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I narrow my eyes.
“Why are you being like this? Itwaspretty generous and it shows real commitment to my stuff. Considering we’re working together now, we need that.”
“Goddammit, Sweet Stuff. Guys like Haute aren’tnice. They fuck over people like you and you need to be aware of it. I can’t stand to see him take advantage of you.”
“Take advantage of me? How?” I’m so lost. This isn’t how I wanted this conversation to go, but it’s spinning out of control and I don’t know how to get it back on track. “Are you saying I’m the problem now?”
He groans, running his hands over his face. I watch him the way I used to watch Liam, feeling the same desperate dread of something precious slipping through my fingers.
So close, yet so far.
It’s like there’s a thickening sheet of ice between us I can’t thaw.
“You’re not the problem, Junie,” he whispers. “You never are. But I’m not sure Forrest Haute is the friendly, harmless man you think.”
“Thentell me,” I plead, hating that high note in my voice. “What’s going on with you and Haute? One minute you want this deal with him so bad we’re fake engaged, the next, you’re telling me to watch my back after he went out of his way to boost my sales.”
His nostrils flare.
I clench my fists, waiting for an explanation. Waiting for him to lower his shields and throw me a bone.
But he just drops his hands.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Maybe for you it doesn’t.”
“I’ll handle it, Junie. I don’t want to spoil the evening.”
I glance at the torte I made, the cardinal now a smeared red mockery of my feelings plastered on a cake I don’t even truly know if he wants.
“Too late,” I say, uncurling and brushing past him to the stairs. “I’m going to get some sleep.”
“Junie, wait.”
A hard lump rises up my throat.
When it sticks, I know I’m going to cry like the shameless wreck I am. So I choke it back down and glare at him.
“What the hell do you want from me, Dex? I’m not cut out for all this guessing.”
“When did I say it was you?” He stops in front of me. He’s so tall, so broad, so much of everything I want and yet now it hurts to even look at him. “I never said that.”
“No, but look at this.” The painful lump is breaking through like poison, burning my whole face. “Look atus. You’ve got your secrets, and you won’t tell me, will you? You don’ttrustme.”
His eyes darken like a restless ocean, danger flaring in their depths.
“Is this because of that asshole who broke your heart? Listen, if it’s that, I—”
“This is because of you,” I interrupt. “Maybe Liam hinted I wasn’t fit for big money and lofty reputations, and I should’ve listened. But don’t you see? It’s playing out the same way. I’m still just Juniper Winkley, a shadow to people smarter and better than me, and you’re—”
“Shit, Juniper.Stop.”
The roughness in his voice makes me freeze, breathless and broken.
Dex rakes a hand through his hair and reaches out to me. This time, I’m locked in place by that stupid desire for reassurance. To hold on to whatever we have left.
His hands are so warm against my skin when he takes my arms.
