Page 63 of Prelude To You

“If I wasn’t here tonight, how would your evening have gone down?”

Roman considered me for a long moment, as if deciding how much he should tell me. “I would have gone to the auction and then returned home to work, as I did last night. And you? If you hadn’t decided to come here, how would your evening have gone?”

“I would have baked pastries for my new coworkers. Then I would have gone to dance practice, and then I would have fallen asleep reading.”

“Reading what?” he asked, as if he was genuinely on pins and needles to learn what I read in bed before falling asleep.

“Currently I’m readingLes Misérablesby Victor Hugo. In French. Unabridged.”

Roman took a lazy sip of wine. “And?”

“It’s very depressing, way too long, oversentimental, brutal and messy. It meanders for days, and Hugo can’t help forcing his little lectures on you. Did I mention how heartbreaking it is? Themisery never ends and sometimes I just want to throw the book in a fire. But it’s a work of art. I love it!”

A smile sprung from the corners of his mouth. “If that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is. If ever I find the time,Les Misérablesis the book I’ll read.”

I chuckled. “Well then, my work here is done.”

Suddenly he clasped my hand in both of his. “Isabel…”

“Yes, Roman?”

He hesitated, as if what he was about to ask me meant a great deal to him. “Will you do me the honor of staying with me tonight? In the penthouse.”

I bit my lip, determined to hold back a breathless whimper. My pulse went into overdrive and I wanted to sayYes, oh definitely yes.

But a shadow crawled over my moment of bliss. I didn’t doubt that I would have a spectacular time, but the tiniest of red flags waved at me in the back of my mind. Celeste’s words were still ringing in my ears.Never get your hopes up with him because that’s not a man who reciprocates feelings...

I was torn. If it was just sex, then wasn’t it better to just get it out of my system? But if there was the smallest of chances that I was foolish enough to fall in love with this man—what if he had no intention of feeling the same way? Hadn’t he told me himself that he didn’t get emotionally involved?Yes, he had.

Still, he asked me a question. And he was waiting for me to make a decision. Right here. Right now. “If you were me, what would you do?” I asked, genuinely curious. “Would you stay or would you leave?”

The question caught him off-guard, and his tone was bleak, as if he found no pleasure in saying the words. “I want you to know going into this that even if I want this so very much, there is no future here beyond tonight. I want that to be clear.”

My flinch was intuitive. It was as if the room had become smaller and all the air had left, leaving me with no oxygen to breathe. I wrenched my hand back from his grasp, my fingers slipping from his.

With both hands safely in my lap, I desperately tried to process his damning words and their full meaning. But I couldn’t. It was as if my brain had gone to sleep and refused to play along.

One thing was obvious; he wasn’t leading me down a path of false promises. This man placed the ball in my court. He was upfront and completely honest.What a fucking bastard.

I didn’t know what it was that I felt for Roman, but it wasn’t a feeling that would settle for a one-night affair.

Something like panic clawed its way up my throat. I should never have come here. I should never have harbored romantic notions for a man who had no qualms about looking at me the way he did and then treating me like a disposable pleasure.

The romantic hero turned rogue in a snap.

Somewhere inside me, anger and pride vied for first place, but I knew if there was one time I had to keep my cool, this was it. Even so, some bitterness seeped into my veins.

“That’s awfully presumptuous of you, Roman,” I said, my voice breaking. “Do I seem like someone who’s desperate enough to consider you my future, after only knowing you for a hot minute?”

Even as his expression remained a study in calmness, the vein in his temple was trembling furiously, his jaw flexing repeatedly. Any other moment I would have reached over and touched his face to soothe him. But not now. And apparently not ever again.

For the first time, his commanding voice faltered. “I’m sorry if it came across like that,” he said softly. “It wasn’t my intention.”

The knot in my stomach tightened, and the effort to stay calm was intercepted by frustration bleeding through. Had this whirlwind of wonderful moments tonight come down to this?

How did I not see that coming?

It’s not like there weren’t red flags popping up everywhere, starting last night when Roman simply disappeared like a thief in the night. On the other hand, I was the one who came running over here tonight, to seduce him or whatever the hell I thought I was going to do. He was just grasping an opportunity.

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