THE DEAL by Marsh, Nicola (electronic reader txt) 📕

He’d taken what was on offer, no regrets, no recriminations. And to think she’d come here today to tell him the truth.

“Why don’t we sit down and talk?”

She stared at him, amazed he could look so calm.

“I don’t think so. There’s not much left to say, is there? You’ve made peace with your father, what more is there? The deal’s done.”

His expression changed from one of abject sadness to cold anger in a second. “So, that’s what you came here to talk about today? The bloody deal. It always came back to the money for you, didn’t it?”

Fighting back the tears yet again, she managed to keep her voice steady. “I don’t care anymore.”

“I care,” he said through gritted teeth, sitting at his desk and yanking open the top drawer.

He scrawled something in a booklet and tore it out. With dawning horror, she realised what it was.

“Here, you earned it.” He thrust the cheque into her hands, strode towards the door and opened it for her.

An icy fist gripped her heart and squeezed, threatening to shatter it into a million aching pieces. She looked at him but he refused to make eye contact. Staring at the cheque in her hand, the figures swam before her eyes. He actually believed she’d come this far for thirty thousand dollars? She’d revealed more of herself to this man than to anyone else and he didn’t have a clue.

She willed her legs to move, taking one robotic step after another towards the door.

“This belongs to you.”

She stood in front of him and ripped the cheque into pieces, letting them drop when he continued to ignore her. They drifted to the floor and lay in a scattered mess.

Just like her dreams, she thought, as she brushed past him for the final time.

* * *

Matt slammed the door after Kara left, hard enough to shake the walls. Luckily he didn’t have glass partitioning like some of the other lawyers, it would have smashed into smithereens and given them a birds-eye view of the fiasco that had just taken place in here.

He stared at the torn remnants of the cheque at his feet. For some reason, they frightened him. He’d had her all figured out. She’d come here today to push him to conclude the deal after he hadn’t made partner last night. She obviously thought she’d earned her money, despite the fact he hadn’t got what he wanted.

Hell, if she only knew the longer their charade had gone on, the less important the partnership became. She’d been the reason he’d continued their stupid deal and his irrational, all-consuming feelings for her had wiped away any semblance of common sense he once possessed. So much for being the cool lawyer, the consummate performer. He’d acted like a consummate jackass.

She’d played him for a fool. He’d started to believe she might actually feel something for him, regardless of the bloody deal. But no. She’d turned up today to call the shots.

But if the money was the only thing she wanted, why tear up the cheque?

It didn’t make sense. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became. He should be ecstatic now. He’d finally patched things up with his dad, he didn’t have to pretend with Kara anymore...

That was it. Instead of feeling ten feet tall, he felt like a miner trapped beneath ten feet of rubble. He didn’t have to pretend with her anymore, which meant he could tell her the truth. He loved her, had probably never stopped loving her all these years. She was the only woman who had ever made him feel whole which explained why he felt like his soul had been torn in half.

She’d walked away. Correction, he’d pushed her away. Without telling her the truth. He’d made a mess of it again, like he had on her eighteenth birthday. Would he ever learn?

Propelled into action, he raced towards the lift. If he was lucky, she’d still be in the foyer. Tapping his foot impatiently as the lift sped towards the ground floor, he mentally rehearsed what he’d say and came up strangely lacking. For once, his quick mind deserted him. He’d have to wing it and hope his negotiation skills kicked in at the right time.

As the lift doors opened, he had a vague idea of what he’d say. However, his declaration of love stuck in his throat when he saw Kara in the arms of Steve Rockwell.

She’d made her choice and it wasn’t him. He stumbled back into the lift, punching the button for the twenty-fifth floor several times before hitting the target and berating himself for being a gullible fool.

* * *

Kara’s feet dragged as she found her way to a nearby café and ordered her second coffee in less than an hour. So what if the caffeine kept her up all night? It wasn’t like she’d be sleeping anyway after the disastrous end to her relationship with Matt.

Relationship? Who was she trying to kid? She’d deluded herself into believing what she shared with Matt had been special when in fact it had been one, big joke. Sadly, the joke was on her, though she sure as hell didn’t feel like laughing.

At least she understood what had really happened in Matt’s office. She’d bumped into Steve in the foyer as she’d been leaving and though he was the last person she’d expect comfort from, he’d hugged her and told her his involvement in the fiasco. He’d suspected Matt had been up to something and confronted him with it, threatening to go to Jeff if Matt didn’t come clean. Surprisingly, Matt had told him the truth about the deal, which was around the