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“I thought you might sleep in a shirt and tie.”
His lip twitched and he raked a hand through his dark, disheveled hair. My fingers itched to touch him.
He kept his gaze on the island and cleared his throat. “We need to talk about what happened in my office.”
“We will.” I returned to kneading the dough. “But not now. It’s three in the morning. I want to ease my stress, not make it worse.”
Reece inclined his head. “Fine. I’ll leave you to it.”
“Don’t go. Stay… just for a minute.”
He frowned and held still. I couldn’t shake the tingling pleasure I had at being so close to him when he was warm and relaxed from sleep. I took the dough from the bowl. A cloud of flour puffed up as I blobbed the mixture down on to the island. I worked the dough, pounding and turning it on the floured surface, trying to release the tension in my shoulders.
“I’m thinking about Sean’s face when I do this. Is that healthy?”
He quirked a dark brow. “It’s not not healthy. What would you say to him? If it was Sean?”
The dough yielded under my fists, soft and sticky as I worked. “You think your hair looks so good, Sean.” I landed a firm punch. “It doesn’t.”
Reece’s voice was gentle, yet uncompromising. “What else?”
“You don’t have to have an opinion on every meal I cook." I landed another punch. "Eat it or don’t.”
“What else?”
I drove my knuckles into the dough. “You screwed around behind my back.”
Tears pressed at my eyes, and I fought to hold them back. The silence swirled around us, thick and unsettling. My heart ached. Exhaustion washed over me. How had I let Sean treat me so badly for so long?
Reece's voice was as soft as a kiss when he finally spoke. "What else?"
Before Sean, I’d been so confident. He’d wanted to diminish me. I knew that now. Maybe that’s the only way that he could feel good about himself. A sudden snap of anger stiffened my spine. Who the hell was he to make me feel like that?
“You disrespected me and talked to me like shit. You made me feel worthless.” I threw another punch at the dough, but it didn't have the same force behind it. “I don’t want you anymore, anyway. I deserve better.”
Sean had bent me out of shape, but I wouldn’t allow him to break me. Without him, I could be whatever I wanted. I could leave all the hurt, broken parts behind and move on with the bits that suited me.
I sniffed and stood taller. Silence swirled around us as I picked the sticky dough from my fingers. “What about you? Have you got any terrible exes lurking in the wings?”
Reece pressed his lips flat. I moved to the sink to wash my hands. At least he didn’t change the subject like he usually did when I inquired about his private life.
“Is that how this is going to work between us? You know everything about me, but I don’t know anything about you?" I turned off the tap and dried my hands on a towel. "I can’t even have a normal conversation with my friend’s brother?”
“It’s not normal. It can’t be normal between us. The thing that happened in my office—”
“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”
Reece opened his mouth to protest, but I stepped forward, closing the gap between us. He snapped his mouth shut. Blood pounded in my ears. He was so close. Hot tension raced over my skin.
“Sean treated me like shit. I don’t want a man like that. I want a man that respects me and treats me well.”
He looked me squarely in the eyes. “You deserve nothing less.”
“When I set my mind to something, I always get it. When I line up a shot, I always score.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
“I want you, Reece.”
