Page 43 of The CEO I Hate

I still remembered the way he’d been eyeing me up at Jake’s party all night, the stares getting more blatant the more he had to drink. He’d looked so damn good I was practically shivering by the time he touched me. It was the first time he’d ever touched me like that, pulling me into his lap as we shared a drunken kiss.

But then Jake had walked in, and Liam had practically shoved me off his lap, rebuffing me. Jake was too drunk to remember catching us, butI’dreplayed that moment in my mind, wondering if it had meant anything to Liam or if he’d seen it as nothing more than a drunken mistake. Judging by the way he’d kissed me today, by the way he was looking at me now, itmusthave meant something. But what?

“Mia,” Liam said, his tone filled with warning as I picked up his hand from where it rested by his side.

“I think it started something like this,” I said, taking his hand and guiding it around my waist. I laid my own hand against his chest, sliding it up to his neck where I could feel his pulse hammering beneath his skin.

He sat rigid beneath me, every muscle tense, as if he knew that once he started moving he’d never be able to stop.

“That never should have happened,” he said.

“But itdidhappen,” I shot back. “Just like the kiss at the studio today happened. Are you going to keep lying to yourself and pretending you don’t want this?” I shifted my hips forward, grinding down on a part of him that was clearlyveryinterested in continuing with the evening’s performance.

His breath caught. His hands clenched. And then, finally, his voice broke.

“I’m not lying to myself,” he gritted out. “I know I want this.”

Finally!Was that so hard to say?

“But it’s still never going to happen.”

Before I could react, he dug his fingers into my hips. Not with hunger, but with finality. He lifted me off his lap like I weighed nothing.

Then he was gone. Just like that.

He flung the door open and disappeared down the hall, leaving it swinging in his wake. I just stood there, heat cooling into something that felt a lot like humiliation.

God, I hated him.

And I hated how much I wanted him to come back.

15

LIAM

“Can I get you a drink while you wait for the rest of your party?”

I sent the waitress away with a grumbled “water” as I glared down at my phone, scrolling through Mia’s latest update ofHeart and Hustle. Miles featured heavily in this latest issue, standing around and scowling like it was his full-time job. He was somehow even more obnoxious than normal, and I knew this was Mia’s way of getting back at me for the other night. My knuckles turned white from gripping my phone so hard.

“Either someone set the studio on fire or you’re reading about Miles again,” Finn said as he walked in, Connor right behind him.

I stuffed my phone away as my brothers took their seats.

I’d flown to San Francisco today—it was Connor’s turn to pick the restaurant—only too happy to escape the office for a while. He’d chosen the Ember Oven, a small wood-fired pizza place in the Marina District. It smelled great, but all I actually cared about was that there was no danger of running into Mia here.

And God, had that become a real danger lately!

“Just work stuff,” I muttered.

“You sure?” Connor teased. “Because doesn’t the webcomic always update on Wednesdays?”

“Oh, it’s definitely Miles,” Finn said, reaching across the table to poke at me. “That vein in his forehead is throbbing. What’s the kid getting up to this time?”

I gritted my teeth. I had no patience for their teasing. Not when Mia had already worn the last of my patience away. Did she not understand that this was what was best for both of us? For Jake? I’d put a stop to things before they could take off because it was the right thing to do. Why did that make me the bad guy?

“Man,” Finn laughed, picking up the menu. “You let that girl get so far under your skin.”

If he only knew.