Page 100 of How to Blow It with a Billionaire

“Oh come on, Caspian.” I sat back on my heels. “You’re not a robot or a monster. You know what you did and why it was awful. And I get you were upset but that’s no excuse.”

“Eleanor is different with you. She never responds well to me.”

“That doesn’t mean you get to be…like almost willfully nasty to her.”

He sighed. “I have spent my life hurting my sister. I don’t think either of us is prepared for that to change now.”

“I think maybe you’re not prepared.”

“Shouting at me about all the damage I’ve caused is hardly an effective way to open a dialogue.”

“Actually…it could be. You’re the one who’s refusing to listen.”

“Arden, you know what kind of man I am. You’ve always known.”

“Yes.” I gazed at him steadily. “I do. I know how kind you are, for a start. And I know you don’t treat people badly. So why Ellery? It’s almost like you don’t want to fix things. Like you’re trying to keep her at a distance. Why do you want your sister to hate you, Caspian?”

“Come here, my little journalist.” He reached down and pulled me onto his lap. Kissed me hard enough to make my head spin. “Always looking for an angle or a story.”

“You’re trying to distract me.”

He pushed a hand under the dressing gown and stroked my thigh until I got the shivers. “There is no try. Do or do not.”

“OMG, you are the dorkiest.” He kissed me again and I felt his smile against my lips. “But I know what you’re at.”

“Maybe, but I came here for you, not to talk about my sister.”

“And still at.”

His expression was serious as he met my eyes. “Would it really be so terrible, Arden, to let me? I understand you care about Ellery, but she is not the only person who has been hurt today. And this is certainly not the afternoon I envisioned for us. With your consent, I would very much like to salvage it and celebrate your latest accomplishment.”

I wanted to say yes. And Caspian was certainly doing everything in his power to make it super tempting. Except I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. It would have meant accepting things that I was no longer comfortable accepting.

Not after everything that had happened between us.

I shook my head. And gave him a little push, knowing how responsive he was to that sort of thing. Sure enough, he let me go at once.

Gazed at me in obvious dismay. “Arden…”

“I’m sorry. The thing is, I can’t keep ignoring how much you keep from me.”

“My relationship with my sister has nothing to do with you.”

“I know. But”—I swiveled sideways on the sofa so I could see him better, even if it was his profile—“I have something to do with you, don’t I?”

“Of course you do, but there are simply some things I don’t wish to talk about. Surely you can respect that?”

Great. Now I looked totally unreasonable. If the carnage with Ellery had shown me anything, it was that Caspian was good at winning arguments. Maybe because he saw them as something that could be won.

Or, perhaps, had to be.

“Yes,” I said. “I can’t make you tell me stuff. And I wouldn’t want to. I just wish you felt like you could.”

His sneered with Ellery-like contempt. “One of the many toxic facets of modern psychology is the way it teaches us that sharing is inherently beneficial. When often it is selfish, hurtful, or otherwise self-indulgent.”

“Okay, but if you’d told me about the nature of your relationship with Nathaniel, then I wouldn’t have pushed you so hard over the room and probably…” Urgh. He wouldn’t thank me for mentioning what had happened that night “…I wouldn’t have made you feel so bad.”

“Well, if you hadn’t been so determined to pry, then the whole situation would not have occurred in the first place.”

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