Page 96 of Nothing to No One

Dropping the bag flap, his stoop straightened a little. “Take your hand off her.”

“My fiancée,” Roman spat like she was a possession.

When Struan’s eyes met hers, the squirm of her shoulders set him to full height. “Let her go or there won’t be anything left of you to put in front of the camera.”

“You won’t fucking touch me. I’m your damn career. Your damn life.”

“Let her go, Ro.”

He tugged his hand loose, holding it up for a disgusted second before scoffing. “I’ll let you save face, just shut the fuck up and keep your hands off—”

“Get what you need, B.”

A single instruction and she spun around to exit via the bathroom. Yeah, Roman was hollering, but she didn’t listen. They may not have much time. Rushing to her bedroom, she heard someone coming up the stairs as she hurried into the closet. She swiped a scrunchie from the shelf and tied her wet hair on her head. Sweatpants, hoodie, she snatched her purse, stuffed underwear in there and slipped her feet into ballet slippers.

And, ah, she snagged her packed laptop bag from the hook by the door and went out, just in time to meet Struan coming the other way. At the top of the stairs, they joined hands and descended together. Roman’s shouts mixed with Magnus’ exclamations until nothing was decipherable. Didn’t matterwhen nothing they could say would change anything. This was their liberation.

Rather than get into one of the two waiting limos in the driveway, Struan led her around the side of the building to a Cayenne, which he boosted her into before getting in the driver’s side.

“I’ve never seen this before,” she said, putting on her seatbelt.

“It’s mine.”

“Oh.”

Good, no one could accuse them of stealing. Roman, and his wares, were surplus to requirements. They shot past Roman and Magnus on the stairs and crunched their way out onto the street.

“You see me taking a limo to work alone?”

No. Until then, she’d never thought about it. Struan definitely wasn’t the kind of guy who’d want lifted and laid everywhere.

“Are you okay?”

“You don’t have to come with me,” he said, glancing at her. “If you want to stay—”

“Oh, be quiet,” she said. “I only agreed to any of this craziness to support you. I said you were my guy and I meant it.”

He reached over to squeeze her knee. “He’s right, it’s time. We need to figure this out.”

“Where are we going?”

“Yours?”

Unsure if he knew the address, it took her a while to figure out the sat nav, but eventually put in the details.

“Magnus was mad.”

“He’ll want to fix this,” he said, eyes on the road. “That’s what he does. He fixes things.”

“For Roman. I don’t see him doing the same for you.”

His head tilted and his frown became confused. “Can’t think of a time I’ve needed him to fix anything.”

“We aren’t broken,” she said, sure that had to be made clear. “This doesn’t have to be fixed. But if you two were on equal footing, he’d have fixed this so we could be together from the start.”

“Like me, he works on autopilot. Probably didn’t occur to him this might be real.”

And she couldn’t blame him for that. No one knew. Their energy may have fizzed, but even she’d assumed it wasn’t for keeps. Why else would she have run away from that basement?

---