Page 96 of Tamed

I’d never thought about happiness. I’d never thought it could be something that applied to me and yet…That’s what I’d wanted to keep hold of when I’d decided she was mine. Those little pieces of happiness, of contentment. Small moments yet precious ones. They made me feel as if I was worthy of something better. Something more.

“Yes,” I said, because I couldn’t lie, not about that. “She makes me the happiest I’ve ever been.”

“Then stop sitting here drinking your way through the cellar and go and give her what she wants.” Ten shook his head. “I loved a woman once, Caleb. I loved her so much, and even though I lost her, I never wished I hadn’t loved her. Not once. You should have that. You need to have that.”

The words shouldn’t have made any difference. I was determined for them not to. Love wasn’t something that had ever touched me, nor did I want it to. Yet…I couldn’t seem to get Isabel’s face out of my head. Her green eyes meeting mine as I told her I’d never give her what she wanted, what she needed. So calm and certain. As certain as when she’d told me I was a good man.

‘You want to believe there’s hope for you.’

My hand was gripping the whisky bottle tightly, my blood pumping hard in my veins as Isabel’s voice echoed in my head. She’d told me that yesterday, and I’d thought she was wrong, but…

She’s not wrong. That’s what you want. Hope. Happiness. Love. All the things you’ve told yourself you don’t need. But you do need them. You’ve always needed them.

I stared hard at that bottle, trying to catch my breath. Trying to ignore the ache in that blackened soul of mine, the one that wanted Isabel to be right. That was desperate for her to be right. That there was hope after all for a man like me.

She believed it. Why don’t you?

I looked up from the bottle and met the blue eyes of the man who’d been my friend for over twenty years. Who’d saved me from the bitter loneliness of the streets and while he hadn’t taken my path, he’d remained my friend all the same.

“She thought I was worth something,” I said roughly. “She thought that I…could be saved.”

“Of course, she does,” Ten said. “And if you don’t believe me, then believe her.”

The words echoed through me like a bell tolling.

I hadn’t believed her, I’d ignored her. I’d thought I knew better, because I was older and more experienced, yet love was one of the few things I’d had very little experience of. There had only been my long-ago family and what I remembered of them, which was very little, had been tainted by my father’s actions.

But Isabel knew about love. She loved me, she knew everything about me and yet she still wanted me. She wanted everything, even that blackened soul of mine.

You want to give it to her too.

Something loosened inside me, a knot that had been pulled so tight nothing was going to undo it. Yet thinking of her, thinking of the way she looked at me, her heart in her eyes, all it took was one tug and the whole thing came undone.

Ididwant to give it to her. I wanted to give her everything. I wanted to lay the entire fucking world at her feet and myself along with it, and there was a reason for that. A reason that I’d claimed her and a reason that in the end, I’d let her go.

I stared into Tennyson Fox’s cold blue eyes. “I love your daughter, Ten. And I’d burn the world for her if she asked me to.”

His gaze narrowed. “Don’t burn the world, asshole. Just make her happy, that’s all.”

I didn’t need to be told twice.

I put down the scotch bottle and without a word, I turned and strode out.

29

Isabel

Ihad no option but to go back to Caleb’s penthouse after seeing Dad, but mercifully Caleb wasn’t there. I went into the bedroom and started packing my things, because I wasn’t going to stay, not now there was no need.

I wanted to get home to my apartment in the Village then figure out just what the hell I was going to do now. I couldn’t go back to work at Cross, that was obvious, and what Dad would do about me and Fox Tech was also up in the air.

Whatever, I wasn’t going to wait around to find out. My heart might be breaking, but I wasn’t going to let Caleb Cross destroy me. I might be a Fox, but I was a Hamilton too, and I wasn’t alone. I’d call Charlotte, get her advice, and then maybe find—-

The bedroom door clicked shut behind me.

I whirled around in shock, only to find Caleb standing right behind me. He was in dark pants and a white business shirt, what he’d been wearing that morning, but he didn’t have a jacket or tie, the top buttons of his shirt undone, and his sleeves rolled up. The material was rumpled, and his black hair was spiked as if he’d run a hand through it one too many times.

My poor broken heart tried to leap out of my chest, my pulse careering out of control, because even though he’d hurt me so badly, I still wanted him.

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