Page 99 of Kiss & Collide
She bowed her head, inhaled deeply, then turned to face him. “Carter’s about to sell the team.”
That was … not at all what he was expecting her to say.
He absorbed that piece of information. “Not all that surprising. He never wanted Pinnacle, right? And maybe it’s a good thing. If Carter goes, so does Reece, and—”
“He wants to sell us to some private equity outfit.”
“Shit.” He knew what that meant. Everyone had seen what happened to Affinity.
“So you see,” Violet continued. “I couldn’t let you fuck around with an offer from Allegri. If they wanted to sign you, you needed to take it. I couldn’t let you make that kind of mistake, not when I knew what was coming.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Carter made me promise to keep it confidential. But fuck that.” She lifted her hands and let them drop. “None of us might have jobs in a year’s time. Fuck the rules.”
He considered her words, scowling at the floor. “But that doesn’t explain why you pushed me away. Only why you wanted me to take that job, and—”
She cut him off. “The rest was just me being … me.” She squeezed her eyes shut briefly and tipped her head back. “Somebody said something to me—”
“Who?” Who was the asshole who’d caused this nightmare? Chase wanted to track them down and—
“It was nobody who mattered. And what they said shouldn’t have mattered. But it just …” She shook her head in frustration. “It got inside my head. It made me … doubt.”
“Doubt me?” Surely she must see how wild he was for her.
“No, not you. He made me doubt myself. Who I am. And … what I’m capable of.”
“What are you trying to say, Violet?”
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I’m sorry I’m the way I am. I’m sorry I’m so angry and mean and … scared.” Finally, she lookeddirectly at him, her dark blue eyes meeting his. “Mostly I’m just scared.”
“Of what?”
“Me. Losing myself in you. I’ve done that before and I’ve spent all this time since then trying to make up for that mistake.”
She paused, and the instinct to rush in and reassure her was strong, but he resisted, staying quiet, letting her say what she had to say. As hopeful as her arrival made him feel, he was still smarting, feeling the ache of this past week.
“But I’ve been doing some thinking,” she finally said. “And I’ve figured some things out.”
“Like what?”
She lifted her eyes to his again, a quick, anxious glance that told him all he needed to know about how hard this was for her. “You’ve never tried to erase me. You’ve never taken what I’ve done for you for granted.”
“Of course not. Who would do that?”
At that, she cracked a small smile. She looked tired, stressed, like the week apart had been as hard on her as it had been on him. “Guess.”
“That fucking wanker,” Chase groaned.
“You stole my word.” Her small smile grew, and he felt himself smiling in return, like the distance between them had shrunk and the coldness had thawed. “There’s something else I want to say,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“You’ve made me feel like I’m a part of something. The team, but also … me and you. It’s important, and it matters to me. A lot. I mean, you should have seen me talking to Rabia the other day. I was all ‘hope’ and ‘team spirit.’ Bloody disgusting.” But she was still smiling.
And he was too, mostly because he felt like he couldn’t stop. That coldness had turned to warmth, a huge swell of it in his chest, threatening to spill out all over the place. “And me?”
She met his eyes again, and this time she didn’t look away. “You matter. More than you can imagine.”
