Page 72 of Yours to Keep

“To fund innovation,” he said, gently correctly me. “Innovation that will save people.”

I frowned, unable to stop myself from pushing back on this. Even if I now knew a little better where he was coming from. “People save people too, though. People who have been trained and are skilled at helping others.”

He groaned and held up a hand. “We probably shouldn’t talk about work.”

Such a big part of me wanted to keep pleading my case, but I nodded instead. While he and I seemed to get along well in general, this wasn’t something we would ever be on the same page about and I didn’t want to ruin our night together by arguing about it.

“Agreed.”

In the silence that followed, I glanced around his penthouse again, the clean lines, the emptiness, and the way it didn’t feel like a home. As much as I understood that there was only so much money to go around in any business, I honestly didn’t understand how he could have a place like this and still be talking about saving money in one area to fund another.

“You know,” I said carefully. “You could get a less bonkers apartment. That way, you’d have more money for the hospital.”

His eyebrows lifted and he stared at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. “I like you, but you are extremely bold.”

I smiled. “The weirdest thing is that I’m not usually. I’m not actually the kind of person you notice at all. I keep my head down, I do my job, I go home, and every so often, I meet my girlfriends for fries and cocktails. That’s my normal life. You just seem to bring out the rebel in me.”

He chuckled. “I can’t imagine a world in which I wouldn’t notice you, Bree Bennett.”

My cheeks flushed and I averted my gaze, eating a few more bites while he seemed to be chewing over what I’d said. We managed to finish the meal without talking about work again, drifting instead to Liana and how she was doing.

By the time the dishes were cleared, however, the conversation found its way back where neither of us wanted it. Sullivan stood next to me in front of the window, both of us looking out at the twinkling lights of the city as we sipped our wine.

“About what you said earlier,” he started slowly, his shoulders suddenly tight again. “I don’t want you to think that I’m a vain, selfish prick who bought this place with money that could’ve helped the hospital instead.”

“I—”

“Please,” he said quietly. “Just let me finish.”

I nodded, turning to face him. He swallowed visibly, inhaling a deep breath before he finally glanced back at me. “Things will even out once the fifth floor is ready. It’s chaos right now because we’re in the middle of it, but when the equipment is installed and the trials start rolling in…”

He trailed off for just a beat before he cleared his throat. “They might all hate me now, but they’ll love me when my testing equipment starts saving more of their patients. Once the benefits start coming in, they’ll understand it was worth it.”

As I stared up at him, I realized that he looked so sure. So convinced that time would smooth the rough edges and that the outcomes would justify everything he was doing now. Something in my chest caved in on itself at how confident he seemed, a profound sense of sadness blossoming deep inside at the fact that while he was clearly not the asshole I’d thought he was, nothing was going to make him change direction—because he truly believed the ends would justify the means.

I dropped my gaze to the marble beneath our feet. “We’re talking about work again.” I shook my head, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “I don’t mean it like an accusation. It’s just, uh, maybe we can never escape it. It matters too much to both of us, and we don’t agree on how to run things.”

Another silence stretched between us, heavy and uncomfortable this time. I looked up at him again, forcing myself to say the thing that had been sitting in my gut all night. “Does that mean whatever this is between us is doomed from the start?”

His face softened, something real breaking through the polished certainty he wore like armor. “I really hope not, but I also don’t think it needs to be.”

He took a step closer to me, only stopping when he was close enough that I could feel his heat. He smiled. “Can we just stop talking so much and let our actions speak for us for a while?”

I didn’t trust myself to answer, so I nodded. His hands came up to my shoulders, his thumbs pressing gently into the tight muscles there. I hadn’t realized how tense I was until the warmth of his touch sank in and something inside me loosened. I exhaled, my head tipping forward slightly.

“That feels nice,” I murmured.

His thumbs kept tracing those slow, lazy circles, like he could keep doing this all night. “You carry everything up here. All the time.”

His hands slid down my arms, then back up, his fingers grazing my neck and sending a shiver straight through me. The conversation dissolved, replaced by the quiet crackle of awareness between us.

He leaned in, his mouth brushing my temple and my cheek, not quite kissing me but teasing. Testing. My heart thudded harder with every near miss.

“Do you have any idea how crazy you make me at the hospital?” he murmured, his lips hovering just off my skin.

I laughed weakly. “How? I haven’t done anything.”

“That’s the problem,” he said. “You walk past me like I don’t exist. Like I’ve never touched you.”