Page 28 of Rival Hearts

Alex frowned, that smile wiped away. He seemed genuinely concerned about my comment.

“Why not?”

“You didn’t exactly tell me who you were when I met you,” I said. “If you can hide that from me, what else can you hide?”

“Are you comparing a one-night stand gone wrong with a fight between industry giants and activists?”

“Did you just call this a fight?” I challenged, trying not to cling on to the wordsgone wrongtoo much. It wasn’t like it had gone right, was it? But God, it hadfeltso incredibly right…

“I’m not the enemy here, Charlotte.” He touched his hand to my arm. Electricity ran through me at our contact. His words were sincere, his eyes staring into my soul.

“How do I know you’re not just trying to save face?

“You don’t,” he said, leaning a little closer still so that the world fell away and it was just me and him. “But if you give me a chance, you might find there’s more to me than meets the eye.”

I had to shake myself to think straight. I was lost in the sea of his eyes, the way he was desperately trying to convince me that he wasn’t the bad guy, and I was so damn close to believing him.

“Don’t you for a second think I’ll stop fighting for what I believe in.”

He cocked a grin, that deep sincerity gone again. It was hard to read him. One moment, I was falling into his eyes, and he was an open book, and the next, he was unreachable, an Adonis towering above the rest, a god that was impossible to touch.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

A phone rang in his pocket, and Alex pulled it out, glancing at the screen.

“I’ll see you around, Charlotte.” He pressed the phone against his ear. His eyes lingered on my face just a while longer before he turned and walked away.

Despite myself, I let my eyes fall to his perfectly tight ass, delicious in his tailored suit.

I forced myself to look away.

“What the hell was that?” Maya asked, coming up behind me and dragging her trash bag behind her.

“Nothing.”

“Sure didn’t look like it.”

I shook my head. I was pissed off now that he was gone and I could think straight again.

What the hell was I thinking, swooning over Alex Blackwood like that? He was the enemy! He was a yacht manufacturer who stood diametrically opposed to everything I believed in.

He was just like my dad—someone who cared about nothing more than what he could gain from it and knew just the right words to say to get the rest of the world to believe he had good intentions.

Alex Blackwood wasnotthe good guy he wanted me to think he was.

And I couldn’t afford to get all weak-kneed and doe-eyed around him.

No matter how much we’d connected.

No matter how good the sex had been.

No matter how much I’d wished we were alone so that I could have all of that again.

8

ALEX

Fuck. Me. Sideways.