Page 39 of Her Forbidden Bargain

There was a knock on his door.

“Enter.”

The door opened to reveal Sheri. “I need your signature on these papers before I leave for the night.”

She was all business. Until this afternoon, he hadn’t realized how much of her personality she hid when she was in the office. It was only because of the last three weeks, when he’d seen so much more of her, that he now knew that.

She handed him a folder and he opened it up. He glanced at the papers and realized he wasn’t reading them, so he closed the folder and pushed it aside.

“Please have a seat, Sheri.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Yes. I have decided that I can’t allow you to continue living in Brooklyn. I have arranged for you to move into my place immediately.”

She shook her head. “We’ve had this discussion.”

“Exactly the problem. You need to be living with me.” The engagement was working exactly as he’d hoped it would. The tabloid press was being very kind to Sheri and everyone he knew was excited for him. For the first time since Cecile had died, he felt as if his life was on the right path. He wasn’t just running and trying to keep distance between himself and his life. And Sheri had given that to him.

And their conversation earlier had made him realize that he hadn’t done the same for her. And that was not acceptable to him. Though he would never admit it, he liked the feelings she evoked in him. He knew they couldn’t be love, because they felt nothing like the emotions he’d had for Cecile. But he did care for Sheri, and her happiness was important to him.

She nibbled on her lower lip. “What did I say that made you think that I’d agree to this?”

“It was what you did not say. Our engagement has given you a chance to change things about yourself. And I realized today that they were all surface changes. You need to move out of that brownstone if you are ever going to see yourself in a different light.”

“Tristan—”

“No, listen to me. I know what it is like to be stuck in one place.”

“That’s a complete lie. You never stand still. How could you possibly know what I’m like?”

“That’s precisely why I know. I have been always focused on the future to keep from dwelling on the past. Whereas you just stay there, stuck in time.”

“I’m not sure you’re qualified to be talking to me like this.”

“Qualified?”

“Yes, qualified. You don’t really know me all that well.”

“I know you intimately, ma petite.”

“So did two other men and they didn’t have a clue about what made me tick.”

He hated the thought of anyone else having been with her. She was his. He didn’t know exactly when he’d started thinking of her in those terms. But he did now. He wanted to tell her that he’d be the last man to know her intimately.

Where the hell had that thought come from?

“Those men weren’t me. And I’m not taking no for an answer on this.”

She stood up and walked over to him. She pushed her finger into his chest. “You’re being a bully.”

“No, I’m not. I’m being a man and taking charge.”

“This is the twenty-first century, in case you’d forgotten. A time of compromise and ‘working things out.’ Women don’t need a man to take charge,” she said. The flash of temper in those big brown eyes of hers made him hard.

He was so tempted to lean down and kiss her. But she lifted her hand and put two fingers over his lips. “No, Tristan.”

“No?”