AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“We should’ve been closer after our parents’ deaths, but he blamed me. I protected him from the worst of it. Ensured he had the best schooling. Kept him away from the media, the legal side of things.”
I take another bite of delicious paella, feeling the night breeze whisper over my skin before I reach for my wine.
“Maybe you should’ve stayed with him instead of trying to bubble-wrap him,” I murmur.
He flinches. “I thought I did the right thing. It feels like the right thing is obvious, but when you look back, sometimes it seems there were only many wrong ones.”
We sip in silence.
“I know you thought you were doing the right thing by leaving LA,” I start when I set my glass down. “But it wasn’t. Not because you left, but because you treated me like my opinion didn’t matter.” I lean forward, my cuff clinking against the table. “You called me your queen and then treated me like a pawn.”
“I’m sorry I ever made you think that.”
“Why is Mischa so set on chasing after you? You said you never considered working for his parents.”
“I did one gig for them.” My brows shoot up in surprise. “Then when I learned my parents weren’t the people I thought, it reinforced that about me.”
“You’re a good man. Not because of what you’ve built. Because of what’s in here.” I reach over and tap his shirt under the edge of his jacket.
He presses my palm to his chest, and the steady thud of his heart beneath my hand is so warm and real it’s a wonder I don’t melt into him.
We finish our dinner, and he rises from his chair, motioning to me.
His hand on my back, he moves us to the ledge and leans both elbows over it to look out at the lights of the city, the black ocean beyond.
“Tourists come to Ibiza for the crowd. But when you lift your gaze past the party, we’re surrounded by stillness. It’s easy to forget there’s a whole world out there.”
“I’m sure your executive team in London reminds you that you have a business to run.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He turns toward me. “When I’m with you, I feel that calm. I don’t need to be on an island to feel it anymore.”
My heart skips. “Where should we go? You might have an empire, but this girl needs to work.”
He reaches for my hand, threads his fingers through mine. “Where would you like to work?”
Emotions collide in my chest. “I was working on some options back in the US.” I feel him turn toward me. “I don’t want to say it in case it doesn’t work out. But the past couple of months, all I could think about is playing La Mer.”
“You won’t play La Mer.” There’s a finality to his words that would make me argue, but it’s moot anyway.
“It might belong to Mischa, but it has nothing to do with him. It existed before him, and it will exist after.” I shake my head. “I was still hoping he’d rethink it.”
But when he hears I played Debajo, there’s no way he will. He’ll find out I’m with Harrison—assuming he doesn’t know already…
“I’m sorry.”
I cock my head. “You’re not.”
“I am because you want it, and I want you to have everything you want.”
Damn, it sounds as if he means it. My fingers curl around his.
“After your final gig in Ibiza—at Bliss or somewhere else—I’ll take you somewhere scenic, and we’ll laugh about this. But until then… dance with me.”
He offers a hand as music starts from somewhere in the distance. Not club music, but strings.
“Ditch the jacket.”
He obliges with a boyish grin, tossing it over the chair before pulling me close.
