Page 72 of Pretending I'm Yours

I don’t know if the same can be said for me, but I’m ready to listen.

I just hope this story isn’t as bizarre as Sydney seems to think it is. I don’t want to be with a bizarre liar, either, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t praying for a reason to give Anthony a second chance.

I don’t want to leave this man, not tonight, or any night in the near future.

chapter 21

ANTHONY

I’ve never neededthe perfect words more than I do right now.

I’m desperate to make Maya understand, to make her stay…

Seeing her in the process of being mugged—even if it was by an ultimately harmless kid with a toy gun—turned me inside out. The thought of not being close enough to protect her, of having no say in whether she’s going home to an apartment with a doorman in a safe neighborhood or to a sketchy street in Red Hook, makes me even crazier.

So instead of the perfect thing, I lead with, “No matter what happens tonight, please let me lease you an apartment in Chelsea. My treat, just for a year or two, while you get on your feet. I need to know you’re safe, even if…”

I trail off, refusing to finish the sentence.

I can’t go the rest of my life without Maya in it.

I just can’t.

She arches a brow as she slides onto the stool on the other side of the island, but doesn’t seem completely shocked by the offer.

That makes more sense when she murmurs, “So you reallyarericher than God? Sydney just texted that you were. Shedidn’t get into the finer details, but…” She glances around the apartment, her brow furrowing, before shifting her gaze back to mine. “So, what is this place? One of your rental properties or something?”

“It’s an Airbnb. I don’t have rental properties,” I say without hesitation, determined to answer her questions with complete honesty. “I own a few single-family homes and some commercial property in Red Hook, but the homes are all for family. I don’t charge them rent.”

“So that was true, too.” Her eyes narrow. “Is that why you bailed this morning? You were worried about being recognized by someone you knew in the area?”

I nod. “Dave Mackey is an old friend of the family. I actually worked for him part-time in the summers for a while during undergrad, and he did the inspections on all my properties in the area. When I saw it was him, instead of Kyle…”

She makes a soft, considering sound. “That would have been embarrassing for both of us.” She glances away with a pained expression. “Though feeling angry and betrayed might have taken the edge off all the bad news. After all, compared to being played for a fool by the man you’re falling in love with, what’s a few hundred thousand dollars in unexpected repairs?”

“You aren’t a fool,” I say, moving around the island. I want to cup her face in my hands, to hold her steady so she can’t look away from me, but the tension in her shoulders makes it clear she isn’t ready for me to be that close.

So, I settle for covering her hand with mine as I add, “I’m the fool. I should have told you the truth that first night. I should have told you that I wasn’t an escort, I was just a lost man who’d wandered into his friend’s club and been offered the chance to meet a beautiful woman he’d noticed in the library. From the second I saw you, Maya, I just…I had to know you.”

“So, you lied to me because you didn’t know how to walk up and say hi?” she demands, her tone making it clear she isn’t buying that for a second.

I shake my head. “No, I lied to you because Twyla told me you were looking for an escort, not a date with a stranger who hadn’t been vetted.” I hesitate a beat, letting my fingers slide up her arm to curl around her wrist as I add, “And because I couldn’t stand the thought of another man putting his hands on you.”

She pulls her arm away and slides off the stool, pacing across the room as she mutters, “I can’t touch you right now. Touching you is…hard.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, my chest tight.

“I still want you so much,” she says, spinning back to face me, the tears shining in her eyes hitting me like a punch to the gut. “But how can I want you, Anthony? When I don’t even know whoyouare anymore?”

“You know who I am,” I say, as I cross to her, arms extended in a primal gesture of supplication. “Ninety percent of what I told you was true. The only things you don’t know are that I’m good at numbers, so good that I graduated with two masters’ degrees before my twenty-first birthday, landed a series of jobs in the financial sector that made me a very wealthy man, then walked away from everything one night, when it suddenly became clear to me that my work wasn’t making me happy. It wasn’t my purpose, not anymore.” I drag a hand through my hair, adding in a softer voice, “That was the night we met. I’d just set off a bomb in the middle of my life. And then, there you were, and Twyla was begging me to take the job so she didn’t have to turn you away… It just seemed like fate, and I never planned to take your money. She’s holding my portion of your fee now. She was going to give it back to you tonight before we left the club.”

Maya’s quiet, so quiet that I risk another step closer, bending to catch her gaze. I wait until she looks up from the floor toadd, “Please, Maya. This week with you…it’s the best thing that’s happened to me in so long.”

Bottom lip trembling, she asks, “Why? I’m nothing special.”

My heart shattering, I reach for her beautiful face, cradling her jaw in my hands as I whisper, “You are the most special. You are…everything. You’re kind and genuine and good to your core. You’re funny and thoughtful and when I roll over and see you sleeping next to me in the morning, I feel like the luckiest man on Earth. That’s why I kept finding reasons not to tell you the truth. The thought of you leaving… I…” I swallow, fighting a wave of emotion before I add in a rougher voice, “Please don’t leave. Please, just give me the chance to prove to you that this is real. Thatwe’rereal.”

Her lip wobbles again, but she doesn’t try to pull away. “I hate that you lied to me.”

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