Seth knew he lost control for a few seconds before he managed to get it together. As a guy, having the sensory overload of a naked female in your lap pushing every button that you have was something damn hard to regroup from. Her hands on his cock finally jolted him enough to pull back and at what he saw when he did, ice ran straight through his veins. Mia stood in the entryway of the living room looking at him in horror. His mind was frantically buzzing, trying to piece together how she could be here to witness what was no doubt a damning scene. He pushed Ashley’s hands roughly away from him, sitting her none too gently on the couch beside him. Possibly that hadn’t been a great move since Mia couldn’t miss Ashley’s exposed breasts now. She was still staring at him, but her feet were carrying her backward as if she couldn’t look away from the train wreck long enough to turn around and flee. He got to his feet, ignoring Ashley’s questions as he made his way toward Mia.

He was afraid she would run before he reached her, but she had stopped, waiting for him. The confident woman that he was used to looked more like a confused child, causing something inside of him to clench in remorse. “Mia, honey, what are you doing here?” Yeah, shit, that didn’t sound guilty at all.

“I . . . we finished early. I wanted to surprise you tonight. I . . . did, didn’t I?”

He took her arm, gently saying, “This isn’t what it looks like. She . . . um . . . caught me off guard. It wasn’t going any further.” Ashley’s roar of outrage rang off the walls of his apartment and seemed to snap Mia out of her trance.

She jerked her arm out of his and gave him a look of such contempt that he flinched. “Do me a favor and don’t lie to me. I’m sure you fully planned to sleep with her tonight and with me tomorrow night.” She laughed a laugh devoid of humor. “You know, I had actually started to believe the last few weeks that you were someone of substance. I pushed myself and the entire team to finish early because I thought there was something . . . more between us. Thanks for the wake-up call.”

Seth felt her words flaying him. Despite the anger now radiating off her in waves, he could see tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “Mia . . .”

She held up her hand, stopping him. Her anger seemed to have fled as fast as it had erupted. She held his gaze for another moment before saying, “Just don’t, Seth, please. You don’t owe me anything . . . anything at all. I saw something that obviously wasn’t there, at least on your part.” With those parting words, she walked through the foyer and into the elevator. As the doors closed, he stood there stunned by what had just happened. He had the very real urge to pinch himself to see if this was some kind of a dream. He still couldn’t fathom her showing up out of nowhere at the exact moment that Ashley was sitting on him practically naked.

“Fuck,” he muttered. He turned to find Ashley slipping her dress back over her head. He knew things were just as bad as he thought when she walked toward him with a look of pity in her eyes.

“Seth, if you had told me beforehand that you were involved with someone, this would have never happened. I may be many things, but I’m not the other woman. I don’t have to be.” Her look of pity turned to a look of disgust in the blink of an eye. “You really hurt that woman. You should have manned up and broken up with her instead of letting her see something like that.” For the second time in so many minutes, another pissed-off female stalked to his elevator and left.

Unfucking believable. Ashley, who had removed her clothing and shoved her tongue in his mouth and her hand down his pants, was his judge and jury. Mia, whom he had slept with once, had looked heartbroken. Even as he tried to convince himself that he wasn’t in the wrong, a part of him was torn up over what had happened. It was obvious that she had seen more happening between them than casual sex. If he were honest, hadn’t he started to feel that way as well? Dammit, Ashley was right; he could have prevented this whole mess if he had just leveled with her. He had kept their dinner date to prove that he wasn’t tied down to anyone.

His denial of his growing feelings for Mia was to blame for everything that had happened tonight. He didn’t want to accept that he could be feeling something more than lust for someone he had only met a month ago. Things like that just didn’t happen to him. He had let his guard down for a brief time when he met Beth and look how that had turned out. Mia scared him shitless and he hated that out-of-control feeling. He wasn’t sure it even mattered anymore. The look on her face when she left didn’t bode well. He needed a few days to figure out what his next move would be. One of his brother Ash’s favorite sayings came to mind: Piss or get off the pot. He couldn’t think of anything that fit the situation more. He was either all in or he would have to walk away from her.

Chapter Twelve

The insistent knocking at her door showed no sign of stopping. Even with the comforter pulled up over her head, the sound still reverberated around the bedroom. “Shit!” Jumping out of bed, she stomped through her condominium and jerked the front door open without bothering to look through the peephole. She took a step back in surprise when she saw her immaculately dressed mother standing on the other side. She could count the number of times her mother had visited her at home on one hand, and she had never just shown up without making a formal appointment.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” She had to give her credit. She barely noticed the slight grimace that she made as she took in her daughter’s disheveled appearance.

“Mia, darling, I was worried about you. I have been calling you since last week and you haven’t returned any of my calls. I even called your office and they said that you were taking some vacation time this week. I’m used to you never answering your phone, but you do usually call me back within a day. I could only assume that you must be gravely ill.”

Being scolded by her mother was like being in grade school and being called to the principal’s office. “Sorry, Mom. I haven’t been checking my messages for the past few days. I needed some downtime. Was there something you needed?”

Her mother raised a perfectly plucked brow saying, “Well, you could invite me in and then we can go from there.”

Mia stepped aside and waved her inside. Crap, why didn’t I return her call? Her mother then did something else strange. She settled on the sofa as if she intended to stay for a while. Hadn’t she been through enough lately? Was she going to be forced to play caring family now? This whole visit was starting to seem suspicious. Shit, surely there wasn’t more bad news coming? “Is there . . . um . . . something you want to talk about?” she asked cautiously.

“Well, of course,” her mother replied, looking surprised. “I wanted to see what was happening with Seth Jackson. When we spoke after your dinner with him, you said that you would be seeing him again after your business there ended in a few weeks. When I hadn’t been able to reach you for several days, I assumed you were together, but Margie says that isn’t the case.”

Mia’s mouth dropped. “You called Seth’s assistant to ask if I was dating him? Mom!”

Her mother looked surprised at her shock. “What? Margie and I are on friendly terms. I called to thank Seth again for his contribution to our charity auction and since I hadn’t spoken to you recently, I asked her if you were still working there and she informed me that your job ran long, but was finished now.”

“God, please tell me you didn’t ask her if Seth and I were together,” Mia groaned.

“Darling, I don’t remember our exact conversation. I believe she just confirmed that he was in the office and in a terribly poor mood.”

Damn, she knew it. When her mother hadn’t been able to get answers anywhere else, she had called Margie to press her for information. There was no way she was calling Seth weeks later to thank him again. She would have had her secretary do that if she even thought of it. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been forced to discuss her dating life with her mother and she didn’t relish doing it now. God, she still felt too raw to talk about him. She had done nothing but lie around for days throwing herself an outstanding pity party. She had been fortunate that there was a lull in installations at work and Hank had been fine with her taking a vacation week while things were relatively quiet. After seeing her moping around the office, he was probably thrilled to be rid of her for a while, and she had needed time to process what had happened that night at Seth’s penthouse.

She had gone through shades of anger, disbelief, sadness, and finally settling somewhere in between. She had allowed herself to feel more for him than she was aware of until it was over. In his defense, he technically had done nothing wrong. Sure, you would hope that the guy you slept with and had planned to sleep with again wasn’t also doing it with someone else, but there had never been any promises of anything. They weren’t even officially dating. What did she really expect? Just because it was something she wouldn’t do didn’t mean that Seth played by the same rules. Did that mean she was okay with the whole thing? Hell, no! Even more crushing was the feeling that he wasn’t satisfied with her enough to wait. Nothing about their night together seemed special now. How could it have meant anything at all to him if he was planning to sleep with someone else right up until their next night together? Well, you slept with him on the first date. What did you expect, a marriage proposal?