Page 80 of Bitter Heat

They had an unhealthy addiction to one another. It began the moment they met and hadn’t let up even now. Back then, she had given herself to him unreservedly, naïvely believing he loved her. She made excuses for him until that night in London forced her to face the truth. She never planned to remarry. Once was enough. She didn’t want to set herself up for the pain that came with giving herself to someone and coming up short. She didn’t have a filter when it came to those she loved. Case in point, the lengths she was willing to go to for her sisters and what she had given up to be with Roth the first time. She was idiotically loyal and built to protect… but who would protect her from Roth this time?

He got off the phone and slipped it into his coat. He didn’t come to her; he just waited. He had orchestrated all of this with the precision of a military colonel. What else did he have up his sleeve? An invisible clock was ticking, forcing her to decide. Could she do this? Put herself at his mercy? Did she have a choice? If she walked away, they’d lose everything their father and grandfather worked so hard for. Life would go on, but they’d never be able to rebuild while Roth had a foothold in New York. He had turned the tables on them, and like last time, she was caught in the middle. One year and it would all be over. She would celebrate her freedom at Polara’s first birthday party.

She walked into the waiting room, which was littered with magazines and had a weird, off-putting smell.

“I need vacation time,” she announced.

He frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Vacation time,” she said crisply. “Everyone gets a vacation while they’re working, right? I want a month of vacation.”

“If you need a vacation, we’ll take it together.”

“You? Vacation?” Before he could answer, she waved the questions away. “No, I’m talking about time away from you if I need to… recover.”

“Recover?” he repeated with a scowl.

She rolled her hands as she tried to find a polite way to say his presence was suffocating. Not only that, but she was sure she would need time to fortify her walls. “If I need a mental break… or even a physical one if you go overboard.” She’d taken painkillers for two days straight after she got back from Colorado.

“I’ve never hurt you.”

She crossed her arms. That was a fucking lie. He destroyed her five years ago.

“Some work trips you’ll come with me, but others I may go alone,” he said. “Whatever time you want, you’ll need to take around my schedule.”

She twisted the sash of her coat as she said quietly, “You can’t call me a whore.”

That was a hard limit for her. She might be one in the Biblical sense, but throwing it in her face when he was blackmailing her…No. He had already stomped all over her pride, but she wasn’t a punching bag. She was a fucking person, and once upon a time, she had been a real wife (in her mind), and he wasn’t allowed to mock her for it.

He nodded.

She twisted her hands together as she tried to think of anything else. “You know, if we just said we’re dating, we might be able to get away with it. There’s no need to get married.”

“Exes don’t date.”

“Maybe we do,” she argued even though he had a point.

“People in families like yours don’t date. You date with intention and then marry. Marriage shuts everyone up, and I don’t want anyone questioning our relationship. Marriage is clear cut, legal, and fits in with our prenup.”

There was no arguing that point, but… “If you get tired of me before the year is up, if you want out, then what happens?”

His eyes swept over her before he said, “If that happens, you’ve upheld your end of the deal. I’ll still fulfill all of my obligations.”

“And if you get angry with me,” she said tentatively, “you can’t lash out or threaten to go after my family.”

He closed the distance between and cupped her nape.

“Are you planning to make me angry?” he asked.

“No, but I will. There’s too much shit between us to live in harmony.”

He buried his face in her hair and inhaled. “You used my shampoo.”

She gripped his lapel. “Roth, focus.”

“Once you sign, we both keep up our ends. No reneging, no matter what happens in between.”

There was a poster on the wall about antibiotics and asthma. She stared at it for a few seconds and took a deep breath, catching a whiff of him. She turned her face into his neck and felt him stiffen.

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