Page 83 of Obeying Mr Kingsley

My eyes follow her into the living room, where she flops down on the sofa.I spin my stool around and take in how tired she looks.

“Look.My apology is genuine.Whether you want to hear it or not, and sure it might be white, rich boy problems, but when women pretend to care about you—or worse—when they’re after your wealth, it doesn’t feel nice.”

Propping her feet up on the coffee table, Lexi studies me.“Guess not.”

Great, we are back on semi-neutral ground.

I could get up and say goodbye, and the wedding would be tolerable for both of us without any drama.

Except that’s not all I came here for.

Lexi has stirred something in me, and despite wanting to wring her pretty long neck, I have more questions.

Perhaps I want her to be guilty.

Perhaps I want to hear that she was framed and is innocent.I’m still not sure which.But I am hoping to get some answers or at least a hint.

“Can you help me understand what happened back in England?”

“Is our future friendship reliant on it?”

Yes.No.Maybe.

Friendship?Is that what I want?

“No.”

“Do you think I’m guilty?”

I don’t answer in the short time frame Lexi wants, so she shakes her head.

“Hey, give me a break.I only met you a few months ago.My history doesn’t exactly lend itself to trusting women.”

“You mean women withnomoney.”

“Women in general,” I snap.

“What do you think I did?”She crosses her ankles and glares defensively.“What did Mr.Harrow say to you?”

I am not privy to the gag order, obviously, and it’s unlikely to be able to be enforced in New York, but I know enough about the law to zip my lips.

Still, I’m not dropping it.

“He never gave me any details, simply insinuated you could be a financial risk to my organization.”

Her face drops, and her eyes dip to her lap.

It’s hard to know if it’s from guilt or the stress of the situation.But I know one thing; it’s becoming harder and harder to stand so far away from her and see her suffer.

Which makes no damn sense.

Why would I want to wrap my arms around her and tell her everything will be okay?

For all I know, this woman was setting me up and about to destroy my business.

Do you really think a friend of Emily’s would do that?

Maybe they are both in on it.