Karma fumed through the entire meeting. Why did Mark have to be so fricking hot? So delectably sexy? So magnetically gorgeous? Shouldn’t someone allergic to long-term relationships have an egg-sized wart on his nose? A missing front tooth? No teeth at all?
But his sex appeal didn’t make up for his audacity.
Unable to meet his gaze, she kept her eyes on Don, Phil, and Barrett—the traitor. Barrett was retiring. How dare he retire and leave an opening Don needed to fill. Now she was stuck with Mark, because Don would move into Barrett’s upstairs office and inherit his assistant.
How was she expected to work with Mark given their past? She would just have to lay down the law immediately and make Mark understand she was with Brad now. She wasn’t interested in getting caught up in any more of his “lessons.” She no longer needed him to teach her how to be with a man, or how to talk to one. She no longer needed him to boost her confidence and make her feel beautiful. Been there, done that.
After the meeting, she bolted out of the conference room before Mark could stop her, rushed upstairs to grab her purse, then met Lisa outside by her car.
“What is he doing here?” She thumped her fist on the door panel as Lisa pulled out of the parking lot.
“Taking Don’s job,” Lisa said matter-of-factly.
“It’s not that simple. Nothing was ever that simple with Mark. He’s up to something.” She crossed one arm over the other and nibbled her thumbnail. What angle was he playing?
“Maybe the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.” Lisa turned up the air.
“Huh-uh. I’m not buying it. He came back for me. He came back to mess with my head.”
“Karma—”
“No, Lisa. I know him. If he thinks I’m just going to fall back into his bed, he’s got another thing coming.” She smacked her fist against her thigh. “Damn it, Lisa. You know how long it took for me to get over him.”
“Sounds like you’re still not,” Lisa said under her breath.
“What? What did you say?”
Lisa took a left into the parking lot for Café Nine. “Listen to yourself, Karma. Would you really be this upset if you were honestly over him?”
Karma ricocheted back. “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious.” Lisa parked the car, shut off the engine, and turned toward her. The look in her eyes made it clear Lisa was about to give her a reality check. “You’re not over him, are you? Tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I’m not buying it.
“Why not?”
Lisa’s jaw clenched as if she didn’t want to say what was about to come out of her mouth. Then she took a deep breath, held it for a second, then blurted, “Because if you were really over him, you’d be happy to see him.” Before Karma could protest, Lisa held up her hand. “Look, it’s okay if you’re not over him. The two of you shared an amazing summer and you fell in love with him. I’ve read your blog. I know what he meant to you. You have a right to be angry right now, but—”
“But what? But maybe I should cut Mark some slack? Is that what you think I should do?”
“No.” Lisa sighed. “But you’re being irrational.”
“Damn straight I’m being irrational.” She pointed in the direction of the office. “That bastard just blew my entire world apart back there. I’ve moved on, and now he comes back and saunters out of Don’s office like everything’s the way it was between us, and all I wanted when I saw him was to…” She met Lisa’s gaze as the wind blew out of her sails. In her tirade of tumbling thoughts, she’d been about to say that when she saw Mark all she’d wanted was to kiss him. The moment he emerged from Don’s office, her heart skipped a beat then unfurled as her body instantly heated. Arousal flooded her lower belly, and all she’d wanted was to touch him, be touched by him, and taste his skin. Mark still had that effect on her, but she couldn’t bow to it. She had to resist.
Lisa tilted her head as if she’d read Karma’s thoughts. “You know, all this time I was worried you were just frontin’ with Brad. That you’d latched on to him because you thought he was your only shot at happiness after Mark left.” She paused. “I think you just confirmed I was right.”
“I love Brad,” Karma said a little too defensively.
Lisa smirked like she didn’t believe her then got out of the car.
“I do.” Karma hopped out and followed her into Café Nine. “Do you think I don’t?”
“Oh, I’m sure you love him.” Lisa stepped up to the counter to order then looked over her shoulder and said, “I just think you love Mark more.”
The words hit her like a shot to the gut, rendering her speechless. But really, hadn’t she realized during the meeting when Mark’s gaze met hers that she was still in love with him? Lisa was only stating the obvious.
After ordering, Karma sat down across from Lisa at a patio table. “Fine, maybe I’m not over him, and maybe I do still love him, but, Lisa, he’s never going to be what I need. He’s never going to be able to commit, let alone marry me. If I learned nothing else from our four months together, I learned that much.”
“Maybe he’s changed.” Lisa sipped her tea.
“Yeah, and I’ve got swamp land in Iraq I can sell you.” She wadded up her straw wrapper and tossed it on the table. “That man will never—and I mean never—get over what his ex-fiancée did to him. And I can’t sit around waiting for something that will never happen.” She eyed her engagement ring. “Brad’s good for me. He’s not afraid to put his heart out there and make what we have permanent.” But in the past five months she’d learned that Brad wasn’t the most passionate bedmate, and she’d hinted as much to Lisa in a few of their “girl talks.”
“Is that enough?” Lisa fixed her with a skeptical stare.
“It has to be.”
“It doesn’t have to be, Karma. You can have both, you know. Both the passion and the commitment.”
Karma shook her head. “In my experience, that’s not how it works. You get one or the other. And what I want is the commitment. Passion is nothing if there’s no certainty it will still be around in a year.”
“But, Karma, come on. You’ve been dating Brad what? A whole five months? And you’re already engaged? Why the rush? I think you’re taking things too fast. I don’t think Brad’s the guy for you, Karma.”
Karma shook her head. No way would she let Lisa talk her out of this. “He and I started hanging out in February, almost eight months ago. We were friends before we dated.” They’d made good friends, too. And a good friendship was a solid foundation for a good relationship. “I’m not going back to Mark.”
Mark was a flight risk. Even if he said he wanted a commitment, he could still flee when the heat turned up too high. She would be stupid to walk down that road again, only to have her heart obliterated the same way it had been a year ago.
Lisa huffed. “I didn’t say you had to go back to Mark. Just that I don’t think Brad’s the right guy for you. First, there’s Jade. She hates you. How will that work? And then there’s the stuff you told me about…you know…the way he’s just not very imaginative in the bedroom.”
She wished she’d never told Lisa about that. Then again, who would have thought her words would come back to haunt her?
“I’ve got this, Lisa. I’ve made my decision.”
Lisa gave her a resigned nod. “Okay, okay. You’re right. It’s your decision. Just know I’m here for you if you ever need to talk.”
“I know.”
As their food arrived, Karma glanced back at the diamond on her finger. Brad was enough. She could make Brad be enough.