“No. Thank you.” He would promptly throw it up. He dropped onto the sofa beside her. “I told Bree.”

“She’s upset? Understandable, but she knows we’ll find something for her, right? I just talked to Dom. He’s going to talk to Tucker—”

“No.”

“And remind him there are pressure points he could bring to bear. An entertainment agent doesn’t want to get on the wrong side of an award-winning music producer, for instance.”

“Jevaun? Astrid’s husband? No, Eve. I do not wantyourhusband asking a man I met once to clean upmymess. I’ll figure this out myself.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? Because it’s not your problem to solve. It sure as hell isn’t Dom’s. You shouldn’t even be married to him. That’s my fault, too.” Then he’d gone and pressured Bree into marriage when he patently didn’t deserve her.

“Oh, my God, Jax.” Eve set her burrito on the plate on the coffee table, then curled her legs beneath her as she faced him. “Do you remember when I graduated and went to the Amalfi Coast with friends and you wanted to drive down to go clubbing with us?”

“I didn’twantto. Mom asked me to keep an eye on you. Why?”

“I wasn’t there. I was in Budapest. Getting up close and personal with Dom.”

“What?”

“We only kissed a bit.” She looked away blushing, suggesting it had been more than “a bit,” not that he wanted to contemplate what more than “a bit” might mean. “We didn’t know who the other was, but once we realized, we went our separate ways and tried to forget about it. Then we wound up on that island last year. Now we’re married. Because we’rein love. So get over yourself. My marriage to Dom has nothing to do with you.”

“I don’t even know what to say to that,” he muttered. “You were twenty-one.”

“Two,” she insisted, then added ruefully, “Almost. But at least he didn’t leave mepregnant. How old was Bree when you were fooling around with her in Como?”

“That was different.”

“Different than what? Every other couple who can’t keep their hands off each other?”

“I never should have approached her. I know that.” Culpability had him lurching up from the sofa to pace with agitation. “I shouldn’t have slept with her. I shouldn’t have left it on her to call me. I shouldn’t have forced this marriage on her.”

He had pushed and pushed for her to commit and she had. She’d fallen in love with him. She’d gone off the pill.

Only to have him drag her into his old, humiliating scandal.

“That’s a lot of ‘shouldn’ts.’ Why did you do all of those things, then?”

“Temporary insanity?” He could remember so clearly that first moment of being drawn to her in a way that was different than anything he’d felt before. She’d told him she was hurting and he’d wanted to make her feel better. It hadn’t been about seducing her. Yes, the sexual attraction had been off the scale, but he’d wanted to know more about her. He’d wanted to touch her andbewith her. Make her smile and impress on her that she was perfect exactly as she was. Any man would want her.Hewanted her. So damned much.

But he hadn’t felt deserving of her. That was the stark truth. Not while he was living in exile, still making stupid mistakes like allowing Dom to get the upper hand over his family.

“Jax, I saw the way you looked at her that day in the boardroom. Every time I see you two, do you know who you remind me of?”

“Don’t.” He closed his eyes as if that could close his ears, but he already knew what she was going to say. He felt it in himself. He had felt it from the beginning and hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it because he knew what it meant.

“Nonno adored Nonnaso much.”

Jax winced. “And look what happened when she gave in to him.” Two generations of vengeful hell with the Blackwoods, all because Nonna had followed her heart.

“You think being married to Bree is going to cause something like that? How?”

“No, but she’s…” The light in his life. “I’mthe one causingherpain. None of this should be happening. I shouldn’t be putting any of you through this again, least of all her. Bree shouldn’t be affected by my past mistakes.”

“Do you really see calling out Tucker for sexual assault as a mistake?” she asked with an askance frown. “You did the right thing, Jax. We’re all behind you on that. We always have been. Yes, we’re mad right now.At Tucker.Bree probably is, too. She wouldn’t side with him the way Paloma did, would she?”

“No. Never.” He rubbed at the tension in his jaw. “But I can’t ask her to side with me. I can’t ask that of you. Look what it’s costing all of you.”