Page 175 of Untouchable

It was the best she could hope for.

38

Two weekslater Kelly waited in the lobby of Caleb’s building and wondered if he would agree to see her.

She figured there was about a fifty-fifty shot. He’d made it clear he didn’t want her in his life again, so it was possible he would simply reject her request for a few minutes with him. On the other hand, however, he was naturally curious, and he would want to know what she wanted, showing up at his office out of the blue like this.

He might let her up just to see what she was doing here.

As she stood, twisting her hands together nervously, she wondered what she was doing here herself.

For the past two weeks, she’d done what she’d told her mother she would do. She’d lived. She’d finished up her in-progress jobs, tried to round up a few new clients, had dinner with Reese and breakfast with Jack, and actually considered getting a dog.

She’d also thought a lot about Caleb. So much so that she knew she wouldn’t be able to move on without making one more attempt to see him.

She was starting to feel a little better about her father, but the thought of Caleb was still like a twisting knife in her heart. She didn’t know what could come of this—not after all the lies and manipulations and false pretenses from them both—but there had been something real underlying all of that, and she wondered if it was something that could survive even the kind of breaking they’d been through.

There was only a slim chance of it. Caleb wasn’t the kind of man to forgive and forget. But she’d finally realized she wouldn’t be able to move on unless she tried.

So here she was. Waiting in the lobby of his building. Wondering what he would say.

“You can go up,” the receptionist said after calling to see if she’d be allowed up to the executive suite.

Kelly swallowed hard, a wave of both fear and relief rushing over her. Then she stepped onto the elevator and pressed the button for his floor.

She watched as the digital numbers increased on the display above the doors, and she told herself that either way she’d be better off at the end of this conversation.

If Caleb rejected her, then he rejected her. He would have every right to do so. At least she would have tried.

She was filled with an unnatural kind of calm as she walked off the elevator, down the hall, and into his suite. His assistant eyed her coolly but said politely enough, “You can go on in.”

And that was it. Kelly walked through his office door.

Caleb was standing by the window, the way he’d been when she’d shown up in his office just a few Sundays ago to play a sexy little game and then sneak into the storage room.

It felt like a lifetime ago. Someone else had done that.

Not her.

Not Kelly.

He turned around as she entered, and she closed the door behind her.

He looked older somehow, and tired, but he was as handsome and controlled as he’d always been—with the exception of that one terrible night. He wore one of his expensive business suits, and his gaze was cool.

“I’ve been standing here,” he said, not waiting for her to make the first move, “in the time it took you to come up, trying to figure out what you could possibly want from me.”

She swallowed so hard it hurt her throat. No niceties here. She shouldn’t have expected them. “I just wanted to talk, and I thought there was a better chance you would see me here in your office than if I’d shown up at your place in the evening.”

“I haven’t been staying at the house lately anyway. I wouldn’t have been there.”

“Oh. Okay.”

They stared at each other, and she saw his eyes lower to scan the length of her body—in her flowing skirt and lace top, the slightly bohemian style she always wore for her work—before his gaze traveled back up to her face.

Finally he asked calmly, “So what did you want to talk about?”

She sucked in a slow breath and gave a little shrug. “I didn’t like how we’d left things. It’s been nagging at me. So I thought it was worth trying to…”