Chapter 10

Aiden's POV

Twisted, my guilt heaved inside my chest. I shook my head, tried to shake the feeling off. No, I had every reason in this world to be angry. She'd messed up big time. We might even lose millions because of her mistake. I was doing what any responsible CEO would do: hold her responsible. I had no choice.

Right?

It was only that my phone buzzed with an email of the rescheduling meeting. As if I didn't feel bad enough. Pocketing my phone and snatching my jacket from the back of my chair, I wordlessly left the office.

Halfway to her apartment, it belatedly dawned on me that was, in fact, where I was headed. My hands clamped around the steering wheel tight enough my knuckles were white.

What was I thinking, anyway? What did I hope to accomplish by pounding on her door? I didn't know, but the urge to see her - to confront her - was too strong to fight.

I pulled up outside her building and just sat there, staring at the entrance for a second. The more I sat, my heart pounding against my chest, self-doubt reared its ugly head. What if she slammed the door in my face? What if she refused to speak with me at all?

I shook my head and set the thoughts aside. I wasn't going to let her quit just like that. I exited the car, my strides swift and purposeful as I walked to her door. I knocked harder than necessary, my fist hitting the wood in quick succession.

It suddenly swung open, and she just materialized across my line of vision, her eyes wide with surprise first before narrowing into a glare.

"Aiden?" she said sharply into my ears, shock mingling with anger.

"We need to talk." I didn't waste my time waiting for her to invite me in. Reaching past her, I let myself into her apartment like it was truly my own. She slammed the door shut behind me crossing her arms over her chest as she turned towards me.

"Speak?" She sniffed. The tone was heavy with cynicism: "Now you want to talk? After disgracing me before the whole office? What more is there to say between us?”

Full I faced her now; the tension between them was palpable-a choking fog. "You made a mistake, Tessa. A huge one. You really did expect me to let it slide? To just look the other way when you nearly cost the company millions?”

"I admitted that I messed up! I tried to do the best I could to fix it, but you-, "she shook her finger across my chest "-you deliberately did everything you could to humiliate me in front of everyone and then you come to my apartment acting like I'm the one that's done something wrong?"

I clenched my jaw and my fists curled into my sides. "You are at fault Tessa. You quit without so much as giving me a chance to even talk to you-you just walked out like it meant nothing.”

She shook her head and let loose a bitter, hollow echo of it from between her lips. "Oh, now you wanna talk? Now? After all this? After weeks of treating me like I'm expendable? Like I'm just some other cog in the machine? And what am I supposed to do, Aiden? Just stick around and take more of your shit?”

It was heavier than I'd thought; her words sliced through the anger of the day-a thin slice of guilt. But it wasn't something I could show. Not right now. I couldn't let her think she was right.

"You don't get to just walk away, " I snarled, my voice low, more menacing as I closed the space between them. "You don't get to make a mess and then run off with your tail tucked between your legs when things get tough.".

My breath caught, but she didn't back off. Again, she pressed in closer between us, her gaze fixed to mine as this feral little desperation squeezed up my chest. "I didn't run off, Aiden. I left because you gave me no other choice and I made sure to fix the mess I created."

The next, we were all but mashed against each other, panting with the feral rage pouring off us. But underneath that, deeper, was another strata altogether-a thing old and savage. My gaze flashed to her lips, and I hated myself for it.

She stared up at me now, her eyes afire with anger and… something else. Desire, perhaps. I still hated how it peeked through in her, hated how I could feel the same kind of fire stir inside me despite the chaos between them.

“No matter what, you don't get to walk away from me.”

She scoffed, her voice shaking with agitated emotion. "Trying to run everything, everybody. But you know what? You can't control me."

And in that very instant, I knew my hands were reaching out, grabbing her arm, yanking her closer. She gasped, eyes wide, yet she did nothing to push me back. Instead, all she did was stand there, looking up at me with that mix of defiance and.and whatever the fuck was spiking my pulse.

"You really think I'm trying to control you?" I whispered low and dangerous. "You think this is about power?

She gasped once, hard, and for a long moment neither of us moved. My fingers clamped down onto her arm, the heat radiating off of her body, tension crackling between us like electric impulses.

I swallowed hard, the insides of my throat suddenly parched. I didn't know what this was either. All I knew was that with each time I saw her, with each time I thought of her, it was as if everything I thought I had a hold on slipped through my fingers.

But before words could get spoken, even before my brain could actually register what was going down, I'd already slammed my lips onto hers.

She froze half a second, and I half expected her to shove me away from herslap me and tell me to get the hell out. But then she was kissing me back just as fierce, her hands clutching at the front of my shirt and tugging me closer.

I groaned against her lips as my hands slid around her waist, yanking her tightly against me. It was wrong-we knew it-but just then, I didn't care-not when everything inside was screaming for her.

We stumbled backward, her back hitting the wall as I pressed against her. my lips moving hungrily against hers. Her hands had fisted in my shirt, and I could feel tension in her body, frustration, the need.

But then she was fumbling backward off me, gasping for air into her heaving chest, eyes wide and wild.

"This-this is madness," she panted, shaking.

I glared at her, my breathing rough and loud, my mind tangled up into a confused mess.

"I know," I said, words tumbling from my lips before my brain had any hope of catching them. "But I couldn't stop."

She spun back around, hitting her head on the wall, and then wrapped her arms around her middle as if somehow to shield herself against the backdraft of the storm that we'd just unleashed. "We can't keep doing this, Aiden. We can't do this anymore.".

"This is a mistake," she whispered, barely loud enough to be heard.

"I know," I breathed and some unnamed emotion twisted in my chest.

She walked toward the door and pulled it open before turning to me. “I hope this is the last time we see each other.”

“Is there nothing I can do to make you change your mind?”

“No, I'm done.”