Read Online Adore Me by Darcy Lundeen - Free Book Online Page A

you’re doing it again—taking everything I say completely out of context.”
    Meredith moved to the other side of the table to be farther away from him, because if he kept that stance long enough, she was sure she’d probably melt and give in.
    But he didn’t keep it. He simply threw his hands up in frustration.
    “You know, this conversation is getting us nowhere, except to aggravate the hell out of both of us. So I think I should be leaving. I made a reservation for that restaurant on Lenox Street. I’ll be here on the fourteenth, and hopefully we can start over again without all the hostility.”
    He turned to go.
    “I don’t think so,” Meredith said.
    For an instant, he froze, then he turned slowly back to her. “You don’t think so, what ?”
    “I think I’ll be too busy on the fourteenth to spend any time at a restaurant.”
    “All right, then I’ll cancel the reservation, and we can order something special and eat it here.”
    Meredith shook her head firmly. “I don’t think I’ll be eating anything special here that day. With anyone .”
    For a moment, he simply stared at her in silence, then he nodded. “Fine, if that’s what you want.”
    What she really wanted was to cave right then and there. But she was already too deep into her anger, so she just stiffened her resolve and let the anger speak for her. “That’s exactly what I want.”
    “Does that apply to the rest of the month too? All of February?”
    “It does.”
    “And the month after that?”
    She took a deep breath and forced herself to push on till the end. “Yes, March, too, and April and—”
    He held up a hand to stop her. “You don’t have to recite the whole calendar. I get the idea.”
    For a split second, his face contorted with an expression that seemed to be caught somewhere between hurt and anger. Then in a tone so calm and frigid it chilled her bones, he said, “No problem. If that’s the way you want it, consider it done. Permanently !”
    Swinging around, he stormed out of the kitchen without looking back.
    A moment later, Meredith heard the front door slam with a finality that startled her. She felt a flow of tears dampen her cheeks and dashed them away with the back of her hand because, damn it, their fight wasn’t completely her fault. If only he’d sympathized a little more, told her that her success was just as important as any other part of her life, instead of spouting off about wanting her to enjoy a life of sunshine and laughter and let’s-all-just-stop-and-smell-the-flowers blandness.
    All right, it was true she had a hard time not thinking about the Ogilvy loss. But that made perfect sense. Without the money it brought and the potential for other lucrative contacts, she could be struggling for years to keep her business solvent.
    Maybe she’d succeed, but she could just as easily fail, and then her lifelong dream would be dead.
    Somehow Vlad couldn’t understand that. Or if he did understand, then he just didn’t want to appreciate it and what it was doing to her.
    Well, what did she expect? He’d once claimed he had the tenacity of a junkyard dog when something was important to him or someone he loved. That meant just one thing—her success wasn’t important to him, and neither was she. And if that was the case, then to hell with him.
    Sniffling back any more stupid tears, she marched into her office, took a pen, and slashed a big X through February fourteenth on her desk calendar, happily obliterating the note she’d made about spending the evening with him.
    Spend Valentine’s Day with Vladimir Nitwit ? Not likely.
    ****
    The next morning, when Meredith strode into the Divine Desserts kitchen, even the makeup she’d slathered on her face couldn’t disguise the evidence of all the tears she promised herself she wouldn’t shed the night before, but had.
    “Oh my gosh, you look terrible,” Dana said when she turned to say hello. “What happened?”
    Meredith dumped her bag in the