Chapter 16: The Past

“I was wondering when I was going to run into you.”

Luna watched Justin walk towards her. That magnetic force, that aura of power that some men seem to only acquire when they’ve worked hard at it, why did it come so easily to Justin?

The thought sent a frustrating feeling through Luna’s body, alongside the little thrill that ran up her spine as Justin’s black eyes locked on hers. If he didn’t have that dangerous power that made her drawn to him no matter how hard she tried to stop it, maybe she would be able to resist him.

Damn him.

“Hello, Luna,” Justin replied. His eyes were still locked on hers, not letting her go.

Determined to not be the one to back down, Luna stared right back at him.

“This is your company’s party, Justin, it’s rude to keep your guests waiting.”

“I hardly kept them waiting.” Justin flicked his wrist, a waiter appeared out of nowhere. “The party has been going on fine without me, as I hear. And, I was in a meeting.”

Justin picked up the sole glass on the tray the waiter was carrying. Luna noticed it was Justin’s favorite drink, scotch on the rocks. And of course, it was only Justin who got that kind of drink in the whole hall.

Luna scoffed as she watched him take a sip from his glass. She’d heard those exact words more than anything else in her entire marriage to Justin. ‘I was in a meeting.’

Meetings had never been scarce for Justin to be present in, and Luna had had the feeling that that had been because Justin himself had arranged half of those meetings himself. It had just been one of the numerous things that had made Luna loathe herself. She would often find herself asking, well, herself, ‘What is so wrong with me that my husband would rather spend all his hours in a board room than with me?’ And she had never found the answer to that question.

It had taken being back at home, in her own home, with her family, to help her see that it wasn’t even a question she was supposed to be asking herself. It had taken the love of her mother and her constant reassurance of how she was more than enough for anybody to make Luna see that there was nothing wrong with her after all. It had taken Luna’s own strength and will of mind to help her realize that the fault had been with her so-called husband. And not with her.

“Of course you were,” Luna said now.

She was no longer that timid young girl who had wanted nothing more than to please her husband, who had tried her every possible best to be the wife that he deserved. To be the wife that he could come home to at the end of the day and be happy to be with. Now? She couldn’t give a damn about where Justin had been.

She turned to walk away from him, his hand on her arm stopped her. She looked down at his hand and then back up at him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Where are you going?” he countered.

They both stared at each other for a full moment. Luna could see that Justin didn’t like the fact that she had meant to walk away from him, while he was still talking. And that realization gave her a thrill.

“Let me go, Justin,” she said without steel in her voice. “I don’t have to talk to you if I don’t want to. And I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

Luna’s brows furrowed at the one word, she turned to face Justin.

“Why?” she echoed his question back to him. “Are you really asking me that question, Justin? You’re really asking why I don’t want to talk to you, after everything that happened with us. After you traumatized me with your distance, made me feel unwanted with your aloofness, humiliated my family the way you did. You expect me to want to talk to you after all that?”

A muscle twitched in Justin’s jaw. “Then why are you here? Why are you at this party, Luna?”

“Because my company is a party to the gala we’re introducing here tonight,” she replied.

“You know what I mean, damn it,” Justin grounded out between his teeth.

Luna stared at him. “Yes, I know what you mean,” she said. “I know you’re asking me why I made myself a partner in your company’s event.”

She dropped her purse on the table between them, Justin’s hand fell away from her arm.

“I won’t insult the both of us by lying that it was all business, we would both know that is a big fat lie. So, no, it’s not all about business. It is personal, so personal, in fact, that I have to be doubly logical in every step I take in this merger.”

“Seems like you’re going to be walking on eggshells a lot on this one,” Justin said.

Luna shrugged lightly, the movement fluid and seamless. “Not necessarily. I have people to do almost any job I don’t want to do myself or that I find unpleasant.”

“Dealing with me is unpleasant now?” Justin asked, his eyes fixed on Luna.

Luna cocked her head slightly to the side. “Dealing with you has always been unpleasant.”

“Every time?” Justin asked.

Luna kept her eyes on him. “Every time,” she confirmed.

Justin placed his glass on the table. “I think there was one exception,” he countered.