Lilly's POV
Once his lips touched mine, I knew exactly what I had to do. Laying my hands on his chest softly at first, I shoved him back with such force that he almost fell off of the bed. Regaining his balance, he looked at me, clearly bewildered. Pretty boy wasn't used to getting rejected, was he?
Pointing a finger in his face, I said, "No. No way. Not this again! You do not get to kiss me whenever you feel like it and then pretend it didn't happen! There's no way I'm letting you do that again."
He stared at me and blinked. And that's all he did for a full minute. He just stared, and blinked. Was he going to say something? Shoving him away from me and accusing him was very gutsy of me, but I was proud I did it. I was sick of him kissing me! Well...okay... so maybe I wasn't sick of him kissing me. But, I wasn't happy with him trying to hide the fact that we kissed the first time, and I wouldn't let it happen again.
"So, what you are saying is, I can only kiss you if I am willing to acknowledge it? Am I supposed to bring it up in our daily conversations? Perhaps a 'Hello, how are you, remember our kiss the other day?' would be more satisfying to you."
My jaw nearly fell on the ground. Was he being cheeky with me? His reply made it seem like what I had said was the stupidest thing ever. Of course I didn't want him to talk about our kiss in day-to-day conversation, I just didn't want him to hide his feelings from me.
"You know good and well that's not what I mean!" I snapped at him.
Though I had leaned back onto the headboard of the bed, I could still feel the heat of his body radiating in my direction. Or, maybe it was the candle that he had brought into my room? It was probably the candle.
His eyebrows furrowed, "No. I am not sure what you mean at all."
"If you kiss me, that means you have feelings for me. So if you're going to kiss me ever again, you have to be able to admit to that. That is what I'm saying."
He did the staring and blinking thing again, except for longer this time. Two whole minutes passed as he did absolutely nothing but look at me and blink. I had started to count the seconds when he finally spoke up.
"You want me to admit that I have feelings for you?" He said slowly.
Um, duh. Isn't that what I just said? Sometimes I was really skeptical as to how Mr. Ambrose had risen to be such a successful businessman when he truly had such a hard time deciphering my simple statements.
Holding back my sass, I replied to him, "Why, yes, that is what I said."
"Which feelings do you want exactly? My feelings of frustration or annoyance?"
I felt my hand immediately want to lift up and hit him again, but I decided against it. He knew exactly what he was doing and he was sure he would get a reaction from me.
"You are acting awfully haughty for a man who just tried to kiss his supposedly 'male' employee and was denied," I boasted at him.
His eyes narrowed and I saw his jaw clench. My, he was so emotional tonight!
I continued, "I gave you my conditions. It is your choice to either comply or leave. Bickering with me is not going to get you what you want. Which is me, by the way."
His eyebrows shot up into his hairline. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But, they shot up really far.
"You believe I want you, Miss Linton?"
"You're finally catching on to the 'Miss' thing, I am so proud. And yes, you do. You just attempted to kiss me for the second time. You don't strike me as the type of man that goes around kissing every female in his sight. Or, have I misjudged you Mr. Ambrose?"
He tore his gaze away from, taking the time to think. I crossed my arms over my chest and smiled satisfactorily. Ha! Now he would have to admit the truth and kiss me! Or, he could completely deny it and go back to sleep, pretending this never happened. My smile faltered, that was the last thing I wanted.
"Mr. Ambrose?" I leaned forward and touched his arm slightly.
He automatically jerked from under my touch and I pulled my hand away. Letting out a heavy sigh, I looked out of the glass window in my room. To my surprise, I saw small white snowflakes falling to the ground.
"Mr. Ambrose, it's snowing!" I jumped up and peered out of the window.
It may have been childish of me, but I was absolutely fascinated with the snow. Every time it snowed, if I could find enough to cover myself up, I would go outside and play in it.
I felt him come up and stand behind me and look out the window himself, "You're right, it is snowing."
"If it snows all night do you think the carriage will still be able to take you into town for your meeting?" I asked, concerned.
He groaned, "Hopefully. If not, I hope my associates will understand."
I turned around to face him, "I think it's funny that you hope they understand your situation but if the tables were turned you most likely wouldn't be sympathetic to them."
Scowling, he looked down at me, "If thirty inches of snow stopped them from attending a meeting because they were too far away, then I would understand."
"Well, if it was me you wouldn't! You'd probably deduct it from my wages!"
"That is because I do not like you."
My mouth fell open, "That is not what I meant by admitting your feelings!"
After hitting him squarely on the chest, I crossed my arms and glared at him.
"Miss Linton, you are inflicting quite a lot of physical pain to me. It does not seem like the best way to get me to 'admit my feelings'."
"You're never going to do it are you?" I shook my head at him.
"I was not planning on it, no."
Looking away from him, I felt the tears come to my eyes. Willing them away with all my might, I fought not to let a single one spill in front of him. He did not deserve to see me cry. After treating me horribly and toying with my emotion, I did not want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he affected me. After I had felt that any tears in my eyes had dried up, I turned back to him and looked him dead in the eyes.
Seeing that my eyes were probably a little glossy and red he asked, "What is wrong?"
"You. You are what's wrong! I'm sick of how you treat me and how you hide the truth from me!"
"Calm down, you'll wake the wolves up," He said smugly.
His eyes twinkled a little, showing he was clearly proud of his little joke. Mr. Ambrose was definitely not one to make jokes, but it seemed that he made exceptions at my expense.
"Get out. Get out now!"
"It was only a---" He started to clarify.
"I know what it was! And I don't care! JUST. GET. OUT!" I was practically screaming now, and I knew I would wake Karim up.
But, I didn't care.
"Miss Linton--"
"If you say another word, so help me God, Karim will find your dead body strewn across the parlor tomorrow morning!"
And with that his mouth immediately clamped shut.
Good.
He should have shut up earlier.
Then, I noticed that he was doing the staring thing again. Just looking at me and blinking as if I was some deranged, screaming monkey!
"Just get out, Mr. Ambrose," I said quietly this time.
And with that, he turned around and walked out of the door.
Sighing, I fell back into the bed and shut my eyes. Arguing with him was absolutely exhausting. All I asked was for one simple thing, yet he could not do it. Maybe someone had hurt him before. Maybe that is why he decided being cold was the only way to shield himself from any type of emotional pain. I scoffed. As if he had emotions!
"He has them for you."
I was wondering where she went.
"You're back, eh? This time you seem more positive."
"Don't push it," she warned.
After rolling my eyes at my inner voice, I hurriedly got under the blankets to shield myself from the cold. Despite my inner suffragette's constant warnings, I could admit to myself that I liked Mr. Ambrose a little more than I preferred. And though I hated it, I knew I was letting him start to control my emotions. I was a strong, independent woman! I did not need any man making me weak, be it emotionally or physically. I especially was not going to let Mr. Rikkard Ambrose get the best of me. Now was the time to rid any feelings or emotions I had towards him, before they overtook me. If he was going to ignore his feelings then so was I. Anything other than an employer-employee relationship between us would be immediately terminated.
Drawing the blankets closer to my chin, I shifted onto my side and noticed that he had left the candle on my bedside table.
How did he make it back to his room, without bumping into something, without a candle?
It didn't matter. He didn't matter. I knew I needed to rid myself of my thoughts about him. Blowing out the candle, I let myself drift off to sleep in the darkness.
author's note: 46k reads and 1.9k votes? absolutely surreal. thank you guys! keep voting and commenting! im working on something new that i really hope you guys will like. also is your wattpad app super glitchy? the website works perfectly fine on my laptop but on my phone the app is a mess!