Page 82 of The Passion

“You know that’s what you wanted, that’s why you kept coming back to me. Marriage will make it more convenient for both of us. You won’t have to wait for me to return.” He is justdigging himself a deeper hole. “I know you are probably sleep-deprived from last night, so I’ll excuse your bad mood, and once I get there, we can straighten all this out.” Felisha was right, he is like Ewan but smoother in the way he speaks. Still sickening, though, and full of manipulation.

“I’ll straighten this out right now. We are done. You will never see me, message, or call me again. And you certainly will never touch me again. I don’t know what you wanted from me, but it was obviously more than just my companionship and friendship. If you think because I’m about to take control of my company that you could somehow marry your way into that too, you are sorely mistaken. No man will ever control me that way, not my father, not you, and the man who does love me in the truest form would never even try. So, whatever you thought this was, it’s not. This is goodbye—actually, no, it’s fuck off and don’t ever contact me again.” Pushing the end button on her phone, she is breathing hard with the adrenaline rushing through her body.

We are both still breathing hard and staring straight ahead, but I know I need to say something. But in true Flynn style, I lead with a joke because that is what has gotten me through every uncomfortable situation in my life, so why change habits now?

“You should have given him the website for the ‘Felisha Kentwall took my man card’ support group. I have a feeling he will need it.”

She turns to look at me. “You are such an idiot.”

“Maybe, but I’m so fucking proud of you.”

I relax my fingers just a little on the steering wheel so I can get a little circulation back into them.

“Don’t ever let any man make you feel smaller than them.” I’m serious and want to make sure she knows I mean every word of it. “Not even me.”

Leaning across, she kisses me long and soft on my cheek, and as she pulls away, she says the words that mean the world to me. “A real man would never try. I didn’t realize that until I met you.”

Sitting back into her seat, her next words almost make me pull the car over and take her in my arms and never let go. “When you are your true self, Flynn, it allows me to be true to myself too. I waited a long time for you, Flynn Taylor.”

The emotion in me only lets me get out one word. “Same,” I choke out.

It took Felisha coming into my life to understand who I am, and that is the man that she is helping me to be.

I’m no longer in anyone’s shadow.

I have found the place I belong, and it’s not alone. It’s with her.

Now to tackle the next demon… Ewan Kentwall.

Chapter Eighteen

FELISHA

It felt so good to let loose on Fulton, but now he is blowing up my phone with messages after I didn’t answer his repeated return calls.

I’m not reading them, and it feels so satisfying to block his number.

The man is insane. I only slept with him three times and talked to him on the phone while he was traveling over the few months we knew each other. How he thought we were even close to that sort of commitment is crazy, but obviously there is more to it. Of course, because when is there ever anything in my life where there isn’t more to it.

“One down, one to go. You need to think about how you want to handle your father. Initially, I’m just talking about the bombshell you dropped on him about me, and then the rest we will work on together over the next few days.”

Flynn is asking me the question that I know I have to face, but right now, I’m still getting over the fact that I just verbally beat down a man that at one stage I was starting to think I hadpotential with. There is not one ounce of feelings left for him, but it’s more that I feel despondent at the way I fell for his smooth talking and at my judgment of his character. I thought I could read people across a table in a matter of moments. But for some reason, he got under my radar, and I’m angry at myself.

I can’t waste energy beating myself up about it, though. Closing that door in my life is the easiest thing I’ve done lately. And knowing that the man sitting beside me has my back no matter what is a relief. Especially when the other men in my life seem to be sneaking around behind me with all kinds of knives. Thank God Flynn is there to fend them off.

“I think it’s time my father and I had a serious face-to-face discussion on where this is headed. The way he has been speaking to me in the office, and talking about me to the staff and board, is not right. I don’t know when it changed, and maybe it has been getting worse over time and I didn’t see it, but it’s time to put a stop to it.”

“No matter what his problem is with you, that’s family business and should stay behind closed doors. Even for the business’s sake. It’s a bad look when the two head people are at each other, surely, he can see that.” The way Flynn is talking, I can hear the disgust in his voice.

“Well, I would have thought so too, since to him the business is his life and his family have always come second, or maybe even further down the list than that. Who knows.” I shrug because I’m truly at a loss with him now.

“So how do you want to handle this? I want to be there with you, but I will be guided by what you want. You know him, and if you think me being there will make it worse, I’ll stay away. It will take every bone in my body, but I’ll do it for you.”

I know he wants to help, but I can’t have him anywhere near this. For multiple reasons.

My father is going to be furious when I see him, and I don’t want that to become just about Flynn. There are so many things I need to say, and if I’m going to get him to listen then I need to be on my own.

Plus, I need to stand up to him for myself. To prove that I’m ready to take the reins of the company. Because to be the head of the business, a female CEO in the corporate world, is not going to be easy. If I can’t stand up to my father, then how will I hold my own in this world I’m about to step into? I may have been the second in charge for almost twenty years, but that means nothing when you take the top job. There will be people out there ready to knock me down.

---