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Elle continued.
“I’ve been an embarrassment to my father for my entire life. It was easy to convince him that I should fly under the radar while I was going to school, earning my degree. My last name is common enough that people don’t really think twice about it as long as I go by Elle.”
“And no one has ever recognized you?”
She shrugged.
“Not yet. Dad has a team of makeup artists for me and my sister. You’d be amazed at the magic they can wield with some foundation and a brush. Our public appearances are usually somewhat of a spectacle, so we have to put on a show to make my dad look good. I discovered at an early age that sneaking out with a bare face made me invisible. Nobody had a clue who I was. I loved having that freedom.”
“It must be very hard living in your father’s shadow,” I replied.
“You have no idea.” Elle closed her eyes and inhaled the steam of her tea. “He controls everything—what I study, what I eat, the job I’ll get when I graduate. He expects me to run his firm with my sister and it’s so…boring. I hate it.”
I couldn’t imagine enduring that kind of pressure. No wonder she was floundering.
“You’re legally an adult, aren’t you?” I asked. “As long as you’re over eighteen, you don’t have to answer to him.”
Elle made a skeptical noise and scrubbed her coat sleeve against her cheek.
“You make it sound so easy.”
“I never said that.”
She squeezed her mug until her knuckles turned white. The slightest tremble racked her from head to toe as if that mug was the only thing holding her sanity together.
“Elle,” I said softly.
I slid my chair around the table to get closer. Prying her fingers away from the cup, I grasped her hand. Should I still call her that? I’d come to know her as Elle, the college student with an attitude. Not Giselle, daughter of a rich businessman.
“I’ve tried,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’ve tried to get a job. I wanted to make my own money and live my own life. But Dad bribed the managers to fire me. More than once. He said menial labor is beneath the Roche name and I won’t embarrass him like that.”
My grip on her hand tightened as her story came pouring out. This wasn’t simply an overprotective or overbearing father. This man wanted to control his daughter like a puppet so she didn’t damage his public persona.
“For once in my life, I want to be a good daughter,” Elle said. “And I just…can’t.”
Even though I hadn’t met Elle’s father, I hated him for tearing this poor girl down. She was intelligent and beautiful and she deserved to look forward to a future of her own choosing, rather than one forced on her that clearly made her miserable.
“Then you need to succeed,” I said.
Elle choked on a watery laugh and her face crumpled.
“God, you sound just like him.”
I grasped her chin and tilted her head up until she looked at me with red-rimmed eyes.
“I’m not your father.”
“Don’t you think I want to succeed? I hate being a failure. I hate fucking up, over and over.”
“You’re not going to succeed for your father, Elle. You’re going to succeed for you. On your own terms. Not his.”
She bit her lower lip, searching my face as my words began to sink in. My gaze fell to her mouth. I reached up and teased her lower lip free from her teeth with my thumb. She blinked a few times, lashes fluttering, pupils dilating.
Fuck, I was falling hard and fast.
My stomach clenched and every drop of blood in my body raced south at lightning speed. I fought the urge to shift in my chair as my cock strained against my zipper.
“I kissed you once,” Elle whispered. “The decent thing would be to kiss me back.”
