Page 45 of Another Story

Square jaw, hair unruly, eyes smiling as if he’s happy to see me.

But it doesn’t stop at his eyes. Those perfect lips smile, too.

I shake my head, reminding myself of my anger. Of his complete ridiculousness.

Nowhere in our contract is it written that I’m to leave the country with him. Skipping an afternoon of work to lie around on his yacht is one thing. Leaving for a week to another country is something entirely different.

What we have now is safe. No one knows and no one suspects. It’s harder than I thought, trying to keep this secret tryst from my sisters when Sophie is checking the emails to thestore now, too. When I catch her staring at me from time to time, a pensive expression covering her otherwise unreadable face.

“You need a vacation,” he answers, simply, not stopping until he’s standing in front of me.

But it’s not that simple, and he knows it. Just because he solved my financial woes, doesn’t mean my store can stay afloat while I fuck around with him. I still need to show up and break my back to make his investment worth it.

“Are you trying to bait me? To get me to come here to scream at you?” I ask him, knowing his answer. Knowing I played into his plan.

“I’d like you to scream, but not in frustration.”

His even voice does not calm me. It pushes me closer to the edge of rationalization as if he’s asking if I can fly.

I feel like I’m talking to a crazy person; like I’m the one without reason when Iknowthis isn’t the case.

I don’t know what to say to him. I don’t know what I can say to get him to understand that my life isn’t a joke and that I am not his puppet.

My hands yank the front door open, and I rush down the steps, wanting nothing more than to create space between us. Wanting more air so I feel like I can take a deep breath.

I’m starting to feel more suffocated in this town than I’ve ever felt.

“Eloise, come on. I’m sorry,” he tries to offer behind me, but I’m not listening as I stalk toward my car. “Okay, fine. We can save the tickets for another time.”

I stop short, his words ringing with a truth I could never confirm. “Another time?” I ask, turning to stare at him, wondering what the hell he’s thinking.

He shrugs before running his hand through his hair. I’ve never touched it before and I find myself wanting to, badly. “Yeah. Maybe once everything slows down.”

“Ezra, you have me for four more weeks.” I look down at my feet as I say this, afraid to hear his response. Afraid to see his reaction to my words. The gravel moves under his feet as he nears me. “There is no slowing down.”

“And if I’m not ready to let you go?”

There it is: that dangerous, bullshit hope that has no place in our agreement.

I expel my breath in anger and take a sharp right, toward the wood line.

“Don’t turn away from me,” he calls after me, but it’s too late.

I’m out of his arm span, heading as far from him as my feet will carry me.

I need tobreathe. I feel like I can’t when he’s around.

When I hear him following me, footsteps crunching against the ground, I start to run. But I’m not fast enough and he catches me before I’ve even managed to put much space between us.

“I’m not your property,” I shriek as his hand grips my upper arm. “Let go of me.”

“What are you so afraid of?”

He doesn’t let go, and I want to scratch at his hands, pry them away. But I tell myself that I can’t be that animal. I can’t let him get me so far from myself.

“I’ve been confined to this place, to this life. I will not let a man confine me in a similar fashion.”

“I’m offering to travel the world with you!” he yells, pulling my wrists together in front of me, shaking me a moment.

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