Beautifully Cruel

Chapter 12

JENNIE

Stunned, I breathe, "You want me to..."

"Move in with me."

"For..."

"Twenty-eight days. Then leave."

He stares at me with blistering intensity. A disbelieving little laugh escapes my lips.

He says, "I told you I don't do relationships."

"And this is your solution? A month of round-the-clock cohabitation, followed by permanent separation? It's a little drastic, don't you think?"

His gaze drops to my mouth. He growls, "I think it's the only way for us both to get what we want without any lasting damage."

I stare up at him. He can't be serious. "Tae—"

"Yes or no. Decide."

I arch my brows and slide my arms from around his shoulders, flattening my hands on the broad expanse of his chest. "And I'm the bossy one?"

"I need to know right now."

"Why? Where's the fire?"

Through gritted teeth, he says, "I can't concentrate on anything else. Every time I see you, it gets worse. It needs to be settled."

"It?" I say archly.

"Us."

I study him for a moment, all his frustration and impatience.

I don't feel a shred of pity for him, the arrogant ass.

"You know, this is how it is for normal people. The not knowing. The uncertainty. This is what most of us have to deal with in relationships all the time."

"I'm not most people," he growls. "And I don't do—"

"Relationships. So you've said."

I turn around and look at him, standing there boiling with heat and danger, like a volcano about to blow its top. "If you want a decision right now, the answer is no."

He falls still and glowers at me.

Heat creeps up my neck. "Oh, I see. It was a foregone conclusion that I'd say yes, right?"

He presses his lips into a thin line and says nothing.

Even more aggravated now, I start to pace the length of the room. It's a small room, so I feel a little ridiculous turning around every four steps, but I have to work off some of this frustration and sexual tension somehow.

"I have a life, you know. Work. School. Friends. I can't just drop everything and disappear for a month."

"I didn't say you had to disappear. You wouldn't be cut off from the outside world."

"You said 'all mine, every minute.' I took that to mean I'd be chained to your bed."

His eyes grow hot. He likes the idea.

"No," he says, his voice husky. "I'm not asking you to be my slave."

"So I could leave?"

"Are we negotiating?"

I stop short and stare at him. He stares back at me from under lowered brows, his gaze level and unwavering.

He's never looked hotter, more intense, or more dangerous. My mouth goes dry.

I whisper, "I don't know. Maybe."

He adjusts the knot in his tie, then adjusts his cufflinks, one by one. He shifts his weight from foot to foot. He stares at me like all the mysteries of the universe can be discovered in my eyes.