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She knew better than that, didn’t she?
“I do not want you to fear me,” he said with obvious disgust.
“Not you. This.” Her eyes were huge. “I don’t want to get caught up in something that will break me when it ends.” There. She’d said it.
Her biggest fear.
And he smiled. A smile of relief and ease.
“It won’t. Haven’t I promised you that I will never hurt you?”
She didn’t have the heart to tell him that he already had.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
UP UNTIL SHE ARRIVED, HE had felt zero confidence that he’d see her again. He’d gambled everything on last night and it had backfired. No matter what he’d said, it had gone wrong. He didn’t know what else he could do, beyond the impossible…he didn’t want to talk to her about his life in Italy. Even when he did.
He needed for Skye to exist in a bubble that was completely distinct from the mess that was his family life. He needed her to look at him and see Leandro, not someone she pitied, not someone who had become divorced from everything he’d once known.
Somewhere along the way, he’d lost sight of the fact this was supposed to be fun though.
Was that inevitable? What had the turning point been?
When he’d learned about her ex?
When she’d been in danger and had needed his help?
Or when she’d tried to end it and he’d known he wasn’t ready for that?
When would he be ready?
And could he really be sure not to hurt her?
These thoughts tumbled through his mind over and over again, so when Alec buzzed up to advise him that she was on her way to his penthouse apartment, he thought he might know a way to fix this.
She’d come directly from work and was dressed in her uniform. She looked sexier than ever. He wanted to drag her into his arms and make love to her, to make up for the last two weeks of longing for her in a way that almost cracked him apart. But sex was easy with them. The rest of it was harder.
“We need a new deal,” he said, as she stepped off the elevator.
Her eyes widened, evidently surprised by him launching right into the subject.
“I’m listening.”
Her tone told him he had one chance to get this right.
He focused more than he’d ever focused on anything in his life.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t promise you that I won’t. I can promise you I will do everything I can not to. That’s important to me. I don’t want to be someone you regret, Skye. I want to be someone you’re always grateful for having met. As I think I’ll feel about you.”
Her throat shifted visibly as she swallowed.
“So here is what I suggest.”
He could feel her tension, her bated breath. This was it. Don’t mess it up.
“Let’s have fun together.”
Her eyes blinked quickly.
