“You might own my heart, Aaron Stone, but that doesn’t give you the right to abuse it. It doesn’t mean you get to decide what I do, who I see, who I sleep with, where I work. I’m not your employee or someone who even gives a crap if you get your own damn way or not. It doesn’t mean you get to throw your money around until I see things your way and give in to you the way everybody else does!”
“Then please enlighten me as to what it does mean.”
“It means if you’re sorry, you man the hell up and stop hiding behind your money. It means you show me you’re sorry, because right now, all I see is a man unwilling to admit his mistakes.” I put my own hands on the table and lean into him. Our breaths mingle as his eyes flick to my lips, and mine to his, before our gazes crash into each other’s. “And for a man so confident and powerful, it’s not a good look for you.”
“Insults now?”
“No, the truth. Isn’t it a bitch?”
He runs his thumb along my jaw, sending an electric current across my skin, and cups it softly. “Do you want to know what is a bitch? It’s seeing you here, touching you, and knowing there’s a part of you that doesn’t want it. It’s looking into your eyes and seeing contempt mixed with a slither of hatred because of what I did to you. It’s knowing you only belong to me by default. That’s the real f**king bitch here—that I lost you.” He leans forward so his nose brushes mine. “Is that the kind of showing you want, Dayton? Do you want me to strip myself naked emotionally for you?”
“Yes.” The word escapes my lips. “I want you to throw words and honesty at me, not underhanded contracts with my agent. I want realness, not sneaky payments in an attempt to get me to bend to your will. But you can’t do that unless I kick and scream, can you?”
I step back and his hand drops limply. Aaron closes his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, and straightens. He turns his back to me to face the Bay.
“Why did you do it?” I lift my chin although he can’t see me, like standing taller will give me the strength I need to continue this conversation. “Why did you really keep her a secret from me?”
“You know why. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Bullshit. Bull-fucking-shit!”
“I didn’t want you to think any less of me for marrying a woman I didn’t care for!” His words are sharp, and he turns just as suddenly as he shouted. “Happy?”
I step backward and shake my head. “Why would I have thought less of you?”
“Because I wasn’t man enough to find you although I’ve been in this city a hundred times since we first met, but I could promise my life to a woman I didn’t care about or love. What does that say about me, Dayton?”
The same thing it says about my not having another relationship since you.
“It says you were afraid of being hurt again, so you took the only option you had that meant that wouldn’t happen.”
He runs his fingers through his hair, and when I look into his eyes, I see the same pain I know is in mine reflected in them. “What am I supposed to do? I talk so easily about you belonging to me, but we both ignore the fact I belong to you. You own me. You always have and you always will. That’s the very bottom of it, the defining line. You own me so f**king completely that I have to buy you because, dammit, Day, if I can’t have you, no one else is going to either.”
Aaron crosses the room, his long stride swallowing it up in a second, and frames my face with his hands. His thumbs run under my eyes and rub away the tears I didn’t realize were falling, and he takes a deep, ragged breath.
“Jesus, woman. I can’t let you go again. Do you understand that? I have to know, one way or another, that you belong to me.”
“Buying me isn’t the way to do that,” I whisper. “I’m not a f**king toy, Aaron. If you want me, you have to prove that to me. You have to fight for me until you’re blue in the face and struggling to breathe, because that’s the only way I’m ever going to believe you. Your money, your power, your status—they all mean nothing to me. Nothing.”
“I will spend every day of the rest of my life proving to you I want you if only you’ll let me.”
“It shouldn’t matter if I let you. If you want me that badly, you’ll do it anyway.”
He rests his forehead against mine. “I want to show you something.”
Chapter Six
Aaron takes my hand and leads me to one of the doors off his office. I chew the inside of my lip as he pulls out a key and unlocks it—just to lock it again once we’re through it.
“Won’t you be missed?”
He shakes his head. “I got Dottie to clear my schedule for the rest of the day, and as for that meeting, it’s rescheduled for tomorrow morning.”
“Dottie?” I can’t help the curving of my lips. Seriously. Dottie?
“My assistant.”
“I know who she is. She yelled at me a few times.”
“And obviously, you ignored her.”
“Obviously.” I look around. “Oh, an apartment adjoined to your office. How very cliché of you.”
“Sometimes leaving the office after working late isn’t appealing.”
“Oh, so it’s purely for a work sleepover? Not a f**k pad then?”
“I can honestly say I’ve never f**ked anyone here.” His eyes flick to me. “But it can be arranged.”
I roll my eyes and snatch my hand from his. “So what do you need to show me?”
He waves a hand over his shoulder and walks into the main room. I follow him, playing with the hem of my shirt. I’m suddenly feeling uncertain. Do I really want to see whatever this is?
Wait. I’m supposed to be mad at him.
Fucking hell.
Aaron pulls a box from a walk-in cupboard and carries it over to me. He motions to the sofa, and I sit as he pulls out something wrapped in brown paper. He hands it to me, and I rest it on my lap. It’s light but large.
“What is it?”
“Open it. I haven’t seen it yet.”
I frown but flip it over and slide my finger beneath the tape holding the paper down. I do it on all four sides and pull it away
My breath catches when I flip it back over. “This is…”
Us, sitting on the beach in Australia, our foreheads together, both of us smiling. His arms are around my waist and mine are around his neck. I run my finger across the canvas, my throat tightening as I do so.