I got up and walked to the open door of her office. She was working on her computer, her brows drawn together in a frown above her crimson glasses. I knocked lightly.
She looked up at me. “Yes?”
“Chad Williams is on the line for you.”
She pulled her glasses off and nodded. “Put him through.”
I went back to my desk and routed the call, then tried to focus on something else besides the low murmur of Lei’s voice. It was all too easy to think about Jax instead, remembering the way he’d sounded when he last told me he loved me.
He’d consumed me from the moment I first laid eyes on him. I didn’t know how to give him up. I also didn’t know how to live with him. He wasn’t going to integrate into my life easily. I was going to have to change everything to accommodate him.
Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with someone simple and easygoing? Someone who brought a little fun into my life instead a whole slew of problems.
“Gianna.”
I looked up as Lei stepped out of her office, her lips pursed thoughtfully. “Yes?”
I steeled myself for the blow. When would I ever have the chance again to spearhead a project that had the magnitude of the Mondego deal?
“Chad just got through with a meeting with Jackson Rutledge,” she said.
My back stiffened and my stomach roiled. Crap. Was Jax screwing me over again? “Why?”
“Jackson offered to make a three-million-dollar investment in Chad, for a 30 percent share.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
What did that mean? Was he trying to steal Chad? How could he, when Chad was under contract with Lei?
Lei frowned. “Basically, Jackson is offering to guarantee that he’s not going to sabotage Chad, to the tune of a few million dollars.”
I stared at her, trying to process that news.
She shrugged. “Chad’s going to have his lawyers look over the paperwork, but he’s sending it to me, too. Wants to make sure there’s no conflict.”
Nodding slowly, I glanced at my drawer, thinking about the smartphone sitting inside it.
“He didn’t say anything about wanting to work with anyone else,” she added. “There’s no reason to, if the offer is legit.”
“Right.” I said the word, but I was still trying to fully grasp the ramifications of what Jax had done.
“I take it you told Jax about Chad’s concerns?”
Pushing slowly to my feet, I nodded. “I didn’t know anything about this, though. I swear.”
“I can see that on your face.” She studied me for a moment longer. “Looks like Jackson’s clearing a path to you.”
“Yeah.” It was crazy. What was the catch?
It was just depressing having to ask myself that question. How could I love him more than anything when I was constantly second-guessing him?
My desk phone rang and I answered, grateful for the distraction from Lei’s examining gaze.
“Gia.” Jax’s voice sent me skidding into deeper turmoil. “We’re going to sit down with your family tonight after the restaurant closes. I’ve got a lot of work to do, so I’ll meet you there. A driver will be waiting for you after work and he’ll stay with you until it’s time to take you to the restaurant. He’ll take care of loading up the things you’ll bring to the penthouse to get you through ’til the weekend, when we can grab the rest. Let me—”
“Jax. Jesus. Will you slow down?” I slumped in my chair, feeling exhausted.
He was quiet for the length of a heartbeat. “It’s taken two long years to get here.”
“Yeah. Two years of nothing. Not a single word from you. And now, all of a sudden, you’re bulldozing your way through my life and I’m feeling wrecked. Wiped out. I can’t think. Can’t figure out anything.”
“What’s to figure out?” he shot back, sounding annoyed, which only irritated me further.
I sat up, but lowered my voice, hating to have such a personal conversation at work but unable to hold back. I’d been simmering for hours and was finally boiling over. “What took you so damned long! Why now? Why are you fighting for me now?”
“Because you’re finally fighting for me!” he snapped. “You were happy with the way things were in Vegas. You wanted that to go on, probably thought we’d do that for a year or two, see where things went. And that wasn’t going to happen, Gia. We were living on borrowed time. Too much longer and someone would’ve caught on, and started hounding and exploiting you while I was thousands of miles away. I let us go on too long as it was.”
“You could’ve talked to me about it!”
“What were you going to do? Leave UNLV? Move to Virginia with me? Were you ready for that then, when you’re not now? I don’t fucking think so.”
“You never gave me the chance!”
“Bullshit. You’ve had plenty of chances, Gia. I waited for you to decide what we had was worth fighting for. Not a day went by when I didn’t hope you’d call or just show up. You never even left me an angry voice mail. You called a few times, sent a few emails, then nothing. You gave up.”
“So it was some kind of test?” I snapped, incensed. “You broke my heart to test me?”
“Maybe. And don’t think it doesn’t piss me off that I had to come back to you to get you to finally say you wanted more.”
“You’re an asshole!”