The scowl on his face was furious. “Why? Because of tonight? Something’s come up. There’ll be other nights to go to the movies—”
“No, there won’t,” she interrupted him. “You know why? Because you don’t have time for anyone in your life.”
He stared at her, his jaw set in an angry line.
Risa sighed. “I’m not telling you this to make you angry, Travis. I’m really not. It’s just become very apparent to me that you were right and I was wrong. You don’t have time in your life for a pig. You don’t have time in your life for a pig-keeper, either. I’ve really enjoyed our time together.” Her voice grew soft. “Really, really enjoyed it. I wish I could stay longer.”
“Then stay.”
She shook her head.
“Fifty grand,” he said suddenly. “Give me a month and I’ll give you fifty grand.”
Annoyance flashed through her. “Have I asked for the money, Travis? For the last time, this isn’t about the money. You can keep every damn dollar that you promised me. I came here because I wanted you to love Gregory, but I mostly came here because I had a fantasy of you, and I was half in love with you the moment you walked through your grandmother’s door. Being with you has been part of that fantasy, but the reality is that you don’t have time for anyone.”
He said nothing.
“Well?”
“I’ll pull some strings. Get you a teaching job here. We can build a school, if you want, and you can—”
She threw up her arms, cutting him off. “You’re still not listening to me.”
He still stared at her as if not quite comprehending her. “Everyone has a price, Risa. I want to know yours. I want to know what it’ll take to make you stay with me for a bit longer. I . . . like you in my bed.”
That was a lot for a man like Travis Jesson to admit, she knew. She went to him and very lightly placed a hand on his cheek. “You know my price, Travis.”
“I don’t—”
She hated herself for saying the next part, but she had to. “I’m not like your grandmother. I can’t forgive missed time.”
Travis flinched.
She continued. “Time is the only thing I want from you, Travis. I want us to be a real couple. If you want me to live here with you, I’ll stay. I’ll look for a teaching job in Houston. Keep your thirty grand. Keep all of it. We’ll be a real couple and try this thing out. But I require time and effort. I want someone that will be with me, not someone that’s with their BlackBerry.”
“Risa,” he said, leaning to kiss her hand. “I want to be with you. But you have to understand my job. I didn’t get where I am today because I took a backseat on things. There are opportunities out there, and I’m not about to leave them on the table. I have a very important meeting in Japan in a week that I cannot miss.”
“I’m not asking you to quit your job for your pig nanny, Travis,” she said with a wry, sad smile. “I’m not asking you to make a choice. You are who you are. I am who I am, unfortunately, and I want the chance to be with someone who wants to be with me. It’s not that I’m giving you an ultimatum. It’s that we’re two immovable objects. You have your work on this side, and I am on the other. The two aren’t going to meet in the middle.”
“I want to be with you—”
“Then you know my price.” She picked up her suitcase and headed for the door. Every step felt like a thousand years. She wanted him to change his mind, to tell her that he’d make time for her. But he said nothing. When she got to the door, she turned back to him. “You might want to arrange to have your assistant feed Gregory twice a day. I left instructions on the refrigerator door. I don’t want him to starve.”
His arms crossed and his look became stubborn. Almost furious. “I can feed a pig, Risa.”
She knew he could. The question was, would he have the time? So she didn’t address it. “Can you call the car for me? My car’s still back at your grandmother’s.”
“I’ll call it in the morning,” he said harshly. He turned to his desk and pulled out his checkbook. “So half, then? Fifteen thousand?”
Her heart hurt. “I told you I don’t want the money, Travis. Keep it. Use it to hire a dog walker to take Gregory out in the mornings.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want the car.”
His jaw set stubbornly. “In the morning.”
She would not be bullied. “Very well, then. See you in the morning.” Risa went to the guest bedroom and shut the door.
* * *
Goddamn it.
Travis stared at the closed door, furious. How dare she try to force him to change his ways for her? How dare she say that what he had to offer wasn’t good enough? Most women threw themselves at him, eager for his money and power.
This one turned her nose up at his money and wanted him to give up his power.
Un-fucking-believable.
Travis turned back to his computer and kept working, going through his ever-filling inbox. There was simply too much to be done before his Japan trip, and he didn’t trust his subordinates enough to handle the finer details.
He worked for another ten minutes and then shut the laptop, too furious to concentrate. He stood up abruptly, his chair scraping on the hardwood floors.
At his feet, Gregory danced in excited circles, his pig snout quivering. He snorted with enthusiasm, clearly thinking they were going out for a walk. “Sorry, pig,” he told it. “Not right now.”
Travis walked to that shut door, wanting to fling it open. He stared at it for a long moment. She was quiet inside. Was she weeping? Sleeping? Sad?
He hated the thought of her being sad. Fists clenched with irritation, he stalked to his bathroom and took a shower to clear his mind. Didn’t work. By the time he got out of the shower, his thoughts were only more byzantine with a swirl of irritation and conflicting thoughts about Risa mixing with thoughts for the business week ahead. He moved to his dresser to pull out fresh boxers and paused at the sight of the photo album left open.
It was a picture of him with his dog back when he was a boy. He’d loved that dog. A wet droplet splatted on the photo album and he absently wiped it off of the plastic covering with his hand. The dog had followed him everywhere, wagging his tail, desperate for attention.