“You know what, Dave is right – this ismysite. I have a right to be here.”
“Sorry guv’nor,” I said in a poor imitation of Dave’s cockney accent. “Shouldn’t have spoken out of turn to the boss. More than my job’s worth, I’m sure.”
He blew out a frustrated breath and squeezed his neck again. “Why are you making this so difficult?”
I stared at him and crossed my arms over my chest. “How about I make it easy? Stay away from me. Stay away from the site when I’m here. Talk to Max if you need to discuss the designs. Now, if we’re finished, I do actually have–”
“I’m sorry, okay?” he said. “I’ve been trying to apologise for over a year, Verity. I shouldn’t have kissed you. That was totally out of order.”
“Calling me a whore who was trying to secure a contract with my body was what was out of order, Harry.”
Harry winced at my words but after a brief pause he looked up at me again, his eyes flaring as he took as small step into my space.
His voice dropped lower as he tilted his head towards me. “So,kissing youwasn’t out of order then?” he asked, a small smile hitching up one side of his mouth. He was so close now that I could smell his aftershave and feel his breath on my cheek. Flashbacks of his lips on mine flew through my brain, just like they had all year. A rush of feeling swept through me as I focused on his strong, stubbled jaw. I could feel my face flood with heat. I swallowed and felt that pull between us stronger than ever, nearly swaying into him. This was not happening, I told myself and I took a small stumbling step back, the rush making me feel like I was going to actually swoon like a heroine in a historical romance book. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. It was like he had some sort of otherworldly power over my body. I’d never felt this level of attraction for anyone before. He’d taken my arm again when I stumbled and I shook his hand free, frowning up at him.
“No,” I snapped. “The kissing part was out of order as well.” Annoyingly, my voice was hoarse, giving too much away. I cleared my throat before carrying on. “And all this crap you’ve pulled over the last eighteen months has been out of order too, Harry.”
His smile dropped and he shifted uncomfortably in front of me, kicking another small stone with his Italian leather shoes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My eyebrows went up. “Harry, I’ve attended more bullshit meetings this year and a half than I have in my entire career. You’ve objected to every single thing we’ve put forward.”
Last month Harry had insisted Max and I come up to London again on the pretence that he wasn’t happy with the atrium, which was absolutely and undisputedly beautiful.
“I just thought a tree in the middle might be an idea,” he’d said, the ridiculous shareholders nodding along with him like he was the oracle of architecture. I’d explained with what I considered to be extreme patience, whilst trying to control my left eyelid twitch, that no, we could not stick a bloody great oak tree in the middle of the goddamn building and that this wasn’t the Eden Project, for Christ’s sake.
“Woah, okay clearly you’re not open to any new innovations,’ Harry had countered. “That’s fine. I’ll defer to your more traditional way of doing things.”
That made the shareholders sit up and take notice. The last thing they wanted was stuffy and traditional, as well that prick knew.
“Ms Markham,” put in one of the shareholders, “maybe we should–”
“This building is going to be at the absolute cutting edge of design. It’s ground-breaking. But it will not have a bloody great tree in the middle of it because that is ridiculous!” I was nearly shouting by the end of that little speech and when Harry’s small smirk made its appearance in response to my display of emotion I was tempted to throw my laptop at him.
Undermining me had become some sort of sport to Harry at this stage. He’d use any opportunity he could to rile me up. I looked up at him now, my eyebrows raised and my arms crossed over my chest. He was going to admit that he had been a deliberate pain in the arse for twisted reasons known only to himself.
“Okay, maybe I’ve been alittleunreasonable,” he admitted. “But… I–”
“Is it because I’m a woman? Is that why you’ve been questioning my every move?”
“What? No! Of course not, Verity.” He looked totally shocked at that suggestion. “How could you think that of me?”
“There’s a lot of things I wouldn’t have thought the old Harry capable of, but this new, not-improved version is a different kettle of fish.”
Harry sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Look, I’ve tried to apologise for what I said but you don’t take my calls.”
I frowned at him. “So, your solution is to be a shit to me and make my life difficult in a variety of ways, threatening my business in the process.”
“I wasn’t threatening your business.”
“Harry, questioning our designs incessantly, wasting our time with bullshitisactually a direct threat.”
He lifted one of his hands to the back of his neck and squeezed. “Can we start over?” he asked in a softer tone. “Let’s go back and pretend it’s the first time we’ve seen each other since school. I won’t behave like a grumpy git. You’ll smile at me like you did when I first walked into that conference room before I started on my grumpy git behaviour, and we can go from there. We’ll forget any of the in between stuff ever happened. Just a mistake we can put behind us.”
Forget it ever happened.
A mistake we can put behind us.
Pain, fresh and raw, shot through me and for a moment it was difficult to breathe. I knew it shouldn’t surprise me, but Harry expressing regret at kissing me was another blow to my self-esteem. And the worst thing was that despite how he’d behaved, what he’d said to me that day, what he clearly thought about me and my character and how he’s behaved since, I couldn’t help still wanting him.
