Page 58 of One Night with Cinderella

“Screw you!” she snapped.

He splayed his hands. “And take the chance of you complaining about it? Hell no!” he shot back.

“You are an ass!”

He raised his hand and emphatically ticked off another finger.

She glared at him.

Gabe opened his mouth but shut it again as he rolled his shoulders, as if seeking to be tension-free. He took a large inhale and then exhaled. “What do you want from me?” he asked.

All of you.

The thought came with a swiftness and scared her. She was hesitant to reveal just how necessary Gabriel Cress had become to her. Not when she wasn’t sure his desire of her was equal. “To not feel like a second thought,” she said, confessing to that.

Gabe looked around at the snow falling around them. “The very last thing you are to me, Monica Darby, is a second thought,” he admitted.

Her heart soared.

“But—” he stopped.

She arched a brow and tilted her head to the side as she eyed him brushing snowflakes from his shoulders. “But,” she repeated to fill his pause.

“I don’t know if you will ever believe that,” he said, looking back at her. “And I don’t know how to prove it to you. Not if it means ignoring my dreams. I want this restaurant—I need this restaurant—to succeed and that means hard work and focus.”

“So if I asked you to roll it all back? Stop being so dogged in your pursuit of success, mend the divide between you and your family, find a balance between what you want and what you need...?” she said, walking over to sandwich one of his hands between both of hers.

“And if I asked you if you would ever be able to fully trust me?” he returned.

Neither answered the question they were asked.

“So you choose that restaurant over everything and everyone,” she said, holding up the collars of his coat to turn her face and bury her nose against the lightweight black wool. His scent—the one she loved—clung to it.

“And you choose to hold anything and everything against me.”

Am I?

Then she remembered how she’d felt all night without him there and how the lack of his presence had become commonplace. How she had begun to envision her life without him. Preparing herself for that moment when it ended and even contemplating ending it herself to avoid feeling so helpless.

To leave and not be left...

“Why did we think this would work?” she asked, her voice low.

“If you think it’s not damn working, then why are we wasting our time!” he roared, splaying his hands angrily. “To hell with it if that’s how you feel.”

Her ire matched his. “Then to hell with it, Gabe,” she shouted back.

“This is ridiculous!”

“Thinking you don’t need anyone is ridiculous!”

“I damn sure don’t need this right now.”

She looked over at him as her eyes widened. “Don’t let me force you to be here,” she said.

He squinted as he eyed her for a long moment that seemed to tick by slowly before he turned and walked over to the elevator.

“Gabe,” she called to him as her heart galloped full speed in its race to its break.

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