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“Baby, talk to me. What did he say?”
She looked up at me. I saw genuine fear in those blue eyes. “The board called an emergency meeting. Thirty minutes after my speech.”
“Okay.” I waited for the rest, already sensing where this was going and not liking it one bit.
“I wasn’t there.” Her voice cracked. “I left. With you. I ditched the biggest moment of my career to come fuck you in a hotel room.”
The words felt like she’d dropped a bomb. I felt dirty. What we just did was too good to feel guilty about. I opened my mouth to say something, anything that might make this better, but she was already moving.
She snatched her clothes off the floor, yanking on her panties and pants with shaking hands.
“Darcy, slow down.”
“I just destroyed everything. Everything I’ve worked for. My entire career. Gone. Because I couldn’t keep my legs closed for two hours.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” She spun to face me, eyes blazing. “You asked me to leave. You wanted to find a bed. And I said yes like an idiot because apparently when you look at me with those eyes and that smile, my brain stops functioning.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. “You’re blaming me for this?”
“Yes!”
I jerked back. Having an argument naked was a very uncomfortable feeling. I needed a second. I needed to work through this rationally. But she was in an absolute panic and I had no idea how to fix it.
32
DARCY
The word came out like a slap. I saw Beau flinch. Some distant part of me knew I was being unfair. I lashed out because I was terrified and he was the closest target. But I couldn’t stop myself.
“This fake relationship was supposed to fix my image,” I spat, fumbling with my bra clasp. “It was supposed to help my career, not destroy it. That was the whole point, Beau. The whole goddamn point.”
His jaw clenched. Hurt flashed through his eyes before I saw something I’d never seen on his face before. Anger. “Fake relationship,” he repeated.
“You know what I mean.”
“Do I?” He grabbed his boxers off the floor and pulled them on with jerky movements. “Because from where I’m standing, nothing about what just happened felt fake. Are you going to try and tell me dinner with my family felt fake? Bullshit. Nothing about the beach or your garden or any of the rest was fake.”
My chest felt tight. Breathing was suddenly difficult. He was right. Of course he was right. But admitting that meant admitting I’d just torpedoed my entire future for something real, and that was somehow worse.
“I can’t fuck up this job.” My voice came out small, revealing my deepest fear. “That’s all I meant. This is everything I’ve worked for. Everything.”
“And I don’t want to get in the way of that.” He yanked his shirt on, not bothering with the buttons. “But that’s how you’ve been making me feel, Darcy. Like I’m an obstacle. A complication. Something to be managed between meetings.”
The accusation landed hard. I wanted to deny it, but the words stuck in my throat because some part of me knew he wasn’t wrong.
“You’re right,” I whispered. “I don’t have time for this.”
The silence that followed was deafening. Beau stared at me. I watched him shut down. That easy warmth, that playful light in his eyes? Gone. Replaced by something cold and distant. The man I looked at now was a shark. The lawyer I thought he was on that first day. I did that. I turned him hard as stone.
“Clearly, you need to figure out who you are. Not what your father wants you to be. Not what the board likes or the investors.” He grabbed his jacket off the chair, shoving his arms through the sleeves. “Find out who the fuck you are, Darcy. If you ever figure that out, give me a call.”
He walked to the door without looking back.
“Beau—”
The door clicked shut behind him. I stood there in the middle of the hotel room, half-dressed, my blouse hanging open. I felt the weight of what I’d just done crash over me. My eyes burned. My throat ached. I looked at the bed that was a mess after what we’d done. The smell of sex hung in the room. His cologne. I saw something shiny on the floor and bent to pick it up.
