So Now You're Back by Heidi Rice Read Free Book Online Page B

and full on than his? As if she were still the wide-eyed, besotted acolyte who had been prepared to do anything for him?
    â€˜We don’t
have
a love relationship,’ she said, just in case he’d missed that salient point. ‘We
never
had a love relationship.’
    â€˜Gee, that hurts.’ He clapped his hand to his chest in a pantomime of wounded feelings. ‘I distinctly recall you telling me how madly in love with me you were when we first went all the way.’
    â€˜That’s funny, because I don’t recall any such thing.’ Of course she recalled it. And how incredibly crass of him to rub her face in it now.
    â€˜Really?’ he said, the mocking smile lancing through the last of her composure. ‘It was right after I—’
    â€˜If I did say something like that …’ she interrupted, to stop him going into any more detail. The last thing she needed was to have the humiliating picture stuck in her head ofhim lying on top of her with that I’ve-finally-popped-my-cherry smile on his face while she clung on to him and told him how wonderful he was, because she was desperately trying to romanticise the moment and take her mind off the extreme chafing caused by his enormous cock. ‘It was probably because I was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.’
    â€˜Ouch, another direct hit.’
    The teasing comment made her sense-of-humour failure complete.
    â€˜OK, I’m off.’ She picked up the contract to shove it back in her briefcase and slammed the lid with a satisfying crash. ‘I don’t have time for this crap.’
    â€˜Hey.’ He took her wrist. ‘I was kidding. No need to get your knickers in a knot.’
    â€˜Don’t touch me.’ She yanked her hand away. Forced herself to breathe, before she smashed her fist into his face and broke his bloody nose a second time.
    She wanted to shout at him that their past—and the cruel way he’d treated her—wasn’t a joke, could never be a joke, not to her. But that would give him much more importance than he deserved.
    â€˜No touching, I promise.’ He held his hands up. ‘Just hear me out. All I’m asking is two weeks of your time. I know we don’t have a relationship any more, but we do have shit we haven’t been able to deal with because you have consistently refused to communicate with me directly.’
    â€˜I refused to speak to you because I didn’t want to speak to you. And it doesn’t matter if there’s shit we haven’t dealt with, because I never plan to speak to you again.’
    â€˜What about if the shit has to do with Lizzie?’
    The level question stopped her in her tracks. But only for a second. This had nothing to do with Lizzie’s shit, andshe had proof. ‘Don’t try to bring our daughter into this, when you’re the one who wants to expose her to the glare of publicity in some grubby tell-all biography just to pocket a few extra quid.’
    His jaw tensed, as if he were surprised by the hit. But after a pregnant pause, he spoke again. ‘There’ll be no book if you give me these two weeks. And once I get the goods on this guy, the piece is going to be huge.
Vanity Fair
is already gagging to publish it …’
    â€˜You’re not listening to me, Luke.’ Some things never changed, it seemed. ‘Read my lips. I don’t care about your article.’ And she certainly didn’t want to have to spend two weeks with him—the past twenty minutes had been trying enough. ‘Or bloody
Vanity Fair
.’
    â€˜That’s because you’re not looking at the bigger picture here. If this article gets the traction I’m hoping for in the US, it could be great publicity for you. You’re trying to break that market, right?’
    â€˜How did you know that?’ Good God, had he been checking up on her?
    â€˜Because it’s your obvious next