Page 103 of Burning for You

“You okay, Caro?” he asks.

“Yeah. Just take me home, please,” I say, crawling into the seat.

* * *

Levi didn’t come homelast night. I’m getting ready to go the Met Gala, thinking of what to say when people see me coming by myself.

But then I hear the door.

“Love Bug?”

“Hey,” he says. He holds me, albeit loosely. “I’m sorry I disappeared on you. I just needed to clear my head.”

“I understand.”

“I’m gonna get ready.”

“You know what,” I say, “let’s just stay home and talk about us.”

“If we don’t go, people will start gossiping. We can’t afford that.”

“Hell with other people!”

“I care.” His hand moves as if scrunching an invisible piece of paper.

“They’ll always find something to gossip about, no matter what we do.”

“You’ve lived with the press around you all your life. You need this kind of exposure. And like I said, people will start asking questions if we don’t turn up.”

“Levi, the press comes with the territory. For who I am, for what I do, for my family name. But I don’t need the exposure.”

He looks at the tuxedo hanging in the wardrobe. I’d prepared the ensemble for him days ago.

Looking at his expression, I say, “Let this be the last time, and then we’ll get away from the limelight.”

“You’re trying to change? For me?”

“Well, in a relationship you make sacrifices. I haven’t made enough in the past, and my relationships never last.”

“Sacrifices never work, Carolyn. Don’t you think it’s supposed to be collaboration?”

“Two people don’t always get along, no matter how much they love each other. When nothing else works, the only thing that can keep them together is sacrifice.”

His lips straighten. Clearly, he doesn’t agree. “Let’s get ready,” he says, taking off his t-shirt and jeans.

“No. Talk to me.” I grasp his bare shoulders—my right hand on the rose tattoo, and the other on the feather. “What did my dad say to you? I shouldn’t have left you two alone.”

Levi sits on the ottoman placed in my walk-in wardrobe.

“He said his—well, your family is a respectable family,” he explains. “Carolyn, I used to work as an escort.”

Oh… so my dad found out. I’ve almost forgotten about the diamond lady—rightly so, because it doesn’t matter anymore.

“I bumped into a woman at your apartment, looking for a Bryan,” I say. “That was the day before I left for Bozeman.”

Levi sighs, his head shaking in his hands. “I’m sorry, Carolyn. I’m not proud of it, I didn’t enjoy it. But it was a good option at the time. I needed money to help my dad out. And I didn’t have months to save up. Working at a bar just wouldn’t cut it.”

“Are you still in contact with those women?”

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