Slowly, I blink my eyes open to find her smiling ear to ear. I kiss the tip of her nose. “Morning.”
With her blond curls draped over the pillow, and the soft morning light falling on her rosy cheeks, she looks otherworldly.
I plant a kiss on her jaw. Then lower, on her neck. She wraps her arms around my neck.
Gods. I love waking up to this.
There’s a weird fuzziness somewhere in my mind, but I ignore it.
This moment is too precious.
Just as I palm her breast in my hand and kiss my way down her throat, she giggles and pulls the hair at the back of my head.
“Jaxy, I don’t have time for this.”
Desperately, I growl into the crook of her neck and lift my head so I can look her in the eye.
“What could be more important than this?”
Her smile falters. She grabs my cheeks between her hands and kisses me on the forehead before she wiggles out from under me.
“Cecile?” I sit up in bed, watching her pad over to the vanity table by the open window that has the view of the sea, and the port.
“I have to get ready for the meeting,” she says, brushing her hair. “My father needs me to be there when he signs the deal with your father.”
My stomach sinks.
“I thought we’d been through this already. My father’s about to scam yours out of his damn business.”
Cecile sighs and meets my gaze in the mirror. Her eyes are full of sorrow. “It’s Sebastian Kregger we’re talking about, Jax. It’s the biggest deal in my father’s business ever. He can’t pass on the opportunity, not at the word of a bastard son.”
Her words land in the middle of my chest, sharp as a blade.
I rest my naked feet on the cool hardwood floors. “He doesn’t believe me?”
“It’s not that he doesn’t believe your word, Jax. It’s just…he thinks the odds of it not being true are worth the risk.”
I scoff and shake my head.
Unbelievable.
“Cecile…”
“Jax, it’s my father’s decision,” she says, softly. “I tried my best. But I couldn’t change it.”
I stand up and approach her. I rest my hands on her shoulders and watch her apply rouge on her pale cheeks.
“Don’t go. At least do as much for me,” I plead.
She doesn’t meet my gaze in the mirror. “I can’t do that, Jaxy. My father requested I be there.”
My shoulders sag.
I know exactly how this will go. Father will present a deal that’s not good for Cecile’s family’s business, and when her dad refuses, my father will take measures to ensure he changes his mind.
Best-case scenario, Father will threaten her life. Worst case, he’ll take her hostage.
I can’t let that happen.
