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“That sounds amazing, but why can’t you control the cash in your business?”
For a minute, I thought he wouldn’t answer, and then finally he spoke.
“The first year I started Gamble Productions, I was twenty-three and ignorant about a lot of things. I put in a ton of hours to secure some great scripts and had a viable business model, but I had this work-hard, party-harder mentality. Inevitably, it caught up to me a few years ago, and I screwed up big time.”
“You lost money?”
“If only. I, uh—Shit. I guess I should be grateful your brother didn’t tell you.”
“He may not know.”
“Yeah, right. Brian is closer to my brother than I’ve ever been. Mark, too, for that matter. I’m confident they both know. Especially Mark, since he most likely handled the settlement.”
I sensed the vulnerability in his statement about the other two men having a better relationship than he did with his older brother and propped up in order to meet his gaze. “You don’t have to confide in me but know if you do, it won’t change how I think about you.”
“And what do you think?” His hands palmed my breasts.
“At some point everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. You work hard and shouldn’t have to continually prove that to someone else, no matter what happened.”
“I’m not sure if it’s naïveté or blind faith which inspires you to say that to me.”
I quirked a brow. “And you say I’m the master of deflection. I try to give you a compliment, and you turn it into my inability to see the real you?”
He exhaled unsteadily. “Maybe I enjoy your blind faith more than the thought of you ever getting a real dose of my past.”
“I assure you my faith is not blind. If it was, I wouldn’t get wet every time you flashed those damn dimples at me.” I laid my head back down on his chest, kissing him softly. “You don’t need to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
He laughed, squeezing me tight. “I know, but I’d rather you hear this from me than in some rumor someday.”
“Okay.”
“Despite my previous reputation with women, you believe I’d never take advantage of one, don’t you?”
I didn’t hesitate with my response. “Of course you wouldn’t.” Even if I didn’t know his heart, the notion was ridiculous considering how many women threw themselves at him willingly, not to mention frequently.
“There was a woman who I met at a party about three years ago. She acted like she didn’t have a clue who I was, but turns out she was well aware, and it wasn’t a chance meeting. We had sex, and then she proceeded to blackmail me.”
“For what?”
“The second time I saw her was months later when she showed up on the set of one of my films. She was in a pretty substantial role, and next thing I knew, I was being slapped with a lawsuit saying I’d extorted sex in exchange for her movie part. She’d timed it all out with the offer and everything.”
“You’d never do that. The police believed you, right?”
“She didn’t press charges. The threat of publicity was enough to garner a payoff, which ultimately is what she wanted.”
“You gave her money?” It made my blood boil.
“My brother insisted and took controlling interest of the company’s cash after that. I run the production company’s operations; however he’s the responsible one in charge of the finances.”
“How can you say you screwed up when you obviously were conned?”
“Because I was stupid enough to take her back to my office to have sex. Her idea, of course. Overlooking the city, blah, blah, but it put it on camera, and it only made more of a case that I was using my position to ensure we both got what we wanted.”
“Jesus.”
“Look, I’m not faulting my brother for what he did back then. Hell, I was nothing but a manwhore, party every other night, and not putting in the quality of work I should’ve been. I wasn’t careful when it came to protecting, not only my company, but the entire Gamble label. He was rightfully angry when he had to step in to clean up my mess.”
“It was a turning point for you.”
