Page 9 of Elevating Eve

Jonathan had a hard time believing that, but he motioned for her to keep talking. The least he could do was listen.

“I’ve known Frank my whole life. He and my dad were business partners. That’s what DHFT stands for—Dennis Hutchinson and Frank Talley. Frank was all I had left after my dad died. He took care ofme when no one else would. The falling for each other part...that just sort of happened on its own.”

Jonathan’s hands fisted of their own accord, and he ground his teeth together so hard he heard a rough, scraping sound. “How old are you, Eve?” he asked, doing everything in his power to keep the fury out of his voice.

She frowned, but promptly answered, “Thirty-five.”

That surprised him, though he did his best not to let it show in his expression. She didn’t look a day over thirty to him—not with that perfectly smooth, pale skin. “Any children?”

Sadness flitted through her eyes. “No. Frank said he’d be a senior citizen by the time they got to college, and he didn’t want that.”

“But you did?”

She nodded, slowly. “I always saw myself as a mom. But some things just aren’t meant to be.”

“Imagine you had a child. A daughter. And she was nineteen right now.”

That line appeared between her brows again. “Okay...” she said, drawing out the word.

“Now imagine you pass away unexpectedly,” Jonathan said, some real urgency in his voice. He felt a desperate need to help her see this the way he did. “Your daughter is beside herself with grief. And some man you work with, more than twice your daughter’s age, shows up to comfort and take care of her, and then starts dating her while she’s still grieving.”

Eve opened and closed her mouth a few times, no words managing to make it past her lips.

“This girl is a teenager. Legally an adult, sure, but in all the ways that really matter? Maturity? Experience? Hell, even brain development. She’s still a kid. And now she’s a grieving kid. Do you really think any decisions she made right then would be good ones? That any relationship she started in that state could ever be healthy?” He paused a few moments to let all that sink in. “Is that what you’d want for someone you loved?”

Burying her face in her hands, Eve started to sob.

Jonathan launched himself across the short distance separatingthem, pulling her up out of the chair and into his arms. “It’s all right,” he said softly, hands hovering just above the surface of her back. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel she didn’t have a choice to pull away—like she wasn’t in total control of her own body. “It’s not your fault. None of this was your fault.”

He whispered the words again and again as her tears soaked through his shirt. He’d keep saying them as long as it took for her to start believing them.

CHAPTER 4

Eve

“Are you sure about this?” Eve hugged herself as tightly as she could. It did nothing to make the fear pulsing in time with her heartbeat go away.

Jonathan put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I’m positive. He’s not being released until noon today.”

Frowning, she started to ask how he could possibly know that. But he easily guessed her next question.

“My friend Nell knows someone at the Fairford Police Station. She had a similar sort of situation with an ex of hers about a year and a half ago, and she and the officer in charge of her case were friends by the end. Nell called her friend this morning and found out when Talley’s being released.”

Eve let out a long sigh.Come on, you can do this.It wasn’t like she’d get a better chance to get all her stuff. And starting life over with literally nothing wasn’t exactly on her to-do list. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

As they climbed out of Jonathan’s Aston Martin, she tried not to touch anything unless she had to. The car had to be ridiculously expensive, and the thought of accidentally damaging the leather interior or scratching the paint terrified her. She shut the door so carefully, she wasn’t even sure it latched.

When the trunk slammed shut behind her, she jumped at the loudbang. Jonathan clearly had no such fears about abusing his own car. “Okay, let’s get everything you care about packed up as fast as we can.” He had a stack of unassembled bankers boxes tucked under one arm, and the handles of at least a dozen large, mismatched duffel bags draped over the other. “Aiden will be here with his Land Rover in an hour, and we’ll load everything up then.”

Aiden was another of the ridiculously sexy Doms at Fairford Manor, and the only one she dealt with as much as Jonathan. He and Jonathan were overseeing the expansion project together. Apparently, the guy used to renovate houses for a living, and even did a lot of the work restoring the main Manor building himself. She had a hell of a lot of respect for his skills—especially the way he kept so much of the old mansion’s original woodwork.

“I really appreciate you both helping me,” Eve said as she led the way up the walkway to the front door. Though for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why they would. It’s not like she worked for them anymore. Frank may not have had a chance to officially fire her yet—hard to do that from a jail cell. But the Manor’s lawyer drew up the papers to terminate the contract with DHFT first thing that morning.

Jonathan followed her up onto the large farmer’s porch. “I wish you’d take us up on our other offer,” he said for the third time since they left Fairford an hour and a half ago.

Repressing the urge to snap at him, she unlocked the front door, stepping into the house she’d shared with Frank for the last eleven years. She didn’t say a word as she started up the staircase—what was the point? She’d already told him twice that, while she appreciated the offer, she didn’t feel comfortable staying at the Manor while she figured out her next move. Badgering her about it wouldn’t change anything.

“I’m sorry,” he said as he followed her upstairs. “I know I shouldn’t pressure you. I won’t bring it up again.”

---