“What happened with Joshua?”
His hooded, brilliant gaze studied her, but thank God he didn’t try to touch her. She might lose the frayed and tattered remnants of control she maintained.
“Because I missed the scheduled events this weekend, he reneged on our agreement. If I want the property I’ll have to stay here in Texas and join Sutherland Industries.”
Shock reverberated through her like a discordant note, loud, painful and just wrong. How could Joshua treat his son like a…a chess piece to move over a board at his whim and direction. Many times since she’d started working for him she’d witnessed his often ruthless business tactics. But Griffin wasn’t a rival for an oil lease or a hostile takeover. He was his son.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, clenching her fingers into fists. Either that or reach out of him and stroke the harsh lines etching his face.
“Yeah, so am I.” He shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “He even knows about Sarah.”
Okay, just when she believed the market on surprise had been cornered. “How…” Then she flinched, shaking her head. “Griffin, I didn’t…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
But she didn’t need to.
He frowned. “Baby, I know.”
Relief poured through her, and she exhaled a breath she hadn’t been aware of holding. “Thank you,” she rasped. “I wouldn’t hurt you like that.”
“Since he refuses to budge, there’s no point in my staying. There’s nothing here for me.”
Pain unlike any she’d experienced since that night five years ago blasted through her. Her lungs and heart constricted, and a swarm of dots invaded her vision, buzzed in her ears.
There’s nothing here for me.
The flat statement joined the drone in her head, and bile raced for the back of her throat.
You knew this. Why are you surprised?She shook her head as if answering the waspish voice in her head.
Because a tiny, foolish part of her that still believed in castles and princes on white steeds had hoped he would stay this time. That she was enough to keep him here.Idiot.When will you learn? When will you let go?
“Hayden.” Firm fingers grasped her upper arms. Gave her a small shake until she opened her eyes. Griffin stared down at her, the blue of his eyes so intense it was almost tactile. “Come with me.” He released an arm and cupped her face in a big, warm, calloused palm. “Come with me, baby.”
The need to turn her cheek into his hand, to kiss it shivered through her…and made her tear free of his hold.
She stumbled, quickly pivoting and crossing the room on unsteady feet. Once she reached the big window in the living room, she pressed her palms to the glass, heedless of the prints her damp skin would surely leave behind.
How could three words sharpen the agony until it sliced through her like the razor edge of a blade?Come with me. What she wouldn’t have given to hear him utter the request five years ago. Her future. Her plans. Her soul. She would’ve given it all. But that was then when she didn’t understand the devastation of depending on someone, of making them you’re everything only to have them take it away. She couldn’t do it again. Couldn’t risk it.
Couldn’t take a risk onhimagain.
“Hayden.”
She hadn’t heard him come up behind her. His heat called out to her, invited her to turn and lean on him, allow him to shelter her, care for her.
She straightened her shoulders. And her spine. “I can’t.” Silence met her decision, and she pushed on. “You want me to give my life, my career, my plans. To do the very same thing your father asked of you. And you refused.”
“No,” he said, voice quiet, solemn. “Joshua demanded. I’m asking. Asking you to choose me.”
“And then what?” She loosed a flat, jagged laugh. “Go to Florida and depend on you for everything? Pin my dreams, my path, my identity on you? Been there, done that, have the T-shirt and broken heart to prove it.” Her fingers curled into fists against the window. “No. I can’t let you wreck me again.” Shut up. Have some pride. But the seal on the dam had been cracked, and the hurt, the desolation, the anger poured forth. “I won’t let you destroy me again. I won’t hand you that kind of power over me again. Never.” She choked on a sob, tears burning her eyes. “I won’t love you again,” she rasped.
His hand covered hers, clenching tight. For several moments, she stared at them. Together. She understood what he was saying without saying it. He would cover her, protect her, shelter her.
A lie. But one she desperately longed, fuckingyearnedto grab a hold of and believe like Moses had brought it down a mountain on two stone tablets. With a low, keening cry that seemed to well up from the depths of her soul, she ripped free of his “promise” and whirled on him, slamming her palms into his chest.
The fingers of one hand wrapped around her wrists, imprisoning her hands against him, while the other cupped the nape of her neck.
“Stop it, baby,” he snapped, the hard, angry tone contradicting his tender touch. “You’re fucking killing me.” Pain laced the low rumble, but she didn’t care. Was beyond caring.