Page 17 of Her Forbidden Bargain

Too bad she remembered the way he’d held her last night even when they were sleeping. There was some kind of closeness between them that she didn’t want to let go.

“I would.”

She nodded as he walked away. Watch him, she told herself. Watch him walk away and know that he’s not the kind of man who’ll stay. Temporary, she reminded herself again.

But dammit, she wanted him to be. Last night she realized that she’d been trapped in a box of her own making, that she’d let the men in her life dictate how she moved through life.

Last night she’d stepped outside of that box.

Instead of feeling unworthy of a man’s attention, she’d felt as if she deserved to be with Tristan. She wasn’t kidding herself that he might be the man for her. Their lives were too different. But he had changed her, and as she poured a cup of black coffee she realized she didn’t want to go back to being the woman she’d been before.

It was time she started living.

She took another sip of her coffee and felt that nervous anticipation that came from waiting. It reminded her so clearly of the times she’d sat in front of Aunt Millie’s house, waiting for her dad to show up. And he never did.

God, she was pitiful. She pushed to her feet and walked away from the table, taking her coffee mug with her. She went to the railing and looked down at the street. It was crowded this morning with cars and people. Strange for a Sunday.

A man glanced up at the balcony and took a photo. She shook her head, knowing he was capturing the architecture of Mykonos and not her. She stepped back from the railing so that he could get a better picture.

“Come inside,” Tristan said, and something in his tone put her on edge.

“What? Why?”

“We have to talk.”

Man, she hoped he wasn’t going to fire her. If he did, she could find another job as an executive assistant somewhere else in the city, but starting over was always hard.

“Let’s talk here,” she said.

“No. Come inside now.”

“Why are you⁠—”

“Sheri, inside now.”

“Tristan, you can’t speak to me like that. I’m not your pet or slave.”

“I don’t think of you that way. Things have happened. Come inside and I will explain.”

“Is it Christos and Ava? Are they okay?”

“Yes, they are fine,” he said, reaching for her elbow and drawing her into the living room. He closed the door behind her and then clicked a button on the remote in his hand. The blinds slid slowly down, covering the windows.

“If this is how you always behave the morning after, I finally understand why women only stay with you for a short while.”

“Sheri, this is serious.”

“I was being serious,” she said, knowing that she had to find a way back to being his humorous assistant.

“You are being cheeky and another time I’d appreciate that, but not right now.”

He was starting to scare her. “Tristan, I can…Listen, it won’t be weird at work. I’m not going to be all clingy or anything.”

“I know you won’t be.”

“You’re going to fire me?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her a narrow look.