Page 102 of Pursuing Desire

Oh. My. God. The man of my nightmares.

“Anthony! What are you doing here?”

Chapter 22

Jess

How did he find me again? I don’t understand. Out of all the thousands of places to be in New York, he happens to be at the very street corner I’m standing at.

The instant pit in my stomach grows to unease when I see the sneer on his face.

“You’re a difficult woman to track down, Jess. Where’ve you been? Why haven’t you answered my calls?”

I don’t answer his question; instead, I start walking. At this point, I don’t know where I’m heading. I just need to get away from him. Once I make it across the street, he grabs my shoulder in an iron grip.

I turn on him. “Don’t touch me,” I tell him with as much malice as I can muster.

“You’re getting kind of mouthy. You never talked like that to me before. Seems like you’re learning some bad habits from that beefy asshole you’re seeing.”

“What do you want, Anthony?”

He smiles at me sweetly. “I keep telling you what I want. I just want to talk to you. I don’t understand why you keep running away. If you’d just give me fifteen minutes, let me explain, have a conversation with me, I won’t bother you anymore.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Have I ever lied to you?” He pauses and then laughs. “Wait. Scratch that. Other than that one time, have I ever lied to you?”

“Get away from me, Anthony. If Dax sees you touch me, he’ll come after you.”

I hope the threat will be enough. My skin is crawling in disgust and it’s hard to even face him. The thought of spending another second with him, much less fifteen minutes, makes me want to vomit right here on his feet.

“Fifteen minutes,” he reiterates. “Then I’ll leave you alone.”

I hesitate for a moment, thoughts shooting through my brain. If I let him talk, maybe we can come to an amicable solution to the apartment situation. It’s unlikely to work, but I have to try one last time.

“I’ll give you fifteen minutes in a public place, on two conditions,” I tell him.

He raises a brow and smirks sarcastically. “Okay, shoot.”

“Tell me how you knew where to find me at that hotel in California,” I demand.

At first, he looks surprised by the question. Then he has the audacity to click his tongue at me before replying. “You haven’t figured it out yet? Don’t you remember? You shared your location with me on your phone. I’ve known exactly where you were at all times.”

I make a choking noise in my throat. “I never shared my location with you!”

He shakes his head. “Sure you did. How else would I have gotten access? You should really lay off the wine, sweetie.”

Too much wine? Yeah, right. He knows I rarely ever drink, and I never get drunk enough that I’d forget something like that.

How did I ever think I was in love with this guy?

I straighten my shoulders. “I am certain I never shared my location with you, but go ahead and stick with that story.”

He shrugs. “Regardless of what you believe, I answered your question. What’s your second condition?”

I adjust the bag on my shoulder. “I want to have a real conversation about the apartment. We need to figure out a way to split fair and square.”

He waves his hand in the air. “Of course. That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about anyway. Alright, so you owe me fifteen minutes. Want to go have some lunch? I know a place around the corner.”