Page 157 of Nothing to Fear

“And you have the cash to appease the cops that’s a big difference. Bet your family donates a bunch to the department.”

“Is that what you think of me?” he asked, mirroring what she’d asked him. “That I’d buy my way into abusing you?”

Pain flared in her chest. The cold hurt in his eyes might be masked by a serious brow, but she could see it. That was the man she’d thought he was, the man who’d called himself lucky on their way out for the night.

“I’m embarrassed,” she confessed in a small voice. “The things I said to Jacob on the phone…”

“You said them to me. The man who loves you and cherishes every second with you.” He captured her hand at her side. “That connection you felt, the breath you wanted on your neck—”

“Oh God.” Extracting her hand, she turned her back. And the wine was right there. Thank God for it, she gulped half and set it back down. “I was ridiculous. I am ridiculous.”

“No.”

“I can’t believe I—who falls for someone they’ve never met?”

“I fell for you the first night. We were never supposed to be at that bake-off, but I knew if I mentioned it to Mom at the breakfast table…”

Peering over her shoulder, her surprise had to be obvious. “You came to see me?”

“Yes.”

The truth. She turned back to him. “On purpose? Did your mom and Caber—”

“No. You know what my mom is like, it was foolish of me, cowardly, all I had to do was mention it and I became a passenger. She did all the work to get us there, get me to you.”

He’d felt that connection on the phone too? Even that early?

“How am I supposed to move forward knowing that?”

While she’d been making an idiot of herself with cookies and cupcakes, he’d known her secrets. And, goddamn her, but hadn’t she called Jacob back that night?

“Accept my apology and give me a list of what I have to do to fix this.”

“Every second of what we were, you were mocking me.”

“No,” he said, his hand sliding onto the island until, somehow, she was hard against it. “Every second of what we were was my reason for being. Don’t you understand, Savanna Mayden? I am your servant. Completely at your mercy. From this day until my last, I will serve your will. Whatever it takes to make you happy, I’ll do it.”

“Then go home, Darroch. I always thought I was crazy to think I could ever be a part of your world.” She licked her lips. “But it’s the other way around. Men like you don’t belong here, in my world. In this world, we grind, we live what’s real because it’s all we have. We don’t have time for games or double lives; you played a game with me, I lost. Go find someone else to play with now.”

“We’re not different. We live in the same world. And if you need me to reject the trust fund and shun my family to prove that to you—”

“I would never ask you to do that. Your family are incredible, none of this is on them.”

“Yet you’re punishing me for being a part of them.”

Was that what she was doing? “Women like me are supposed to be shit on by assholes like Jeremy.”

“You, Savanna Mayden…” he said, grazing the knuckle of his index finger down her cheek. “Were made to live your life with me. Fuck how much money anyone has or where wecome from, we’ve both known from the beginning that this was different to anything we’d had before.” She should’ve switched on a light, suddenly, as he got closer, it got darker. “You’ve known it, baby, tell me you didn’t.”

How could she blame him for lying and then do it herself?

She swallowed. “I… I can’t.”

There was the smile. “You’ve been scared to admit it.”

“Different doesn’t have to mean forever.”

“That’s exactly what it means. You think any guy will ever measure up to me? Any relationship will match this?”

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