Chapter 2
TWO
Sable
The devil in his features flared when he tugged my arm. My intention was not to set Milo off by coming here, but when did anything ever go according to plan when it came to him?
“Let go of me!” I wiggled against his strong hold to no avail. “I didn’t come here to fight with you.”
“You didn’t come here to fight with me?” He laughed as he released my arm. “But yet, you came here to throw my generosity back in my face. How did you think I would react?”
“Like a civilized human being.” I rubbed my arm. “How did you think I was going to react when I found out you paid my rent for the next few months and deposited money into my account?”
“I thought you would accept it and move on.” He paced in front of his desk. “We both know you need the money.”
“I don’t need your money.” I need you. “You left me in the woods. Why would I want anything from you?”
I wanted everything to do with him, but how could I be with a man who wanted to kill my brother? If anyone should have understood family loyalty, it should have been him.
“I fought hard for us.” He pointed at me. “I gave your brother more chances than he deserved. I agreed to your terms when you asked me to set him up with a new life.”
“I know.”
“But he fucked up again when he tried to traffic a woman,” Milo shouted. “Once my father got involved there was nothing I could do.”
When he ran his fingers along his perfectly groomed beard, my gaze fell to his lips. How I had missed his mouth on mine. I ached for his touch. I hadn’t slept in days because I couldn’t without him holding me.
“Chance didn’t have a choice,” I said. “Bello made him do it.”
“You can’t help yourself.” He clutched the edge of the desk. “Are you ever going to stop making excuses for him?”
“Milo, it’s not like—”
“Stop it!” He slammed his hand on the desk.
“I don’t want any more excuses. Chance did have a choice.
I removed him from Bello’s orbit, but he couldn’t stay away.
He couldn’t resist the opportunity to stick it to me.
He put himself in that situation. The only reason he’s still breathing is because of you. ”
“Because of us.”
“No! You made me weak.”
That statement sucked the breath from my lungs. Whether it was true or not wasn’t the issue. Hearing Milo admit that he thought he was weak gutted me. And knowing that he thought I was the reason made me realize we were never going to be together. How could we?
“Because of your brother, I jeopardized my family,” he said. “That can never happen again.”
“It won’t.” Knowing he didn’t want to be with me made his demands to take care of me infuriating. “That’s why I’m here. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t need anything from you.”
“Really?” He gazed down at my old clothes while he stood before me in a fifty-five-hundred-dollar suit. “How are you going to pay your rent if I don’t do it? We both know Chance can’t contribute.”
“I’m not your concern,” I said. “We’re over, remember?”
The words stuck in my throat, hitting me with enough mental force that I wanted to fall to my knees. But if I did that, I would lose every ounce of self-respect I had left as I begged for him to take me back.
It had been a few days, and I still couldn’t process how we had gotten here. I trusted him, depended on him, and let him take care of me. That had to stop if I intended to move forward.
“How could we have ended like this?” I whispered, not realizing that I had spoken that out loud until he responded.
“We’re over because you can’t let your brother grow up and fend for himself.
” Milo stepped toward me, causing me to retreat.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.” He kept stalking forward until I hit the door.
“Your rent is paid, the money stays in your account, and I’m having the clothes at my house sent to you. Don’t argue with me.”
I needed his control. The struggles in my life had drained me. I had gotten used to giving my responsibilities to Milo. Craving the comfort his structure provided gave me a strange sense of stability.
He pressed his hands against the door on either side of my face, holding me hostage with the blazing fire in his eyes. I breathed in his woodsy scent, missing the way it lingered on my skin hours after we had been together.
“Are we clear?” He focused on my lips. “I won’t have you suffering because Chance screwed up your life.”
“It isn’t all on him.” I was a huge part of the reason Milo and I couldn’t be together.
“I’m not going to question your family loyalty.” He leaned into my face, mesmerizing me with his perfection. “That would make me a hypocrite. But I can’t destroy myself in the process.”
“I don’t want anything from you.” My legs threatened to give out from underneath me. The weight of my burdens were too heavy for them to support. “I won’t accept anything else from you.”
“You don’t want anything from me?” He gripped my chin between his fingers. “Nothing?”
“No,” I whispered, but I knew the truth in my expression gave me away. He was everything to me, and I didn’t hide it very well.
“Not even this.” He brushed his lips across mine, kissing the corner of my mouth with a wicked intention. Is he trying to destroy me?
“Don’t.” I was too weak to resist him, but I had to try.
“Don’t kiss you?” He licked his lips. “Tell me not to kiss you.” He twisted his fingers in the side of my hair, forcing my face to his. “I want to hear you say it.”
If I said it, would that make all of this easier for him?
“I don’t hear anything.” His breath swept across my lips. “You want this, don’t you?”
I pressed my hand against his heart. My heart. I wanted to give in and surrender all of me to him. “Kiss me.”
His lips were obliging mine within the time it took me to blink. My pulse raced when he tightened his hold in my hair and kissed me with the forcefulness I’d come to expect. The dominance I sought.
I dropped my defenses, no longer angry or sad. No family obligations or fighting. All the background noise that had surrounded us our whole relationship faded away, and in that moment, he was mine.
Running my hands up his muscular arms and to his shoulders, I skimmed my fingers along his neck. The despair that had settled in the pit of my stomach the last few days had disappeared and was replaced with hope for a future with him.
He released my hair and touched my forehead with his as he gently caressed my cheek.
“Sweet Sable.” The conflict in his eyes spoke before he did. “You’re a liability I don’t need.”
So much for hope.
“I can’t put my family in jeopardy,” he said. “My father has worked too hard and has come too far to lose it all because of my poor judgment. We’ve already lost too much.”
His mother and his unborn brother. His scars cut deep. I wouldn’t be the reason his empire collapsed.
“I would never hurt you,” I said.
“Chance has already proven he can’t be loyal, and you’ve shown me that you’ll always put him first. I’m not blaming you for that. I just know when it’s time to walk away.”
“Why did you kiss me?” Tears brimmed in my eyes. “Why give me false hope?”
“I was saying goodbye.”
When I glanced down at the floor, the tears spilled down my face.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” He wiped my cheek before gripping the side of my face and forcing me to look at him. “I never wanted to make those stunning eyes so sad. They were the first thing that drew me to you.”
“You said you loved me in the cabin. Did you mean it?” If he was going to kick me to the curb, I might as well let him destroy me all the way.
“I never say anything I don’t mean.”
“If you said it now, would you mean it?”
“That isn’t a fair question.” He released me from his hold. “Considering minutes after I said it, you couldn’t choose me.”
“If you really meant it, you wouldn’t have asked me to choose between you and my brother.”
His expression twisted into… Remorse? Anger? Both? I couldn’t tell.
“I have to get back to work,” he said.
“Of course.” I unclasped the bracelet on my wrist, because there was no reason for me to keep it. “I want to do what I came here to do.”
I opened my palm, and with a shaky hand, I stretched my arm toward him.
He glared at me as if I was cutting him deeper than he had just done to me. Maybe deep down in my core I wanted to hurt him so I could have closure.
“Take it,” I said. “Then I’ll go.”
He grabbed my wrist and tugged me to him, the fire from his fury blazing between us.
My pulse zoomed as he scowled at me with his treacherous gaze, but I wouldn’t back down.
If he wanted me gone, I wasn’t taking a trace of him with me.
The memories would already be too painful.
He could have the bracelet as a reminder.
With my wrist still locked in his unrelenting grasp, he plucked the jewelry from my hand and closed it in his palm. “Now nothing links us together.” He turned away from me. “Go.”
I raised my hand to touch his shoulder but didn’t have the courage to console him. His rejection would shatter me. I hurried out of the office before I made a bigger mess than the one we were currently in.
I didn’t know what I expected to gain by coming here. Perhaps I thought he would see me and realize we belonged together. I should have known better. His family would always come first.
As I reached the bottom of the stairs that led to the showroom, one of Milo’s business associates, the co-owner of his boutique, was on her way into the dealership.
Shit! Camila!
I looked down, hoping she wouldn’t notice me, but I didn’t exactly look the part of someone who would be here to purchase a high-end car. Our initial meeting was awkward to say the least. I hadn’t seen her since. Milo took care of my shopping.
“Sable.” Camila came toward me. “It’s so nice to see you.”
“Hello.” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “I’m on my way out.”
“Hmm…” Her gaze wandered over me. “You’re not working today?”
Let’s get this over with so I can get out of here.
“I don’t work here anymore.” I looked around the showroom floor, realizing it would be my last time here. “Milo and I… Well, we’re not together.”
“What?” She shook her head. “When did that happen?”
“A few days ago.”
“He didn’t tell me.”
“Does he tell you everything?”
“I like to think so.” She set her hand on her hip. “We’re not just business partners, we’re very good friends.”
You’re delulu.
“Then I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it.” I motioned toward the door. “I have to get going.”
“What did you do to him?”
“What? Nothing.”
“Right.” A smug smile dominated her perfectly made-up face. “It’s for the best, you know.”
“Why is that?” Why am I engaging her?
“You’re not built for a man like Milo.” She casually checked her manicured nails, almost as if talking to me was secondary to her nail polish. “He needs a woman who understands who he is. Someone who can stand next to him and not only look the part but be the part.”
“I suppose you think that’s you?”
“It could be.” She glanced up at the staircase. “I’ve been there for him on numerous occasions. He knows he can rely on me for anything.”
“I’ll bet.”
“My advice to you is once you walk out of here, you keep going.”
“I didn’t ask for your advice,” I replied.
“Milo once fucked me, and mid-climax—mine, not his—two of his associates walked into the room, and he casually held a conversation while I was in his lap and he was still inside me.”
What the hell is wrong with you? “And you’re proud of that?”
“The look on your face says it all. He would never do that with you. Do you know why?” she asked.
“Because he respects me.”
“No, because you don’t belong in his world and he knows that.”
“You don’t know anything about us.”
“I know that it’s over for you, because if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be back in those atrocious clothes, looking like you haven’t slept in three days. It’s better you found out now before you got in too deep. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go and do what I do best for Milo.”
“What’s that?”
“Ease his stress. Make him forget. Whatever he needs.” She started up the staircase but then turned around and looked me over. “I do hope he lets you keep all the clothes, because you could use them.”
Just like that, the witch flew up the steps without a broom, making her way to Milo as fast as she could. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop her.
As much as I hated to admit it, Camila was right. I didn’t understand who he was, because if I did, I would be the one standing by his side.
Instead, I had to learn to navigate a life that didn’t include him. Easier said than done.