Page 156 of Nothing to Fear

More than once. “And I told you I was fine. I am fine. Everything is fine. He was denied bail.”

“I know. I was there to make sure of it.”

She wasn’t. “Okay. Whatever. Will you leave now?”

With his advance, she tensed, she wouldn’t retreat, couldn’t but… please be strong enough to hold it together.

“Nothing has changed,” he said, putting the wine in her hand.

“Everything has changed,” she whispered.

“We’re partners. We face whatever the future has for us, together.”

“The problem wasn’t the future,” she said. “It was the past I never knew we had.” Peering closer, she wanted to be in his head, to know. “How could you do that to me? How could you think behavior like that was okay?”

“I’m in love with you, Savvy.”

“Don’t,” she said, rounding him to put the glass on the kitchen island. “This isn’t like that. This isn’t one of those billionaire things where you get to demand what you want and it’s laid on a platter for you. I’m a human being. Sometimes I struggle to…”

Except he knew. Jacob knew.

“You struggle to acknowledge and trust your own worth. You don’t trust yourself or believe you deserve anything good.”

Whirling around, his proximity impacted her without taking her gusto. “How was it good that the man I wanted to make a life with lied to me? Not once or twice, but the whole time we knew each other.” Her fingertips met her hairline. “I honestly believed we—and all those times. Those times you said you’d be patient and wait for me to open up? Talk about bullshit.”

“It wasn’t bullshit,” he argued. “There’s so much more to you than those calls. Yes, I should’ve told you, but I didn’t know how. I didn’t expect to walk into that tent and—Sav, what’s between us is real, it’s undeniable. I’ve known it from the second I laid eyes on you.”

“Known what?”

“That you’re the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with. Dad said when you know, you know, and with you, there’s no mistaking it. You’re going to be my wife. We’re going to build a life together.”

“Don’t talk to me like that,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t talk to me like you get to make all the decisionsand I should bow down and capitulate. I’m not your employee anymore, you don’t get to decide if I can pay my bills or not.”

“I never decided that.”

“But you can decide I’ll marry you?”

“I love you.”

“Life isn’t that simple. And how am I supposed to believe it? Why can’t you understand? On the phone, how many times did you tell me my feelings were valid? What about Jeremy, huh? You said his reactions diminished what I went through. That he minimized my justified feelings. What the hell do you think you’re doing right now?”

“Your feelings are justified. I fucked up and I apologize. I didn’t do what I did for kicks, I did it because I love you and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you. What would you have said? If I’d told you?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I honestly don’t, I… I let myself be vulnerable on those calls. Opening myself in a way I never would’ve with you in person.”

“And I want that side of you. I want you to give me every part of you, and never worry how I’ll respond. I’ll always be with you, Sav. It doesn’t matter what you tell me, I’ll support you in everything.”

“Then support my decision to end our relationship.”

“No,” he said with a single head shake. “I won’t give up on this. I won’t stop pursuing you or apologizing. I will stay in your life if I have to live on the damn sidewalk outside this building.”

“You can’t do that.”

“I can do whatever I damn well want. We’re partners. I belong to you and you’re mine. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove that to you.”

“Then how are you any better than him?” she asked. “Any better than the guy sitting in jail for hurting you and hunting me?”

“I would never hurt you.”

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