Avoiding Temptation (25 page)

Ramsey caught her attention first. He looked like he wanted to stride over to her and steal her away from Jack—as if there were even a competition anymore. She tried to keep her face impassive. She was angry enough with him, and any confrontation could make her blow up in public—not a good idea. He had an image. His reputation was as important as Bekah’s at this point.

Lexi didn’t even say anything to Jack as she walked away and headed straight for Ramsey. Parker was still at his side, but she was talking to someone else. Her eyes flashed to Lexi as she walked closer, but then Parker’s gaze quickly darted away. Lexi was sure she would never figure out Parker.
What was she thinking behind those haunted eyes?

Truthfully, it didn’t matter.

As long as she stays out of the way.

“Hey, baby,” Ramsey said with a smile that she knew he was faking for the press in the vicinity. “Where were you?”

His eyes asked,
What were you doing with Jack?

“Getting some water.” She held the bottle up.

“We’re about finished here. Are you ready to head out?”

“I’ve been ready,” she said through a smile of her own. She was sure he had read the edge to her own comment,
Before you were playing nice with Parker
.

“Great, I’ll just be a minute,” he said.

“I’ll be right here.”

She knew she was acting a bit crazy, but that tended to happen when her boyfriend of a year and a half told the entire world that the medical wing he was working on with his ex-girlfriend was all on her genius!

Ramsey returned a few minutes later as promised, and they managed to duck out of the groundbreaking ceremony before she could run into any other unpleasant surprises…like Bekah.

The ride back to their place was tense and silent. Lexi stared out the window, unseeing. Ramsey was gripping the steering wheel a little too tight. She knew she should say something, but she didn’t.

They made it all the way up the stairs and closed the door before she burst open at the seams.

“Parker is the mastermind behind this whole project?” she shouted at him. “She’s the reason you decided to do this? It’s all her?” Her hands were flying as she spoke, and she couldn’t keep her temper under control.

“What do you want me to tell the cameras, Lexi? Do you want me to tell them that I fucked everything up with my girlfriend, so I did this, trying to make it right by her?” he demanded.

“It would be a better fucking story than telling the fucking cameras that it was Parker who made you decide to do this! You want to know why that would be a better story?” she asked, striding right up to him.

“Why, Lexi?” he asked, his green eyes narrowed and fiery.

“Because it would have been the
truth
!”

“I didn’t lie.”

“Are you fucking serious? Because it’s news to me that Parker was the reason for any of this!”

“Parker has been doing a lot of the work. I’ve been the Bridges name and have offered my two cents on the business side. She knows the medical side. It’s her baby.”

“Only because she lost the other one,” she said before she could stop herself.

Ramsey glared—actually glared at her. “Don’t talk about that,” he said calmly.

It was a scary calm, one that was bordering on madness. She had touched on the topic that he couldn’t possibly discuss with a level head, and she knew it. She was pushing him for no good reason, pushing just because she was angry and wanted the fight in that moment. She wasn’t even playing fair.

“I don’t like her. You said she would be gone if I wanted. You said that she didn’t have to be in our lives anymore. I don’t want her in our lives anymore,” she told him flatly.

“I said that before I signed the contract for the medical wing,” he said, some of the fire in his eyes leaving.

“Another broken promise,” Lexi said, shaking her head.

“Look, I
have
to work with her now, and I’m doing all of this shit for you. I can’t just push Parker away when we’re in the middle of getting this company off the ground. But it changes absolutely nothing in our relationship whatsoever.”

Lexi looked away. Sometimes, it felt like it changed a lot more than he would ever admit.

“And what about you?”

“What about me?” she snapped. Her temper clearly hadn’t run its course yet.

“I have to work with Parker, but you don’t have to be around Jack, and you still are. So, why are you still around him?”

“Yeah, I don’t work with Jack, which means I don’t have to be around him every fucking minute of every day. It means I don’t have to tell the press that he’s the reason for my next big project,” she said, raising her voice as she spoke. “It means there is distance between us.”

“Don’t be hypocritical!”

“Hypocritical?” Lexi cried.

“Yes! Just because you’re not around him all the time doesn’t make it any better.”

“Jack Howard is
not
my problem anymore. He is married to
your
sister and has been nothing but a good friend to me since that happened!”

“No one is that good of a friend when he stares at you like he does.”

“Are you just trying to make me mad? Are you just trying to push me away?” she asked, walking away from him.

“Lexi, get your ass over here,” he growled. “Right now.”

“No,” she said stubbornly.

Ramsey took two big strides to close the distance between them before crashing his mouth down on hers. She didn’t want to enjoy this. She wanted to be angry. She wanted to slap him and tell him to get his shit together or she was out the door. Of course, she wasn’t going to leave, not really. It was an irrational anger coursing through her from months of pent-up frustration about Parker being around Ramsey, months of wondering if something was going to happen, months of keeping her mouth closed.

Then, she hadn’t been able to keep it closed any longer.

His hands were on her in an instant, yanking her dress over her head, unclasping her strapless bra, and grasping her breasts in his hands. Her hands went to his belt buckle. She wanted him out of these clothes. She didn’t want him in anything that matched Parker ever again.

Once she was finished with his pants, she grabbed his tie and jerked his face back toward her. “Did y’all plan this?” she demanded.

“Plan what?”

“Matching. You matched.”

Ramsey looked at her in shock, and it was enough to tell her that they hadn’t planned it.
Fuck
. She thought that would make her feel better, but it didn’t. It made her want to curse the universe for her bad luck.

“We need to get you out of this now,” she said, going to work at the buttons of his shirt.

“No time,” he grunted.

Ramsey pushed her toward the side of the couch and bent her at the waist. Her thong fell to the floor at his insistence. She heard the zipper of his pants, and then they fell to the floor as well. He held her down, facing forward, before thrusting into her.

Lexi cried out. She was already heated from their conversation, but he wasn’t being gentle. He was as angry as she was, and that made for a deadly combination. With one hand on her shoulder and one on her hip, Ramsey pulled back and slammed back into her over and over and over again. He had never been this rough with her before.

It had always been good, but this was…in a different ballpark.

She couldn’t think of anything, except him pounding inside her, her pussy clenching all around him, and the anger building in her heart.

“I’m so fucking pissed at you,” she growled.

“Good.”

He didn’t give up, even an inch, and she could feel her whole body giving in. She was so fucking pissed at him, but God, did she love this man.

“You’re going to come for me.”

“No, I’m not,” she said even though she knew that she was so close to the brink she was going to explode any second.

“Yes, you are. And I’m coming with you,” he said, reaching one hand down in front of her and stroking her clit with his finger as he continued to fuck her.

Her body started trembling. She couldn’t hold out. And he didn’t want her to.

The way she was feeling at that moment, she didn’t want to either. She wanted to feel him thrust up inside her as they came together. She wanted to forget their argument and just live in the here and now—knowing that they might be angry, but it would be okay. They could move on from this.

She felt her legs give out as soon as the orgasm ripped through her body. Lexi collapsed onto the couch as Ramsey let go of her shoulder and released deep into her. His weight shifted as he grabbed on to the couch for support.

As she lay there, panting, she looked up at him and managed to get out, “I love you, Ramsey.”

He smiled a lazy, heartfelt smile down at her. “I love you, too.”

“You what?” Lexi shrieked through the phone.

“Chica, chill the fuck out,” Chyna said.

“My party is this afternoon. What do you mean you have a photo shoot in New York?”

“It can’t be helped. Fashion week is less than a month away.”

“I don’t care about fashion week, Chyna. It’s your best friend’s engagement party.”

“I know,” she whined. “I tried to explain that to them, but they don’t really care. Plus, we already celebrated when we found out. It’s not the end of the world. I’ll fly you up here to go shopping for it. Oh! Better yet, let me talk to the designer about your dress. We could get it custom-made.”

Lexi shook her head. “You’re insane. Do you know how much a custom dress costs?”

She could almost see Chyna staring blankly. Money wasn’t an object for her. But Ramsey wouldn’t object to whatever Lexi wanted anyway. That still didn’t mean she wanted to spend ten or twenty grand on a wedding dress.

“Don’t worry so much. You’re going to come up for fashion week, right?” Chyna asked, deftly changing the subject.

“I haven’t talked to Ramsey about it.”

“Forget the old ball and chain, and come visit me.”

Lexi rolled her eyes. “Real nice of you to say…since you aren’t on your way here for my engagement party.”

“Anyway, what’s really going on? You’ve been quiet lately—besides you bitching at me about the party,” Chyna said.

“We still talk every day,” Lexi told her.

“I mean, almost every day. But you’ve been all scatterbrained, like something happened and you didn’t tell me. Oh, like that time you slept with Adam’s brother. Oh, or like any time with Jack. Does this have to do with a boy?” Chyna asked.

Lexi glanced around the apartment. Ramsey wasn’t anywhere in sight. She knew that he was busy with preparations for the party tonight. The man knew how to throw a party, that was for sure. She was glad that the Sunday night escapades were over, but he was pumped to throw something together for their engagement. She hoped that it didn’t turn out like the Sunday parties she had frequented when they had first started dating. The guest list certainly boasted enough of his friends to warrant it…but she didn’t think it would get like that.

Or at least, she hoped not.

Deciding that Ramsey wasn’t about to walk in on her at any minute, Lexi sighed.