“So, your name is really Luca Legrand and you are heir to the Legrand champagne estate?”
“Yes. You’ve heard of me?”
She made a face. “The police were kind enough to explain a few things to me.” She walked straight up to him and poked him hard in the chest. “Here’s what they were unable to explain. Why you didn’t trust me with the truth.”
He’d never seen her angry. It was a sight to behold. “Jasmine. I couldn’t tell you the truth. I had to lie.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“You don’t understand. I was afraid of—”
“Of what? Huh?” She poked him harder. “What the hell were you afraid of?”
“This.” He waved to the room, the pictures, the police station at large. “I was afraid something like this might happen. Everything was at stake, my reputation, my inheritance. Everything. And, based on what has happened to me this year, I couldn’t trust anyone. Not even you.”
She shoved him. “And it made no difference to you that I told you everything about me? That I trusted you enough with my secrets. That I let you tie me up, for fuck’s sake? But you couldn’t even tell me your real name?”
“Jasmine...”
She took a step back and cocked her head to one side. “You know what, Luca,” she said. “You’re no better than Parker, using me so that you wouldn’t lose your trust fund.” She closed her eyes and lifted her chin. “Jesus,” she muttered to the ceiling.
“I never used you.”
“No?” Her laugh was an angry sound. “You’re saying you didn’t use my body for your own pleasure? You didn’t use my company to make your exile more palatable?” She shook her head.
Luca had had enough of being misunderstood. “You’re accusing me of using you?” he snarled in frustration. “What about you? You blackmailed me so I’d agree to take you with me to the villa. You showed up naked in my shower. It was you who asked me to do all of those things to your body.” He grabbed her shoulders. “I didn’t ask for any of that, Jasmine. It was all you.”
Jasmine’s mouth hung open in shock. She blinked. When she spoke, it was slowly and carefully. “Are you saying you were just doing me a favor? That you fucked me out of pity?”
Her lip quivered.
Luca’s anger dissolved the second he saw tears welling up in her eyes. “No. That’s not what I’m saying.”
She backed away, holding her hands up as if he was an evil entity and she needed to ward him off. “You’re an even bigger asshole than Parker.” She spun around and marched to the door, banging on it with her fist to get the officer’s attention.
“Jasmine, wait,” he called. “I’m sorry.”
She walked out the door and slammed it behind her, and that was when Luca realized something.
Something huge.
He didn’t want Jasmine to think that he was the fuckup everyone else in the world thought he was. He wanted to go back to the villa, to the times when she’d gazed at him like he was the most amazing man in the world.
And most of all, Luca realized that he didn’t care about losing everything. But he did care about losing Jasmine.