Page 33 of Billion-Dollar Dating Game

‘You weren’t allowed out.’ His anger stirred. ‘You wereneverallowed to go out. You were always there.’

It rippled again. That memory.

‘But your ears are pierced,’ he said slowly. ‘So when did he let that happen?’

‘My mother took me not long before she left.’

Another memory flashed—one from far further back. When she’d been a little girl and he’d given her his last piece of candy because she’d been crying because her mother had gone.

‘Dad had a fit,’ she added softly. ‘When she left he threw all her jewellery away.’

‘She didn’t take it with her?’

‘She didn’t take anything. She left it all.’

Including her daughter.

‘He didn’t think you might want it?’

‘She left with another man and never looked back. I guess he thought it was tainted. He threw away my earrings too.’

Yeah, her dad had tried to control the one thing he’d had left. ‘He wouldn’t let you do anything.’ He looked at her. ‘No earrings. No dates. No fun.’

‘Actually, most of that was reallymychoice.’ She stepped close and her brown eyes bore into him. ‘At first I thought if I were really, really good, then she might come back.’ She still spoke softly but somehow that made her rising emotion all the more audible. ‘And then I started to worry that if I wasn’t really good,hemight leave as well.’

Zane stood very still, inwardly stuffing down the pain that had risen so sharply. He’d felt that desperate desire to hold on to someone—to somehow make them stay. But his dad hadn’t wanted him from the start.

And Zane had been hard on his mother. Because where Skylar had been obedient, it had taken him a while to get on board. He’d been endlessly curious. A wandering child, who’d made his mother’s life difficult.

‘So yes, I was good. I worked hard. And of course I did what I was told.’

Including obeying her dad when he’d yelled at her for kissing him. She’d been what, sixteen?

‘That’s why that scholarship was so important,’ she said. ‘It was an acceptable escape.’

Right. He sighed. And yet it still seemed to him that she hadn’t escaped all that much. She was still living in such a constrained way. Like a nun.

‘I don’t blame you for wanting the scholarship,’ he said huskily. ‘I blame Helberg for using it to control people. To make them bow and scrape before him. It was a power trip for him.’

Skylar tried to regain control of her emotions. She’d just told Zane far too much that was too personal. But bow and scrape? Her interview with old man Helberg hadn’t been like that. ‘His foundation gave lots of people like me an out. You did it all on your own. Most of us ordinary people can’t.’

She gently fingered the cool stones dangling from her ears. She’d started wearing earrings again a few years ago. Just little studs, nothing like these stunning things. But they didn’t even feel that heavy. She liked the sensuality and the sparkle and the sway when she tilted her head. She liked the way Zane’s gaze tracked them when she did. The way it lingered on her skin. She could almost feel it.

‘But I bet your father was proud of you,’ he said huskily.

Oh, yes. He had been. She’d been so studious and careful and yes, eager to please. But she’d got to Helberg HQ and not really made the moves she’d thought she would. And that wasn’t because she hadn’t worked hard. But her father had wanted her to stay. To keep trying. And once he’d gone, staying there seemed to matter all the more. She’d promised her father, and for him there was nothing worse than someone breaking their promise. She’d never wanted to let him down in the way her mother had.

‘Skylar—’

‘I didn’t tell you that to make you pity me or whatever. But maybe you’re right about my treat-free existence,’ she breathed out. ‘I’ve been focused on my work for a long time. So have you.’

‘In many ways we’re not so dissimilar.’ He nodded, all serious.

But she laughed because he’d definitely had his treats along the way. ‘I’m nothing like you.’

All those parties he’d gone to? They hadn’t affected his business success at all. Maybe she should have gone to some.

He tilted his head and a speculative gleam entered his eyes. ‘You came to that Independence Day party to try to see me. What was your approach going to be?’

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