Page 58 of Fateful Exposure

A long silence passed as I continued to wash her hair before she spoke again. "Earlier. Where did you go?"

I'd hoped to keep this part from her. I didn't want her to overthink my meeting with Alex, and I didn't want to break her heart further than it was already broken. But she would eventually find out, and if she found out that I knew about it and left her in the dark, she would be angry at me.

"I went to see Alex,” I said.

She tensed beneath my fingers, her body stiffening.

I gave her time to swallow down her shock before continuing. "He invited me."

It took a couple of seconds before she responded. "Why?"

"He tried to get me to work for him."

"So, basically, he asked you to abandon Volkov?"

"Yeah."

The words hung in the air, and I could almost predict her next question. A couple of seconds passed before she gave it a voice.

"And what was your response?" Her words were small and wobbly, and I couldn't tell if it was due to the heat of the water or if she was close to tears.

A sharp shot of anger went through me. What was it with Selma and believing I wouldn't stick around? Was it a trauma thing? What experience had twisted her mind so terribly that she didn't think any man could stay with her? Her father or Alex? Or had there been someone else?

Deciding I was done washing her hair, I grabbed the faucet, turned it to full blast, and began to rinse off the lather. Unlike the storm brewing inside me, it fell down her back and flowed easily into the water.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" I reminded her.

"For now." The words were so small, so tiny that for a split second, I thought I'd almost imagined it.

It was one thing to love someone, but it was another to convince them you did. Selma didn't seem very much like she wanted to be convinced. If my being here with her despite everything wasn't enough, I doubted mere words would do the trick.

Once I finished the task, I stood to my feet, wiping my wet hands on a towel hanging on the rack. "I'll be in the room. Come out when you're done."

I didn't wait for a response, but she didn't offer one. My bones tightened in fury as I closed the bathroom door behind me. Iwanted to kill Alex. Bash his face into a wall for reducing a strong woman to a whispering mess who wasn't confident enough to believe that someone could actually love her and fuckingstay.

God. How could she not see what I see? How could she be blind to how amazing she was? I was a big man, but she managed to reduce me to bones and ashes with just one look. One fucking look and I would gladly fall to my knees and worship her.

But all of that was useless if she didn't believe it. And for the life of me, I didn't know how else to show her without plucking my heart out and handing it over to her.

In the meantime, I had to think up a solution. Anything at all to turn this around. I couldn't let Alex win, but most importantly, I couldn't just sit back and watch everything Selma had worked for disappear like smoke.

The bathroom door opened and closed, filling the room with her intoxicating presence. She walked further into the room, and though I couldn't hear her footsteps, I could feel her clouding my senses. She smelled like my shampoo, the fresh scent of eucalyptus and mint permeating the air.

"Thank you…uh, for the bath," she murmured behind me, and I turned to face her, taking in the sight of her body wrapped in a towel.

The white material only got to her upper thighs, leaving the rest of her legs exposed and inviting. The round fullness of herbreasts was visible, staring at me and mocking me as though daring me to close the distance between us.

Looking away, I swallowed down a ball of saliva, fire stirring in my loins. I doubted there would ever come a time when Selma's body did not excite me. She was absolutely breathtaking.

"All good. How do you feel?" I asked.

She nodded, going to sit at the edge of the bed. "Much better, actually."

I nodded, my feet planted to the ground. She might have been able to relax for a moment in a bath, but that didn't mean she wouldn't have to face reality soon.

"What if—and this is a big if—we took a different approach with the designs?"

Her brows snapped together, her torso twisting in my direction. "How do you mean?"

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