Page 121 of Worth Every Penny

“No.” He grips my wrist in his other hand. “You’re wrong. This is only the beginning. I’m falling in love with you. Iamin love with you.”

The wreckage of my chest cracks, splinters, breaks into a thousand pieces. It’s beyond excruciating. “Love? It’s only been weeks,” I scoff, trying to pretend I wasn’t feeling the same thing.

“Years, Kate. I’ve been in love with you for years.”

I can’t breathe. If Nico saysloveagain, in that tone that resonates deep in my core, everything I’m made of will dissolve.

I cling to the fragments of my anger.

“Years?” I wrench my wrist free. “You haven’tlovedme for years… you’veavoidedme for years.”

“Because you’re the one person I didn’t want to lie to.” His voice is hard but with a brittle edge, as though it might fracture at any second. “And I had to lie… I fucking had to.”

“You didn’t.” My voice breaks.

We stand, arm’s breadth apart, not touching physically, but tangled up in every other way. His agony is mine, and mine is his. It coils around my throat, wrapping so tight I have to fight for air.

“I can’t do this.” I wrench my gaze from his and something deep inside tears wide open, the pain blindsiding me.

I can’t let him see me fall apart. I pace to the door, my hand on the handle when he speaks again.

“This isn’t over. If you walk out of here, part of me is going with you. Part of me willalwaysbe with you.”

I stiffen at his words, as if I can somehow harden myself against them… But each of them is a poisoned arrow that sinks into my skin and infects my flesh. Controlling to the very last; I can’t even leave without Nico declaring what happens next.

“Don’t fucking manipulate me.” My index finger points like the barrel of a gun. “It’s always about you, isn’t it? I don’t know what you think love is, but it isn’t ordering me not to walk away because your feelings take priority. Love is listening and respecting, and letting me go if that’s what I want.” I let out a painful groan, hands falling to my sides. “Fuck this. We can’t work together. I’m resigning from the spa project. I don’t want it anymore. It’s tainted with lies and MartinfuckingBrooks. If he wants it, let him take it. I don’t give a shit anymore.”

Nico walks towards me, his expression lethal, his steps so rapid I have no hope of escaping him. “You don’t give a shit about the biggest spa project in London? The project that will make your career? That meant so much to your father? That you’ve been working on for years? You’d give it all up?”

“I would.”

His jaw hardens, its already strong lines even more severe. “Then know this: people who give up never get anything they want in life. If that’s the path you choose, then I can’t follow because I don’tfuckingquit, and I cannot be with someone who does.”

His gaze lacerates me, and I know he’s not talking about the spa project anymore.

He’s talking about us.

If I walk out, it’s over.

But to stay? I can’t. It’s all too much. I don’t trust a word that falls from his lips.

I turn back towards the door.

“You’re leaving?” he asks, exposing the merest hint of vulnerability.

I shift the angle of my chin, defiant. “Yes.”

And then I leave, knowing exactly what that means.

37

NICO

Irub my fingertips over my eyelids and sink to the sofa. I don’t even get myself a drink. I’m drained, like Kate came over and sucked the fucking life out of me… and not in a good way.

I don’t know how long I sit there, staring at the wall, my thoughts far away. I've made no effort to clear away the evidence of Kate’s fury. Broken glass carpets the stone floor, and the red ribbon I’d tied around the picture lies amidst the debris, a mockery of what I tried to achieve.

I thought she’d love it.

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