Page 32 of Secret Love

“Why not?”

“Because—” I bite my inner cheek, curbing the rush of words just aching to fall off my tongue. I’ve never said them out loud before. I promised I never would, but… “Because Bennett told me to leave and never come back.”

She blinks and the color drains from her face. “He… what? Why would he do that?”

“Because he knows, Dani.”

Her eyes wince with embarrassment. “He knows?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“Like…” She swallows hard. “He knows knows?”

“Yes.”

“How much does he know?”

I shake my head. “I’m not sure, but… enough.”

She recoils, her cheeks turning a bright, shameful red.

“The next morning, after you left, he told me to get out,” I say. “Being a nineteen-year-old, C-average jock, I went to the one place I knew would take me.”

“That’swhy you left?”

“Yes.”

“That’s why…” She pauses, the truth clouding her eyes. “That’s why you never said goodbye to me.”

“I wanted to,” I say slowly. “But Bennett threatened my mother if I did. Said he’d put her on the street, destroy her reputation, she’d never work in this town again… you know the rest. I couldn’t do that to her, so… I left.”

“Why would he do that to you?”

“You were the next big thing,” I say. “He didn’t want a punk like me knocking you up and killing your career before it began. He was right about that.”

She frowns. “No, he wasn’t.”

“Beautiful movie stars don’t have illicit affairs with their stepbrothers, Dani. No, he was right.”

“No.” She stands up off the bed. “He’s been wrong about everything.”

“Dani…” I grow tense as she wanders the floor to stand in front of me. It’s not safe for her to be so close. “Wait…”

“Fox, I am so sorry.”

I furrow my brow. “For what?”

“I should have said something,” she says. “I could have done more to make you stay.”

“You had no way of knowing what was going on, Dani.”

“That just makes it worse!” she says. “I was so self-absorbed, I couldn’t see past my own reflection.”

“I wouldn’t see it that way.”

“What other way is there to see it? My father, he’s…” She shakes her head. “The worst part about it is that I can’t complain at all. I’m rich, famous, pretty. It’s all because of him — right down to my freakin’ genes.”

I fight the urge to look at her chest heaving up and down. My shirt hangs low on her with buttons undone, revealing the top curve of her breasts. She’s so close to me, I could reach out right now and—

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