“No.” The heat in his eyes now was of a completely different nature than when he’d stared at her earlier. “I wanna know what’s so damn important he has to call you after nine. Go ahead, answer it.”

Just like that, the mood for the evening was officially ruined. She clenched her teeth but answered the phone not wanting things to get ugly. “Hey, Lukem what’s up?”

“I forgot to tell you. I got the e-mail earlier today. The seminar’s been rescheduled for two weeks from this Saturday. Make sure you keep your calendar open.”

Wonderful. Valerie glanced up at Alex who still stared at her. She’d really hoped it was something work related. Something that wouldn’t further the tension she could already feel thickening. “Oh, okay. I will.”

Luke was quiet for a moment. Valerie was sure he expected her to be a little more excited or at least have more to say about it. No way was she encouraging any more conversation.

“Alright, well, I’ll talk to you in the morning.”

Alex was still staring at her when she hung up. “So, what was it?”

She got off the bed and walked to the dresser turning the phone off as she placed it on the dresser. She didn’t even want to see his expression when she said it. “They rescheduled the seminar. He just got the e-mail.”

CHAPTER 31

Alex sat there on the bed, still staring at Valerie’s sexy little frame in his T-shirt. She put the phone down, but she didn’t turn back to him. He got the distinct feeling she purposely left the bed to be away from him when she told him about the seminar.

“When is it?” He tried not to sound annoyed. But he was. Incredibly. The idiot had called at the worst moment imaginable.

“Two weeks from this Saturday.”

She still had her back to him. “What’s wrong?”

Finally, she turned to face him. “Nothing.”

“Then what are you doing over there?” He reached his hand out to her. He just had her under him moments ago and already he wanted her near him again. Annoyed or not.

Something about the way she smiled made him uncomfortable, but she did walk back to him. She was going to sit on the bed next to him but he pulled her onto his lap lacing his fingers through hers. Leaning his forehead against hers, he tried again. “What’s wrong?”

She shook her head slowly. “Nothing I just…” She bit her lip, and then frowned.

“What is it?”

“The night I spent at his house-”

“Stop.” Alex straightened up, feeling every muscle in his body go taut. “I don’t need to hear about it.”

Whether she slept with him or not, he’d never be comfortable with her around him so it really didn’t make a difference.

“I want you to know.”

“I don’t want to hear about it, Z.” If she thought he was going to sit here and listen to her tell him about her night with another man she was insane.

Valerie cradled his face with her hands. “I have to tell you, baby. It’s killing me that you think I had sex with him. I didn’t.”

Alex preferred not to know than for her to lie to him. He swallowed hard, staring in her beautiful eyes. Her touch alone was enough to soften his tensed body but what she was saying made no sense. “So, what? You just fell asleep at his place and he didn’t wake you?”

That made a little more sense. She shook her head, making him squeeze his hand into a fist. He didn’t want to blow up at her. “I don’t understand, Z, either you did or you didn’t. There’s no in between here.”

The deep breath she took made him nervous. “I was going to. I won’t lie to you. I went there that night prepared to. I still wasn’t feeling anything for him-”

“So, you decided to sleep with him when you didn’t feel anything for him? Bullshit.” He remembered Romero saying she’d told Bruce she was in love with him.

Her eyes darkened and eyebrows pinched. “It’s true. I was trying so hard to make it work.”

“Why, if you didn’t care about him?” Alex was aware he was raising his voice but what she was trying to feed him didn’t add up.

She stood up and off his lap. Alex held her hand so she wouldn’t walk away. “I wanted to get over you. Okay?”

Alex opened his mouth, but when he didn’t say anything, she continued.

“All I could do was think of you and that kiss at the shower when I was with him. I compared everything about him to you, and he didn’t even come close. I truly believed that if I could just move on, I’d get over you. Since I hadn’t slept with anyone else the entire time I was away from you I thought maybe that’s what I needed to finally get some closure. But-”

“You spent the night.” A fact Alex wouldn’t soon forget. What she was saying only made it worse. In spite of the fact that she’d just told him she hadn’t slept with anyone else while they were apart, she’d spent the night at Luke’s and now he knew she’d gone there to sleep with him.

“Only because I felt terrible about what happened.”

Alex searched her eyes unable to even imagine what she meant by that. “What happened?

Valerie took another deep breath that only furthered Alex’s anxiety. “We were…making out…” She paused.

Alex’s patience was running out. He told her he didn’t want to hear about this and now she was going to drag it out? The visual alone made his blood boil. “Damn it, Z-”