Page 40 of A Bossy Proposal

I take a deep breath and continue, “I lied to you. It wasn’t a car accident.” I take a deep breath as I recall the memory of my final day with them. “It was a sailing accident.”

“A sailing accident—”

I close my eyes and take in a deep breath before saying, “One minute they were here—” I trail off, unsure how much to reveal. “And the next...they weren’t. These photos, they’re now my connection to them. To the life I had before...”

West reaches out, placing his hand over mine. “Before what?” he prompts gently.

I bite my lip, considering.

There’s so much I want to tell him, so much I’ve been keeping bottled up inside. But old habits die hard, and the fear still lingers.

“Before everything changed,” I finally say, opting for a partial truth. “I had to grow up fast after they died. I had to make my own way in the world.”

West nods, his thumb tracing small circles on the back of my hand.

“Is that why you ended up in New York?” he asks.

“Yeah.” I’m grateful for the change in the subject. “I thought I could disappear here, you know? Just be another face in the crowd.”

“Did you ever think about going back to Italy?” West asks.

I shake my head. “My…uncle came for me.”

“Your uncle?” he murmurs. “I thought you had no family.”

“I don’t.” I hate the rise of fear in my voice, but if West finds out everything—I don’t even want to think about it. “I don’t call him family because I hate him after what he did to me.” A sob rattles in my throat, and I hate that I feel scared just talking about my past. “He stole their money.”

“Stole it?” West murmurs. “How?”

“When the will was read, I was the sole beneficiary of their money…everything. I would’ve been fine. But according to my uncle, when they checked out my parents’ finances, they had nothing left.”

His eyes flick from left to right. Searching for something, I continue. “I know they had money, West. They had a sailing boat, and we lived in a large home in South Carolina. I wanted for nothing, and my father always told me my parents had set me up for life if anything should happen to them. I saw how much money they had in one bank account alone.”

I wipe away the tears rolling down my cheeks, but I’m not crying about my lack of inheritance.

He pulls me closer, stroking my hair. “It’s okay.”

My chest tightens, and another warm tear slips from my eye, landing on my lip. West reaches out, his thumb gently brushing it away. His touch is so tender, so unlike the cocky businessman I’ve come to know.

“It was in the millions, West. And then it disappeared.”

“I believe you.”

My chest caves against West’s, overwhelmed by his trust and his belief in me. “You do?”

He leans in closer, his eyes searching mine. “Yes, I believe you, Princess,” he murmurs, his breath warm against my skin.

Before I can respond, his lips are on mine. The kiss is soft, tentative at first, as if he’s asking for permission.

I freeze for a moment, caught off guard by the sudden intimacy. But then something inside me shifts, and I’m kissing him back.

He makes me feel something I haven’t felt for so long.

He makes me feel wanted.

The last time my heart ached like this was when I lost my mom and dad. But this feels different. This ache is new…not so painful.

Yet, one day, the day we end, it’ll feel exactly the same way as it did back then.

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