Page 64 of Cinderella's Fling with the Off-Limits Billionaire

She half shook her head. “I mean, unless you’re hungry.”

“I can wait.” He replaced the containers in the fridge. “Thank you for coming over tonight.”

She nodded. “I wanted to thank you for everything you did the other night. You didn’t have to help me. I probably had no right to ask. But I’m so glad you did. I’ll never forget your role in bringing her home.”

His eyes showed emotions she couldn’t comprehend.

“The police are throwing the book at him,” Leandro said slowly.

“I know.”

He nodded once.

“I thought you could use the same law firm as a conduit for the trial. They will look after your interests, advise you on the matter of testimony. They’ll also push for a quick trial, so you do not have this hanging over your head indefinitely.”

“It’s not over my head. There’s no way he’ll get away with this. He did too much. It’s all on tape, everything. He’ll go to jail. My nightmare is over.”

“Yes.”

“That night,” she hesitated, cleared her throat. “You were in New York.”

He was still, watchful. “There was a gala, a charity event being thrown by a very close family friend.” He reached for his water and took a sip. “I thought about inviting you, but I suspected you wouldn’t want to hear from me.”

Her lips pulled to one side. She said nothing.

“Were you here long?”

“I flew in a few days earlier.”

She gasped, the betrayal like a knife in the gut. Days. Nights. In the city and without her.

“You told me you didn’t want to see me again,” he reminded her.

“I know that.” Her voice sounded so ambivalent. She cleared her throat. “This is just harder than I thought it would be.”

“Skye, listen to me.” He came around to her side of the bench. “When we met, I wasn’t myself. I didn’t know myself, I didn’t know what I wanted, I didn’t know anything. Except that I couldn’t let you go. Except that I had to have you. Except that you were meaningful in a way I couldn’t articulate nor even, honestly, understand.”

She dipped her glance lower, finding it impossible to look into his face.

“I have never been more drawn to a person than I was to you that very first night. I have never wanted like I wanted you. And I have never felt like I felt when you ended things with me.” He pressed a finger to her chin, tilting her face back to his. “I didn’t understand what those feelings meant though, until you were talking to Jay, and you said you wanted to be a family with him. I know you were saying whatever you could just to keep Harper safe, but it was as though every word that came from your mouth was being drawn from my heart.”

She blinked quickly, the world slowing down to almost a complete stop. “What does that mean?”

“That I want us to be a family. That I want you in my life. That I want Harper in my life. That I love you. Both of you. That I want to be the father she deserves and the husband you deserve. That I want to rebuild your faith in love and happily ever after endings day by day, night by night, until you accept that fairy tales do exist, and you’ve walked right into one.”

She gasped softly.

“I have always known what I wanted in life. I have always known how I felt, what I needed, what I had to do. I have never known ambivalence or uncertainty. And then the adoption news came out and it was the worst possible timing to have met you, because in any other life, at any other time in my life, I would have grabbed you with both hands and never let go. I would never have left New York, not for one single night. Not for one single moment. But I was trying to wade through the discovery that my whole life was a lie, and I couldn’t see what was right in front of me. I couldn’t see how much you meant to me until I’d lost you. And when Harper was taken, all I could think was that it was my fault.”

“Your fault?”

“I should have been here. I love you, and I love her, and your place is with me. Her place is with me. I should never have left you, I should never have put you in a position of danger. I let you down.”

“No,” she shook her head quickly. “Jay did that. This was all Jay.”

“It will never happen again,” he promised. “If you will just let me back into your life, I promise, I will care for you both, I will live for you both, I will worship you both. You are each my everything, Skye. I wish I’d been able to say that sooner, but believe me, I have felt it for as long as I’ve known you. I just didn’t understand.”

“I didn’t understand either,” she rushed to reassure him. “I kept pushing you away because how much I felt for you scared the heck out of me. It never once occurred to me that it was okay to feel that. That it was okay to love you.”

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