My Ex is My New Boss

Part 16

The ride in Andres' luxurious jeep felt like it was never going to end.

I passed the time trying not to squint at all those masculine veins, that stood out in his tanned arms, holding the steering wheel.
I've always found it sexy, especially with him.

Andres insisted on driving me home, claiming it was on the way to his downtown apartment, and I couldn't come up with a good enough excuse to avoid it.

'He must have moved to this apartment after the divorce'

I immediately forced myself to stop thinking about it.
The last thing I wanted was to give in to even the slightest bit of curiosity about him.

"I want to talk about us"
Andres' deep voice broke the silence, after driving for a while, with each of us deep in thought.

"There is no us!" I blurted out.

"Let your defenses down for a while, will you, princess?
I think this is an excellent opportunity for me to say what you were so resistant to hearing in the past"

Every time he used the nickname he used to call me, it pissed me off and at the same time, sent a shiver down my spine.

"I don't want to go into it again, Andres.
We've talked about enough"

"That's not true, actually.
You didn't let me explain my side of things, we never really talked about it."

"And I definitely don't want to talk about it right now!"

"Well, I guess you'll have to bear with me, princess.
Not that you have much of a choice.."

I gave him the grumpiest look I could muster.

He replied with a steady and intent look, clearly unmoved.
Then he turned his gaze back to the road.

"Some time before I met you, I went through a period of various doubts about my future.
I guess it was some kind of late teenage rebellion.."

As he spoke, I was mesmerized for a moment by his perfect profile, my eyes lingering on his thick dark eyelashes and sexy lips.

'Stop it!'
I scolded myself.

He continued with his characteristic confidence,

"Grandpa kept nagging me about not being committed enough to the family business. He didn't appreciate the lifestyle I was leading then, it was too wild in his opinion"

He grined, probably because of the memories that came up.

"When Grandpa had a heart attack, it changed everything...
Arturo took over the management of the company and made some fucking stupid decisions, which caused a lot of damage.
It got to the point where hundreds of our workers could have lost their jobs.
I couldn't let that happen, so I-"

"Are all these excuses supposed to justify what you did to me?"
I interrupted him in an annoyed voice, unable to control the anger that started bubbling up inside me again.

He took a deep breath
"I need a smoke".

"Don't!" I hissed.
"You're stronger than that..." I then muttered.

Our eyes met for a moment, amusement twinkling in his gaze.

"You know, I have two weaknesses, that I just can't seem to stop myself from craving, no matter how hard I try.
One of them is smoking...
Maybe someday I'll tell you about the other thing.."
He said with a half smile.

Then his eyes turned back to the road again, with their usual magnetic focus,

"Okay, so as you already know, my grandfather suddenly decided that he was willing to transfer a large amount of his shares to me, provided that I get married within a year.."