Sure. Right around the time she could fit into a size two.Not in this lifetime.She fisted her hands, gripping the bottom of herblue cable knit sweater, giving herself a calming moment before opening her mouth and shredding him.
He spoke first. “Then again, if you couldn’t keep a guy like Markson satisfied, it’s probably not worth my time.” Jenkins straightened his tie and started off down the hall.
By the time she had ridden the elevator up to the twelfth floor and opened the door to her room with Knight, she was itching for a fight.
So was Knight, given the scowl on his face. “What took you so long? The meeting broke up over an hour ago.”
Reese bent over and ripped her black pump off her foot and considered beaning him in the head with it. “They stayed and talked about dinner plans and I was needed to make reservations when they made their final decision. Not that I need to explain myself to you.”
“Well, you need to explain this.” Knight held up a pad of paper and threw it on the bed.
“What?” Caught off guard, she looked down at the paper and saw her handwriting. Her notes on Markson. He had found them.
Panic rose for a second before she squelched it.
If he wasn’t going to feel guilty for digging through her stuff, she wasn’t going to feel guilty for interviewing Markson. Besides, she hadn’t actually submitted the interview yet.
Giving a nonchalant shrug, she said, “What’s there to explain? I interviewed Markson, which I guess you can see since you just read it.”
He stared at her, mouth open, shoving his hair off his forehead. “Reese! You should have asked me first.”
Any effort to remain calm evaporated. “Asked you? Why the hell should I ask you?” Still wearing one shoe, she bobbed up and down to stand in front of him. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me. This is my career.” His mouth was drawn tight and his eyes were flashing. He had changed into a pair of jeans and an untucked T-shirt. He looked disheveled and angry. “I knew this would be a disaster. First moving the damn vase, then everyone thinking you’re screwing Markson, and now I find out you went behind my back, knowing I would say no, and compromised my investigation. You should have stayed home like I asked you to.”
Reese felt the blood drain from her face. She held her hand out and backed up. “That’s really what it’s all about, Knight, isn’t it? You want a woman who’s waiting for you at home obediently. Well, that’s not me. You knew that. I knew that.”
Something inside her was splintering, aching, leaving her flushed with anger, yet cold with hurt.
“We both knew this was just a fun…thing.” She swallowed hard. “So I’m guessing now it’s over. I can’t be what you want and I won’t be patronized and bossed around. I spent my whole childhood living with a double standard created by men. I won’t do it again.”
That was as close to a vow as she was ever going to come.
Derek hadno idea how the conversation had gone from her betraying him to their relationship being over, but he didn’t like it. If anyone had a fucking bone to pick, it was him.
“Why is it always about you? Just once, I’d like you to take responsibility for what you’ve done.” He grabbed the legal pad off the bed and shook it in her face. “You knew this would piss me off, you knew it was wrong, but you did it anyway. That was selfish.”
Mouth open, she ripped it out of his hand and whacked him on the arm with it. “Why are you going through my stuff anyway, Mr. High and Freaking Mighty?”
He grabbed her wrist as she reared back to smack him again. It didn’t hurt in the least, but it pissed him off, more than he already was, which was a hell of a lot. “I went through your stuff because Maddock told me that he saw you hanging all over Markson yesterday. I knew you weren’t screwing Markson like everyone seems to think, but I figured that meant you had something up yourNewark Newssleeve.”
Reese jangled her arm back and forth trying to shake him off, her auburn hair flying across her face and sticking to her lip. “Look who’s talking. You haven’t told me anything about this case, forcing me to go out on my own to investigate.”
His anger dissolved into frustration, and down into disappoint and resignation. They had been over this so many times. If Reese couldn’t respect his professional integrity, she was right. It was over. He could give up his idea of being with a different kind of woman very easily. After all, he hadn’t known what he actually wanted until he’d met Reese. But he couldn’t give up mutual trust and respect.
He let go of her wrist. “I can’t tell you about the investigation, you know that. You know that, and you don’t give a shit. You push and push even when I promised to give you the story as soon as it’s possible.”
“We’re not going to agree on this, Knight. I’m not apologizing for wanting to move ahead, to have a chance to do a real newsworthy story. Markson deserves to tell his side so that he doesn’t get smeared when this hits the stands.”
She sounded so driven, so unconcerned about his feelings, that Derek felt like he’d had the wind knocked out of his lungs. Jesus, this was it. It was ending, and it hurt like nothing else. When the tire iron had slammed into his knee, he’d seen the whole world tilt in blurry pain, but this was worse.
There was no surgery to fix this.
“I guess you and I have a different view on relationships. You think they’re all about one person being in charge, calling all the shots, and you want it to be you. I want a partnership, compromise.”
She scoffed. “The problem is, you’re exactly like me. We both want to be in control. I’m just louder about it.”
There wasn’t any truth in that, he was almost sure of it. Didn’t he just about break his back bending over to please her? If Reese couldn’t see that, then to hell with the whole thing.