Page 25 of To the Chase

“I’m sure we’ll be out of here in time for you to make it there.”

Bea wasn’t easy for me to read. Her baseline mood was a little pissed off, and I couldn’t tell if she was lingering there or had passed it. The frown tugging at her mouth was concerning, though. I couldn’t afford to dig myself any deeper.

“You’re sure of that,” she said flatly, “because you stopped the elevator.”

It wasn’t a question this time.

She didn’t seem alarmed, which I took as a good sign.

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”

She tilted her head. “Do I have a reason to be?”

“As I said, it would be unhinged for someone to stop an elevator purposely.”

“Only if their intentions are nefarious. I could be off, but I’m not getting bad-guy vibes from you.” She huffed, her shoulders jumping. “Well, not the murder-y kind of bad guy. You’re the charm-and-dash type.”

“I charmed you?” That made me inordinately pleased. I didn’t think I’d ever charmed a single person in my life.

“I’m more focused on the dashing.”

Ah, right. Of course she would be. She didn’t understand why I’d withdrawn two years ago, and the reasons were too many to get into in an elevator. What I needed was more time to explain myself.

“Do you still want to be chased?” I asked.

Her brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

I took a step forward. “I’d like it if you’d let me chase you.”

She blinked, her lips parting, a blush rising to her full cheeks. “You had your chance.”

“Who says I stopped?”

“You did. When you didn’t show up…” She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. A lot has changed in the past two years.”

“It has,” I agreed, taking another step. When she still didn’t seem alarmed, another. “But the part of me that wants to chase you? That’s stayed exactly the same.”

Her gaze burned hot and hard, crawling over me like a midnight prowler, searching for a way inside.

“Funny way of showing it,” she muttered, flicking a glance to her nails like she was bored.

Maybe she was. Probably. I wasn’t known for my scintillating company. But shehadcalled me charming. She liked me, at least a little.

“What was the second strike?”

She sighed, dropping one hand behind her back. “You aren’t dropping that, are you?”

“No. I’m not really a let-it-go kind of guy.”

Her lips pursed, then she finally let me have it. “You acted like you didn’t know me on my first day at Nox. That was a pretty shitty thing to do, you know.”

“I see.” I nodded, finally understanding why my reaction would have counted against me. “I knew exactly who you were, Bea. You’re impossible to forget. But seeing you in my building was the last thing I’d expected. When I’m caught off guard, I don’t always react well. What you interpreted as me acting like I didn’t know you wasn’t that. I was…processing.”

“Processing. Like a computer,” she intoned.

I huffed sadly. “I’ve been called that more than once.”

Computer, robot, android—all manner of the same emotionless machine. In some ways, I related to machines more than humans, but I was far from emotionless. I just expressed myself differently than most and knew from experience it was hard for a lot of people to take.