Jesse snatched it out of the air, scanned it quickly and felt his heart sink. “What the hell?”
“Don’t recognize your own handiwork?” she sneered. “Allow me to explain. That is an eviction notice. Giving me three weeks to vacate the property. The property you own.”
“Bella, you have to know this is a mistake.”
“No, I don’t. It’s all there in black and white,” she snapped. Her face was pale and the two bright spots of color on her cheeks stood out in sharp relief. “It’s all perfectly clear, Mr. King.”
“I’m not evicting you.”
“Really?” She tipped her head to one side and glared at him. “Because that paper makes it all pretty official. My lease is up in three weeks and you want me out. All very cut-and-dried.”
“I didn’t order this—” Jesse broke off, let his head fall back and closed his eyes as he silently cursed his business manager to hell and back.
When he’d first bought Bella’s building from the late owner’s family, he’d told his business manager to leave her alone until the end of her lease. Well, her lease was up in just a few weeks and apparently, his manager had kept track. Jesse hadn’t even thought about her damn lease in weeks. Turns out, he should have been paying closer attention.
“Okay, let me explain.”
“There is nothing you can say to me that will explain this.”
Getting angrier himself by the second, Jesse defended himself. “I told you, this is a mistake. Yes, I admit that eviction plans were drawn up a few months ago, but I told my business manager not to do anything until your lease was almost up—”
“Congratulations, he follows orders exceedingly well.”
“I never really planned to evict you, Bella. I wanted a chance to convince you to come on board with my company. And I just…forgot to inform my manager.”
“You forgot?” Her eyes were wide and horrified. “You forgot to tell someone not to evict me?”
“Yeah, I grant you, that sounds bad. But in my defense I’ve been pretty busy the last few weeks. With you.”
“So it’s my fault.” She shook her head in amazement.
“Okay, calm down, Bella. We can talk about this, straighten it all out.” He walked toward her again, but stopped when she snarled at him.
“If you touch me now, I swear to God, I’ll get violent.”
Judging by the look in her eyes, he believed her. A wise man knew when to back off. So Jesse stopped stock-still and met her gaze squarely. “I’ve said it a million times now. This is a mistake, Bella. You can’t believe I’d want you thrown out of your store.”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Dammit Bella, I…care about you.”
“Don’t choke on the words,” she told him.
This was not going well. He should have known. Should have kept a closer watch on his business manager, but he’d had so many balls in the air lately, it hadn’t been easy keeping an eye on everything. Which she would never accept as an explanation, and he didn’t blame her.
He reached up, grabbed his hair with both hands and gave it a yank out of pure frustration. “This doesn’t make sense. Think about it. Hell, you just agreed to join my company, why would I do this to you now?”
She laughed shortly, but there was no humor in it and her eyes only gleamed darker. “That, I grant you was a mistake. You messed up there, didn’t you? You should have had me sign the papers before you sent your little man with his eviction notice. Bad move there, Mr. Corporate Raider.”
“Are we back to that now? I thought we were past that. I thought we understood each other.”
“I thought a lot of things, too,” she told him. “I thought you were more than you seemed. That there was a heart in there somewhere. But it looks like we both made mistakes.”
“Bella—” She was still coldly furious and that worried him. If she were yelling or shouting or calling him names, Jesse thought, he’d have more of a chance of reaching her. As it was, the ice in her eyes made it plain that she wasn’t going to listen to a thing he said.
But he was certainly going to try.
Hell, he cared about her. A lot. Maybe more than cared. Maybe it was love. Maybe he’d fallen in love and hadn’t even realized it until it was too late.
Jesse staggered. God. He really was an idiot. Was he really going to lose her just when he realized how much he needed her? No way. No way was he going to let her walk away from him now. He had to tell her. Say the words he’d never said to anyone before. Then she’d believe him. She had to.
“Bella, I love you.”
She blinked and then choked out a laugh. “Getting desperate are we? Pulling out the big guns?”
Not the response he’d hoped for. Or the one he’d been counting on. “Dammit, I mean it. You’re the only woman I’ve ever said that to.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that, right?”
“Yes!” How could she not believe him? How could she not see that she was killing him?
“Well, I don’t,” she said, her voice even lower now. “Why should I? I agreed to join King Beach and you disappeared. I haven’t seen you in days. Because you’d gotten what you wanted.”
“That wasn’t it,” he said, wishing to hell he knew a way to get out of this mess. That he knew what words to say to convince her. “I was thinking. About us. Our…future.”
She gave that short, sad laugh again and it tore at something deep inside him. “We don’t have a future, Jesse. We never did. All we ever had was a night on the beach three years ago. Because all the rest of it,” she added, her voice dropping now to a husky whisper, “wasn’t real. These last few weeks. The time we’ve been together, it was all an act.”
“No.” He lifted his chin, met her stormy eyes and willed her to believe.
She didn’t.
“All the romance,” she said. “The seduction. The lovemaking, the laughter. All of it. You never wanted me. You wanted my business. It was all a game.”
He felt the sharp slap of shame and hated the feeling. He’d dreaded this moment, had hoped to avoid it. Would give anything to be able to tell her she was wrong. But he wouldn’t win her now by lying.
“That’s how it started, yeah,” he admitted, and watched the resulting pain flash in her eyes. He felt like the bastard she’d called him. “I heard Nick Acona was after your business, and—”