As Long As I Have You

~ Chapter Nine ~

"Kirsten, wait!"

She ignored the plea and kept walking towards her idling escape at a furious pace. The driver was about to open the car door for her, but she waved him off and grabbed hold of the handle and threw it open herself. Miraculously, she made it inside the vehicle before the door slammed itself shut.

The action was hardly lost on him. Without hesitating he ran the short distance to the car and hailed the driver. He gave the man succinct instructions and a look that brooked no arguments, then ducked inside the vehicle after her. When he shut the door the car immediately pulled away from the curb.

Kirsten stared in shock. "You sonofabitch! What do you think you're doing?! Get out of this car!"

Evan disregarded both the expletive and her outraged order as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat himself at the farthest end of the seat. Sitting too close to his woodland nymph turned fiery hellcat wasn't a very good idea just now.

"Clearly we need to talk. This has all been a mistake."

"You can fix it by getting the hell out of this car."

The driver made eye contact with her in the rear view mirror, then glanced in Evan's direction and quickly focused back on the road. She demanded he pull over so she could get out, but when the request went unanswered and the driver raised the privacy glass between them she exhaled a frustrated sigh and sat back into her seat.

"Congratulations. You can add this to your list of accomplishments. Liar. Manipulator. Kidnapper."

"I assure you, I have no intention of kidnapping you. The driver is taking me to my office and then wherever you want to go from there."

It was a reasonable explanation, but she decided she wasn't going to listen to any of the words that came out of his mouth. Instead, she folded her hands in her lap and stared blankly out the window and into the night.

"I never deliberately set out to deceive you, Kirsten."

Silence.

"Are you really going to shut me out after all the time we spent together?"

Nothing.

"At the gallery? In the elevator?"

And still no bite.

"You know me better than this, kitten."

Emerald eyes flared. "Don't call me that! I don't know you at all! For all I know every word you've ever said to me was a lie. And how dare you talk about the time we spent together. You were no better then either! Always keeping information in your back pocket, always making sure you kept me at arm's length — always making me the fool! How many times did we meet? Ten, twenty, more? You wouldn't give me your name even once. And when you finally have the chance, what do you do? You lie!"

Her accusations sounded fairly despicable when they were piled one on top of the other, and even worse because they were all true.

"You're right. I should've told you who I was, but I never kept the truth from you to make a fool out of you."

"Another lie as far as I'm concerned."

"Why don't you try being honest, Kirsten? You believed I was John because you wanted me to be someone else. Everything that happened before then is irrelevant and you know it."

"That's ridiculous!"

"Is it? You bought into my so-called reputation, and whether you said it outright or not, you were terrified of dealing with 'Evan the Terrible'. Your assumption made everything easier. How was I supposed to fix the mistake when you wouldn't let me?"