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“Because of me?”
“Yes.”
He’d always been honest to a fault. Even if it hurt. Which this one did.
He ran his hand through his hair and cocked his head slightly, studying me. “That bother you?”
“That you don’t want to work here because I came back?” The hurt part of me was as honest as he was. “Yeah, Kian. That bothers me.”
He took a step closer, gaze flickering over my face. His voice dropped an octave. “You like bossing me around?”
Heat flared inside me at the unspoken sexual undercurrent. “From what I remember, it was the other way around.”
His gaze dipped to my lips, and he ran his tongue over his. “I remember you liking it.”
I had to stifle a groan as the memories flooded back. Him with his fingers fisted in the back of my hair. Guiding my mouth up and down over his lap. Teaching me.
I swallowed hard, like I had back when my mouth was full of his cum.
Shit.
I needed to walk away before he noticed how hard I was getting. “Meet you back out here in twenty minutes.”
“Need a hand in the shower?”
I couldn’t answer for fear I might say yes. I was sure he didn’t mean it anyway. He’d probably just get me hot and then walk away again. But if he did mean it…
I couldn’t go back there with him, no matter how much I wanted to. Last time had ended so badly it had almost killed him.
Nothing had changed in this town. Caleb and his friends were all still the same scumbag human beings. The cops were still incompetent and prejudiced.
All that was different was I was no longer the naïve kid who had hoped for more.
I walked away without answering.
* * *
The drive to my father’s office in Providence wasn’t long in terms of the miles passing beneath the car’s tires, but with Kian sitting in the passenger seat next to me, freshly showered and smelling vaguely of cologne, it seemed like it was on the other side of the country.
I flicked on the radio to fill the painfully awkward silence, and Kian grimaced at the rave techno mix that came through the speakers.
“You still like this shit?”
I glanced over at him. “Sorry it’s not Whitney.”
He shook his head sadly. “Me too. Me too.”
We didn’t say anything for the rest of the drive, but I did lean over and push a couple of buttons on the dashboard until I found a pop station playing an old Mandy Moore song.
A smile flickered at the edge of Kian’s lips, but neither of us said anything.
I pulled up outside my dad’s building and sighed, staring up at the five stories that made up Weston and Coker Investments.
“You always hated this place.” Kian leaned over the center console to stare at the offices with me. “Nothing’s changed, I see.”
“Only my dad isn’t inside anymore.”
“He was the only thing that made the place bearable.”