Page 20 of The Bargain
“I want you to be wildly affected, Sofia. If I wasn’t wildly affected by you, I wouldn’t be here. And now that I’m here, I’m not leaving without you.”
Be forceful, Harper says again in my head.If you care about his future. She forgot to account for what it’s like to be touched by this man, but somehow, I firm up my voice and say, “No.” I push against his unmoving hard body and try again. “No. This is not going your way.” And when physically moving him isn’t working, I point up at him. “Whatever this is between us has to be good for both of us, not just me. I will not be bad for you. I don’t want that, not now and not ever.”
He covers my finger with his hand. “Sweetheart, you’re the first good thing I’ve known in longer than you can imagine for reasons you don’t yet know. Itisgood for both of us. This trip is going to change your life. In the process, it’s going to give me just another way that I separate myself from my family business. And that’s a good thing for me right now.”
“I thought you sat on the board as a representative of Dalton Enterprises?”
“Dalton Vault is my own personal company. My investment with Moore’s Department Store is through my company. As are many of my newer business ventures. Taking Moore’s to the next level benefits me. And that means making the Zoey brand a success. In the end, your success is what matters, not any personal involvement I have with you.”
I hate that he feels the need for that separation from his brother and his father. Family matters, but I don’t believe Ethan feels otherwise. He’s just not able to be in the same place I am with my father, and I find I want to know why, how. I want to know everything about Ethan. “You’re sure?” I ask, not sure why I’m so worried over him. He’s not a man to be swayed by a woman where business is concerned. I don’t know why I ever discounted that sharp businessman reputation he owns right along with everything else around him.
“Completely,” he says. “Can you get away from the store?”
“Are you kidding me? Lily is so excited about Paris, she’s all about kicking me out.”
“I like Lily more every minute. We’re going to go to your place, where we’re going to fuck like rabbits, sleep a little, because I have not slept in a very long time, fuck like rabbits again, sleep for the night, and then fly out to Paris tomorrow, or as soon as you can work out what you need to in order to leave.”
I can feel the heat in my cheeks and really all over my body. What this man does to me is dangerous, I swear. “That’s fast. And that’s a lot of everything.”
“You have no idea.Yet.”
“I think there’s—a couple problems, starting with me working through my work schedule and the passport I haven’t thought about again until right this moment.”
“You didn’t go get your passport.” It’s not a question. “You haven’t decided you’re really going, have you?”
“I have. I am. At first, I was distracted by…stuff. Things. You and her and all the wrong things.”
His hands come on my upper arms. “Never let anyone, not even me, keep you from your dreams. And if they try, they aren’t worth your time. Understand?”
“You’re right. You’re one hundred percent right, which is why I got by that very quickly. I just forgot the passport part of the equation as I was trying to decide what to do about a number of things.”
“Such as?”
“Staff to cover the store, which is handled, and what to tell my father about your involvement.”
His eyes narrow. “What did you decide?”
“I didn’t tell him, which is why we really need to leave. He had a meeting nearby. He could stop back by.”
“You know you’ll have to tell him about me eventually. Why not now?”
“Shedding my guilt at his expense isn’t the person I want to be. It’s not the daughter I want to be.”
“Is that what I’m going to be to you, Sofia? Guilt that will eat you alive, and us with it?”
“No. No, of course not. But we’re a fling right now, Ethan. I can’t go there with him over a fling.”
“And what if we aren’t a fling? Because I’m not looking for a fling. I didn’t fly here for a fling.” He cups my face and tilts my gaze to his. “I didn’t invite you to stay with me in Paris for a fling. If that’s what you want, tell me now.” There is possessiveness in his words, but there is also finality. If I want him to walk away, if I want to give Harper what she wants, what she thinks is best for him, this is how I do it. This is also how I push him away for good.
That’s the price I’ll pay to protect him.
Chapter Fourteen
Sofia
Hishandsslideawayfrom my arms, and his withdrawal is as brutal as a bitter-cold winter night when everything about Ethan has been sunshine and new hope, hope I realize now I’ve needed in a soul-deep way. I cannot save him by destroying us for the third and likely final time. Not when he came here today, sought me out, and showed I’m more to him than a hotel room.
I fold my arms around him and tilt my chin upward to meet his stare. And even when he doesn’t touch me, when he just stares down at me, I dare to be as vulnerable as I choose to believe he’s been with me. “Whatever you think you just read in me, you’re wrong. Harper told me if I care what happens to you, I need to get you out of here. And just now I thought,this problem withDavid is the way I get him out of here. I told myself to be selfless and either convince you to leave or force you to leave, when that’s not what I want at all. Not even a little bit.”
