Page 7 of Arranged Control

I glare up at him. “You’re bigger. So what?”

“Just saying. It’s strange how I saw so much of you on that call, but really didn’t get a good picture at all.”

“I really don’t care if you’re disappointed.” I reach my door, fuming, ready to tell him I changed my mind and he should leave.

“Not in the slightest,” he says softly. The earnestness of his tone knocks me sideways. “I came here tonight because it was pretty clear you hadn’t been warned, and I wanted to apologize for that.”

I look down at the floor. I think of my father flipping on the TV, already forgetting about me before I’d even left the room. “It’s not your fault.”

“I brought you this.” He reaches into his jacket. My heart rate triples as he pulls out a beautiful and expensive string of pearls. His smile’s back, cocky and teasing, and I’m struck by how handsome he is. The man exudes raw masculinity. He holds himself without a care in the world, like he doesn’t care how this gesture comes off. It could piss me off or make me cry, and either way, it wouldn’t matter to him. That’s the kind of man who can sail through the world, taking what he wants, no matter the cost.

I should be insulted. But it’s the way he’s looking at me that keeps me from slamming the door in his face. I don’t think I’ve ever been seen like that before, as if I’m the only woman in the world. Alex never looked at me that way, not even when we were alone. It was like he always had something else going on, some other scheme running in the background, and I was an afterthought.

Right here, in this hall outside my apartment, Seamus is staring at me like I’m the only woman that matters.

“Where’d you get them?” I finally ask, opening my door slightly.

“I know a guy. They’ll look good with your skin.”

“I should be insulted.”

“You don’t have to take it that way. Why pretend like the call didn’t happen? It wasn’t meant for me, but I don’t mind. I liked it all the same.”

“You might have, but it was pretty terrible for me.”

“Let me make it up to you.” He holds the pearls closer. “Take them.”

“And then what?”

“Invite me inside and put them on.”

My heart slams into my throat. This is such a bad idea. I don’t know Seamus at all.

It’d be crazy to invite him inside.

I’m not this kind of girl. Even with Alex, it took me two months of dating before I felt comfortable enough to take our relationship past the kissing stage.

I need lists, plans, routines, a color-coded schedule.

Seamus is none of those.

He’s a chaotic surprise dangling a string of pearls on my doorstep.

That’s everything I hate.

But it’s that look. I can’t get over it. The way it makes me warm from belly to throat. My skin prickles and my nipples stiffen as I decide to make the second most impulsive decision of my life.

I reach out and snatch the pearls from his hand.

“Wait here.”

His eyebrows raise. “You’re not inviting me inside?”

I shut the door in his face.

Then I run straight into the bathroom.

I’m being crazy right now—but I’m stillme.