Beauty and the Barracuda (15 page)

There was something to be said about the anticipation of the kill…or in this case assault, because Sansone waited in what could only be absolute patience by the office doors of Blackwell & Sultana for Woodard. Mr. Wayne had done him the favor of letting him know exactly when the prick had parked and was headed their way. So there he stood, casually leaning against one of the concrete walls, hands in his pockets in a completely non-threatening position.

The sound of Woodard’s footsteps kept time with Sansone’s own mental countdown as the fucker got just that much closer. The steps stopped abruptly, and he knew it was because James had noticed him.

“Sultana?”

Sansone’s lips hitched up on one side. “Woodard.”

He seemed suddenly uncomfortable. “I’m uh…I’m supposed to meet Nyssa here today.”

“Heh,” was all he got from Sansone.

Woodard shifted back and forth. “We’re finally going to talk—which is good because I’m supposed to leave on Wednesday, and I really don’t want to keep chasing her all over, begging.” Bitterness tinged his voice. He obviously hadn’t expected Nyssa’s reaction.

What a dick…

“Unh-hunh…” The bastard needed to be grateful for the opportunity because the second Nyssa told Sansone what was supposed to happen today he’d dug his heels in and told her no. But then she did something with her hands and mouth that left him torn between calling an abuse hotline and giving her his Audi. Evil sex sorcery!

Woodard must’ve stopped feeling so uncertain because he suddenly straightened out, his chin lifting. “Is there a reason you’re out here?”

Sansone blinked slowly. “Yes.” Then he grabbed the motherfucker by the throat and slammed him up against the wall, pinning him there with his forearm.

“What…what the fuck, Sultana!”

Shaking him, Sansone pressed down harder. “Stop. Moving.”

“This is assault!” Woodard choked out.

“The very definition,” he confirmed before shaking him again. “Stop.”

Woodard finally stilled.

Leaning in, Sansone made sure they were at eye level. “You’re not here to just talk, you’re here to fucking
listen.
You sit, you shut the fuck up when she’s speaking, and you listen. You don’t touch her. You keep your hands folded in your goddamn lap, and if she puts distance between the two of you, you keep it. You stay wherever you’re seated and you. Keep. That. Distance. You don’t insult her. You don’t insinuate anything. You nod like a good little boy. You don’t raise your voice. And most importantly, if you forget for a moment—even a second—that I am just outside the door and violate any of the rules I have so kindly laid out for you, I will break and reassemble every fiber of your being. By the time I am finished, not even the FBI database would be able recognize the crushed essence of your DNA. Capiche?”

Whatever Woodard saw in his eyes made him nod as much as he could with his throat under the weight of Sansone’s hold.

Smiling now, Sansone took a step back and brushed imaginary lint off the other man’s shoulder, enjoying how he flinched. “Good. Now run along.”

With wary eyes, Woodard slipped past him and into the doors of the office.

Sansone took a deep breath and looked down at his loafers. “Goddammit! Four hundred dollars’ worth of Italian leather scuffed to shit!”

***

“Er…where’s Sunny?”

Alana looked up from her MacBook and tucked in her lips. “I dunno.”

“You were supposed to watch him!”

She threw up her hands. “I was trying to do my job!”

“You finished your job an hour ago! Now you’re tossing green pigs at birds!” Nyssa started past the desk. “He could be stuffing James’ unconscious body into a wheelbarrow and rolling him down the parking garage incline as we speak.” Sansone had done exactly as she’d expected and all but pounded his chest while roaring when she’d informed him of this little meeting. This morning he’d been suspiciously quiet and entirely too agreeable for her comfort. When she’d gone to take a call in her office, she’d told Alana to keep an eye on him. Which she’d failed epically at!

“Can’t say I’d be opposed to that…” Alana murmured. She’d happily told Nyssa she’d be front row and center should Sansone choose to smack James into sobbing uncontrollably. Nyssa really didn’t need to ask what had happened when he’d come looking for her while she was out of town. She’d known him long enough to know how much of an entitled prick he could be when the mood suited him.

“Firing you!” Nyssa bellowed as she weaved through different departments on their floor. She’d just passed the interns when James came stumbling past the security check, looking…rumpled.

He saw her standing there and immediately straightened. Nodding in her direction, he coolly greeted her. “Nyssa.”

Her brows lifted but she chose not to comment on the redness around his throat. “James.”

Sweeping a hand out, he said, “Lead the way.”

This was all so perfectly casual, wasn’t it? He was coming in as if they were discussing business and not his harassment.

She drew in a deep breath and headed back toward her office, the sound of his steps echoing behind her.

“This is…nice,” he commented, following. “I’ve heard a lot about you and Sultana’s accomplishments over the years.”

Something about the way he used Sansone’s last name, the tone, grated her. She lifted her shoulders. “We’ve done all right for ourselves.”

James snorted as they crossed the threshold. “You rank as number four in the top ten agencies in the country, Nyssa. That’s better than all right.”

She didn’t respond, but as she closed the door she saw a flash of Alana giving him the finger behind his back.

He took a place on the love seat and she chose to stand.

“You’re not going to sit?”

Nyssa shook her head and watched him. He didn’t look that much older; he hadn’t gained weight or lost hair. All the things she’d
wanted
to happen to him when they parted. She didn’t know exactly what she should’ve felt the moment they were closed off from the rest of the world, but Nyssa felt nothing
.
No resentment, no anger, not even irritation at the way he ran his gaze over her like he could remember every inch. She simply felt
nothing.

“This won’t take long.” She retorted.

Exhaling, he looked from her to the window. “You didn’t keep any of the flowers.” James observed.

“Nope.”

“I take it there’s no chance you have them at home?”

“Nope.”

His blue stare returned to her and he sat back. “Did Sultana not approve?”

Her lips lifted. “What, exactly, is it that you want, James?”

Mouth tightening at his unanswered question, his eyes narrowed on her. “Tell me, Nyssa, is he the reason you never tried fixing things with me?”

She burst out laughing. “You’re fucking off it!”

His brows lowered. “What?”

Nyssa waved her hands. “Look at you. You’ve strolled into Philadelphia for all of what, five minutes? And you’re questioning
me
. You just can’t stop, can you? Even after all this time, the thought of me doing something outside of the range of your knowledge
eats
at you.” She stopped laughing. “And I
love
it.” Her voice dropped. “I love the fact that the very thing
you
set into motion torments you. You’re going fucking
mental
because you’re not sure if I’m spending my nights resting on Sansone’s tongue.”

A muscle in his jaw leapt. “I did what I thought was best.”

“For who, you?” She pushed off the door. “You were a selfish coward. What you did, you did because you wanted to
bend
me. You wanted me to feel as rejected as you did when I turned down your proposal. Sadly for you, you failed to remember exactly how flexible I truly am.”

He stood and jabbed a finger in her direction. “
You
couldn’t stop chasing so goddamned hard after approval that would’ve never been voiced. You closed us off to having anything real because of your need to prove yourself. So I took a step that seemed viable at the time.”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I was worthless to you.”

James shook his head. “I
never
said that to you. All I wanted was for you to need me, but you couldn’t stop and see that. You had to do everything,
be
everything. I grasped for a straw and pulled a short one but I
never
called you worthless.”

“You didn’t have to.” Nyssa dug her nails into her palms to keep from shouting. “You told me what I really meant the moment you went over my head and handed something that was meant for me to a
complete. Stranger.
Every smile. Every laugh. Every moment that I told you how much I loved you didn’t mean a fucking thing
in the wake of your pride. The minute—the
very minute—
you allowed Sansone to sign the dotted line of the contract,
you
sealed our fate.
You
did that. Not me.
Never
me. I wouldn’t have done that to you. I wouldn’t have attempted to fuck you over just to prove that I held weight in our relationship.” She sucked in a trembling breath. “What you did was to
destroy
me and at the time, it did. You’d won. I was willing to pack up my closet space of an office and walk away from it all, but I didn’t, and you can’t comprehend why, but
I
can.”

He stood there, glaring back at her, and she took a step forward. Nyssa said a name that came as easy as her own. “
Sansone
.”

James sneered and she smiled. “He was the reason I rooted myself to the spot until the bitter end. He dusted me off, tapped me on my ass, and sent me flying right back out onto the field. He saw something in me that
you
didn’t, and he ran with it. He didn’t allow his own insecurities to overshadow how much I meant to him.
He
holds my hand and doesn’t let go.
He
handles the utter insanity that surrounds me on a day-to-day basis and doesn’t bat a lash. And
he
loves me. He honestly, truly,
loves
me.” Nyssa wrapped her arms about herself. “Even when I run from it. Even when I’m being difficult. Even when I won’t compromise, he never takes that love, that adoration away.” She swallowed. “And despite the paralyzing fear that we could hurt each other, I’m more than willing to give him
everything
I have. Everything that
you
didn’t deserve. I don’t know what made you dredge up something that
pales
in comparison to what I feel when he grins at me, and I don’t really care, but I have to say thank you. Because if you hadn’t, what I’m experiencing now—how he kisses me,
touches
me—wouldn’t exist.”

He looked as though he wanted to say something else, argue his point but she held up a finger. “Stop…just…
stop.
Whether I planned to listen to you or not, this needed to happen. I needed to allow two thousand nine hundred and twenty days’ worth of resentment to unleash itself.” She angled toward him, holding his gaze. “You are now officially dismissed, James.”

Nyssa stepped toward the office door and opened it. “I meant it when I said this wouldn’t take long.”

Searching her face for a brief second, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks and shook his head. Not another word left him as he walked past her and out of the office. And still, Nyssa felt
nothing.

With a sigh, she looked through the opening and pulled up short.

“Sunny?”

“Yes,
cara
?”