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“I’m sorry.” After all he’d done for her, he didn’t need this crap.
“Come here.”
She hesitated for the barest second before she rounded the desk. She stopped a foot away from him, eyes lowered.
“Look at me.”
Lyla looked up and his hands clasped her face. His touch was gentle even though his features were stiff and cut into brutal, unyielding lines.
“If I want pussy, I can get it,” he said.
Lyla jerked and his hold on her firmed. “I know.”
“I don’t want other women,” he continued, eyes boring into hers. “They don’t know me, don’t give a fuck about me. I know the difference between a slut and a real woman.”
His thumb brushed over her bottom lip as he considered her. Her heart pounded in her ears.
“You’re right.”
When he didn’t continue, she prompted, “About what?”
“Back then, the things I did for the business still bothered me. It kept me up at night. I didn’t want it to touch you so I used other women. I poured that shit into them. They welcomed it, craved it.”
When Lyla tried to twist out of his hold, his hand dropped from her face to grip her arm, hauling her close.
“Now I don’t need the other women. I don’t feel anything when I do what has to be done.”
Lyla said nothing.
“Three years without you, you think I’d be dumb enough to fuck it up again?”
Lyla’s eyes burned with tears and she whispered, “I think you need more.”
“More what?”
“More than I have to give. Right now you think I’m enough but eventually—”
He clapped a hand over mouth and stared at her as if he’d never seen her before. “For the rest of my life you’ll be enough.”
Lyla’s heart thudded painfully in her chest. His eyes were hungry, desperate pools that wanted to swallow her.
“I never told you I loved you, did I?”
Lyla’s heart stopped.
“I never told you that I would die for you, that I adore everything about you. I can’t get enough of you. I never will.” His voice was strong and sure. “I’m fucking greedy when it comes to you. I don’t want anything between us, even my dad and that’s fucked up but I don’t care. I want you to need me and you don’t. You can live without me. You did it for years.”
He jerked away as if she burned him and paced, hands in his hair, breathing hard. She watched him, torn between backing away or going to him. She did neither and stayed where she was.
“I hate that you went on without me, that youcould.” Veins popped out on his neck. “You let another man touch you, turned to him for—” He broke off and sent everything on his desk flying. “I forced you to run from me. I know that. Living without you was my punishment and I suffered, Lyla.”
He whirled back to her, his movements jerky and uncontrolled.
“I love you.”
It sounded like a threat.
“And I will never let you go, never turn to another woman. You’re everything I need.”
