Linc boxes me in with his arms on either side of my head against the unyielding door.