07

Unable to bear him anymore, even if he was only being civilized to her, she whirled round facing him, her curls bouncing at her movement.

“I imagine he’s already told you about me losing my job so you don’t need to rub it in,” she snapped angrily ; irritated with herself to be feeling weak at such a time of her life.

When she saw the look of complete surprise on his face, she could have bitten her tongue. He had not known the truth about her job and she had blurted out the truth like a fool. She watched as the look of initial surprise faded and was replaced by complete pleasure.

She sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon.

“You don’t say !” he exclaimed. “So what happened ? Doesn’t the Mr. Boss fancy you anymore ?”

Selena was surprised. How the hell did he know that her boss used to fancy her ? She had known it on the day when he had tried he had tried to propose her a different kind of deal and had frankly admitted his feelings to her. How was she supposed to know anyway that her boss was such a lecher ? He was supposedly happily married and father of three cute little kids and Selena had never thought of him in such a way. Well it take a lecher to recognize another one !

She gave him a pointed look finding it futile to refute him. “Well, let’s just say that he was getting impatient and wanted something I wasn’t willing to offer,” she told him bitterly.

“Awwww ! What a pity,” he drawled.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the ‘pity’ part but Ashton would tell her anyway by the end of the day so she played along.

“Pity ? Pity for what ? Not getting what he want ? Or me not willing to offer more ?”

Ashton grinned at her wolfishly. “Both.”

Yeah right, she thought. He would be thinking along such lines anyway. Ashton Cooper was more immoral than her boss. Well, ex-boss. That thought sobered her once again and she wasn’t in the mood to fight him back. She simply shrugged and put baby Adam in his cradle and activated his baby monitor.

After dinner was served, Selena had had enough of Ashton’s taunts and wanted to crawl back in her apartment to lick her wounds. Now that he knew the reason of her dismissal, he was acting like a complete asshole, advising her that it wasn’t the way to survive in the business world if she wanted to achieve something. Usually, she would have retorted something back but she was feeling even more depressed at his words and so she kept silent.

Rachel seemed to notice her unusual resignation to Ash’s derisive attitude and took her defense.

“What do you mean by that, Ash ?” she asked responding to his last sentence where he was actually asking Selena the reason why she had refused the advances of her boss.

“Well,” he said appearing completely surprised at the question. “I don’t see why she refused him. She should have taken up the opportunity as she’s still young and able to use her charms to…”

He didn’t get further than that. Selena got up from the table and dumped her bowl of macaroni on his head !

If the atmosphere was not loaded with tension, it would have been almost funny to see an Ashton with white long hair and a red dye as the macaroni sauce was dripping on his face. It was difficult to read his expression from the pile of pasta but Selena could feel that he was angry.

Well, he deserved that. How dare he assume that she would trade her body for anything at all ? And it only showed what a complete asshole he was anyway.

Unflustered, Ash grinned and licked the sauce impishly looking at her with mocking grey eyes. She could have killed him right then and there but she would not because she knew he was only goading her and the more infuriated she got, the more he will take his sadistic pleasure.

Trying to keep her composure, she looked at Rachel with mortification of what she had done. “I’m sorry, Rach.”

“Oh, you shouldn’t be. He deserved that all the way.”

Selena heaved a sigh of relief and smiled apologetically to Jake who was grinning like a fool too. She rolled her eyes at his expression. Men !

“I’ll clean this up,” she said quickly retreating to the kitchen followed by Rachel.

“Are you okay ?” Rachel asked her and she nodded feeling embarrassed at having lost her temper and thrown away good food. Coming from a modest background, she was one to know how hard it was to get a morsel of food and hated any type of wastage.

“Listen, why don’t you and Jake go for a walk ? I’ll clean up the mess and do the dishes,” she said in an attempt to make amends for what she had done.

“No, I’m…”

“Please, you deserve it after working so hard for dinner. It was fabulous and I’m so sorry for spoiling it.”

Rachel frowned at her and finally nodded.

“And I’ll look after Adam if he wakes up. Bring your mobile along. I’ll call you if he wakes up. Go have a nice time with your husband.”

Rachel grinned and winked at her conspiratorially. “Atta girl !”

“And please take the monster with you and leave him somewhere on the way.”

Her sister’s grin got wider and as she left, Selena already felt better for her goof-up at the dinner table. It had been such a bad idea for her to be in the same space as that Ashton. Damn, she hated him so much.

Some minutes later however, her peace was disturbed by the sound of his voice. On seeing him, she jumped out of her skin nearly splashing water everywhere. He was wearing a pair of black trunk and a towel around his neck looking as sexy as hell. “What the hell are you doing here ? And pleeease put on some clothes.”

From the look of it, he had just taken a shower and was smelling yummy. She had to try hard to hide her reaction from him.

“Can’t handle me now, can you ?” he chided playfully tugging at her hair.

“Well, since you are here, make yourself useful. Here,” she said handing him the moist cloth expecting him to take it and clean the table ; anything to hide her trembling hands. Damn !

He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “Are you crazy ? I don’t mop,” he said arrogantly. “Seems that losing your job has made you lose your mind as well.”

Selena felt tears weld up in her eyes at his taunt but she gritted her teeth and continued with the task completely ignoring his presence. It was the only way she was going to survive this evening.

When she had finally done the dishes, the couple had still not arrived and she decided to wait for them in the kitchen avoiding another encounter with Ashton. The latter had seemed to finally calmed down and was playing video games in the living room.

It was then that the whole situation hit her and everything took a toll on her. Without warning, tears streamed down her cheeks as she stared outside at the dark window not registering anything through her tears.

On the verge of entering the kitchen for a glass of water, Ashton almost did a double take at the sight of the forlorn figure at the dining table. Selena Rose McKenzie was crying ?! Not crying but pouring ? He would be damned ! All thoughts of thirst disappearing at the opportunity in front of him. For all the fourteen years he had known her, he had never seen her have a moment of weakness. Her job must mean a lot to her for her to break down like that.