Page 157 of Bitter Secrets

“If business meant as much to me as you think, I would have cut you loose when I lost the Langdon deal.”

She blinked and drew back as she considered his words. “You thought Dad would give in eventually, and you’d be welcomed in his inner circle—"

“If I wanted to marry into a rich, influential family, I could have. I had fathers offer their daughters, but I had no intention of sacrificing my freedom to climb a few rungs on a ladder when hard work would suffice.”

Slowly, she shook her head. “That doesn’t make sense. Then, why…?”

“Think, princess.” He reached out and fingered the ends of her damp hair. “Think real hard.”

She stared at him for a moment before she lashed out, smacking his hand with more force than was necessary before she stepped back. “Didn’t I just tell you to stop feeding me lines? They’re unnecessary! Just give it to me straight!”

“You want it straight.”

The hair on her nape stood up at the silky purr in his voice. He slipped his hands into his pockets, making his shirt gape at the throat.

“I had plans before I met you. Plans to be great, to go further than anyone believed possible for me. I thought that invite from your father was the pinnacle of my career, the gateway to the top, only to discover he wanted me to jump through hoops before I was allowed entry into his exclusive club. I knew it was a test of some kind and I intended to do what was required to gain entry.” Something stark and frightening moved in his eyes. “Then I met you and everything changed.”

Her heart thudded in her ears as her mind filled with static.

“Your laugh caught my attention. It did for many. I watched you move through the room. I hoped I would hear your name, so I could understand your place and who you belonged to. Then, you came up to me. You smiled at me and the same feeling I had when I heard you laugh—”

When she turned away, he wrapped his arms around her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides.

“Fuck off, Roth!” she snarled.

“That was the first time you fed me.”

She stilled.

“I felt nothing for anyone or anything. There was no reason to alter any goal I set for myself, no reason to change course, but that night…” He buried his face in her hair. “I got a taste of something intangible and so elusive, I knew I would do whatever it took to possess it.”

She shook her head in denial because her throat locked.

“I would have made it into your father’s good graces. I could have become his right-hand man, I just had to keep my hands off his daughter.”

He tightened his hold on her.

“That wasn’t going to happen. The small taste I had of you was worth more than anything your father could offer me. I knew you were engaged. I knew I was ruining my chances with your father. I knew what he was capable of. I didn’t expect his retribution to be so swift and absolute, but I didn’t care because I had what I wanted.”

Hope bloomed without her permission, soothing raw wounds and calming her inner turbulence. Could he…? Even as her mind dared to form the words, she vehemently rejected it. Anger scoured everything in its path, including that tiny seed of hope that wanted to take root. She wrenched away from him. The only reason she succeeded was because he wasn’t expecting such a violent reaction.

“You’re trying to manipulate me!” she bellowed as she backed away from him.

His face smoothed into the stoic lines she knew and loathed so much.

“Am I?”

His cool tone only reinforced her suspicions.

“Yes! You’re doing what you always do—making me think you give a shit about me and then…” She punched her fist into her palm hard enough to make her hand ache. “You pull the rug out from under me. In Colorado, I thought we finally had closure, and weeks later, I find out you’re trying to ruin my sisters. You’ve threatened me, called me a whore, let me believe that you were struggling when you had this…” She waved her hand to encompass the penthouse. “And you want me to believe that I was more important to you than your empire? Youleftme…”

She wasn’t aware she clawed at her chest as she unraveled. Luckily, she was still wearing her coat, or she would have left her skin bloody.

“You always have an ulterior motive, some angle you’re working that I never find out about until it’s too late. In Lisbon, you played me for a fool. No more.”

She put a stopper on her rage before it turned into a torrent of tears that would accomplish nothing. She forced herself to focus on more practical matters.

“How did you know Lyle was coming to Lisbon?”

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